HISTORY OF THE POTATO 103 



jurious properties, and which agriculture would 

 have nothing to do with. Finally, toward the end of 

 the eighteenth century a worthy man succeeded in 

 overcoming these prejudices and popularized the 

 culture of this valuable food plant. His 

 name is Parmentier. Remember this 

 venerated name, my friends ; he who bore 

 it banished famine by making the potato 

 supply the deficiency of wheat. 



"Parmentier communicated his ideas to 

 Louis XVI. 'The potato,' said he, 'is 

 Potato bread already made and requiring neither 

 miller nor baker. Take it just as it comes out of the 

 ground and bake it in hot ashes or cook it in boiling 

 water, and you will have a farinaceous food rivaling 

 wheat. Poor land unfit for other crops will raise it, 

 and it will henceforth relieve us of all fear of those 

 terrible dearths that France has so often suffered in 

 the past.' 



"Louis XVI listened to this proposal with eager 

 attention, but the difficulty was to make others listen 

 also. In order to interest the world of fashion in 

 the culture of the disdained tuber the king appeared 

 at a public festival one day with a large bouquet of 

 potato blossoms in his hand. Curiosity was aroused 

 at the sight of these white flowers tinged with violet 

 and set off by the dark green of the leaves. They 

 were talked of at court and in town; florists made 

 imitations of them for their artificial bouquets; in 

 ornamental gardens they were used for the borders ; 

 and as the surest way to royal favor the nobles sent 



