History 19 



place of the grain crops. He had been a member of the 

 medical staff of the French army in 1758, during the war 

 in Hanover, and had been taken prisoner. During his 

 five years in prison his principal food consisted of potatoes, 

 which were then grown almost exclusively as food for 

 animals. The dire need of food in France inspired him 

 to write a book called a "Treatise on Certain Vegetables 

 that in Times of Necessity can be substituted for Ordinary 

 Food." This book was received with ridicule even 

 though it received a certain amount of support from the 

 Paris Agricultural Society. By persistent efforts, Par- 

 mentier was granted a small patch of land on which to 

 experiment with his potatoes. The king ordered the 

 plot to be guarded by a cordon of troops which excited 

 the curiosity of the people. On August 24th, the king's 

 fete-day, he presented the king with a basket of tubers 

 and a bouquet of the blossoms. These were worn by the 

 king and queen, who also ate the cooked tubers. They 

 were found to be very palatable and soon became one of 

 the foods of the French people. 



During the seventeenth century, the potato gradually 

 became, from a botanical curiosity cultivated only by 

 collectors of new plants, one of the staple garden and field 

 crops. Its cultivation as a field crop became somewhat 

 common in Germany soon after 1772, when the grain 

 crops failed and potatoes were used as a substitute. The 

 quality was very poor, however, and even though they 

 were enormously productive, their use was restricted 

 largely as food for domestic animals and they were used as 

 human food only when necessary as a substitute. By 

 the latter half of the eighteenth century, it was exten- 

 sively cultivated and recognized as one of the regular 

 crops throughout the temperate regions of Europe and 



