Chap. Vlf.] Potatoes. 169 



289. Thus, then, the nutritious contents of the Potatoes 

 surpass tliat of the wheat but by a tew pounds ; but to 

 get at those contents, unaccompanied with nine times 

 their weirjkt in earth, straw, and water, is impossible. 

 Nine pounds of earth, straw and water must, then, be 

 swallowed, in order to get at the one pouud of flour ! 



290. I beg to be understood as saying nothing against 

 the cultivation of potatoes in any place, or near any 

 place where there are people willing to consume them 

 at half a dollar a Inishel, when wheat is two dollars a 

 bushel. If any one will buy dirt to eat, and if one can 

 get dirt to him with more profit than one can get wheat 

 to him, let us supply him with dirt by all means. It is 

 his taste to eat dirt ; and, if his taste have nothing im- 

 moral in it, let him, in the name of all that is ridiculous, 

 follow his taste. 1 know a prime Minister, who picks 

 his nose and regales himself with the contents. I 

 solemnly declare this to be true. I have witnessed the 

 Morse than beastly act scores of times ; and yet, I do 

 not know, that he is much more of a beast than the 

 greater part of his associates. Yet, if this were all ; if 

 he were chargeable with nothing but this ; if he would 

 confine his swallow to this, I do not know that the 

 nation would have any right to interfere between his 

 nostrils and his gullet. 



291. Nor do 1 say, that it h filthy to eat potatoes. I 

 do not ridicule the using of them as sauce. What I 

 laugh at is, the idea of the use of them being a saving : 

 of their ffoing further than bread ; of the cultivation of 

 them in lieu oi" wheat adding to the human sustenance 

 of a country. This is what I laugh at ; and laugh I 

 must as long as 1 have the above estimate before me, 



292. As food for cattle, sheep or hogs, this is the 

 worst of all the green and root crops ; but, of this I 

 have said enough before ; and, therefore, I now dismiss 

 the Potatoe with the hope, that I shall never again 

 have to write the word, or to see the thing. 



