THE EDIBLE WILD ROOTS OF THE FARM 59 
thing good to eat is buried in the earth, trust to a normal 
pig to find it. The wild ruminants also dig to a certain 
extent with the hoofs of their fore feet. 
Digging for roots has been in all ages an important and 
necessary occupation of mankind. Once it was done by 
everybody. For ages it was the work of women, while men, 
in the division of labor, assumed themore dangerous and more 
exciting tasks of hunting and fighting. Now it is coming to 
be the work of machinery, handled by men. Once all the 
roots were wild roots, and they were used in very great 
variety. Nowcomparatively few, which have been selected 
and improved, are cultivated. The majority of those that 
have served as human food are neglected. But they may 
still be found in the wildwood. Nature made them hardy and 
fit. They are still with us unimproved—and unsubdued. 
These roots, which are nature’s underground food stores, 
are, many of them, botanically speaking, not true roots at all: 
they are merely the underground parts of plants, that have 
been developed as food reserves: and they are primarily for 
the benefit of the plant species producing them. They are 
the products of the growth of one season, stored up to be used 
in promoting the growth of new individuals the next season. 
Some, like the potato and other tubers, are modified under- 
ground stems; others, like the onion, are bulbs. They con- 
tain food products far more watery and less concentrated 
than the nuts and the grains. Their flavors are less choice 
than those of the fruits; they are of the earth, earthy. There 
are few of them that we consider palatable without cooking. 
Many abound in starch, like the potato, and some, in sugar, 
like certain beets. 
Of true roots that are fleshy, there are many to be found 
wild, but few of these are edible. The wild carrots and 
parsnips are insignificant as compared with cultivated 
varieties: the fleshy roots of weeds like the docks are 
