V. PENNYROYAL, POTATOE. 



nishes new food to the roots at the time when it is most 

 wanted. Great care must be taken to keep slugs and 

 snails away from peas ; for if they get amongst them 

 and are let alone for a very little while, they bite the 

 whole off, and they never sprout again to any good pur- 

 pose. 



170. PENNYROYAL.- A medicinal herb, that is pe- 

 rennial. It is also used for some few culinary purposes. 

 A little patch, a foot square, in the herb bed, is quite 

 sufficient. You must keep this patch well cut off round 

 the edges 5 for, one root, if left alone for a summer, 

 will extend over two or three yards square in good 

 ground. 



171. POTATOE. I am going to speak here of this 

 vegetable, as a thing to be used merely in company with 

 meat j and not to be used as a substitute for bread, having 

 proved, in various parts of my writings, and proved it 

 beyond all contradiction, that, as a substitute for bread, it 

 is the most wasteful thing that can possibly be used. It 

 has, too, now been acknowledged by various writers, and 

 it has been established by evidence taken before com- 

 mittees of the House of Commons, that, to raise potatoes 

 for the purpose of being used instead of bread, is a thing 

 mischievous to the nation. As a substitute for bread, 

 therefore, I speak not of the fruit of this plant. As food 

 for cattle, or pigs, I know it to be inferior to cabbages, to 

 swedish-turnips, to mangel-wurzel, and to be much more 

 expensive, weight for weight, than either of those arti- 

 cles. I know of no animal that will even live for any 

 length of time, upon uncooked potatoes, while I know 



