188 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



History of cultivation. The introduction of the potato 

 has proved a real blessing to the people in northern and 

 in western Europe. Its home is probably in the mountains 

 of Chile. Although it is now such an important food plant, 

 and is cultivated in all temperate countries where white 

 men live, yet for centuries after its discovery the potato 

 was not generally cultivated in Europe. The Spaniards 

 were the first to bring it to Europe, about 1580, and some 

 of the stories connected with its introduction in different 

 countries are too good to be forgotten. 



In France the chemist Parmentier did much to make the 

 new plant known ; but the peasants were not at all pleased 

 with the gift he desired to present to them. As laws com- 

 manding the peasants to try the new plant could not be 

 enforced, Parmentier hit upon the following device: He 

 rented large tracts of land near Paris, and there cultivated 

 the potato on a large scale. He then announced that steal- 

 ing any of the foreign plants was forbidden on pain of 

 death, and in the daytime the fields were patrolled by 

 watchmen, but in the evening the watchmen withdrew. 

 By these ostentatious measures the curiosity of the peas- 

 ants about the new plant was aroused to the highest pitch, 

 and as the fields were unprotected at night, they stole every 

 potato that grew on them. Thus the potato was soon intro- 

 duced everywhere in France, about one hundred years ago. 



The Prussian king, Frederick the Great, who was as zeal- 

 ous to promote the welfare of his country as he was to 

 enlarge its territory, did much to make this useful plant 

 known in Prussia, but the following story shows that his 

 efforts were not always promptly appreciated. 



In 1745 he sent a wagonload of potatoes to his good city 

 of Koiberg, where up to that time nobody had ever seen 

 a potato. All owners of gardens from the. city and its sub- 

 urbs were summoned by a royal order to appear at the 



