The journal of a naturalist / [Anon].

  • John Leonard Knapp
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The journal of a naturalist / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the potato extensively in our fields, a root which must be considered, after bread-corn and rice, the kindest vegetable gift of Providence to man- kind. This root forms the chief support of our population as their food, and affords them a healthful employment for three months in the year, during the various stages of planting, hacking, hoeing, harvesting. Every labourer rents of the farmer some portion of his land to the amount of a rood, or more, for this culture, the profits of which enable him frequently to build a cottage, and, with the aid of a little bread, furnishes a regular, plentiful, nutritious food for himself, his wife, and children, within, and his pig without doors; and they all grow fat and healthy upon this diet, and use has ren- dered it essential to their being. The population of England, Europe perhaps, would never have been numerous as it is, without this vegetable : and if the human race continue increasing, the cultivation of it may be extended to meet every demand, which no other earthly product could scarcely be found to admit of. The increase of mankind throughout Europe within the last forty years has been most remarkable, as every census informs us, notwithstanding the havoc and waste of continual warfare, and most extensive emi-
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