The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-06-03

ago boiled potato or a dish of mashed
turnips was not to be had in Europe In
those days people lived chiefly on bread
and meat and beer, and the bread and
meat were, as a rule. OF such quality as
would cause riot in the workhouse of
to-day.
Beans they did have--at least, the ups
per classes had them. Henry VII. was
fond of beans and had Dutch gardener
over, who found English soil would grow
broad beans every bit as well at Dutch.
They rather sneered at peas in the year
1900 Such as were eaten were imported
from Holland. cit dainties for ladiess
they came so far and cost so dear" says
one writer. But mother-country peas
were highly cultivated from early times-
Last year, the Isle of Butte, a splen-
did crop of peas was raised from seed
which was at least 1000, and probably
nearly 5000 years old. This seed came
from an Egyptian tomb. The flower had
q beautiful red center, surrounded by
white petals, and the peas were well up
to the modern market garden Standard
Cabbage has always been a pet vegetables
of the Dutch. We got 1t from them in
1910, and in 1900 we still use thousands OF
pounds of Dutch cabbage seed. And this
extraordinary part of it is that cabbago
is in reality a native of Great Britain.
All our garden vegetables are merely
types improved by long cultivation OF
wild species The wild cabbage is conn
mon enough in places by the sea, but Is
OF no use for food in its wild state. In-
deed, 1t will take a botanist to tell that
1t was cabbage at all. Scotland owes the
cabbage to Cromwells soldiers. This
cauliflower is but cultivated improves
ment on the cabbage 1t was brought to
r,prfoCifop in CVnrtIa and little kDoWn
until about a century ago. The parsnip
is another native OF this country. You
may find II along almost any hedgerows
but IT is small and intensely bitter in it's
wild state. Parsnip is grown more In
Ireland than elsewhere. In Ulster a sort
of beer is made from the root
Celery is a native of Great Britain. IL
grows luxuriantly in bitches and brooks,
but, like the others, wild celery is nasty
even poisonous. We owe the DELI
cious eatable celery to a French pris-
oner of war, Field Marshal Tallard, whom
Marlborough beat at Blenheim in l704.
II asked what was the most importane
event in the history of British vegetables.
most people would say the bringing over
of the potato from It's home in America
They would be wrong. The introduction
of the turnip-that is, OF the Swedish
varlciy-was of much greater value. Un-
I'll Britain got the field turnip people had
TO live during the winter chiefly on salt
ed meat And severe winters were dread
ed on account of the terrible mortality
among sheep. which were then left OUT
at pasture all through the cold weather.
The growing of swedes changed all that
by providing cheap and wholesome food
for stock when penned up. Turnips. like
so many oiher vegetables, came from
Holland about 1890
BY the way, although England gem
orally gets the credit for growing the
first European potatoes, 1t was really
Spain which did so. The potato is still
found growing wild in few spots in the
| high tablelands of Mexico.
Onions and cucumbers are two Of tho
oldest known vegetables. Like peas, the
| Egyptians grew them at least thirty cen-
turtles ago. Indeed, TO the onion belongs
probably the honor of being the first veg-
| etable primeval man ever made trial of
Onions are not found growing wild any-
whore. but kind OF leek Is not uncom-
mon in southern Siberia. which Is like
the Welsh national emblsaa