Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-01-17
farlll and fireside.
FACTS ABOUT VEGETABLES.
Very Few of Them Are Native Products OF
North America.

Very Few of Them Are Native Products OF
North America.
elbow many housekeepers picking
over the vegetables on the stall know
anything about them ?" asked con-
templative customer of a friend, as he
watched his green grocer ill a small
measure with potatoes.
"Lots of them," promptly replied
the other marketer. "Why, here are
the potatoes in my hand, for instance.
They are native American. | guess
Sir Walter Raleigh"
81 guess he never ate one, for in his
day they were not considered 6t to
eat. They went to Europe from the
hills of South America, and a strange
matter of fact when you come TO think
of it, is that in the United States,
where, barring few sections, vegeta.
bles grow in greater abundance and
beauty than any other part of the
world, none save maize and the ground
artichokes are native products"
Nonsense !" calculated the amazed
Yankee.
"No nonsense about it," confined
the contemplative customer. Europe,
Asia. Africa and South America are all
more richly endowed than we. used
to think the water melon 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 a vegetable of such ancient
lineage that, like the cabbage and let
tuce, nobody knows just who were
their first wild progenitors. The mel
on, at any rate, came out of Persia as
developed table delicacy, while the
Adam of the cabbage family is agreed
by botanists TO have fourished way
back there in Central Asia where they
say the Caucasian race came from.
The Romans ate cabbage salad, and &C
cording to count there are nearly as
many varieties of this sturdy old green
goods as there are different races oi
men.
"There is another Roman delicacy,'
continued the customer, pointing to a
box of beets. "They do say the Greek
philosophers thought dish of boiled
beets, served up with salt and oil, a
great aid to mental exercise. For my
part, though, I don't know a vegetable
that should be prouder of its family
history than the radish. Radishes
came from China but scientific jour
nal the other day announced the dis
covery, from a translation of Egyptian
hieroglyphics, that Pharaoh fed his
pyramid builders on radishes. He
even went so far as to spend 1900 sill
yer talents in order to regale his ma
sons with the crisp and spicy root.
Again, if you read the Old Testamen,
carefully, you will be sure to come
across the announcement that in Egypt
the Children of Israel ate melons,
beets, onions and garlic, and evidently,
in travelling through the wilderness,
Moses had a great deal of difficulty in
persuading them to cease yearning at
ter these Egyptian dainties.
"Besides the melons and peaches
and geraniums," continued the gar
rulous customer, "for all of which we
have 10 thank productive Persia, water
cress comes from her valleys and
brooks, and she taught the world how
to grow aud head lettuce. However,
the Roman gourmands, who adopted
both these salads, ate green peas and
stringed beans that their gardeners
found growing in France and South
Germany, and cucumbers were as pop,
ular with them as with the Jews and
Egyptians.
ITO Arabia honor is due for the burr
artichoke. They ate it for liver diff
culties-and as a matter of fact, there
is no vegetable so good for men and
women who lead sedentary life,
just as carrots, that grew first in Bel
GUM, are an admirable tonic for the
complexion, spinach for the blood, po'
tatoes for the hair and celery for the
nerves. Rhubarb, they say, was new,
er known until the fifteenth centu.
ry, when the Russians found it on the
banks of the Volga, and if you will
believe it, the only European people
that appreciate the eggplant as we dc
are the Turks. North Africa first
produced this fruit; in France it is
eaten raw often as not, and in obstinate
England they only use it for decora'
ton. However, the potato had to
make desperate struggle for popular
ity, and for nearly century after il
was imported and grown in Europe,
nobody could be persuaded to touch it.
Finally, Parmentier gave it boom
that in two centuries has not in the
least diminished, and twice this little
tuber has saved Europe from what
promised to be a cruel famine u
Whereupon the customer hurried of
down the street, leaving the green
grocer staring at his stock of truck
with refreshing expression of pride
and interest.