The Story-Book of the Fields 



juice that intoxicated him ; that wheat, 

 since it first appeared on the earth, has never 

 failed to produce an annual harvest ; that 

 the beetroot and the pumpkin were of the 

 noble size, which gives them their value, 

 from the beginning of the world. In a 

 word it appears to you that the plants that 

 we use for food were originally found in the 

 same condition as we have them at present. 

 It is a mistake ; the wild plant is generally 

 of little use as food, and only becomes 

 valuable through our care. It is our part, 

 by work and cultivation, to profit by its 

 properties by improving them. 



In its native country, on the mountains 

 of Chili and Peru, the potato that grows wild 

 is a miserable tuber the size of a nut. Man 

 receives the poor little savage into his gar- 

 den, plants it in good ground, nurses and 

 waters it, and the potato gradually im- 

 proves. It gains in size and nutritive quali- 

 ties and at last becomes a floury tuber the 

 size of our two fists. 



On oceanic cliffs, exposed to every wind, 

 a cabbage grows wild, with a long stalk, a 

 few raw green leaves, a sharp taste and a 

 strong smell. It may possibly conceal valu- 

 able properties despite this unprepossessing 



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