CHAPTER XIX. 

 THE FIELD OR IRISH POTATO 



The Potato's Early Home. The early home of the 

 potato was in America. White men had never seen 

 it until after the discovery of the continent by 

 Columbus. The Indians of South America, from 

 Chili to Colombia, were raising potatoes for food. 

 How long they had been doing this we do not know. 

 The Spanish explorers carried the potato to Europe^ 

 where it was first grown in Spain and Italy. 



The Potato in Ireland. Some years later, we are 

 told. Sir Walter Raleigh was cultivating it on his 

 farm in Ireland. He called it **Battata.'' The 

 potato came to be raised as the principal article of 

 food in Ireland; and when, in 1846, there came a 

 total failure of the potato crop, caused by the blight, 

 a terrible famine and great suffering followed. It 

 drove thousands of Ireland's best thinkers and 

 workers to America. 



A Widely-grown Crop. Potatoes are a more im- 

 portant crop in Europe than in America, and it is a 

 staple product in many lands besides our own. Next 

 to rice, it is probably the most widely-grown crop 

 in the world. 



Not a Root, But a Tuber. The part of the potato 

 that we eat is an underground stem which is called 

 a tuber. It is not a root, like the sweet potato or 



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