A History of Agriculture in India v1.c15.9

v1.c15.9

Whyte thus sums up the contribution made by the Near Eastern and the Mediterranean centres to cultivated plants of the Old World: "The world's potential sources of western orchard fruits are concentrated in the Near East, the native home of the grape, pear, cherry, pomegranate, walnut, quince, almond, apricot and fig. The first orchards were undoubtedly located in the Near East. In Soviet Georgia and Armenia, one may still observe all phases of the evolution of fruit-growing from wild groves consisting almost wholly of wild fruit trees through transitional methods to those approaching modern fruit-growing, including the grafting of the better wild varieties on the less-valuable wild forms. Here also one may see that primitive man, while clearing away forests to make room for grain fields, has left standing the better specimens of wild apple, pear and cherry. It appears that viticultural methods and all the more important grape varieties have been acquired from the Near East, where one can still find wild forms quite suitable for culture in vineyards. In *Medicago*, *Pyrus* and *Amygdalus*, species formation has been active and is still occurring. Natural polyploidy has been discovered among wheats and numerous species of wild plants, particularly in alpine and subalpine zones. From Turkey, Iran and Soviet Central Asia has come the world's wealth of melons, and the leading forage crops, lucerne, Persian clover, a number of species of *Onobrychis*, *Trigonella* and vetch."²