INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 115 



It requires no great preparation either for 

 planting or harvesting. It grows rapidly on the 

 rich new soil turned over by the settler; a little 

 cultivation insures its growth; when ripened it 

 may lie in the ground and be used as needed; 

 when the fall frosts come it can easily be banked 

 in a pit for winter use. 



Little care; small outlay; easy preparation 

 for food; these make the potato among the first 

 crops to be grown when the settler locates his new 

 home. 



Trace now the influence which this one success 

 had upon a growing nation. It was in 1872. It 

 was a time when the line between success and 

 failure between starvation and comfortable 

 plenty was drawn so finely for the pioneer that 

 even the slightest help was of a value out of 

 proportion to its intrinsic worth. 



A crop failure or shortage, in those recon- 

 struction days after the war, meant a set-back 

 that would take years to overcome, for the 

 pioneer's only source of supply, usually, was his 

 own crop. 



Any increase, therefore, in nature's products 



such as the potato in the days of the pioneer, 



signified more to the world than it ever has since. 



The greatest value it gave the greatest service 



it performed was to help the world to know the 



