THE POTATO 515 



"When once the real value of the potato was 

 recognized its progress into every country of Eu- 

 rope seems to have been very rapid, though Scot- 

 land seems to have disregarded it until the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, when famine and great 

 destitution forced the claims of the new improved 

 tuber upon the Scottish farmers. So rapidly did 

 it grow in popularity that in 1747 we read of 700 

 bushels of potatoes being exported from Carolina, 

 while in 1840, the year of the potato's first ap- 

 pearance in the United States census, the crop is 

 given as 108,298,060 bushels. 



"The first real check to potato cultivation was 

 received in 1842, when the now well-known and 

 dreaded potato disease, Phytophthora infestans, 

 (late blight) made its appearance in Germany. 

 Soon after this it was recorded from Canada and 

 the United States; in 1845 the Isle of Wight, and 

 thence England, felt its presence; and by 1846 it 

 was known almost all over Europe. A famine in 

 Ireland followed, and for a while it looked as 

 though the potato was threatened with extinction. 

 Fortunately, however, the eflficacy of sulphate of 

 copper and lime in combating the disease was dis- 

 covered, and this, under the name of Bordeaux 

 mixture, has greatly helped to preserve the potato 

 as we know it." 



Mr. Arthur W. Sutton, Reading, England, in a 

 lecture before the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 presents the following very interesting facts: 



" Concerning the introduction of the potato into 

 England, the following extract from * London's 

 Encyclopedia, published in 1836, is of sufficient 

 importance to find a place in any paper on po- 



