354 Man's Work on the Farm 



the west are not now familiar objects ; they are plenti- 

 ful in China and Japan, and throughout the length and 

 breadth of India. But still, though they have con- 

 siderably altered the appearance of our gardens, and, 

 in some districts, of our fields, the change has been 

 mainly confined to these, the cultivated portions of the 

 soil. In the north, at all events, American plants have 

 not run wild in any overwhelming manner, though the 

 prickly pear has done so in the south, and the pine- 

 apple has covered some parts of Borneo ; and it is true 

 that the American pond-weed even put us to consider- 

 able expense, by choking our canals. The general 

 appearance of our woods, moors, wild hill-sides and 

 ' wastes,' at all events, is little, if at all, altered by the 

 presence of strangers ; and though potatoes are an 

 important crop in the north, while maize and tobacco 

 occupy a good share of the cultivated ground in the 

 south, yet, except in some few districts, it is only a 

 share, and wheat, barley, rye, oats, clover, etc., form 

 the chief part of the crops of Europe now, as they did 

 before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. 



It is far otherwise, however, with that new world 

 which he discovered. In many parts, European plants 

 have almost ousted the natives, and have entirely 

 altered the character of the vegetation. In the south, 

 for instance, 180 miles of wild artichokes and clover 

 have sprung up since first the continent was visited 

 by Europeans. Growing entirely on their own account, 

 without any other help from man than that of an 

 ' assisted passage,' they have overpowered whatever 

 native plants occupied the ground before them, and 

 are now being themselves invaded here and there by 

 large groves of wild apple-trees, also European, planted 



