SOT IN POTATOES, 



PEIZE ESSAY — BY ANDREW BUSH, M. D., EAST COVENTRY, CHESTER CO., PA. 



Awarded the premium of $20. 



The Potato, or Solanum tuberosum, is indigenous to the high 

 table lands and mountainous regions of South America. In its un- 

 cultivated state, the tuber is a hard, fibrous vegetable, possessing but 

 little nutritive property. It grows a feeble creeping vine, with a 

 trumpet-shaped flower. It derives its name from solor., to comfort, 

 and belongs to that class of plants that possess anodyne properties. 



In the begining of the 16th century the Spaniards in their explo- 

 ration and conquest of Peru, discovered the potato as an extremely 

 nutritious and wholesome esculent in cultivation by the aborigines 

 of that country. After the cruel thirst of their invaders for the blood 

 and treasures of that unhappy people had been glutted to satiety, the 

 Spaniards took with them on their return to Europe specimens of the 

 potato, along with other productions of the country they had sub- 

 jugated. 



Its introduction as an article of food was a matter of slow progress, 

 and it was not until the beginning of the seventeenth century, thjt 

 its value became generally appreciated, or its cultivation spread |o 

 any considerable extent. After its character as a valuable article of 

 food had become established, intelligent cultivators produced rew 

 varieties, superior in flavor and nutritive qualities, but also more celi- 

 cate in texture, and more liable to disease. 



A variety of diseases are on record to which the potato is liable, 

 and it would extend this paper beyond its proper limits to give even 

 a brief account of those most common. And in as much %s the- 

 diagnostic signs of " the rot " are essentially difierent from everj 



