valleys of ancient Peru, where, owing to the restricted areas of these
intermontane basins, stock-raising early became stationary,[119] as we
find it in the Alps. Moreover, the high ridges of the Andes supported a
species of grass called _ichu_, growing up to the snowline from the
equator to the southern extremity of Patagonia. Its geographical
distribution coincided with that of the llama and alpaca, whose chief
pasturage it furnished.[120] In contrast, the absence of any wild fodder
plants in Japan, and the exclusion of all foreign forms by the
successful competition of the native bamboo grass have together
eliminated pastoral life from the economic history of the island.

The Old World, on the other hand, furnished an abundant supply of
indigenous animals susceptible of domestication, and especially those
fitted for nomadic life, such as the camel, horse, ass, sheep and goat.
Hence it produced in the widespread grasslands and deserts of Europe,
Asia, and Africa the most perfect types of pastoral development in its
natural or nomadic form. Moreover, the early history of the civilized
agricultural peoples of these three continents reveals their previous
pastoral mode of life.

North and South America offered over most of their area conditions of
climate and soil highly favorable to agriculture, and a fair list of
indigenous cereals, tubers, and pulses yielding goodly crops even to
superficial tillage. Maize especially was admirably suited for a race of
semi-migratory hunters. It could be sown without plowing, ripened in a
warm season even in ninety days, could be harvested without a sickle and
at the pleasure of the cultivator, and needed no preparation beyond
roasting before it was ready for food.[121] The beans and pumpkins which
the Indians raised also needed only a short season. Hence many Indian
tribes, while showing no trace of pastoral development, combined with