•.U3 I Assembly 



depth of planting, full space on all sides, proper time ('f sowing 

 the seeds as well as the previous care of seeds and preparing them 

 for sowing. What a large amount of car© is necessary after all 

 the knowledge has been obtained. 



The intelligent lovers of agriculture have recently been look- 

 ing after new roots to be brought into our service. Many have 

 been named^as likely by cultivation to grow, like our potato, 

 from a worthless original to a delicious Farina : even from poi- 

 sonous originals to wholesome ones. In reference to this point 

 allow me to repeat what I have frequently said before, that in 

 1795, when [I was a member of an University, my father also 

 found me full employment for leisure hours in our little farm. 

 On a fall evening a French physician of some sixty years old 

 walked with us through it ; and on taking his seat at the tea ta- 

 ble asked my father why he did not have tomatoes on the table; 

 The reply was, " We don't know it ! we have none." " Oh, yes,* 

 cried the Doctor, " you have them in your garden, now." " Im- 

 possible." " Eh bien ! I will show you. Aliens !" We follow- 

 ed him into the garden, where, in one corner near the barn, grew 

 a love-apple bush with some ripe ones on it. " Ah ha," says the 

 little Frenchman, " here they are !" He took some down to the 

 tea table, cut them up, put on a little vinegar, salt and black 

 pepper, and we tasted with no small reluctance, and with a deci- 

 ded opinion that it smelt like bed-bugs and had a nauseous taste. 

 He said very solemnly that custom would render it delicious and 

 eultivation improve it ; that it was not, like other vegetables and 

 fruits, subject to the acid fermentation, but that it operated on 

 the liver like calomel, but not only without the slightest evil 

 consequences, but most favorably for the general health. There 

 is no doubt of the existence of other plants able to contribute 

 greatly to the pleasure and welfare of man. There is one advan- 

 tage in root crops over all others, and that is in the event of very 

 severe droughts, when the surface crops are all lost, much of the 

 root crop will be available for us and cur cattle, I repeat also 

 what was said in the Parliament of England in 1844, about the 

 value of British agricultural products fjr that year. That the 

 whole value was three thousand milJioas of dollars, of which the 



