80 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



now none but friends." Singular enougli, it has been made a 

 question, in recent days, whether the introduction of the potato 

 into Europe has been, on the whole, a blessing or a curse. The 

 late famine in Ireland has been attributed, by certain writers, 

 to the abandonment of the cereal grains for the culture of the 

 potato. Take, on the other side, the language of the author I 

 have just quoted, M. Cuvier: "Is it not evident to all the 

 world that the perseverance with which the propagation of the 

 potato was urged [in France], has fertilized and rendered hab- 

 itable entire districts formerly barren, and has saved us from 

 the horrors of famine twice within twenty years ? " 



It is a note-worthy fact that a similar, though not equally 

 violent opposition, has been made to the use of our " great 

 indigenous cereal^'' Indian corn, in Europe, this being pro- 

 nounced not unhealthy, but only not eatable. The other of the 

 three great gifts of the new to the old world was, so far as I 

 know, accepted without opposition, the flavor of the turkey 

 being regarded as something more than an American notion. 

 But Indian corn the Irish could not, without great difficulty, be 

 induced to use during the famine. Some of the central 

 governments of the continent, convinced of its value as an 

 article of food, have labored to persuade the people that it may 

 be made palatable. A portion of their experiments are not a 

 little amusing, and the Prussian report pronounces that " bread 

 similar to the American would not be to the taste of our public." 

 They prefer rye and potatoes, the food of the common people of 

 Germany. Efforts to render Indian corn acceptable, however, 

 are not abandoned. No doubt they will succeed in the end, and 

 the more northerly countries of Europe, where this cereal will 

 not ripen, will, at a future period, open a rich market for the 

 superfluous produce of the great corn-growing regions of the 

 United States. History teaches lessons of encouragement. 

 Difficulties, as we see, are one after another overcome. Ideas, 

 seemingly at first totally irreconcilable with the prevailing and 

 household usages of a people, come at length to be hospitably 

 entertained, and progress is made. There is progress ever. 



Before an audience like that which at present surrounds me, 

 I need not speak of the improvements in agriculture among 

 ourselves, including labor-saving implements, modes of tillage, 

 stock and crops, which the last half century has witnessed. 



