IMPROVING ON NATURE 1 



into its shape. He saw that, because of this force, like 

 produces like, and the new plant resembles the old one 

 from whose seed it springs. This force was invisible. 

 He could not understand it as readily as he could the 

 plant form. 



6. Our Trust in Natural Forces. Only by slow steps have 

 men learned to trust the regular action of these natural 

 forces. There is a force, we have just said, that made the 

 second and third wheat plants resemble the first one. We 

 now call that force by the name heredity, and we are still 

 learning much about its workings. We know surely, how- 

 ever, that, like all the forces of nature, heredity works 

 constantly and uniformly under like conditions. But the 

 first farmers, for thousands of years, thought that it was a 

 goddess, and that it must be worshiped with prayer and 

 sacrifices, or it might cease to work for the good of men. 



It was natural for these first farmers to distrust the un- 

 seen forces " the invisible tools " with which they had 

 to work, and to feel that these forces might stop working 

 at any time as a punishment to men. The strange thing 

 is that in our own day of so much knowledge, some farmers 

 have made scant progress toward a proper outlook on 

 nature. Such men still cling to old superstitions, and are 

 particular to plant seed according to the " signs " of the 

 almanac. Wise men trust to the regularity of natural 

 forces. 



7. Why Farmers Have Sought to Improve on Nature. We 

 know little that is really definite about the farmers of 

 the earliest times. It is quite probable that the first 

 men obtained their food and clothing from wild ani- 

 mals and wild plants. If the streams, hunting grounds, 

 wild cereals, wild fruits, and wild roots had satisfied men's 

 needs, we should not have the modern cattle, fruit, grains, or 

 other good things of the farm of to-day. But the first men 



