be allowed for the plant to have established itself so firmly 
in the economy of backward peoples, a study of the his- 
tory of other cultivated plants may be revealing. Espe- 
cially illuminating is a recent scholarly treatise by Sala- 
man (1949) on the potato, and of particular interest are 
those chapters concerned with its history in Ireland. 
Introduced into Ireland between 1586 and 1588, the 
potato had, within fifty years of its introduction, ‘‘be- 
come the universal and staple article of the peoples’ food 
in the greater part of the island.”’ Many indigenous 
names were invented for it: pratie, tata, murphy, croker 
and buntata. Many superstitions and social and religious 
customs grew up in connection with its culture. The 
potato was used not only for food in a variety of ways, 
but also medicinally and in the preparation of an alco- 
holic beverage. It was not only food for man, but also 
provided nourishment for all of his domestic animals, 
‘‘the pig taking his share as readily as the wife, the cocks, 
hens, turkies, geese, the cur, the cat, and perhaps the 
cow — and all partaking of the same dish.”’ 
‘*So completely had the potato woven itself into the 
web of the life and thought of the people’’ that they 
were immune to warnings of crop failures, and ‘‘no more 
attention was given to such warnings than would have 
been the case had they been told that the rains would 
cease to fall from heaven.’’ The potato, like the sun and 
the stars and the rain, had ‘‘always’’ been with them. 
It may be argued that the potato became a part of 
the Irish culture so rapidly only because the Irish were 
already an advanced people. This apparently is not the 
case. The state of agriculture in Ireland in the sixteenth 
century was very primitive indeed and, in Salaman’s 
opinion, it was this very backwardness of the Irish accom- 
panied by general devastation and misery which lead to 
the breakdown of prejudice against, and the rapid accep- 
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