

f 



PIGTAILS AND PIGLET create a picture which seems to typify 

 the youth of a vast, picturesque land. The little girl is tending 

 the young porker by standing on its leash, while her parents dig 

 for potatoes in the field nearby. So-called Irish potatoes are not 

 Irish at all but originated in the highlands of South America. 

 The tubers were taken to Europe by Spanish conquistadores 

 and after some two hundred years suddenly flourished under 

 Irish cultivation, ultimately spreading throughout the civilized 

 world as a principal article of human diet. 



286 



