EFFORTS TO INCREASE FOOD RESOURCES 



The board groaned with pork and beef, with venison 

 pasties and roasted fowl, and ale and mead flowed freely; 

 but could we go back there, by some such miracle as Mark 

 Twain invoked in placing a Connecticut Yankee in King 

 Arthur's court, we should miss many things that are on 

 our everyday bill of fare. At that time purple-skinned 

 potatoes the size of marbles were being grown by the 

 Indians in North and South America, but no one in other 

 parts of the world had ever seen them. For thousands of 

 years Europeans ate turnips, carrots, and beets or did with- 

 out vegetables of this type. Peas and cabbages there were, 

 but no knight in armor ever ate a tomato salad. Queen 

 Guinevere never tasted corn on the cob. Even to-day few 

 Englishmen know the delight of roasting ears. Can you 

 imagine a Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, without 

 cranberry sauce, and without pumpkin pie! No wonder 

 Thanksgiving is a more recent institution. 



In those olden times there was plenty of smoke from the 

 oil-wick lamps and the open fireplaces but none of the 

 fragrant aroma from after-dinner coffee and cigars. And 

 we still call them "the good old days." 



The ladies in our imaginary twelfth century excursion 

 party, after they had ceased to wonder at the windows 

 without glass, to say nothing about screens, and kitchens 

 with neither stoves nor plumbing, would soon miss many 

 of the beautiful flowers and shrubs that make the modern 

 home attractive. There would be no sweet peas on the 

 table or dahlias in the garden. Tulips and hyacinths and 

 many of the other spring flowering bulbs would be notice- 

 ably absent. Wild roses would be there in abundance but 

 no Pernet or Van Fleet creations. Lilacs, spiraeas and 

 deutzias, if grown at all, would not be represented by the 

 free-flowering and gloriously beautiful bushes of to-day. 



Going into the orchard of our Saxon host we might 

 find some apples and pears, perhaps half the size of a 



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