wear a potato flower in one's lapel, but few wanted to eat it since it was considered poisonous and a carrier of leprosy and dysentery. To popularize the new food, a banquet was given in London with dishes made out of potatoes, for very distinguished guests. The whole affair backfired since through ignorance the stems and leaves, which are mildly poisonous, were also served and everybody suffered from fod poisoning. After this disaster, the English frowned even more on potatoes. The Irish had to take to it, since they had little else to live on. They Decame very dependent on potatoes and even fed their livestock with It. hey were also the ones who introduced it into the United States In France the potato also had a difficult time to become popular. In lact it was the last country in Europe to accept it. As late as 1749 a French agricuilturat called it "the worst of all vegetables." A druggist by the name of Parmentier was the man who finally succeeded in getting the French to eat potatoes but he had a hell of a time doing it. As a prisoner of war in Prussia he had learned to eat potatoes and convinced of its goodness he wanted to introduce it into his native country. Apparently he did not know his fellow countrymen very well and even lost his job at the "Hotel des Invalides" because he was trying to force his "pig fodder" on the old retired pensioners living there. In 1769 he had a little more luck when he won the first prize with his tubers, in a contest of foodstuffs which could eventually, in times of famine, replace grain. At another try, he had a potato patch guarded by soldiers in order to arouse the interest of the local people and he alsogave a dinner for some of his prominent friends which included Benjamin Franklin. It consisted of twenty dishes all made with potatoes. Slowly the potato gained more popularity but the real boost was given to it by the hardships of the French Revolution and the famine of 1816. Now the French eat their "pomme de terre" also but never on such a scale as the German, Irish or Dutch.