"*>•> 1, 



fc--* 









J «rt?K 



|$ 





1 



--^4. ' 



'hotograph by O. F. Cook 



ANCIENT AQUEDUCT AND TERRACES 



A portion of the long walls crossing the Urubamba Valley at Ollantaytambo, shown in the 



general view on page 502 



can be said now is that the indications of 

 such a center of origin and domestication 

 of plants in other parts of the world are 

 less definite than in the region of Peru. 



It may be that the deep, narrow valleys 

 of Peru imposed conditions necessary to 

 the development of agriculture, at least 

 in its very early stages. The difficulties 

 of communication would mean that each 

 valley must have had its own group of 

 people, separate from all of the others, 

 and that each of these independent com- 

 munities was restricted to a narrow range. 

 with only a limited stock of natural prod- 

 ucts to draw upon, and hence under pres- 

 sure to learn how to increase the growth 

 of the useful plants and destroy their 

 useless competitors. 



AYhatever the motive or the pressure 

 that led to the development of agriculture 

 under such conditions, of the fact there 

 can be no doubt. That the system of 

 agriculture did develop here is proved by 

 the fact that the plants on which the agri- 

 culture was based were indigenous, and 

 that no such system existed jn other parts 

 of America. 



YOU CAN Look FROM THE EQUATOR TO 

 Till- POLES 



Agriculture in Peru is a matter of alti- 

 tude. Geographically you are in the 

 tropics, but agriculturally you may be 

 anywhere between the Equator and the 

 northern limit of agriculture, at the Arc- 

 tic Circle. Moreover, you can find this 



504 



