POTATO. 



757 



them planted in his own garden near Yoiighal, in 

 the county Cork. He is said to have given them 

 to his gardener as a fine fruit from America, and 

 ordered them to be put down in his kitchen gar- 

 den. In August the plants dowered, and in Sep- 

 tember they produced their apples; but these were so 

 totally different from what the gardener had expected 

 to see, that, in a fit of ill humour, he pulled them 

 and carried them to his master ; asking him, "were 

 these the fine American fruit." Sir Walter either 

 really was, or pretended to be ignorant of the mat- 

 ter; and, having tasted them, told the man to dig 

 up the weeds and throw them away. The gardener 

 did so, but was astonished to find about a bushel 

 of tuberous roots. Trial soon showed that this 

 was the eatable part of the plant. The only writ- 

 ten proof we have of the introduction of the potato 

 l>y Raleigh, is found in the manuscript minutes of 

 the royal society of London, December 13, 1693, 

 when we are told the president, Sir Robert South- 

 well, informed the fellows that his grandfather first 

 cultivated potatoes in Ireland, and that he got them 

 from Sir Walter Raleigh. They were cultivated 

 a long time in Ireland before they were known in 

 England, and they were only at last introduced 

 there by the shipwreck of a vessel containing some 

 of them, on the coast of Lancashire, at a place 

 called North Meols, which is still famous for their 

 cultivation. 



We have thus seen the same plant brought from 

 South America by the Spaniards, and from North 

 America by the English. Now, it is remarkable, 

 that, at the conquest of Mexico, in the reign of 

 Montezuma, the potato was quite unknown in that 

 country. How is it, then, that a plant belonging ori- 

 ginally to the southern hemisphere should be found 

 at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, while it was 

 unknown in the intermediate country, Mexico ? 

 Humboldt is the person who agitates this question. 

 He proves satisfactorily that the potato is not in- 

 digenous in Peru, nor found wild in any part of the 

 Andes situated under the tropics; no where, in 

 fact, but in Chili, from which place we may con- 

 jecture it to have been propagated northwards 

 under the government of the incas. Again, he 

 proves the improbability of the potato having 

 been brought to North America by any of the 

 Peruvian tribes, both from physical and moral 

 causes ; and, combining this with the above men- 

 tioned singular fact respecting Mexico, starts a 

 new idea, that the English colonists of Virginia 

 themselves procured the plant from the Spanish 

 settlements. " The colony," he remarks, " was 

 in existence from July 1584. Now, the navi- 

 gators of those times were not in the habit of 

 steering straight westwards to reach the coast of 

 America ; they were still in the practice of follow- 

 ing the track indicated by Columbus, and profiting 

 by the trade-winds of the torrid zone. This pas- 

 sage facilitated communication with the West India 

 islands, which were then the centre of Spanish 

 commerce. It appears, then, natural enough that 

 the English themselves brought potatoes from 

 South America into Virginia. At the time when they 

 came from Virginia to England, they were common 

 both in Spain and Italy. We are not then to be 

 astonished, that a production, which had passed 

 from one continent to another, could in America 

 pass from the Spanish to the English colonies." 



From all these different considerations, we are 

 almost warranted in concluding that Chili alone is 

 the native country of the potato. 



The potato was considered a great delicacy in 

 the reign of James I. In the year 16-19 we find it 

 mentioned as one of the articles provided for the 

 use of the queen's household. The quantity pro- 

 cured was very small, and the price two shillings 

 a-pound. In the following reign, and during the 

 continuance of the commonwealth, the potato re- 

 mained equally scarce. Its cultivation, meantime, 

 spread slowly over Ireland, and still more slowly in 

 Lancashire. The first time that it was brought be- 

 fore the public as an object of national importance, 

 was at a meeting of the royal society held in March 

 1663, when a letter was read from Mr Buckland, a 

 gentleman of Somersetshire, strongly recommend- 

 ing the culture of potatoes in all parts of the king- 

 dom as a precaution against famine. This was re- 

 ferred to a committee, and upon their report, the 

 thanks of the society were given to Mr Buckland, 

 all the members who had lands were entreated to 

 plant them, and Mr Evelyne was directed to men- 

 tion the matter at the end of his " Sylva," a book 

 then publishing under the auspices of the society. 

 These exertions of a scientific body do not seem 

 to have produced much effect. In books of 

 gardening published towards the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, potatoes are spoken of in no very 

 high terms. " They are much used," says one 

 writer, "in Ireland and America as bread, and 

 might be propagated with advantage to poor 

 people." Another says, " I do not hear that it 

 hath been yet essayed whether they may not be 

 propagated in large quantities for food for swine and 

 other cattle." The famous nurserymen London 

 and Wise have not considered the potato worthy 

 of a place in their Complete Gardener, published 

 in 1719; and several other writers speak of it as 

 far inferior to radishes I This was more than 100 

 years after its introduction. One reason, certainly, 

 that the plant remained so long in disrepute, was 

 the defective mode of its culture. The early plant- 

 ing and late raising of the potatoes, very much 

 injured their quality. This and ignorance of the 

 proper mode of cooking them, would make them 

 certainly anything but a tempting article of food. 

 The following anecdote illustrates this. "A per- 

 son who had been invited to taste the first potatoes 

 planted in the county of Forfar, about the year 

 1730, related that the roots had been merely heated, 

 and that they adhered to the teeth like glue, while 

 their flavour was far from agreeable. The food 

 was about to be condemned through the ignorance 

 of the cook, when the accidental arrival of a gen- 

 tleman, who had tasted a potato in Lancashire, 

 caused the rejected roots to be remanded back to 

 the hot turf ashes, till they became as dainty as 

 they had before been nauseous." 



According to the old Statistical Account of Scot- 

 land, potatoes were first cultivated in the fields there, 

 in the year 1739, in the county of Stirling: and Dr 

 Walker assures us that they were not known in the 

 Highlands and isles till 1743. It is stated in the 

 General Report of Scotland, (vol. ii. p. 111.) as a 

 well ascertained fact, that "in the year 1725-6, 

 the few potato plants then existing in gardens about 

 Edinburgh, were left in the same spot of ground 

 from year to year, as recommended by Evelyn : a 

 few tubers were perhaps removed for use in the 

 autumn, and the parent plants well covered witli 

 litter to save them from the winter's frost." Not- 

 withstanding the success that after this period at- 

 tended the culture of the potato among the cotta- 

 gers, its progress among the higher classes in Scot- 



