Maris Work on the Farm 355 



by pigs and cattle. But in the north, greater changes 

 than this have taken place ; for miles — hundreds, 

 thousands of square miles — have been brought under 

 cultivation which were never cultivated before; and 

 the whole of the crops grown throughout the United 

 States are foreign, with the trifling exception of 

 Jerusalem artichokes and pumpkins ! 



When Louisiana was settled by the French, for 

 example, less than a couple of hundred years ago, the 

 uplands were covered with magnificent forests of elm, 

 ash, oak, cherry, magnolia, mulberry, and wild grape. 

 Whereas the greater part now, where it has not been 

 abandoned as exhausted, is covered with cotton — 

 cotton not of the native species, but that brought to 

 Europe by the Arabs. 



This is only a sample of what has occurred through- 

 out the United States and in Canada. For it is a 

 curious fact that, useful as are many of the plants 

 which America has given to Europe, they amount to 

 no more than forty-five species — about 250 species are 

 in common cultivation all over the globe — and of these, 

 all but the two already mentioned are natives of South 

 or Central America, for the Indians of North America 

 were chiefly hunters, not agriculturists. 



Potatoes, it is true, were brought to Europe from 

 Virginia, but they were strangers for all that, and not 

 known in the State until introduced by Europeans, 

 who had made their acquaintance in the south ; and 

 to make room for them, as well as for the various kinds 

 of corn, grasses, clover, cotton, hemp, flax, fruit and 

 vegetables, which form the main part of the crops of 

 the United States farmer, native plants have necessarily 

 been turned out. They have not been exterminated, 



