Man*s first attempts to control his fat,e, to provide for future 
need Instead of remaining the victim of droughts or other untoward 
circumstances, must have been on grasslands where the young calves, 
lambs, and kids he caught and tamed could find forage. It was on grass- 
lands, too, that primitive man 
developed most rapidly. 
The earliest known records of human culture are - found in the Nile Valley 
and in southwestern Asia, open country of scanty rainfall. 
It is not known when man began to cultivate the grains , for at the 
V 
dawn of history wheat and barley were in cultivation in Egypt and to the 
east of the Mediterranean. Hice has been cultivated in eastern Asia 
since prehistoric time . Rye and oats came into cultivation later. 
Sorghum, the millets, and other grass seeds (or grain) form the bread- 
stuffs of many peoples in Asia and Africa. 
In the western hemisphere ikaer-j^^birsai ^^I fure ^ developed^about maize 
or Indian corn. The Inca, Maya, Aztec, and Pueblo civilizations were 
based upon it, and it was cultivated by the North American Indians over 
much of what is now the United States. The hungry Pilgrim Fathers, we 
are told, found a buried hoard of Indian •corn during: their first terrible 
winter in the New l?Vorld and thankfull|r appropriated it. The Indians 
taught the Pilgrims how to plant maize, or corn, as it was called by the 
English settlers. 
