10 



wliile in Sicily it has been cultivated for centuries, and is not even 

 now appreciated as a table fruit. Tiie growing favor of the persim- 

 mon, the increasing consumption of tlie banana, tlie established appre- 

 ciation of the sweet potato, which is still practically an unknown vege- 

 table in Covent Garden,* our fondness for the peanut and popcorn, as 

 3^et merely curiosities in Germany, indicate that such a state of stagna- 

 tion is not yet reached as that of eastern Europe, at least, where even 

 tomatoes are almost unknown and the sweet potato is one of the rarest 

 and most costly of vegetables. On the other hand, the almost complete 

 absence from Anaerican tables of the European artichoke {Ci/nara sco- 

 lymiis), sometliing entirely different from the plant known by that name 

 in America, which when properly grown is one of the most delicious of 

 vegetables, indicates anything but a readiness to increase the list of 

 available food plants. 



According to Schlibler, the artichoke has been cultivated in Is'orway 

 as far north as the sixty-third parallel, and has long been grown in 

 Louisiana and to a slight extent elsewhere in America. It is evident, 

 accordingly, in this instance, as in miny others, that the ];)roblem of 

 building up a new jdant industry is not merely to establish the fact 

 that a desirable species can be successfully cultivated here, but it is 

 equally necessary to bring the merits of the new i)rodact to public 

 attention and thus create a market. 



That such popular education in the use of food m.aterials is legiti- 

 mate work for a department of agriculture can scarcely be questioned, 

 inasmuch as it fosters industries which without its aid could not well 

 be built up. In order to introduce and establish a new-plant industry 

 every assistance in tbe way of free seed or plants, full information 

 regarding tbe methods of culture and care of the product, as well as 

 aid in the creation of a market, should be furnisbed by the Depart- 

 ment, and only when the industry is well on its feet should such support 

 be withdrawn. 



VV^hen it is recollected that the Irish potato, upon the cultivation of 

 which millions depend for subsistence, was tbe discovery of an imciv- 

 ilized race of Indians in the mountains of Chile, Peru, or Argentina,t 

 and that even after these years of amelioration a variety has only 

 recently been x^roduced by careful breeding which yields per acre four- 

 fold the amount of starch of any ordinary variety,! it can not but seem 

 reasonable tliat the serious attention of civilized races will be able to 

 discover and bring much more quickly into daily use fully as valuable 

 foocl-producing plants as this tuber bearing species of Solanum. 



The development of the American varieties of grape and plum is an 



*A market for this vegetable might be created in northern Europe if the proper 

 steps were taken to bring it to the attention of the pnblic. 



t A. d. Candolle. Archives des sciences pliysiques et uatnrelles. III Ser., t. 15, 1886. 

 Geneva. Quoted by lio( k, 1. c, p. 31. 



ICimbnls' new sort, Pr.'isideut Von Jnncker. Swingle and Webber, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture Yearbook, 1897, p. 417. 



