526 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



alcoholic liquor which was called " poteen " from the small pots 

 used in the process. 



From its skin they prepared a soup, and they used the ^Yate^ in 

 which potatoes are boiled as a curative wash for sprains and broken 

 limbs. Perhaps the most delicious potato preparation of all was 

 that called " pardy " or " cal-carron," made from new potatoes. 

 For the Irish the potato acquired an almost sacred significance, as 

 the daily bread which they received in answer to their prayers. 

 In certain localities it was customary at the time of planting for 

 the parish priest to march solemnly to the field and bless it, pray- 

 ing for a bountiful harvest. The potato, however, was not an 

 unmixed blessing to Ireland. Though it yielded an abundant re- 

 turn for little labor, yet the occasional failure of the crop caused 

 unspeakable misery to the people, for in their economy it had taken 

 the place of oatmeal and all other foods.-*^ 



Bj?^ whom and when the potato was introduced into Ireland is 

 not definitely known, but we know that it was cultivated there as a 

 field crop before 1G63, a year of dearth in Great Britain and Ireland. 

 In March of that year the attention of the Royal Society was 

 called to it as a crop of national importance by Mr. Buckland, a 

 Somersetshire gentlenuxn, and such members of the society as had 

 lands adapted to its culture were entreated to plant the new vegetable. 

 The recommendation was reported favorably by a committee to 

 whom it was referred, and Mr. Evelyn, the celebrated -practical 

 gardener of that period, was requested to enforce the society's 

 opinion in the Sylva, at that time published under the society's 

 auspices. It is evident that it found no favor with him, for in 

 1G64, in his Kalendarium Hortensi, the first gardener's calendar 

 published in Britain, he gives tlie following advice : " Plant 

 potatoes in February in your worst ground." In 1G64, before the 

 Sylva appeared, there was published the first pamphlet advocating 

 the cultivation of the potato in England. It bears the follow- 

 ing prolix title: "England's happiness increased, or a sure and 

 easy remedy against all succeeding dear years by a plantation of 

 the roots called potatoes, whereof (with the addition of wheat 

 flour) excellent, good, and wholesome bread nujy be made every 

 year, eight or nine months together, for half the charges as formerly. 

 Also, by the planting of these roots 10,000 men in England and 

 Wales who know not how to live or what to do to get a maintenance 

 for their families, may, ofi' 1 acre of ground, make £30 jjer annum. 

 Invented and published for the good of the poorer sorts by John 

 Forster, Gent., of Harslop, in Buckinghamshire." The author identi- 



-" Kor most of tliis iiiforination I am indcl)tod to Rev., John J. Qucally, icctor of the 

 Church, of the Trausflfeoiration, Washington, D. C. 



