lC>lant=fooD nnb /iRotion 141 



succeeded in increasing in plants the qualities which 

 are most useful to him. Cultivation increases the 

 amount of snowy fibre in the cotton plant, and the 

 amount of food-stuff in the cereals. Man, having 

 resolved to force the beet-root to yield him sugar, 

 has succeeded in converting an annual root into a 

 biennial, because the root grown in a single season 

 cannot properly store up and " cook " within it 

 enough of sugar to make it valuable. Cultivation 

 directing the strength of the plant to the especial 

 end of its mercantile value, repressing development 

 in other directions, makes almost an entire change 

 in some plants. The Irish potato in its natural wild 

 state had but small tubers, which, while nutritious, 

 were nearly tasteless ; cultivation and the production 

 of new varieties by seedlings and crossings, has made 

 the potato the most important root in the world. 

 For lack of this single " root," which, as we know, is 

 not a true root, but a thickened underground stem, 

 wherein a thrifty plant stores up starch and a few 

 other food materials, a great people were brought 

 into the most terrible straits, and the " Irish 

 famine," occasioned by the i:)otato blight, is written 

 in history. We get a commentary on the depend- 

 ence of the greater upon the less when we read that 

 the Irish nation has never since that* famine regained 

 its vivacity and light-heartedness. 



