TRANSITION FKO.M TKlliAL SOCIETY 283 



Population inultiplicd rai>idly iiiuler those improved 

 coiidilions, and the food siipjily l)eeame inadequate in 

 certain densely ■i)('0i)h'(l rc^iotis. I^rcsuinalily hy acci- 

 (h'ut, it was found that tlic seeds wouhl multiply them- 

 selves, and that the stick was more effective for ,i'rul)))in.i»- 

 than the hand; when these discoveries were made we 

 have the bej2:inning of the cultivation of the soil. But 

 we must not think of this agriculiiiial stag-e of food get- 

 ting as always following upon the nomadic or ]Kistoral 

 stage, because the resources of many regions will never 

 admit of agriculture and can only furnish a scant subsist- 

 ence for an occasional wandering herd. Tims the transi- 

 tion was not an invariable one from jJastoral to agricul- 

 tural, but quite as likely there was the change from 

 hunting to agriculture, since we often find among primi- 

 tive peoples a degree of agriculture combined with the 

 hunting or fishing stage. We cannot assert the exact 

 chronological sequence of these stages because knowledge 

 of all the details is lacking. Some of the most careful in- 

 vestigators now believe that the domestication of animals 

 was not the achievement of the hunter at all, Imt of the 

 primitive farmer, and that the pastoral stage was an out- 

 growth of early agriculture. At any rate, ''it is reason- 

 ably sure that the primitive tilling of the soil was carried 

 on by the hunters' wives and daughters as a subordinate 

 and auxiliary means of support." Only at a much later 

 period did agriculture acquire more importance. Not until 

 the game supply had been practically exhausted and the 

 roving life of the hunter made impracticable was chief re- 

 liance put upon agriculture.^^ If the food supply was 

 bettered by the system of raising flocks and herds it was 

 made doubly secure by crop raising. As grain and wheat 



1* St'ligimm, op. fit. 



