76 TILLERS OF THE GROUND CHAP. 



which do not grow in the original home of the 

 plant, and are bringing these back to the States, 

 hoping that they may be found useful there. 



CHAPTER VII 



OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES THE DATE AND 



THE FIG 



So far we have only looked at very simple cases of 

 plant introduction, where the sole difficulty was to 

 obtain suitable plants to introduce. As a contrast 

 let us take the two cases of the date and the 

 Smyrna fig, which have been introduced into North 

 America, but only after most persevering struggles 

 with difficulties, especially in the case of the fig. 



Before we can understand what these difficulties 

 have been, we must look for a little at the life of 

 these two plants in the countries in which they 

 were grown originally. Here is a little quotation 

 from Herodotus which not only helps us to under- 

 stand the difficulties, but also gives a very interest- 

 ing picture of life long ago. We must remember 

 that this description was written more than two 

 thousand years ago, for Herodotus lived in the fifth 

 century before Christ. 



