THE POTATO SAFFORD 525 



garden of Doctor Scholtz at Breslau, in Silesia, to which I shall 

 refer later. Clusiiis' description, although antedating the publica- 

 tions of Gerard and Bauhin, did not appear until 1600.^^ 



INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO INTO CULTURE 



For more than a century SoJanum tuberosum continued to be 

 grown as a curious exotic plant in gardens both in England and 

 on the Continent before it began to attain a reputation as a food 

 staple. Its value was first recognized in Ireland, where conditions 

 of soil and climate were peculiarly favorable for its propagation. 

 An illustration after a painting by Francis Walker of two young 

 women digging potatoes in County Donegal was published in Frank 

 Matthews's Ireland (edition of 1912), The surrounding landscape 

 in this lovely picture (pi. 11) suggests the coast islands of southern 

 Chile where both Drake and Cavendish found the potato extensively 

 cultivated in the sixteenth century, as related in the first part of this 

 paper. Not only do the Irish and Chilean habitats resemble each 

 other but the climates of the two regions are also similar; that of 

 southern Chile, influenced by the Humboldt Current which sweeps 

 northward along the coast, and that of Ireland by the beneficent 

 Gulf Stream, which tempers the climate of the islands and shores 

 of the western coast. 



It was the Irish peasants who first took up the cultivation of the 

 potato, and it soon became their only food crop, serving for break- 

 fast, dinner, and supper. Their affection for it is shown by many 

 pet epithets, including the " flowery potato," and the " laughing 

 potato." The simplest form in which it was eaten by them was 

 baked or boiled and dipped in a saucer of salted' milk. Between 

 meals the children were allowed to roast potatoes on their own ac- 

 count in the turf or wood ashes. It was a common sight in passing 

 a cottage to see a group of little ones run to the door, each with a 

 roasted potato in his hand. While they lasted there was no dearth 

 of wholesome food. When the supply was exhausted it was neces- 

 sary to buy oatmeal, which was made into a sort of pudding or thick 

 porridge called " stir about." Potatoes served as food also for the 

 family pig, the dog, and a few fowds. The poor had little else ex- 

 cept perhaps buttermilk at breakfast and supper. If the family 

 possessed a cow, there was also butter, which was used for frying 

 delicious potato cakes. It was not long before the Irish learned to 

 use potatoes as a source of whislty, in the preparation of which they 

 reduced the potatoes to a paste or pulp, added yeast and, after it 

 had undergone a process of fermentation, distilled it into a clear 



^5 Clusius, Rariorum plantarum historia, lib. 4, p. 78, 1601. 



