SIR,--May I be allowed to protest with all the vigour at my command
against the revolting suggestion that, with the view of making cakes
from potatoes they should be first boiled in their skins. I admit that
this is better than that they should be boiled without them, but that
is all. The potato is notoriously a sensitive plant. Personally I
regard it more in the light of an emblem than a vegetable. That it is
not necessary as an article of food can be conclusively proved from
the teaching of history, for, as a famous poet happily puts it--
"In ancient and heroic days,
The days of Scipios and Catos,
The Western world pursued its ways
Triumphantly without potatoes."
If, however, the shortage of cereals demands that potatoes should
be used as a substitute for wheat, I suggest that, instead of being
subjected to the barbarous treatment described above, they should be
granted a painless death by chloroform or some other anæsthetic.