Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1900-02-09
FACTS ABOUT VEGETABLES
not Few of Them Arc Native Products
--I,adishcs Helped to Build
pyramids.

Glow many housckcepcrs picking
over the vegetables on the stall know
ANYTHING about them?" asked con-
| tcmplative customer of friend, as he
watched his green grocer fill IA small
measure with potatoes.
Lots OF them, promptly replied the
other marketer. "Why, here are the
potatocs in my hand, for instance.
They are native american. 1 guess
, Sir Walter Raleigh"
81 guess he never ate one, for in his
day they were not considered MT to
cnt They went to Europe from the
| hills of South America, and strange
matter of fact when you come to think
of it is that in the United States,
where. barring n few sections, vege-
tables grow in greater abundance and
beauty than any other part of the
world, none save maize and the
ground artichokes are native prod
ucts."
"Nonsense!" calculated the amazed
| Yankee.
"No nonsense about it," continued
the contemplative customer. Europe,
Asia, Africa and South America are all
mere richly endowed than we. l 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 vegetable of such ancient
| lineage that, like the cabbage and let
tucc, nobody knows just who were
their first progenitors. The melon,
Mt any rate, came out of Persia, as
developed table dclicacy, while the
| Adam of The cabbage family is agreed
| by botanists to have flourished way
back there in, Central Asia where they
say the Caucasian race came from.
The Romans ate cabbage salad, aud
according to count there are nearly
as many varieties 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 II dish of
boiled beets, served up with salt aud
OIL II great aid to mental exercise.
| For my part. though, i don't know u
vegetable that should be prouder of
its family history than the radish.
Radishcs come from China, but n sci
entific journal the other day an
nounced the discovery, from n trans
lution of Egyptian hicroglyphics, that
Pharaoh fed his pyramid builders on
radishes. He even went so far as to
spend 1000 silver talents in order to
rcgnlc his masons with the crisp and
spicy root Again, il you read the
Old Testament carefully, you will be
sure to come across the announcement
that in Egypt the children of Israel
ate melons. bccts, onions and garlic,
and evidently, in travelling through
the wilderness. Moses had n great deal
of difficulty in pcrsuading them to
cease ycarning after these Egyptian
duintics.
"Besides melons and peaches and
, gcraniunns." continued the gsrrulous
l customer "for all of which we have 10
thank productive Persia, water cress
came from her valleys and brooks and
| she taught the world how to grow
= and head lettuce. However. the Ro-
man gourmands. who adopted both
: these salads, ate green peas and
stringcd beans that their gardeners
, found growing in France and South
Germany. and cucumbers We're as pop
l uar with them as with the Jews and
Egyptians.
e "To Arabia honor is due for the burr
/ artichokc. They ate it for liver dill
4 culties--ard rs Il matter of fact, there
e is no vegetable so good for men and
j women who lead II sedentary life, just
as carrots. that grew first in Belgium,
e arc an admirable tonic for the COM
Q plexion. spinach for the blocd. pota-
e toes for the hair and celery for tho
= known until the fifteenth century
t when the Russians found it on the
| banks of the No,ra, and if you will be
r lieve it, the only European people
: that appreciate the eggplant rs we
S do are the Turks. North Africa
y first produced this fruits in France
e 1t Is eaten raw us often as not and IL
obstinate England they only use il
for decoration. However, the potato
had to make y desperate struggle fol
popularity, and for nearly n centur,
:, aft II it was imported and grown il
e Europe nobody could be persuaded t.
:" touch it. Finally. Parmentier gave /
- n boom that in two centuries has no
n in the least diminished, and twice thi
d little tuber saved Europe from wha
l, promised to be cruel famine" Where
H. upon the customer hurried off dow
d: the street, leaving the green groce
W staring at his stock of truck with
y refreshing expression of pride and in
o. terest.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Why They Never Speak.