Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1918 — Signs Forbidding Peasants From Taking Potatoes, Plan To Induce Eating of Tubers [ARTICLE]

Signs Forbidding Peasants From Taking Potatoes, Plan To Induce Eating of Tubers

Although potatoes were early Introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, they did not come in quantity for many years. The English found them in Virginia, but it is believed that the Spaniards brought them to that colony from further south. The first attempt to introduce them into France was due to a well-known scientific authority named Parmentier. This was in the seventeenth century, says Popular Science Monthly. He imported some of the plants, set them out in a field near Paris, and by means of learned pamphlets and talk with the people tried to have the new vegetable brought into cultivation and the market. But It was all in vain. Potatoes did not prove attractive, and when the planted ones matured it seemed that they would rot in the ground on account of the prejudice against them. Then some wise man who knew human nature —a student of psychology, with practical ideas —suggested that peasants could not be made to try potatoes by persuasion, but might be led to adopt them if they were forbidden to eat them. His Idea was adopted. Many signs were painted and erected in plain sight, forbidding under severe penalties anyone from taking any potatoes from the field. The peasants at once began to raid the hills, and before long most of the ripe tubers were stolen and eaten with fetish.