The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-16
VEGETABLES CAME
FROM FAR AWAY
Original Home for Bean Was
South America
LETTUCE AN OLD DIET
Beets Were Originally Found Growing
Wild in Europe and Asia-Po-
tatoes Are American
Product
LETTUCE AN OLD DIET
From the Kansas city Star.


AS a food and relish everyone knows
OF the garden. Few know there is Just
as good mental relish and food in look
ing into the history and origin of any
or all of them. All our garden products
have their origin in some wild, native
growth that man some time or other
found was good to eat, and could be
made more SO by cultivation, and there
is surprise when one comes to find
out which came first and then later in
these discoveries.
This bean that we eat in some form
nearly every day, that almost every
body likes. is comparatively new as an
edible. Our common everyday bean is
a native Of South America and was in
trcduced into Europe, whence it came to
this country, during the sixteenth CEN
fury, and now is represented by over
80 cultivated varieties. The big broad
bean is the bean of history and its ORR
gin is so remote that it is doubtful. 1t
is probably native of southwestern
Asia and northwestern Europe. The
broad, but not thick, lima beans, call
ed by some folks butter beams are a
pole variety that came from Sonth
America Soy beans, little pealike
beans, with hairy plants, are natives of
China and japan and are as old, as
cultivated vegetables, as anything else
in these longtime countries.
Beets were first found growing wild
in sandy soils near the sea in Europe
and western Asia. The wild beet still
found there Is regarded by authority as
the original type. This wild beet is
slender-rooted and has a taste so differ
ent from the beet we know today that
one must consider the first man who
tasted. considered 1t possible to develop,
had gifts of hope and Imagination far
beyond ordinary. The beet has been
cultivated since 20,300 B. C.
Cabbage In wild State
Cabbage, in it's many varieties, has
been developed from single wild
growth called Brasica Oleracea, which
in it's wild state is very remote in APP
pes france from our cabbage. Kale, eau
lifiower and collards come from the
same origin. The principal cultivated
varieties of all these are known to have
existed as far back as the sixteenth
century. Cabbage. however. is an in
FAINT compared to lettuce, though why
man would take to lettuce first when
he could have cabbage or both just as
well. seems singular. Lettuce as food
plant has a record of being eaten by
Persian kings more than 1000 years ago.
The onion has been SO long in cultivation
that its original form Is not definitely
known. There are socalled wild onions
that grow in the woods right here in
Alabama Nobody ever tastes them
more than once, and there Is about the
taste no suggestion that cultivation or
anything else could ever make them
grateful to the human palate. In all
probability the onion is native or west
ern Asia, and adjacent parts of Africa.
since it is mentioned in old Egyptian
writings and the Pentateuch. 1t has
spread to all civilized countries and
keeps speeding with the spread of civil
ization.
From its original home as native,
wild growth in western Asia and ada
cent Europe the cultivated pea has been
taken by man to all civilized countries
Ii has been cultivated since way back
yonder, for dried peas have been found
in Egyptian tombs.
Tomato Recent
The tomato. wholesome, toothsome, ca
pable for such variety of edible use as
Il is. was not found out by man until
recent times. 1t is ma
tive of western South America, whence
II was introduced and cultivated in Eu-
rope during the sixteenth century. AT
FIRST its wrinkled fruits were regarded
with suspicion and 1t was grown to be
looked at as curiosity more than any
thing else. Cultivation smoothed out the
wrinkles and developed the tomato so
that in the eighteenth century both yell
low and red varieties were known. There
are old people, now living today. who re-
late in their childhood the tomato was
known as the 'love apple" and was
poisonous II eaten too much Of In their
early years tomatoes were grown because
the plant, the flower and fruit were pref
Nv. the same reason as now induces many |
in the country to grow the deadly night
shade. which is a real poison against
which children Is warned.
The turnip IL supposed to be native
Of Asia and Europe. 1t has been culti-
waited for centuries. The wild Indian tur-
min found In Missouri is said to be re-
motely kin to the edible turnip. II IL
the size of q walnut and first tasted Is