veral times that they were acquainted with agriculture.
This implies a great advance over the primitive hunters of the early
Stone Age.

On the shores of the lakes which furnished them with a place of
habitation they raised many of our present species of grain. Owing to a
cause of which we have already spoken--that is, destruction of the lake
settlements by fire--the carbonized remains of these cereals have been
preserved to us. There were four varieties of wheat raised, none exactly
like our common wheat. In addition to this they raised barley and
millet, several varieties of each. Nor were the fruits neglected. Apples
and pears were dried and laid away for use in the Winter. Seeds of the
common berries were found in abundance, showing that these primitive
people were fully alive to their value.

From this it follows that the Neolithic people were not only tillers
of the soil, but horticulturists as well. According to Dr. Keller, the
vegetable kingdom furnished their principal supply of food. Hazelnuts,
beechnuts, and chestnuts were found in such quantities as to show they
had been gathered for use. Neither hemp, oats, nor rye were known. Not
only do we find the remains of the grains, fruits, seeds, etc., from
which the above conclusions are drawn, but, farther than this, pieces
of bread have been found in a carbonized state, and thus as effectually
preserved as the bread of a far later date found in the ovens of
Pompeii. According to Figuier, the peasant classes of Tuscany now bake
bread, after merely bruising the grain, by pouring the batter on glowing
stones and then covering it with ashes. As this ancient prehistoric
bread is of similar shape, it was probably baked in an equally primitive
fashion.<21>

Aside from the natural interest we feel in these evidences as to ancient
industry, a study of the remains of plants cultivated by the Neolithic
people reveals to us two curious and suggestive facts. It has been found
that the wild plants then growing in Switzerland are in all
respects like the wild plants now growing there. But the cultivated
plants--wheat, millet, etc.--differ from all existing varieties, and
invariably have smaller seeds or fruits.<22> This shows us that man has
evidently been able to effect considerable change by cultivation, in the
common grains, during the course of the many centuries which separate
the Neolithic times from our own age. But if this rate of change be
adopted as a measure of ti