ROMANCE OF THE POTATO.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 69, 6 March 1914, Page 7

ROMANCE OF THE POTATO.

The centenary of the death of Antome Parmentier, who popularised the potato' Jn France, has :ust been published at Aeuiliy, where his statue stands (.says the 'Times'). On December 17, 1813j died Antoine Parmentier, to whom J?ranee owes her conversion to the potato as an article oi food. Few prooably of the many people to whom Potage or Umeletw I'armentier are but the titles of two very lamiliar dishes have any Knowledge of the genial and industrious chemist from wnom they derive their name.

Thanks to Sir Walter. Raleigh, Englishmen became acquainted with wie poiat6 as soon as any other nation hi Europe. But in France, ever since its first introduction from Peru, it was the object of strange prejudices. it was supposed to cause fevev and weakness, and was made responsible lor any illness which attacked the first bold spirits who experimented with it in cookery; it was even believed to produce leprosy. To Parmentier's scientific exposition of its nutritive value and his campaign in its favor is due the final dissipation of these scruples and the spread of its cultivation on a large scale.

It was at Frankfort that he became acquainted with the nutritive properties of the potato, which had been well known in Germany for some time. Some time afterwards he returned to Paris and was made apothecary at the Invalides. In consequence of tne great famine in 1769 the Academy of Besancon offered a prize for a treatise on vegetables which could be substituted for bread in the event of the failure of the corn crop. Parmentier won the prize with an essay showing how the necessary nourishment for tne human body could be obtained from the starch of "certain piants. Potatoes were then cultivated to no considerable extent in Fiance except in Anjou and in the Limousin, where they had been introduced by Turgot. In 1778 Parmentier published an "Examen ehimique de la Pomme-de-terre," in which he showed that all the popular prejudices against potatoes were unfounded, and obtained from the Government 80 acres of waste land to the north of the Bois de Boulogne on which to make experiments. Cn spite of the ridicule of the people of Pans, wdio regarded him as a crank, he sowed his acres and watched for the result. When in due time the flowers appeared Parmentier picked a bunch of them and offered it to the King, Louis XVI. at once placed it in his buttonhole, and the success of the potato was assured. Its triumnh was sealed bv the genius of the Royal chef, who invented .the pomme souffle, surely the most dainty and palatable form in which the vegetable can be served. The Court was delighted, and Parmentier was acclaimed as the "inventor of the potato." He was given another large plot of land in the fields of Grenelle to show Paris how the vegetable should be grown, and the fashion for its cultivation soon spread to the provinces. Perhaps it was his popularity at Court and the fact of his having catered for the tastes of the aristocrats that caused the good citizens to reject Parmentier's candidature to enter politics at the beginning of the revolution.

At any rate, when his name was in question there were cries of "Wewon't have him; he will make us eat nothing but potatoes," and another candidate to whom nothing 60 grave could be imputed was chosen.