iv CULTIVATION 171 



plants have undergone under cultivation at the hands 

 of mankind. 



Man seems to have cultivated plants before he 

 domesticated animals, in some cases at least. In the 

 lake-dwellings of Lagozza, in Italy, belonging to the 

 neolithic epoch, while flints, terra-cotta ware, and even 

 crude linen are found, no bones are seen at all ; it 

 would seem that the inhabitants were strict vegetarians^ 

 and wheat, acorns, nuts, apples, and other vegetable 

 products have been discovered, carefully stored away. 

 The people who lived there, ages ago, were already 

 well advanced comparatively speaking in agricul- 

 ture, before they began domesticating, or perhaps 

 even eating animals. But in other cases man seems 

 to have begun with animal domestication before he 

 cultivated plants. He began with the cultivation 

 of the species which were abundant in his familiar 

 haunts, and were of considerable use to him in one 

 way or another, especially as food for himself or for his 

 animals. Has he paid more attention to vegetable 

 food, or is some other reason to be called for ? At all 

 events, the number of plants which are cultivated in 

 the different parts of the earth is much larger than 

 that of domesticated animals. Truly, cultivation is 

 an easier process than domestication, and while the 

 latter is always attended with many difficulties, the 

 former requires less care. In all parts of the world 



