SC - My Move

[Mordonna22@aol.com]

Tollhase1 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 10/24/99 2:46:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ddfr at best.com
> writes:
> 
> << My general
>  impression is that where new food crops had a substantial advantage over
>  old ones, as potatoes in some areas clearly did, they could go into use
>  pretty fast. Peasants may be conservative, but they are also hungry >>
> 
> Agreed, I did not consider potatoes in my point.  And once given the potatoes
> to plant, they would have had to.  After all few of the peasants owned their
> own land or had much control over it.

What you say is almost certainly true in Ireland, where a lot of the
farmland was owned by mostly English absentee landlords.

The potato seems to have caught on slowly in France, at least in the
cities. There's a cute story (which may or may not be true, but it's one
of those accepted versions of reality) concerning a botanist named
Parmentier, who, in the 19th century, was an enthusiastic champion of
the potato as a way to improve the overall national agricultural
product. (Potatoes can feed more people per acre of arable land than
grains, in general.)

Parmentier is said to have conceived the idea of planting potatoes in
gardens owned by the Crown, under heavily armed guard. At night the
guards went home, and the locals figured there must be something pretty
special in those gardens, or they wouldn't be under guard. The guards,
returning to their posts in the morning, to discover that potatoes had
been stolen during the night. Which was, of course, the plan all along. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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