POTATOES 



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

 that of the wheat but by a few pounds ; but to get at those con 

 tents, unaccompanied with nine times their weight 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 pound 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 bushel, 

 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 immoral in 

 it, let him, in the name of all that is ridiculous, follow his taste. 

 I 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 worse 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 I say, that it is 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 going further than 

 bread ; of the cultivation of them in lieu of wheat adding to the 

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

 laugh I must as long as I 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, / now dismiss the Potatoe with the hope, that I 

 shall never again have to write the word, or to see the thing. 



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