CULTIVATION BOTANY.— Wood grows here [Concord] with great rapidity; and it is supposed there is as much now as there was twenty years ago. Walden woods at the south, and other lots towards the southwest parts of the town, are the most extensive, covering several hundred acres of light-soil land. Much of the fuel, which is consumed, is, however brought from the neighbouring towns. The most common trees are the oak, pine, maple, elm, white birch, chestnut, walnut, &c., &c. Hemlock and spruce are very rare. The ornamental trees transplanted, in this as in most other towns, do not appear to have been placed with much regularity; but as they are, they contribute much to the comfort and beauty of the town. The elm, buttonwood, horse-chestnut, and fruit trees have very properly taken the place of sickly poplars, in ornamenting the dwellings. The large elm in front of the court-house, –the pride of the common,– is almost unrivalled in beauty. It is about “three score and ten,” but is still growing with youthful vigor and uniform rapidity. Dr. Jarvis, who is familiar with the botany of Concord, informs me, that “most of the plants found in the middle parts of the state grow here, excepting the alpine flowers. The extensive low lands produce abundantly the natural families of the aroideæ, typhæ, cyperoideæ, gramineæ, junci, corymbiferæ and unbelliferæ. These genera especially abound. There are also found, the juncus militaris (bayonet rush), on the borders of Fairhaven pond; cornus florida; lobelia carinalis (cardinal flower) abundant on the borders of the river; polygala cruciata, in the east parts of the town; nyssa villosa (swamp hornbeam) at the foot of Fairhaven hill.” The cicuta Americana (hemlock) grows abundant on the intervals. Every person should know and shun it for its poisonous qualities. There are many excellent and well cultivated farms in the town, which produce winter rye, corn, potatoes and the usual productions of the vicinity. Garden seeds have been extensively raised. Teasels and the culture of silk have recently been introduced. Considerable attention has of late been paid to the cultivation of fruit trees, grape vines, and other horticultural productions, and, though a too long neglected branch of agriculture in this town, there is no doubt that nature has done enough for the soil to ensure great success.1 1. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION 3,750,000,000 BCE Mixed deposits of ferrous and ferric oxide suggest the presence of free atmospheric oxygen. Since this is construed as evidence for photosynthetic activity, we infer that Adam the Protomacron had come into existence, perhaps attached to a fragment of clay, as a sac without internal structure, capable of some form of self-replication: The Origin of Life 3,562,392,027 years ago 6 seconds later 482,674,115 years later two amino acids drift together they drift apart two amino acids drift together [Thanks for the above to Kauffman, Stuart A., “At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self- Organization and Complexity,” (1995), Penguin: London, 1996, reprint, pp. 34-35.] With the benefit of hindsight, but only with the benefit of hindsight, we can now declare that this macromolecule had a characteristic probably not possessed by any previous macromolecule: it was “alive.” Various forms of this protomacron would dominate the surface of the planet for the next billion years or so, before the next significant step in development would occur. (It must be emphasized that whatever this initial simple form of life amounted to, it eventually was absorbed and superseded so totally as to leave no trace of itself behind. The earliest precursors of which we now have any trace, such as fossils in the rocks left by mats of blue-green algae, are already vastly more complicated than it would have been possible for this first form of living being to have been. For more about this, consult Manfred Eigen’s STEPS TOWARDS LIFE: A PERSPECTIVE ON EVOLUTION, Oxford UP, 1992.) PLANTS 3,500,000,000 BCE Origination of the oldest dated stromatolites. These layered geological formations are built by successive generations of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). Lower Precambrian rocks in South Africa contain what is possibly the earliest known evidence of cellular organisms, resembling blue-green algae. PLANTS 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION 2,000,000,000 BCE In 1972, at the Pierrelatte refining facility in France, a discovery was made in uranium ore that had been unearthed at the Oklo River mine of Eastern Gabon, Africa. This ore was found to be depleted in Uranium235, the fissile isotope we now use in our nuclear power plants. What had been the cause of this anomalous depletion? –Some two billions of years ago, it seems, the natural concentration of radioactive elements in that strata of rocks had caused beneath the surface of the earth a local natural criticality — a self-sustaining fission reaction, a natural nuclear reactor. It had not gone off like an A-bomb (it had not formed itself into a supercritical mass of sufficient size and density, minimal 5% concentration in a minimal mass of some 11 kilograms, to result in a criticality), but –perhaps in combination with surface lightning strikes– the concentration had been sufficient to cause unusual local depletion of this isotope in the ore. We’re actually not doing anything in our nuclear power reactors –such as the six that until recently were lined up along the coast at the Fukushima Daiichi electric-power facility in Japan– that the planet hadn’t already done on its lonesome, long before the human species, long before animals, long before land plants, back in the era in which the only life that as yet existed on this planet was in the form of strands of blue-green algae! Data suggest that by this time in the history of the Earth, despite the fact that life was still confined to cyanobacteria blooms in the waters — molecular oxygen had already begun to make a significant difference in the nature of the enveloping atmosphere. PLANTS “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION 1,600,000,000 BCE Strong evidence indicates that filamentous and unicellular blue green algae existed by this period in the history of the Earth. PLANTS 900,000,000 BCE Late Precambrian deposits at Bitter Springs, Australia, hold numerous kinds of blue-green and green algae. PLANTS 570,000,000 BCE Dawning of the Paleozoic era. PLANTS 395,000,000 BCE The lower Devonian period. The Scottish Rhynie chert deposit from this period is famous for its excellent representation of Rhynia, one of the earliest vascular plants in the fossil record. PLANTS 350,000,000 BCE Land plants became significant. By the upper Devonian, Calamites (the giant horsetail) would become abundant (in strata of that age). We know now that seed bearing plants (Archaeosperma and Spermolithus) are represented in upper Devonian deposits. PLANTS 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION 345,000,000 BCE Now termed the Mississippian, this period together with the Pennsylvanian (through to 225,000,000 BCE) once was taken to constitute the Carboniferous, the age of coal. PLANTS 136,000,000 BCE Deposits from the Cretaceous period contain our 1st present evidence of flowering plants. PLANTS 50,000 BCE By this point, archeologists suspect, humans had begun to notice that certain leaves impart delicious flavor to food.Wild date seed were left in the Shanidar Cave of Northern Iraq. Also found at that site was evidence that SPICE cave dwellers consumed chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns. PLANTS 17,000 BCE Excavations at Wadi Kubbaniya, Nile Valley (Egypt) reveal charred remains of 25 different plants, including wild nut sedge tubers, acacia seed, cattail rhizomes, and palm fruit. PLANTS “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION 8,500 BCE Jared Diamond’s Domesticated Plant Species Era Plant Name Place 8,500 BCE pea Southwest Asia 8,500 BCE olive Southwest Asia 8,500 BCE wheat Southwest Asia 8,000 BCE Wheat and barley were Near Eastern food crops. In ancient cultures barley was the everyday food of the poor. Archeologists have learned that by this time people used flint sickles and grinding stones. The cultivation of grains had an essential role in the development of civilization. PLANTS Recent discovery of squash seeds in a granary on the western slope of the Andes, in what is now Peru, indicates that by this point agriculture had begun there. It would seem that human agriculture had five points of origin and although all were independent, they occurred in approximately the same timeframe. A recent genetic study indicates that the wild cat that had domesticated itself by this point in time was the Felis CAT silvestris lybica of Turkey and the Middle East. 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION Archeological remains indicate that cannabis (hemp) was one of our early cultivated plants. Hemp textile making apparently started more or less simultaneously in Europe and Asia. PLANTS 7,500 BCE Jared Diamond’s Domesticated Plant Species Era Plant Name Place 8,500 BCE pea Southwest Asia 8,500 BCE olive Southwest Asia “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX CULTIVATION CULTIVATION Jared Diamond’s Domesticated Plant Species 8,500 BCE wheat Southwest Asia by 7,500 BCE millet China by 7,500 BCE rice China 7,000 BCE Flax was known in Syria and Turkey, and is apparently the earliest plant source for fiber (linen) as well as an important source of oil (pressed from the seed).