PLANTS : CULTIVATION AND IMPROVEMENT 3 
wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, radishes, beets, carrots, 
turnips, onions, lettuce, cabbage, apples, and pears were 
cultivated in Europe, Egypt, or southern 
Asia at the beginning of the Christian era, 
and most of them at least two thousand 
years before that time. These were 
brought to America by the early colonists. 
On the other hand, Indian corn, po- 
tatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pump- 
kins, and squash were not known to 
our ancestors until the discovery of the 
western continent, where they had been 
cultivated for many centuries by the 
Peruvians and Aztecs, and in some cases 
by Indian tribes living farther north. 
Modifications in these plants have 
been going on ever since they were 
domesticated, so that it is now difficult 
to tell what may have been their con- 
dition in the wild state. But we know 
that some of them were so inferior that 
we should hardly consider them fit to 
eat, and they would not be recognized 
by an untrained person as the ancestors — ghowing result of seven 
of our rich food-producing varieties if years of breeding. The 
placed side by side with them. Most se asi os 
of the improvements have been brought veloped from the one rep- 
about very gradually by cultivation and agi by the head on 
selection. 
Even at the present time every farmer and gardener, 
whether engaged in raising field crops, vegetables, fruits, 
or flowers, constantly aims to produce the largest possible 
Barley Heaps 
