The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-29
LEARNING FROM THE INDIANS.

Tt looks somewhat like going back ward for our present day scientists and economists to begin investigations with view of utilizing some of the many plants and vegetables that were used by the Indians previous to the advent among them of the white race.
 Yet this is just what is being done by the Department of Agriculture. That department according to The Portland oregonian, is acting on the idea that the study of plant life as applied to such plants as can be made to contrib ute to the sustenance and comfort of man under modern conditions of civil ization has become feature of our in- dustrial energy and of scientific re- search. Until recently. civilized agri- cultural people have depended upon relatively a few domesticated food plants to meet their wants, and even now the vegetables upon the farmers table for half the year consist mainly of potatoes, cabbage and perhaps few roots that in this climate stand in the ground all Winter. There is however. an increasing tendency to make every department of Nature even every freak of Nature that is the product of cross-fertilization--co ute to our comfort and welfare. Pro- lessor Blankenship of the experimental station of the Montana AgriculturaH College, has made a careful study of the native economic plants of that State, and in a paper upon the subject pays tribute. to the Indians of the Rocky Mountain region for their zeal and success in the primitive state in finding sustenance in the native plants of that section. He conceives that it Is of importance to seek out study and catalogue plants which the Indians found available in supplementing the food supply furnished by the chase to the end that the properties that con tribhted to the sustenance of a wild race may be improved by cultivation and made to play 8 valuable part in the commodities of civilized life.
 This is not a bad movement. The constant increase of our own popula- tion and the demands made on us by foreign countries make it good business to utilize much that Is now going to waste There is no danger of starva- tion for many years to come, unless | the earth refuses to yield her crops in season, but that is no reason why peo- | pie should not use the good things that | are now lost Before the white race
 
 tribes of Indians who cultivated no land at all, and those tribes which | made some pretense at farming did so on a very limited scale. Most of them lived entirely on flesh and on the seeds and roots which they found growing | wild around them. This last source of | food was largely depended on for sub sistence. They understood the nature | of plant life and knew how to make the most of 1t so as to supplement the fish, flesh and fowl which entered so l largely into their lives.
 It is the intention of the Depart ment. as we learn from Professor Blankenship, to begin investigations at once so as to take advantage of the knowledge and memories of the old Indians who have not forgotten the ways of their ancestors. Many such are yet living in the West and North west. and the plan is to learn from them all they can tell about edible wild plants It is not that those who are this investigation have any doubt about our food supply. but that they wish to learn. for future use, how that supply can be supplemented.