Wisconsin School of the Air; Afield with Ranger Mac; 11

The Wisconsin School of the air invites you to go afield with Ranger Mac today boys and girls Ranger Max going to tell you all about serials and civilization. Now here's your guide for today's imaginary trip down the nature trail Ranger Mack. Hello boys and girls. This is your day. And so up under way when Ranger Mark outlined the Teacher's Manual blazing the trail for this year he had in mind making this broadcast a poor taste of the things we should be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day which he supposed would be the last day of the last Thursday in November. As tradition dictates. That was in June and he made a miscalculation. But gratitude is another name for Thanksgiving and there is no particular time for peeling grateful and expressing gratitude. The more people only the feeling wells up in our hearts and minds the happier we are sure

to be. So today we will look deep into the past even beyond the horizon of civilization to discover a heritage we can be thankful for our look back into those gray days when primitive man was learning the very simple ways of conquering nature. What we will say sounds rather simple to us today. We have learned how to grow food in abundance using speedy labor saving devices so superior methods of selecting seeds planting harvesting storing processing the grains into foods that line the shelves of our grocery stores. Today we can live out of a department store but it was not always sold. Getting food from nature in sufficient amounts to meet human needs has

always been the main thought and effort of all peoples. Since man was placed on this planet. Nature is so ordered the plant coverage of this earth that the grasses were destined to furnish the main foods and his herds. It has been so down to human existence cereals are grasses by cereals we mean grains such as wheat rice corn barley rye oats and millet. When Ranger uses the word cereals you should know he does not mean the various breakfast foods that we often hear advertised over the radio. He means green. Of these seven cereals wheat rice corn barley rye oats and millet the first three wheat rice and corn are the big three.

A world wide failure of any of these three what they bring on a world calamity so dependent are the peoples of this world upon them. A seed is a mysterious palette within a mad dry casing. There is the germ of life and packed about this germ is enough food of the needed kinds to feed that germ when it awakens into life. To cross it to grow into a little plant and finally to send out roots to enable it to make its own way in life. We know that the most concentrated form in which nature supplies food is in seeds. Long before the dawn of civilization. Man knew this was sown. Long before man learned the simplest arts of Agriculture before he learned how to scratch the soil and plant seeds. He gathered the seeds of wild grasses wherever he

could find them. Hours and hours of patient toil were given to the gathering and preparation of what was eaten. In a few minutes in the United States we can still observe Indians gathering seeds from the wild as the primitive peoples did thousands of centuries ago. They pirate Indians of this some are buried and lands of Arizona Utah and Nevada still strip seeds from many wild grasses grind them between stones and use the flour for bread cakes and soups. It is the primitive method used by uncivilized man before the thought ever entered his brain and that he could scratch the ground and plant seeds and grow his own crop of grain. Throughout long stretches of time man simply gathered his

food wherever it was available in nature. One man learned to grow his cereals by using his mind and by the sweat of his brow. Civilization started strange as it may seem to you. The discovery of Agriculture and the taming of wild animals were the two steps that started the upward climb of man toward civilization. Of course the beginnings are all shrouded in mystery. But we can reason it out quite well. Let's try to. When primitive man went about gathering seeds from the wild it was only natural for him to discover the most important kinds of seed bearing plant. These would be the grasses yielding the seeds the largest amounts containing the most food that could be used in the simple ways he had are

preparing his food. Having discovered these superior seeds it was only natural for him to find ways by which these seeds could be multiplied. We shall never know just when primitive man first discovered how plants could be grown by cultivation. It seems so simple to us because we have the experience of all the past to guide us. But it took primitive ma'am a long time to learn. That he could scratch the ground and plant his seed and grow his own crop. It was an important step in the march toward civilization. Simple as it may seem to us. The early form of the plow was a digging stick pushed into the ground to break the soil. The next step was the hitch man to the plow and scratched the soil

by human power. Pictures carved on ancient Egyptian walls. Tell us the story. Other pictures reveal the next step with oxen and donkeys yoked to the plough in the Natural History Museum in Chicago is a collection of these plows used by Indians in parks Arizona and northern Mexico. As late as Nineteen Hundred the first model board plow of modern design was not invented until eighteen hundred and this was done by Thomas Jefferson. Next came the wheel the wheel was another of the discoveries upon which civilization is based. Man was his own beast of burden until he discovered the wheel and how to use it without wheels way would go all our electric plants

our transportation facilities all our factories. We cannot imagine a worthwhile world without wheels. But it was not always so. The wheel was another step in the upward climb of my ox drawn carts are shown in ancient drawings and crop jars. When primitive man learned he could grow cereals in larger amounts and the better kinds then could be collected from the wild when he learned to scratch the ground save seed for planting and to plant it. Then food became more abundant and people could live in cities. And some of the people could devote their time to other pursuits than that of simply getting food then writing calendars and cities came into being.

It is difficult for us to realize that these are unique and unusual when appearing in the world for the first time. But what is more they are still the basis upon a metals of civilization. So far in this broadcast we have learned that all plants and that of all plants the grasses are the most important to man all the cereals that make up the bread stuffs of the world that have been the main food of mankind are grasses. We have learned that all of these important cereals now are thoroughly domesticated by man were once wild plants. Just as all domesticated animals were once wild. We have learned that for thousands of centuries primitive man lived by wild foods gathered from nature. We have learned that at some time

along the trail of primitive man it is man's existence. He took the first necessary step that choosing the best plants to provide his food. We have learned that at some place he caught the idea of scratching the soil and growing his own crops from these best plants. We have learned that these steps were the discovery of Agriculture and the humble beginnings of civilization. Now we have a little time left to discuss a couple of the serials who stands at the head of the list both in value and volume of production. It is the serial of the Western world the wild plant from which the cereal originated and the time and place where the plant was domesticated are still in doubt. But since ancient times it has been cultivated in Palestine and Egypt.

The first civilizations that came into being were wheat growers and eaters. There are people who assert that that it is. It is the possession of true bread and of course this means wheat which accounts for this appear your culture of the European countries. Somewhere along the line of 6000 years a bread use some bakers of wheat bread discovered yeast and raised bread. Some students of ancient history hero of the discovery was made in Egypt. Wheat flour happens to be the only flour producing like bread because it contains the right amount of gluten to hold the gas bubbles that come from fermentation. It is estimated that one half of the world's people lives on rice in China

India and South East Asia. It is their main food and their daily diet. The other half of the people are the world's people. Archy piles a larger area. But our problem most part bread eaters wheat barley rye and corn and slow the division out of the troubled world today in its beliefs and contentions corresponds quite accurately with the division according to diet ready tears of Western Civilization writes rice eaters of the East. Give us this day our daily bread. This is the first petition of the universal prayer of all of Christendom. It was first uttered in these words by the Master Teacher upon whose teaching western civilization the bread eaters is based.

It is been uttered in some form by all peoples since the dawn of civilization and that Sartre for Europe are today. I hope you have a happy week. May the Great Spirit put sunshine in your heart. Today and forever more. Heap much the familiar Indian file brings us to the end of another trip filled with Ranger Mack Ranger Mack will be back next week to take you on another radio hike down the nature trail. This is the Wisconsin School of the air.