FARMERS" REGISTER— THE SWEET POTATO. 



677 



The above method should be pursued yearly, as 

 Inn<x as the bed lasts, Avhich in this climatp, I ]irc- 

 siuue will continue to produce well li'oui Ihirly to 

 forty yeiu-s, under the above treatment. The bed 

 that produced the large shoots? I spoke of, was put 

 in 1819; in 1833, the season I sold uiy farm, the 

 produce was e(jua!, if not superior, to any ibrmer 

 year. 



Yours, &c. 



T). CIIAXnLKU. 



Thompson Island, Feb. 9, 1835. 



From tlio [liiitisli] Q\mrtcily Journal of Agriculture. 

 ON THE POTATO. 



By Mr. Robert S. M'Adam, read before the BeL'ast 

 Natilral History Society. 



It is slno-ular, that ali,hou<rhthe potato is now so 

 wndeiy dillused among* civihzeil nations as a staple 

 article of food, its history, and the time of its intro- 

 duction, are w^rapped in great obscurity. Five 

 and twenty years ago, Sir Joseph Banks made a 

 number of interesting researches on the subject, 

 and published the result, under the title of "An 

 a1t<>mpt to ascertain the time of the introduction of 

 the potato," which proves that even he had not 

 arrived at certainty. This work I have not met 

 with;* but, after a search through a great number 

 of other sources, I liave been able to collect the 

 following particulars. 



In the beginning of the sixteenth century, I find 

 that the Spanish sioed potato, a species of (Convol- 

 vulus, Avas common in gardens over Europe. It 

 was first introduced into Spain from the West In- 

 dies, and bore the Indian name of I3attata. There 

 is also a possibility of its having come to Europe 

 from the east, as it is a native both of India and 

 Cliina. Old Gerard, the Enghsh herbalist, gives 

 the Ibllowing account of this plant in his usual 

 quaint style. "This plant," says he, "which is 

 called Sisarum Peruvianum, or Skyrrists of Peru, 

 m generally by us called Potatus or Potatoes. 

 There is not any that has written of this plant, 

 or said any thing of the flowers; therefore I refer 

 the description thereof unto those that shall here- 

 after have further knowledge of the same;}'et have 

 I liad in my garden divers roots that have flour- 

 ished unto the first appproach of winter, and have 

 frown unto a great length of branches, but they 

 rought not forth any flowers at all. The roots 

 are many, thick, and knobbie, like unto the roots 

 of peionies, or rather of the asphodill, joined to- 

 gether at the top into one head, in the manner of 

 the skyrrit, which being divided into divers parts 

 and planted, do make great increase, especially if 

 the greatest roots be cut 'into divers gobbets, and 

 planted in good fertill ground. The potatoes grow 

 in India, Barbaric, Spaine, and oiher hotte re- 

 gions, of wiiich I planted divers roots (that I bought 

 at the Exchange in London,) in my garden, 

 where they flourished until winter, at which time 

 they perished and rotted. The potato roots are, 

 among the Spaniards, Italians, and many other 

 nations, common and ordinary meate; which, no 

 doubt, arc of mighty nourishing parts, and do 



*It forms art. 2. in the first volnmo of the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society of London, 180.5. 

 Ed. 



strengthen and comfort nature; whose nutriment 

 is, as it were, a meane between flesh and Iruit, 

 though somewhat windie; but, being rosted in the 

 embers, they do lose much of their windiness, es- 

 pecially being eaten sopped in wine. Of these 

 roots may be made conserves, no less toothsome, 

 wholesome, and daintie, than of the flesh of 

 quinces. And likewise these comfortable and deli- 

 cate mcates, called in shops Morselli, Placentulio, 

 and divers other such like. These roots may 

 serve as a ground of foundation whereon the 

 cunning coniectioner or sugar-baker may workc 

 and frame many eomtbrtable delicate conserves 

 and restorative sweet-meats. They are used to be 

 eaten rosted in the ashes; some, when they be so 

 rosled, infuse them and sop them in wine; and 

 otliers, to give them the greater grace in eating, 

 do boil them with prunes, and so eate them." 

 These sweet potatoes were long used in England 

 as a delicacy, and were iniported, in considerable 

 quantities, from Spain andthc Canaiy Islands, being 

 snppo.sed to have the peculiar property of restoring 

 decayed vigor in men. The fiimous kissing com- 

 fits, so much in vogue in Shakspeare's daj^, and 

 with which our ancestors were imposed upon, as 

 we are by universal pills, and otlier modern om- 

 nipotent remedies, were made principally of these 

 and eringo roots. Falstafl' says in the Merry 

 Wives of Windsor.* 



"Let it rain potatoes and hail kissing comfils." 



I shall only mention further, with respect to this 

 plant, the Eattata, that it grows abundantly in Ja- 

 maica, Barbadoes, and the other West India is- 

 lands, and that it is propagated, not like our pota- 

 to, but by slips. The pounded or grated roots 

 make excellent puddings and cakes; and, when 

 mashed and- ilirmented, a cooling and refreshing 

 drink is made ft"om them, called Mobby, somewhat 

 resembling small-beer. 



llie potato now in use, the Solanum tuberosum 

 of botanists, according to the Spanish historians, 

 was found in culiivation on the first arrival of the 

 Spaniards in Chili and Peru. Peter Cieca informs 

 us, in his Chronicle, published in 1553, that the 

 inhabitants of Quito, and its vicinity, have, besides 

 maize, a tuberous root which they eat, and call 

 Papas. Molina, in his Natural History of Chili, 

 vol. ii, quotes the authority of several ancient 

 writers to prove that the plant is indigenous there. 

 He describes two species or varieties, the one wild, 

 and with small bitter roots, the other, the one un- 

 der cultivation; but appears to consider both to 

 have been the same originally — cultivation render- 

 ing tlie wild plant sweet and succulent, exactly as 

 in the case ol' our carrot. The Spaniards having 

 introduced those roots into their own country, did 

 not retain their Peruvian name, but from their 

 similarity in nature to the sweet potato already in 

 use, called them also Battatas. From Spain they 

 were carried into Italy, where they were known 

 by the same name as tnifiies, taratoujli. The first 

 European writer (after those alluded to,) who 

 takes any notice of them, is the famous German 

 botanist Clnsius, who mentions having received 

 two roots, in th.e year 1588, while residing at Vien- 

 na, from the Governor of Mons, in the province of 

 Hainault; who, it seems, had himself procured 

 them from the iittendant of the Poj)e's legate, un- 



*Act V. Scene 5. 



