244 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



stimulating if rightly used, and yet may act as poisons if used 

 in excess. Many poisons are used medicinally to stimulate 

 the latent powers of the body: and most stimulants are 

 poisons if too freely used. Between foods and medicines 

 and poisons, no hard and fast lines can be drawn. Straw- 

 berries and may-apples and other raw fruits act as poisons 

 in the case of individuals. Many foods act like medicines 

 on the system. Blackberries are mildly astringent : prunes 

 are laxative: asparagus is diuretic: lettuce is soporific 

 these effects varying with personal idiosyncrasy. An editor 

 of one of our leading agricultural journals, in an excess of 

 enthusiasm, once wrote: "The virtues of the onion [in diet] 

 render it a whole pharmacopeia in itself". Truly, "what is 

 one man's meat may be another's poison". 



It was one of the earliest tasks of mankind to explore the 

 plant world and find out the source of foods and medicines 

 and poisons. Primitive folk, by tasting and trying, dis- 

 covered nearly all these plant resources that we know 

 today. The cultivation of all our important food-plants 

 antedates written history. There is hardly an American 

 vegetable drug whose use was not known to the Indians 

 before the coming of Columbus. 



In that day when every one garnered his living with his 

 own hands, plant lore was knowledge of first importance. 

 Experience was handed down by oral tradition. To what 

 men knew about plants, was added much that they imagined. 

 Before the days of botany, the best of this lore was published 

 in herbals. These were great compilations of what was 

 known or believed about the names, habits, and uses of 

 plants. They included practically all known plants, and in 

 the list of their "vertues" nourishing and stimulating and 

 curative properties are all set down together, side by side. 

 The herbalists were very optimistic about plant virtues. 

 Most plants were good for many of the ills of human flesh. 



