xi CHIEF KINDS OF FOOD-PLANTS 129 



tried to eat many, we should be obliged to cook 

 them. When man learned to live largely on seeds 

 he had also to learn to cook his food, and that was 

 a great step in advance. 



It seems to us a horrible idea that people should 

 eat uncooked meat : but yet, really, there is less need 

 to cook meat than to cook vegetables. Cooked 

 meat may be less, not more, digestible than un- 

 cooked, but there are many vegetables that are 

 quite indigestible until they are cooked. Learning 

 to cook must have taught man many things. It 

 meant the beginning of pottery ; it meant the 

 development of skill and patience ; as well as of 

 many other useful qualities. 



More than that, the degree of ease with which 

 the different kinds of vegetable food can be cooked 

 must have influenced man greatly, in the early days, 

 in deciding what kinds of plants he would cultivate. 

 The seeds, which we call pulse, such as the different 

 kinds of peas and beans and lentils, are generally 

 more nutritious than the cereals like wheat and 

 rice and oats. We should imagine then that pulse 

 would be cultivated more generally than the cereals ; 

 but we know that it is the contrary which is true. 

 There were some peoples, the ancient Mexicans, for 

 instance, who lived very largely on pulse, but these 

 races were never so numerous as the peoples who 

 lived chiefly on cereals, such as wheat and rice. 



K 



