THE EARTH OUR STOREHOUSE 55 



The brave little seed had grown into a fine, healthy 

 plant, and the sweet, white blossoms were quite the 

 largest blackberry blossoms that ever had been. 

 It was just the same with the fruit. Instead of 

 being the size of the tip of your little finger it was 

 as large as the end of your thumb. 



Every year the fruit of that bush would be larger 

 and finer until some day a man would come by who 

 was tempted to try the juicy-looking blackberry. 

 How much better that berry tasted than any he 

 had ever tried before. He would look at it to see if 

 it was really a blackberry bush that he had found 

 in that unaccustomed place. It certainly was, 

 although it seemed strange to see it growing there. 



As the man looked a thought must have come 

 into his head! If the blackberries could grow so 

 large and sweet and juicy in that richer and moister 

 earth, why not plant some in that sort of soil, and 

 tend them and make them larger still? Now black- 

 berries grow in gardens, and the berries are as large 

 as mother's thimble. We buy them in the markets 

 and have them on our tables. Was that the way 

 men first started to make a garden, do you think? 

 However they began, the birds had helped long 

 before by scattering the seeds, and so giving plants 

 a chance to try some other kind of soil. 



When the Pilgrims came to Plymouth they found 

 the Indians planting corn, and none of them knew 

 where and when it had first been planted. So it is 

 with us. We do not know when men first began to 

 sow in fresh, open ground the seeds that they had 

 learned were good to eat. 



