360 Man's Work on the Farm 



almost forgotten the fact, it is to Asia that the world is 

 indebted for the most important of its food-plants. 



But with all that man has done, and widely as his 

 influence is felt beyond his own especial domains, he 

 has at present taken but a small portion of the soil 

 actually under his own care ; and even in that small 

 portion he would, as we have seen, be quite helpless 

 unable to produce even so much as a single crop 

 without the constant help of the many natural labourers 

 who are always at work, some or other of them, day 

 and night, summer and winter, in every part of the 

 * great world's farm. 1 



