9o6 Rural School Leaflet 



THE POTATO 

 Anna Botsford Comstock 



Many of our cultivated plants have interesting histories and the 

 potato is of this number. It was originally a native of the Andes 

 Mountains in Chile and Peru, although different species have been 

 found irregularly as far north as Mexico and Colorado. It was 

 cultivated successfully here before America was discovered, and was 

 taken to Spain from Peru in the sixteenth centiiry. Sir Francis 

 Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh both carried it to England about 

 1586, but it did not come into use as a food plant until 1772, 

 when there was a general failure of grain crops in western Europe 

 and potatoes were planted in an attempt to avert famine. At this 

 time there were but two varieties, one white and one red; now there 

 are several hundred listed varieties. 



The Europeans have a standard for excellence in potatoes which is 

 different from ours in America. Here we like a fairly large, mealy potato, 

 grown on light, loamy soil. The Europeans prefer small, fine-grained 

 potatoes that are harder and less mealy, such as grow on rich, moist, 

 loamy soil. The Germans declare that the potatoes we serve on the table 

 are fit only to feed to cattle. 



As a plant the potato is interesting because it is so very forehanded, 

 being able to reproduce itself in two ways. The white potato that we 

 eat is not a root storehouse, as is the sweet potato; it is merely a stem 

 tuber, a storehouse of food buried underground in order to nourish the 

 stems of next year's growth. How do we know it is an underground 

 stem enlarged? The proof is that the potato has buds on it, which we 

 call the eyes; and these buds are arranged in a spiral, as the buds and 

 leaves are arranged on the stems of the plant above ground; while the 

 sweet potato, which has a root made into a storehouse, has no buds on it. 



It is well worth while to " look a potato in the eye," although most 

 persons never think of doing this. The pupil of the eye is the little tip 

 of the bud, which under favorable circumstances will grow into a stem. 

 The " eyebrow " consists of a scale, which represents a leaf. Note that 

 on the potato stem above ground there is a leaf just below each sprouting 

 bud, and this arrangement is exactly the same on the potato tuber. 



The roots of the potato come from the main stem and not from the tuber. 

 They lie below the tuber, as any one knows who has pulled up a potato 

 plant during the time of digging. The use of the tuber to the wild potato 

 plant was to keep it alive during the dry season in its South American 



