28 
These occur from Africa round to India so primitive humanity could spread 
slowly or nomadically and always have a staple diet of Sorghum. Other minor 
forms of Millet occur right to the Deccan where an Eleusine is still tolerated and 
is certainly the most ancient crop as it never would have been selected after 
superior grains were known. So Quinoa and Millet types must be regarded as 
Man's first dry, or as we should say "cereal" sustenance. 
Slow drifting arrived at such deltas and estuaries as Euphrates and Tigris. 
Nile, Indus, Mekong, etc.. where fibre-bearing plants, e.g. Hemp, Jute and Manila 
{Musa textilis) produced fisher-folk. The fourth great moment in human develop- 
ment (we noticed speech, the adposable thumb and use of fire) was when a man 
first twisted two plant fibres into a cord which was lighter and stronger than 
animal sinew and opened up technique in fishing and navigation. The two Flax 
species had genuine food and fibre combination. Then emerged woven baskets 
for storage and an end to hand-to-mouth feeding. 
Fortified by rich protein of fish and better carbohydrates, Man pushed up the 
river basins and discovered new food plants needing conservation, cultivation and 
storage protection and so a communal life. Chenopodium was joined by Buck- 
wheat, Beans and Pulse, Gourd varieties and, in Asia, some kind of Rice. The 
Fig preceded cereals as staple food in the Middle East. Ficus carica was cultivated 
as early as B.C. 3,000 in parts of the Fertile Crescent along with Olive. Locust, 
Tamarind, Beans and, in India, Turmeric, Lentils and other Pulse. 
The improvement of many weeds into cultivated food plants is lost in pre- 
history but is evidence of ancient agriculture. In the 6,000 years of recorded 
history Man has not added a single major crop to his list of domesticates. All 
our important food annuals were facts by B.C. 3,000 since when nothing com- 
parable with e.g. Wheat, Maize or Rice has been added to the economic food 
flora. Either Primitive Man was more skilled as a plant breeder than Modern 
Man (which is unthinkable) or agriculture had almost incredibly early beginnings 
which is easier to believe. Man, evolving with his food plants, must have 
developed some form of agriculture from a time reaching far back into the 
Pleistocene. In the Mesolithic, in a rapid building-up of deltas and changes of 
river courses, fisher folk fed themselves without shifting their abodes where 
middens still indicate centuries of occupation. These are a key role in the origin 
of cultivated plants. "The history of weeds is the history of Man." The great 
Vavilov determined primitive original centres of many food plants and described 
the diverse explosions into wider areas along with Mankind. 
Barley was probably the first cereal cultivation which began in Ethiopia and 
Nepal and became of vital importance in Egypt and Assyria. Was Man first a 
brewer or a baker? Rye is known to have been a tolerated grain-field weed in 
Asia Minor. Oats may also have been a weed amongst Emmer or Barley in 
Neolithic times. 
Wheat was a vital factor in the evolution of Man from the near-primitive to 
the near-civilised. It was far from being a single type of grass rescued for cultiva- 
tion. Cytology has produced exact evidence of the species combined during the 
Stone Ages to result in our Wheat. Radio-carbon datings confirm the findings. 
A kind of wheat-grass (Triticum) was first a weed amongst Quinoa, then a 
denizen of middens, protected, sown and improved into a miserable Einkorn which 
still survives near the Caspian. A common eastern Couchgrass (Agropyrum) 
hybridised with Einkorn to produce Emmer which, with a variant Persian variety, 
was the Wheat of Neolithic farmers and now existing only in isolated areas. 
Probably as much as 6,000 years was covered as far as Emmer. Later, in the 
Bronze Age, Emmer crossed with a bristle-headed weed grass (A^gilops squarosa) 
to make Spelt or Dinkle — the bearded Pharaoh's Corn and Mirable of Ethiopia. 
A further cross may have given our own Bread Wheats. 
Cultivation of Maize and Potato in America and Rice in S.E. Asia, the latter 
in imitation of Nature's sequence of swamp and drought, inspired the great 
united enterprise from which resulted the terrace systems of long-lasting empires. 
The conclusion is that early Man and his plants developed together up the 
river basins. Draining effort produced the civilisations of Mesopotamia. In Egypt, 
where archaeology merged into history as the green strip widened and grain and 
Onion replaced Dates, irrigation was the spur. The plants which need the greatest 
effort and intelligence, e.g. the Cereals and Potato, brought Man's advance towards 
civilisation, whilst the free gifts of Nature such as the Palms left him without 
incentive and advancement. 
