xii IMPKOVING CULTIVATED PLANTS 141 



of produce. It is the existence of these numerous 

 varieties which helps to give the modern so many 

 advantages over the ancient farmer, for he can 

 find some variety fitted to grow on almost any 

 kind of soil. 



But improvement has not only shown itself in 

 the increasing number of varieties ; it has also 

 shown itself in a general improvement in the 

 different plants. In some cases, especially in fruit 

 trees, where many of the improvements have been 

 very recent, it is easy to prove that this is so. 

 But, though it is less easy, we can also prove that 

 the seed-producing plants have improved greatly 

 since the days when they were first cultivated. 



There is one rather interesting way in which 

 we may prove this. We have already seen that 

 one of the difficulties in finding out what 'men did 

 in the very early days is that those were the days 

 before writing had been learnt, and man therefore 

 could leave behind him no written memorials to be 

 read by the generations to come. Early man did, 

 however, leave behind him memorials of a sort, and 

 these memorials men of our times have learnt to 

 read, after much stumbling and hesitation. 



Ages and ages ago primitive man lived in 

 dwellings made of piles at the edges of the lakes in 

 Switzerland and Italy. Kemnants of those ancient 

 dwellings still remain, and from these remnants the 



