The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-12-29

After sketching rapidly the ex-
tremely slow progress of human
society during mans first million
years or so on earth, DR.. Merrill
continued
lit seems probable that the do
mestication of animals preceded the
domestication Of plants, and that
for a time the more advanced peo-
pies were those who tended their
herds. Establishment Of permanent
sgriculture-that is, the cultivation
of plants-was. however, the great
forward step that provided opportu-
nifty for development Of the higher
civilizations
Importance Is Vast
THE importance of establishment
Of agriculture in relation to the
development of man can not be
overlooked. 1t was probably the
most significant single advance in
mans development. It should be
horne in mind that at the dawn of
recorded history every basic food
plant now grown was already in
cultivation, and every domestic ami
NAL already was in domestication.
lit is true that modern man
greatly has improved both cult
waited plants and domesticated ami
mails, but he has added not a single
species to those domesticated by his
remote ancestors.
"We thus owe a tremendous debt
TO numerous unrecorded individuals,
who in remote ages. long before
man prepared permanent records,
selected from the wild and adapted
to their needs through domestica-
ton the plants and animals which
gave them a permanent food supply,
and hence paved the way to the
development of civilization.
ESQ long ago did this happen
that these pioneer agriculturists
we're forgotten long before recorded
history commences, for the begin
rlings of agriculture all early peo-
pies are lost in mythology.
q Supernatural Was Invoked
Whether in Mesopotamia or
Egypt, in Greece or Rome, in China
or among the American Indians,
Invariably the supernatural is in
voked to explain this or that basic
crop, be it wheat or barley or maize
or-rice. Among the Egyptians wheat
was considered to be the gift of
Osiris; among the Romans the gift
of Ceres, and we perpetuate this
idea today in our common word
cereal
1.-THE important centers of origin
OK both cultivated plants and
dcmesticated animals have in
general been those regions with
mediterranean type of climate, with
no great extremes of heat or cold,
and with a reasonably ample and
we'll distributed rainfall, or where
Mitigation could easily be developed
in other words, regions with equable
climates.
Mexico and Peru Led
I'm America, the outstanding
centers we're the highlands of
Mexico and of Peru, with secondary
centers in Central America and
Yucatan; and the food plants basic
to. these early American civilizations
were maize, potato, sweet potato,
lima beans, our common field beans,
and barious indigenous fruits and
vegetables.
FIN Eurasia may be listed the
Mediterranean basin, Asia Minor,
and contiguous areas to the east,
limited areas in Central Asia, and in
parts of India and China.
"For the Mediterranean basin,
Asia Minor and Central Asia, the
basic food plants were the common
cereals, wheat, barley, rye, oats, with
certain fruits and vegetables, with
such domesticated animals as cattle,
horses, swine, sheep and goats.
s"For India and China perhaps the
most important cereal was rice, but
including also others such as millet,
sorghum, ragi, coix and at an early
date, barley and wheat received
from the west, with vans and
various vegetables and fruits"