The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-11-01
ENGLISH VEGETABLES.
Plentiful Now, but Scarce in Elizabeths
Days.

Plentiful Now, but Scarce in ElIzabethan.
Days.
Before a wide intercourse with for
eign countries had led to the introduc--
tiun of new vegetable food, our home
resources were scanty to degree that
is difficult to realize. We had, 1t Is
true. a very scrubby little cabbage or
colewort indigenous here, and 1T was
credited with all sorts of medicinal ana
other virtues It was the subject OF
many learned dissertations and was
cultivated as carefully as the hortleul-
tural knowledge of medieval times
permitted, but it would certainly have
cut sorry figure beside the poorest OF
the cabbages shown to-day at CHS
wick. The probability is that none OF
the white-hearted monsters of to-days
exhibition can claim indigenous con-
nection with the soil of England. Ger
ard tells us that Master Nicolas Lete,
"a worshipful merchant of London,
imported seeds of new kinds from Italy,
Spain and Germany, and these no doubt
superseded our own colewOrts, just as
in their turn they have been distanced
w AdlCi HOl lAtAObo NhNa -
propagation and cultivation.
The potato, of course, it is we'll
known. is not native. Nobody can
day exactly where it came from Origi-
nallv. but it was to Sir Walter Raleigh
that we owe its introduction. In the
gardens of some of the wealthy il be-
gan to be cultivated as a curiosity
early in the seventeenth century, but
long after this the poorer classes would
have nothing to do with it, even where
they could get the potato as an article
of food 1t was commonly believed to
produce dysentery and leprosy, and it
was only very gradually that the root
came into general use. A prejudice
equally strong was for long time en-
tertained against the kidney bean-
which, apparently. we owe to the gar
deners which Henry VIII. fetched
from Holland when he was dOting
young husband.
The dwarf kidney bean came from
the Netherlands about 1909. but the
people got it into their heads that the
color of its blossom was due to its be-
ing manured with blood. and for a
lOHE TIME NOulu liOb cav StAC CNoh- ~
taller kind. the scarlet runner, did not
reach this country for more than
hundred years later. We got it from
South America in 1888. Both varieties
were first grown in this country for
the sake of their flowers only, and 1t
was not till the eighteenth century
that the young seed pods began to be
generally eaten. No doubt they were
introduced as an edible vegetable, but
so strong was the popular prejudice
that it took two centuries to wear IL
out. and thus add another item to our
stock of vegeta bles.
Carrots such as may. no doubt. be
seen to-day have a very poor relation,
native of this country. But it is as
tough as a hemp rope. and hot and un-
pleasGnt in taste, and though attempts
have been made 20 cultivate IL into
something more creditable to our soil.
they have siguGlly failed 1t does not
seem quite clear where our cultivated
carrot comes from, though, as it was
originally known as the Gambia carrot.
it seems probable that that island was
where we found it. But carrots are
very common in most parts of the
world where soil is sandy, and it IS
likely that we are indebted to several
foreign countries for better varieties
than our own. Rhubarb is said to be-
long to China, and only became an
article of diet in this country very
slowly. II was not known at all in
Europe till 1885. Asparagus is native
Briton. and so are turnips. Gerard
highly commends the small turnips
that ARE grown by village near Lon
don, called Hackney" He says they
are raised on ''Sandie" ground. and
brought 10 the Cross in Chcapside by
the women of that village to be sold"
They are the best, ne says, that he
ever tasted. News.
Did the captain of the football
team keep his head?' Yes; his head
Il Z L l.