88 HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 



to run wild, as we call it. Man bears them with 

 him in all his wanderings ; by his treatment they 

 remain obedient to his desires, and are identified 

 with colonization ; but as soon as he remits his 

 attentions, the seeds perish in the soil, or their 

 offspring dwindle in the earth, and are lost. Or 

 we may say, that Nature, having created these 

 things, permits him, in the sweat of his brow, to 

 effect an improvement, and consigns the custody of 

 them to his care, satisfied that he will preserve them 

 for his own benefit as long as required ; when his 

 occasion for them ceases, or when by sloth he 

 neglects them, they return to their original crea- 

 tion : the earth might be cursed to bring forth 

 thorns and thistles, but an attendant blessing and 

 mercy was reserved of permitting them to be cul- 

 tivated, producing healthful recreation and grateful 

 food. If these are plants of immemorial antiquity, 

 the potato is yet of comparatively modern intro- 

 duction, but the original species from whence all 

 our endless varieties have emanated cannot pro- 

 bably now be ascertained, man having, as observed 

 above, almost created an essential article of food ; 

 and it is not unimportant to note the great dif- 

 ference that subsists in the component parts of these 

 varieties for though, in common estimation, a 

 potato may be a potato, yet we find them very dif- 

 ferently compounded. The influence of different 

 temperatures and years may cause these propor- 

 tions to vary, but I give them as observed in 

 1828. 



