Page:Treatise on Cultivation of the Potato.djvu/20

 adduce some strong facts in support of my opinion, that by a greatly extended culture of the potato, for the purpose of supplying the markets with vegetable food, a more abundant and more wholesome supply of food for the use of the labouring classes of society may be obtained than wheat can ever afford, and, I believe, of a more palatable kind to the greater number of persons. I can just recollect the time when the potato was unknown to the peasantry of Herefordshire, whose gardens were then almost exclusively occupied by different varieties of the cabbage. Their food at that period chiefly consisted of bread and cheese, with the produce of their gardens, and tea was unknown to them. About sixty-six years ago, before the potato was introduced into their gardens, agues had been so extremely prevalent, that the periods in which they, or their families, had been afflicted with that disorder, were the eras to which I usually heard them refer in speaking of past events; and I recollect being cautioned by them frequently not to stand exposed to the sun in May, lest I should get an ague. The potato was then cultivated in small quantities in the gardens of gentlemen; but it was not thought to afford wholesome nutriment, and was supposed by many to possess deleterious qualities. The prejudices of all parties, however, disappeared so rapidly, that within ten years the potato had almost wholly driven the cabbage from the garden of the cottagers. Within the same period, ague, the previously prevalent disease of the country, disappeared; and no other species of disease became prevalent. I adduce this fact, as evidence only, that the introduction of the potato was not injurious to the health of the peasantry at that period; but whether its production was, or was not, instrumental in causing the disappearance of ague, I will not venture to give an opinion. I am, however, confident, that neither draining the soil (for that was not done), nor any change in the general habits of the peasantry, had taken place, to which their improved health could be attributed.

Bread is well known to constitute the chief food of the French peasantry. They are a very temperate race of men; and they possess the advantages of a very fine and dry climate. Yet the duration of life amongst them is very short, scarcely exceeding two-thirds of the average duration of life in England, and in some districts much less. Dr. Hawkins, in his Medical statistics, states upon the authority of M. Villerme, that in the department of Indre,