Introduction 



vu 



FILLING A MAIZE RICK 



transport that they afford a reliable means of testing modern methods, and anyone who wishes 

 a demonstration of the excellence of these methods ought to visit one of the 

 exhibitions of Colonial-grown fruit held by the Royal Horticultural Society. 



Enough has been said to indicate that there is great interest attaching to the ordinary 

 articles which are so familiar to us in every-day life. Some products, such as flour, 

 sugar, and tea, are obtained only from cultivated plants, often grown now in countries 

 far removed from those in which they originally occurred in the wild state. The raw 

 material passes through successive processes before it leaves the land of its production, and 

 after it reaches the country where it is used undergoes other transformations. Other useful 

 substances, on the other hand, are obtained from wild plants, and are collected by primitive 

 and sometimes interesting races, prepared by crude methods, sold at the outposts of some 

 great trading firm beyond perhaps the confines of civilisation, and finally shipped to 

 this country. 



It is obvious that an account of the cultivation, collection, preparation, and uses of the 

 products of every-day consumption cannot fail to be of great interest. Incidentally we learn 

 much not only about the objects themselves, which in itself endows them with much greater 

 interest, but also about the lands of their production and the conditions of life which 

 prevail there. 



In this book an attempt has been made to give a general account, on the lines indicated 

 above, of the principal plant products which occur in commerce. The work is necessarily 

 incomplete, because it is impossible in a volume of this size to describe in a manner which 



