HISTOEY. 47 



All these things happened many thousands of 

 years ago. The best things done by men are older 

 than recorded history. The taming of the ass, the 

 taming of the horse, the taming of the cow, the devel- 

 opment of the milk-giving powers of the cow, the 

 caring for sheep and goats, the breeding of sheep for 

 wool, the spinning of wool and flax, the melting of 

 ores — all these primal things happened long 

 centuries ago. Since historic times man has 

 learned very little indeed that he needed to 

 know; the important, primal, essential things were 

 all worked out before men began to write upon stone 

 and upon parchment. 



It is not certain that there exists today any wild al- 

 falfa. There are places where some has escaped from 

 cultivation and gone wild, but all alfalfa, so far as 

 known, has so changed its form from ■what it would 

 be in the wild state that it is doubtless bearing in its 

 nature the very marked signs of the moulding hand 

 of man. For example, all alfalfa so far as known 

 today needs to be cut off from time to time to keep 

 it in thrift. No wild plant requires that. Alfalfa 

 that we know reflects a long line of civilizations, re- 

 flects the habits of people who have kept cows and 

 donkeys and sheep and horses, kept these and fed 

 them, carrying their forage to them on men's backs 

 for ages untold. It requires no effort of the imag- 

 ination when looking out upon an alfalfa field to 

 picture the fields from which it sprung through the 

 ages past. The little fields fair and green and fertile 

 under hot glowing desert skies mostly. Little fields 



