No. 4. 



Inierestinsr Facts. 



61 



Interesting Facts. 



The following is an extract from the 

 speech of Colonel Knapp, delivered at 

 Newark upon the occasion of the delivery, 

 by a committee of the American Institute, 

 of the medals and diplomas awarded to the 

 citizens of that place, at the late fair. 



"Every thing in this country has heen 

 brought forward by protection. In this bleak 

 clime, but a few of the sustaining fruits of 

 the earth were here indigenous, or in a per- 

 fect state. Even the Indian corn, so often 

 considered as native here, was with diffi- 

 culty acclimated. It was brought from the 

 south, and by degrees was coaxed to ripen 

 in a northern latitude. The aborigines who 

 cultivated it, taught the pilgrims how to 

 raise it; they plucked the earliest ears with 

 the husk, and braided several of thenn to- 

 gether, for the next year's seed, and their 

 care was rewarded by an earlier and surer 

 crop. 



The pumpkin, brought from Spain, was 

 first planted in Rowley, in Massachusetts, 

 and it was several years before they came 

 to a hard, knotty shell, which marks the 

 true yankee pumpkin, such as are selected 

 for the golden pies of their glorious thanks- 

 giving festival. 



Our wheat was with difficulty acclimated. 

 That brought from the mother country had 

 grown from spring to fall, but the season was 

 not long enough here to ensure a crop. It 

 was then sown in the fall, grew under the 

 snows in winter, and catching the earliest 

 warmth of spring, yielded its increase by 

 mid-summer. 



Asparagus, which is now the delight of 

 all as an early vegetable, and for which 

 several millions of dollars are paid our gar- 

 deners annually, is of late culture in this 

 country. At the time of the revolution, as- 

 paragus was only cultivated on seaboard ; 

 this luxury had not then reached the farmer 

 of the interior. 



The history of the potatoe is a singular 

 one. Rees' Encyclopedia states that the 

 potatoe was brought from Virginia, by Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, to Ireland, — the writer 

 should have said from. South America, — in 

 the latter part of the sixteenth century. He 

 had no idea of its ever being used as an es- 

 culent at that time. It was pointed out to 

 him as a beautiful flower, and its hard, bulby 

 root was said, by the natives, to possess 

 medical qualities. He took it to Ireland, 

 where he had estates presented to him by 

 Queen Elizabeth, and planted it in his gar- 

 den. The flower did not improve by culti- 

 vation, but the root grew larger and softer. 

 The potatoe in its native bed was a coarse 

 ground nut. The thought struck the Philo- 



sopher to try the potatoe as an edible, and 

 boiling and roasting it, found it by either 

 process excellent. He then gave some of 

 the plants to the peasantry, and they soon 

 became, in a measure, a substitute for bread, 

 when the harvest was scanty. 



The potatoe was successfully cultivated 

 in Ireland before it was thought of in Eng- 

 land ; it grew into favor by slow degrees, 

 and was so little known when our pilgrim 

 fathers came to this country, that it was not 

 thought of for a crop in the New World. It 

 would have been an excellent thing for them, 

 if they had been acquainted with the value 

 of the potatoe. It was not until 1719, that 

 the Irish potatoe reached this country. A 

 colony of Presbyterian Irish, who settled in 

 Londonderry, in New Hampshire, brought 

 (.he root with them. These people found 

 their favorite vegetable thrive well in new 

 grounds. By degrees their neighbors came 

 into the habit of raising potatoes, but many 

 years elapsed before the cultivation of them 

 was general among the yeomanry of this 

 country. Long after they were cultivated 

 in New England, they were held in con- 

 tempt, and the master mechanic often had to 

 stipulate with his apprentice, that he should 

 not be obliged to eat potatoes. An aged 

 mechanic once informed me that he had 

 raised nine bushels, having at that time 

 (1746) a dozen apprentices, but did not ven- 

 ture to offer them a boiled potatoe with their 

 meat, but left them in the cellar for the ap- 

 prentices to get and roast as they pleased ; 

 but soon found that he should not have 

 enough for seed, and locked up what was 

 left. The next year he raised the enormous 

 quantity of thirty bushels; the neighbors 

 stared, but his boys devoured them the fol- 

 lowing winter.; 



[ About this time some of the gentry brought 

 this vegetable on their tables, and the pre- 

 judice against them vanished. Thus by de- 

 grees, a taste for this w^as formed, never to 

 be extinguished. The cultivation of the po- 

 tatoe is now well understood ; a crop me- 

 liorates instead of impoverishes the soil, and 

 the culture can be increased to any extent. 

 Thus, by the curiosity of one lover of na- 

 ture, and his experiments, has an humble 

 weed been brought from the mountains of 

 South America, and spread over Europe and 

 North America, until it is emphatically 

 called " the bread of nations." Still the 

 country from whence it was taken, has been 

 too ignorant or superstitious to attempt its 

 cultivation, until within a few years. Now 

 the lights of science are chasing away the 

 long deep shadows of the Andes. , 



Rice was brought from India in 1721, and 

 cultivated, by way of experiments in South 

 Carolina. It succeeded well, and was for 



