In the progress of society all great and real improvements are
perpetuated: the same corn which, four thousand years ago, was raised
from an improved grass by an inventor worshiped for two thousand years
in the ancient world under the name of Ceres, still forms the principal
food of mankind; and the potato, perhaps the greatest benefit that the
old has derived from the new world, is spreading over Europe, and will
continue to nourish an extensive population when the name of the race
by whom it was first cultivated in South America is forgotten.--_Sir H.
Davy._