POTATOES. 331 



POTATOES. 



THE potato has become the most extensively cultivated and valuable of esculent tubers, 

 both in this and foreign countries, although when first introduced as an article 

 of food it was regarded with disfavor or indifference by the majority, and won its way 

 gradually into popular esteem, until it has become an important article of diet with all classes, 

 from the opulent to the very poor, and is one of the leading crops cultivated. 



It is a native of this continent, being found in a wild state in the elevated tropical valleys 

 of Mexico, Peru, Chili, the Argentine Republic, and the island of Chiloe, where it closely 

 resembles the cultivated product, except that the tubers of the former are much smaller, they 

 rarely being more than an inch in diameter, and the flavor very unpalatable; careful cultiva 

 tion having not only greatly increased the size, but the edible properties in a proportionate 

 degree. It is supposed to have been introduced into Virginia from Florida by the Spanish 

 explorers, and was carried to Spain and Italy from Peru early in the sixteenth century. Its 

 introduction into Great Britain from Virginia was, according to some authorities, in the year 

 1565, by Sir John Hawkins, and according to others, about the year 1586, by Sir Walter 

 Raleigh. Houghton, in his &quot;Collections on Husbandry and Trade,&quot; gives the somewhat 

 amusing description and history of this product: 



&quot; The potato is a biciferous herb with esculent roots, bearing winged leaves and a bell 

 flower. This 1 have been informed was brought first out of Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh; 

 and he stopped at Ireland, some was planted there, where it thrived very well, and to good 

 purpose ; for in their succeeding wars, when all the corn about the ground was destroyed, 

 this supported them; for the soldiers, unless they had dug up all the ground where they 

 grew, and almost sifted it, could not extirpate them; from whence they were brought 

 to Lancashire, where they are very numerous, and now they begin to spread all the kingdom 

 over. They are a pleasant food, boiled or roasted and eaten with butter and sugar. There is 

 a sort brought from Spain that are of a longer form, and are more luscious than ours; they 

 are much set by, and sold for sixpence or eightpence the pound.&quot; 



The potato was at first regarded in Europe as a delicacy, but it was not until near the 

 middle of the eighteenth century that it acquired any real importance there outside of Ire 

 land. It was also unknown in New England until the early part of the eighteenth century, 

 when it is supposed to have been introduced there from Ireland. It is sometimes called a 

 root, which is an erroneous term, as the roots are entirely distinct from these tubers, or under 

 ground stems. It is allied to several powerful narcotics, such as tobacco, henbane, and bella 

 donna, and other common esculents, viz., the tomato and egg-plant. According to the best 

 authority, the strong, bitter principle of the potato is more or less poisonous, and is aggravated 

 by the light, such as exposure to the sun by having the soil long removed from it in the hill, 

 and which causes the portions of the tubers thus exposed to turn green. All such parts 

 should be removed before cooking. The potato consists (aside from water) almost entirely 

 of starch, the analysis of it giving about seventy-five per cent, of water and twenty-five per 

 cent, of dry nutritive matter; it is, therefore, deficient in nitrogen, and not adapted for an 

 exclusive article of diet. Its composition shows it to be designed as an accompaniment of 

 meat, instead of a substitute for it, and all nations now using it appropriate it to this purpose. 



The proportions of its constituents vary according to the different stages of ripeness and 

 different varieties. The more mature, the less the quantity of water, some of the richer vari 

 eties furnishing as high as thirty -two per cent, of dry nutritive matter, the latter consisting 

 mostly of starch, with a small proportion of sugar, gum, cellular fiber, fatty matter, mineral 

 matter, etc. 



Aside from its use as food for the human family and all domestic animals, it is largely 

 employed in the manufacture of starch, as well as alcohol. Sugar has even been made from 



