PREFACE. 



POTATOES, as an article of human food, are, next to wheat, 

 of the greatest importance in the eye of the political econo- 

 mist. From no other crop that can be cultivated, will the 

 public derive so much food as from this valuable esculent ; 

 and it admits of demonstration, that an acre of potatoes will 

 feed double the number of people that can be fed from an 

 acre of wheat ; they are relished by every palate, and, it is 

 believed, there is hardly a dinner served up hi any country 

 where they are cultivated, without them. 



An article of such vast importance, that forms a grand 

 staple of our agriculture, the principal source of national 

 wealth, that forms a prominent article in the diet of every 

 individual, deserves the particular attention of every one ; 

 and the object of this treatise is, to collate the most important 

 facts in the history of this esculent, as well as the opinions 

 and practice of the best cultivators, with regard to its manage- 

 ment, the cure of diseases affecting it, and every other item 

 of information respecting it that can be turned to profitable 

 account by our own farmers. 



But more particularly, and above all, my object has been 

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