CHAP. VII.] POTATOES, 301 



a bushel, when wheat is tivo dollars a 

 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. 

 J know a prime Minister 9 who picks his nose and 

 regales himself with the contents. I solemnly 

 declare this to be true. 1 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 no 

 thing 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. T 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 fur 

 ther 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 



