THE FARMER MUST KNOW. 79 



however, were among the first, it would seem, to give them a 

 hearty welcome, and hence at an early period we find them 

 called " Irish potatoes." France began by proscribing them. 

 In Burgundy, they were denounced for their supposed tendency 

 to produce " leprosy." It required two centuries to overcome 

 "puerile prejudices" against them. The "old physicians," 

 from time to time, reiterated their charges against tliem. 

 Dismissing the accusation that leprosy came from the use of 

 them — facts proving its absurdity — they still persisted in assert- 

 ing that they were prejudicial to health. They produced 

 " fevers," it was said. The epidemics caused by famhie were 

 attributed to the use of potatoes. But there came a man of 

 science, and a philanthropist, M. Parmentier, by name, who 

 had learned their value in the prisons of Germany, where he 

 frequently had no other food, who, encouraged by government, 

 made a chemical examination of the tuber, and showed that 

 none of its component parts were injurious. Not succeeding in 

 overcoming the prejudice in this way, he resorted to a sort of 

 finesse to accomplish his object. " To induce the common peo- 

 ple to take a liking to potatoes," says Cuvier, in his eulogy^ 

 pronounced before the French Institute, in 1815, "he cultivated 

 them in spots which were much frequented, causing them to be 

 guarded with great care during the day only ; and was well 

 pleased, if he thus induced people to steal them by night. He 

 could have wished that the king miglit, as is related of the 

 emperors of China, have turned the first furrow of his field. 

 His majesty deigned, at least, to wear, in full court, in the day 

 of a solemn fete, a bouquet of potato blossoms in his button 

 hole." This, of course, succeeded. The nobility from that 

 time began to plant potatoes. The philosopher, M. Parmentier, 

 declares that he himself once " gave a dinner consisting only of 

 potatoes, with twenty different sauces, and at which the appe- 

 tite did not repine." He labored forty years, in every possible 

 way, to overcome the prejudice against their use. So bitter 

 was the feeling awakened against him on this account, that 

 when, during a certain period of the Revolution, he was pro- 

 posed for some municipal office, one of the voters opposed the 

 choice with violence, assigning as a reason : " He will make us 

 eat nothing but potatoes ; it is he who invented them." Before 

 his death, however, he was able to exclaim : " The potato has 



