July, 1921] BALL — ^ RELATION OF BOTANY TO HUMAN WELFARE 327 
other hand, vegetable food materials were more readily preserved for future 
use than were meats. 
The story of the first attempts at cultivation of food crops is lost in 
the mists of prehistoric time. Seeds dropped about a favorite camping 
site by members of a nomadic tribe, during preparation or eating, may have 
produced plants after the family moved on. Later, when they passed that 
way again, the mature plants with ripened seeds or fruits may have attracted 
their attention as providing a convenient food supply in a concentrated area. 
From some such chance observation may have developed the rudiment of 
the idea of growing the food plant where it was to be used. And no true 
welfare of human society was possible until man could produce and store 
food supplies against a time of scarcity and need. 
We can even imagine that the quantity and nature of the food supply had 
its influence on developing mentality. Perhaps there arose, even in those 
days, the superman who ruled by brain as well as by brawn. And perhaps 
also there was not wanting an envious Cassius to exclaim: "On what meat 
doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great?" 
The Future Food Supply 
The chief problem of the world in the immediate future is the food supply. 
Across the pages of history one clear record runs. That nation is most 
secure which has, or can insure, adequate resources of food. Napoleon said 
that an army travels on its stomach. Not only of the army but of the nation 
itself is this true. Two thousand years ago the grain ships from Egypt 
sailed the Mediterranean to imperial Rome. Today the grain ships ply 
the seven seas to imperial Britain. They go from Australia and Argentina, 
from India and from Canada, and even from the United States itself. To- 
morrow they may be steaming toward our shores, carrying a similar cargo. 
Ever since American agriculture advanced from the forest clearing to 
the open prairies and the boundless plains, our country has been a heavy 
exporter of foodstuffs. Not once have we had to stop and consider from 
across what seas grain ships should come to us. But now the old order 
changeth and giveth place to new. With a population increasing rapidly 
through birth and immigration, and with no large areas of cheap and fertile 
lands remaining to be brought under cultivation, we come face to face with 
the problem of our future food supply. Our exports of vegetable food" 
stuffs are steadily declining as more and more is required at home. Our 
imports of food materials are steadily mounting as the need increases. 
This is not written as a pessimistic prophecy but as a sane realization 
of an imminent problem in order that an adequate solution may be sought. 
The solution lies in one or more of three directions. First, immediate 
restriction of immigration and finally the restriction of the birth rate through 
economic pressure. There are some well recognized but unfortunate bio- 
logical facts which make this undesirable. Second, an endeavor to im- 
