Copy 1

Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Anon].

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/416 (page 22)
    to have incited his subjects to the more zealous culti- vation of their lands, by ploughing with his own hands the land surrounding his palace, which example being followed by his ministers and courtiers, influ- enced in turn those who moved in a less exalted sphere*. Of the countries which lie between the tropics, those of Asia adopt principally the use of rice, while maize is made the common food of the Americans. There exists a natural reason for this distribution, Asia being undoubtedly the native region of rice, while maize is as certainly the production of America. In Africa, except as already particularized, and in the British settlements of that continent, the two grains are used indifferently and in nearly equal proportions. Wheat is found in some situations within the tro- pics; but its high price, as compared with that of other grains, occasions its use to ‘be confined to the more wealthy classes. In many parts of British India, and particularly in the upper provinces, the quality of the wheat is represented as being excellent, although the grain is smaller than with us. Barley is likewise grown in some of the more northern dis- tricts, but the grain does not attain to the same size or plumpness as in Europe. The variety cultivated in India is that known by us under the name of Bigg: its cheapness causes it, however, to be extensively used by the native population, who eat it in the form of cakes. The agriculture of the Hindu Ryots is of the very rudest description: their ploughs are scarcely de- serving of the name, having no contrivance for turning over the soil; the instrument employed as a harrow is nothing more than the branch of a * Du Halde, Nouvelle relation de la Chine, tome i, pp. 274-5.