No. 216.] 723 • 



those frightful famines which periociically ravage every country, 

 France in particular. 



In 1783 the potato was first distinguished in the culture of the 

 North of France, and in seme of the departments near the Rhine. 

 Parmentier put himself at the head of this movement, which he had 

 been solicitous for since 1773. He braved all prejudice. He com- 

 batted step by step, the obstinate sophisms of men. He despised all 

 the obstacles which folly and calumny would oppose to him any and 

 every where. He played some childish tricks to excite the curiosity 

 of the people. He made large plantations of potatoes in the plains 

 of Sablons and Grenelle. Ke had numerous soldiers to guard these 

 fields by day. Some of these soldiers at night, being off duty, stole 

 some of his potatoes, each one Leing eager to possess some of them 

 and to cultivate them secretly. Parmentier obtained from about SO 

 acres, which had never before been cultivated, and to which he ap- 

 plied no manure, some thousands of bags of these precious tubers, 

 almost as substantial as bread made of the purest wheat. His noble 

 efforts, nobly encouraged by Louis 16tb, who kindly accepted from 

 him a bouquet consisting of the flowers of the potato, were sufficient 

 to convince the world of the advantages of its cultivation. Subse- 

 quently, Francois de Nuefchatean, minister of the Interior, in 1797, 

 proposed to substitute for the name of Solanum, that of Parmentier f 



Mon. Varey says: If the sanguinary wars of the French revolution 

 had occurred some age:' sooner, Europe would have been decimated 

 by famine for want of the potato, 



Charles Henry Hall. The French author has not given us facts, so 

 far as I know. Columbus sailed in 1492. He landed in Cuba, and 

 deputed some of his crew to visit an Indian Chief in the interior of 

 the Island. They were received in a friendly manner. The Indians 

 gave them tobacco, spun cotton yarn, potatoes and Indian corn. He 

 returned to Lisbon. Washington Irving has seen the original let- 

 ters there, relating to this subject, and so have I. Columbus pre- 

 sented these vegetables to the king; they were first planted in Spain. 



Dr. Field exhibits from his farm specimens of Indian corn stalks, 

 with the ears attached. One was the Browne corn, of which he 

 obtained a barrel last spring. He planted it in a drought, the soil 

 dry as ashes. He also planted the other corn, (premitim corn.) The 

 Browne corn is perfectly ripe while the other is in the milk. The 

 Browne corn stalk is about half the height of the other, and the 



