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and numerous other food plants of lesser importance. In the 

 various centers of Eurasia the most important primitive foods 

 were the true cereals, such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, millet, 

 rice and others of minor importance, buckwheat, and most of 

 our temperate zone vegetables and fruits. 



Agriculture in America developed along exactly the same 

 lines as in Europe and Asia, except that in America domesti- 

 cated animals were very few — the llama, alpaca, turkey and 

 the Muscovy duck — and again the plants selected from among 

 the native species that yielded edible seeds, fruits or tubers, 

 were totally different from those of Europe and Asia. Here, 

 as in various parts of the Old World, we find dry land agri- 

 culture, terrace agriculture, and extensive irrigation systems. 

 To contrast the differences in cultivated plants and in plant 

 products between America and Eurasia there is listed below 

 two series: First those plants developed as cultivated ones 

 from native American species, none of which was known in 

 Europe or Asia until after the close of the fifteenth century; 

 and second a longer list of those characteristic of Europe and 

 Asia, none of which was known in America until after the ar- 

 rival of the European explorers and colonists. 



In contrast to the numerous cereals developed in the Old 

 World from native wild grasses, America produced but one, 

 but this the most important maize or Indian corn. Other food 

 plants include the potato, sweet potato, tapioca or cassava, 

 arrow root, lima bean, all varieties of garden and field beans, 

 the scarlet runner bean, tepari bean, yam bean, tomato, pepper, 

 Jerusalem artichoke, sunflower, squash, pumpkin, fig-leaved 

 pumpkin, musky pumpkin, peanut, chayote, papaya, quinoa, 

 avocado, pineapple, custard apple, soursop, cherimoya, guava, 

 cacao or chocolate, cashew, sapote, white sapote, sapodilla, 

 mammei, Mexican plum, and various others of lesser impor- 

 tance. In ancient Peru alone over seventy different species were 

 actually in cultivation, all derived from native species, before 

 the advent of the Europeans, and probably at least as many were 

 also in cultivation in Mexico. To mention only corn, potato, 

 sweet potato, pepper, the beans, tomato, squash, pumpkin and 

 cacao, one quickly realizes Americas' great contribution to the 

 cultivated plants of the world, and how important these items 

 now are to the every day life of most peoples in all parts of the 

 world. 



