WHERE VEGETABLES CAME FROM. 



T 



talk, 



HE customer at a Lewiston mar- 

 ket was in a reflective mood 

 Saturday morning and would 



"How many of your customers know 

 anything about what they eat?" said he. 



"They ought to," said the blue frock, 

 "they buy it and they order it." 



"I don't mean that," was the reply. 

 "Of course they know what they eat, 

 but who of them know anything about 

 the stuff? Take vegetables, for in- 

 stance." 



"Oh, lots of 'em know," said the mar- 

 ket man. "Here's potatoes, for in- 

 stance. They are native Americans. 

 I guess Sir Walter Raleigh introduced 

 them to Europe." 



"I guess he never ate one, for in his 

 time they were not considered fit to 

 eat. They went to Europe from the 

 hills of South America and a strange 

 matter of fact, when you come to think 

 of it, is that in the United States, where, 

 barring a few sections, vegetables grow 

 in greater abundance and beauty than 

 any other part of the world, none save 

 maize and the ground artichokes are 

 native products." 



"Nonsense!" ejaculated the amazed 

 marketman. 



"No nonsense about it," continued 

 the contemplative customer. "Europe, 

 Asia, Africa and South America are all 

 more richly endowed than we. I used 

 to think the watermelon was ours, but. 

 bless you! the north African tribes 

 grew the big, juicy fellows and gave 

 us our first seeds. As to the musk- 

 melon, it is a vegetable of such lineage 

 that, like the cabbage and lettuce, no- 

 body knows just who were their first 

 wild progenitors. The melon, at any 

 rate, came out of Persia as a developed 

 table delicacy, while the Adam of the 

 cabbage family is agreed by botanists 

 to have flourished way back there in 

 Central Asia, where they say the Cau- 

 casian race came from. The Romans 

 ate cabbage salad, and, according to 

 count, there are nearly as many varie- 

 ties of this sturdy old green goods as 

 there are different races of men. 



"There is another Roman delicacy," 



continued the customer, pointing to a 

 box of beets. "They do say that the 

 Greek philosophers thought a dish of 

 boiled beets, served up with salt and 

 oil, a great aid to mental exercise. For 

 my part, though, I don't know a vege- 

 table that should be prouder of its 

 family history than the radish. Rad- 

 ishes came from China, but a scientific 

 journal the other day announced the 

 discovery from a translation of Egyp- 

 tian hieroglyphics that Pharaoh fed his 

 pyramid builders on radishes. He even 

 went so far as to spend 1,900 silver tal- 

 ents in order to regale his masons 

 with the crisp and spicy root. Again, 

 if you read the Old Testament care- 

 fully, you will be sure to come across 

 the announcement that in Egypt the 

 children of Israel ate melons, beets, 

 onions and garlic, and, evidentl)', in 

 traveling through the wilderness, 

 Moses had a great deal of difficulty in 

 persuading them to cease yearning 

 after these Egyptian dainties. 



"Besides the melons and peaches and 

 geraniums," continued the garrulous 

 customer, "for all of which we have to 

 thank productive Persia, water cress 

 comes from her valleys and brooks and 

 she taught the world how to grow and 

 head lettuce. However, the Roman 

 gourmands, who adopted both these 

 salads, ate green peas and string beans 

 that their gardeners found growing in 

 France and South Germany, and cu- 

 cumbers were as popular with them as 

 with the Jews and Egyptians. 



"To Arabia honor is due for the burr 

 artichoke. They ate it for liver diffi- 

 culties — and, as a matter of fact, there 

 is no vegetable so good for men and 

 women who lead a sedentary life, just 

 as carrots, that grew first in Bel- 

 gium, are an admirable tonic for the 

 complexion, spinach for the blood, 

 potatoes for the hair, and celery for 

 the nerves. Rhubarb, they say, was 

 never known until the fifteenth century, 

 when the Russians found it on the 

 banks of the Volga, and, if you will be- 

 lieve it, the only European people who 

 appreciate the eggplant as we do are 

 the Turks. North Africa first produced 



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