HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 95 



sold with extravagant recommendations, like the Dioscorea 

 Batatas, which it was said "would produce sixty tons to the 

 acre." 



Throughout the United States during the year 1866, there were 

 planted, in round numbers, 34,500,000 acres of wheat, to 1,000,000 

 acres of potatoes. In Maine the value ^9er acre of these several 

 crops were as follows in- 1866 : 



Potatoes, $79.56 ; Corn, $44.55 ; Wheat, $36.32. 



England plants 500,000 acres, Austria 300,000 and France 

 1,000,000 acres more of potatoes per year, than are planted in the 

 entire United States. 



In Maine, the varieties which are of real value, are second only, 

 as an article of diet, to bread arid meat alone. From 1820 to 1840, 

 the enlarged cultivated acreage of the potato in this State, was 

 almost a surprise. In 1840 the aggregate number of bushels 

 exceeded ten millions. In 1843, the "rot" made its advent (to 

 all but the observing few,) with such wide-spread malignity as to 

 cause general alarm that the potato was to be swept from off the 

 face of the earth, and become extinct. Although the malady 

 somewhat subsided after a few years' run, a decade or more of 

 years were required to allay the panic and restore confidence. In 

 1860 the crop was computed at 6,400,000 bushels, evincing that 

 something had been learned of the nature of the disease and 

 the preventives, one or both. 



Until 1843, the potato, unlike all other plants which are 

 extensively cultivated under varied circumstances of soil, climate, 

 condition and artificial treatment, was supposed to be exempt from 

 any disastrous form of distinctive disease. It is true that much 

 sufiering was caused in Ireland in 1822, in consequence of the 

 rotting of the potato after being stored. In 1831 famine and 

 pestilence succeeded the failure of the crop from the same cause. 

 It reappeared in 1838, but this time in the fields. In the meanwhile 

 the disease was working its way all over the world, baffling the 

 inquiries of scientific men. In 1846 a single week's time was 

 sufficient for it to destroy the entire crop. " The observing few " 

 claim, that the chain of evidence is unbroken which fastens the 

 origin of the disease or rot, upon the country which gave us the 

 potato. They claim that the pathway is visible as it followed the 

 trade winds and ocean currents from Chili and Bogota to England 

 by St. Helena and Madeira; and from England on the "highway 

 of nations " to America. 



