Ethnology and History. The first traces of agriculture date back to the end of the Neolithic period. This new way of life was associated with pastoralism. As early as the Azilian period, in the Mesolithic (6,000 years BC), wheat was already known as a foodstuff in our country. Wheat has been found in some caves such as Mas d'Azil and Espelungues, but there are no traces of its cultivation. Sowing (‘erein’) began in the Neolithic period. The mill found at Lumentxa s that cereals were already ground and used as food. Knowledge of sowing, or ereintza, if it came from outside, would have come from the Danube basin or at least from the north. Basque preserves a legend that records this event: that of the basajaun of Muski. The hero who steals wheat from the basajauns and the secret of the sowing and sowing of millet and turnip is a mythical character who has come down to us already Christianised and called Saint Martiniko. It is striking that the sowers are from the mountains and those who learn are people from the plains. v. WHEAT. It was in the Metal Age when the first tiny vegetable gardens began to be cultivated. The metal plough and the use of draught animals on the plains later revolutionised the whole of ancient agriculture. Livestock breeding and herding supplemented the agricultural work. It has been claimed that the names of the cereals are related to those of the Caucasian languages, but this has never been definitively proven. Wheat, in its most primitive variety, T. dicoccum (Ezkandia), which still survives in our crops, would be the one cultivated at this time. We do not know the beginnings of the cultivation of flax or even of vines and olives on the banks of the Ebro. In pre-Roman times it was probably the women who cultivated the land while the men were shepherding. These would have been small tracts of land dedicated to wheat and barley or other cereals. These crops would have been used for food and for brewing beer, a common drink among the highlanders. Linen would also be grown for clothing. It is known that Pompey, in 75 BC, left the plateau near Numantia to buy wheat in the territory of the Vascons. Sallust, Hist., 111, 93 (frag.). It is also known that the staple food was acorn bread. To obtain it, acorns (ezkur) were first gathered and dried, then crushed or ground in stone mills by hand and the resulting wholemeal flour was used to make bread. Among the wild fruits collected by women and children, perhaps hazelnuts, blackberries and strawberries would be of some interest. An extremely important plant, the bean, bears a name of Roman origin: babarruna or ‘Roman bean’. Perhaps some fruit trees such as chestnut and lime were introduced under the Romans. Agriculture remained rudimentary in mountainous areas and was almost exclusively the work of women. On the plains, the cultivation of vines and olives improved, and with it the production of wine and olive oil. Horticulture underwent the same improvement and was enriched with new plants such as peppers and chilli peppers. The Roman fundus and villas, important agricultural holdings, were only known in the lowlands. Elsewhere, ownership was family and communal. During the European invasions and domination by the barbarians, mainly the Visigoths and Franks, the Basques became culturally and politically independent. With contact with the Muslims, agriculture on the plains was perfected. One plant, the pea, was named after mythological characters or the Moors: matru-illarra. The apricot and the peach, although they have Arabic names in Spanish, do not have them in Basque: mertxika and muxika, unless they are derived precisely from the word al-berchigo (mertxika). The Arabs practised irrigation and irrigation ditches, a name also imported by them. During the Pamplona reign, the mountains hardly changed in their agricultural and pastoral ways of life. The people lived in poverty, but many meadows and hillsides were sown with wheat. There are small crops of cereals, millet, broad beans, beans, peas and vegetables. The widespread cultivation of vines and olives should be noted. It is known that there were vineyards in Aoiz, Arzeiz, Urroz, Ustárroz, Imarcoain, Elkano, Eransus, Yelz, Zenborain, Aibar and around Pamplona. On the other side of the mountains, vineyards reappeared in San Juan Pie de Puerto. On the plains of Alava and, above all, in the vicinity of the Ebro, those of Laguardia were important. Towards the coast, agriculture was already poor and scattered along the coastal valleys. Poor in bread and wine, but rich in apples, was the nickname given to Don Diego de Haro, Lord of Biscay. Its produce was barely enough to feed its inhabitants. On the other hand, there were many apple orchards and cider was produced. In the modern era, the clearing of woodland and the burning of trees for sowing and pasture intensified. The two revolutionary developments were the introduction of maize and potatoes. It took a long time for the latter to become widespread and displace the turnip. Percaiztegui de Hernani is said to have introduced maize brought from America in the 16th century. Here, maize was given the name that millet used to have, arto, and millet was christened arto-txiki to distinguish it. Isasti, 1625, tells us that in Guipuzcoa all that is necessary is taken from millet and breadfruit, moderately, and, for a short time now, corn bread has been made, which is called mijo de Indias (Indian millet). Throughout the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the mountains and riverbanks were ploughed and cultivated with great care, the former with cereal crops and the latter with vegetables. And agriculture was always so poor in the mountains that beans, for example, were not introduced in Biscay until the 16th century and it took until the 18th century, when flax cultivation began to decline, to become widespread. In recent times, the agricultural economy was radically transformed, especially in the plains. Suffice it to mention only the new wealth of beet in all its varieties and the immense riches of orchards and fruit trees. But the statistics will speak for themselves better than anything else.