FARMERS' REGISTER— ON THE POTATO. 



679 



labors ol" the learned, and the philanthropy of the 

 patriotic."* In booi<s ol' gardening piiblisihed to- 

 wards the close ol' the 17th century, potatoes are 

 s|)okeii of in no very high terras. "They are 

 much used," says one writer, "in Ireland and 

 America as bread, and might be propagated witii 

 ailvantage to poor peojjje." Another says, "1 

 do not hear that it hath been yet essayed whether 

 they may not be jjropagated in large quantities tor 

 Iboil lor swhie and other cattle." The iiunous 

 nurserymen, London and Wise, have not consider- 

 ed the potato worthy of a jjlace in their Complete 

 (iardener, published in 1719; and several other 

 writers speak of it as liir interior to radishes! This 

 was more than 100 years alter its introduction. 

 One reason, certainly, that the jjlant remained so 

 long in disre[)ute, was the deiijctive mode of its cul- 

 ture. The early planting and late raising of the 

 potatoes, very much injured their quality. This 

 aad ignorance of thepro]jer modeof cooking them, 

 would make them certainly any thing but a tempt- 

 ing article of Ibod. The Ibllovving anecdote illus- 

 trates this. "A person who had been invited to 

 taste the lirst potatoes jjlanted in the Country of 

 Forliir, about the year 1730, related that the roots 

 had been merely lieated, and that they adhered to 

 the teeth like glue, while their flavor -was liar 

 ironi agreeable. The ibod was about to [)e con- 

 demned through the ignorance of the cook, when 

 the accidental arrival of a gentleman, wlio had 

 tasted a potato in Lancashire, caused the rejected 

 roote to be remanded back to tiie hot turf ashes, 

 till they became as daint}" a,s they had be lore been 

 nauseous." 



According to the old Statistical Account ol 

 Sc.otland, potatoes were first cultivated in the fields 

 there, in the year 1739, in the County of Sterling: 

 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. 

 Ill) as a U'ell ascertained lact, that "in the year 

 1725-6, the lew potato plants then existing in gar- 

 dens tibout Edinbia-gh: were lelt in the same spot 

 of ground from year to year, as recommended by 

 Evelyn: a lew tubers were perhaps removed lor 

 use in the autumn, and the parent plants well co- 

 vered with litter to save them fi'om the winter's 

 frost." Notivithstanding the success that alter 

 this period attended the culture of the potato 

 eimong the cottagers, its progress among the high- 

 er classes in Scotland was retarded by the opinions 

 of the ditiL'rent writers on agricultural subjects, al- 

 ready mentioned: and also, what is not a little sin- 

 gular, a mistaken zeal in religious matters made 

 some of the Scotch Iblks hostile to the innovation. 

 "Potatoes," said they, "are not mentioned in the 

 JJible;" and this was deemed quite a sulFicient rea- 

 son tor rejecting them. Famine at last gave the 

 great impulse to the cultivation of this root, €ind 

 during the latter part of the ISlh century, it grad- 

 ually spread over the country, and its excellent 

 qualities became generally understood. 



I shall not occupy your time by tracing its pro- 

 gress through the various other countries of Eu- 

 rope. I may merely mention that the Nether- 

 lands received it from England; and that from 

 thence it found its way into ditferent parts of Ger- 

 many. It was very late beibre it came into gene- 

 ral cultivation in Sweden and Denmark, and even 



*Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 



Saxony, but in all these countries it is universally 

 used at present. In Switzerland potatoes seem to 

 have been introduced about the year 1720; tJiey 

 now form a principal article of Ibod there. Poland 

 is jjerhaps as rernarkable as Ireland tor their ex- 

 tensive cultivation. Of late years they have been 

 introduced info the Rritish settlements in India, 

 and, as Uishop Heber remarks, "with great [iros- 

 pect of success. JNJany places have been found 

 suited lor their cullurc, and though the IJindoos 

 at first were unwilling to adopt the use of them, 

 their prejudices have been gradually overcome, 

 and potatoes may sometime hence rival rice in its 

 general utility among them." "It is only within 

 these forty years that any particular attention has 

 been paid in France to the cultivation of potatoes. 

 They were long regarded as an unwholesome 

 l)lant, and only fit to be eaten by cattle and the 

 most wretched of human beings. It is probable 

 that the French had only cultivated the inferior 

 sorts, and did not know tliat better kinds could be 

 Ijrocured. Parmenlier, so distinguished by his 

 zeal fbr^ chemistry, was the first who made any 

 successful exertions in behalf of this decried and 

 unpopular plant. He thought that the best })lan 

 to introduce it into general use was to make it 

 popular with the higher orders. For that pur- 

 pose, in 1785, he presented Louis XVI. with a 

 nosegay made with the flowers of the potato, and 

 the sovereign graciously received the emblem of 

 a j)lant, the most likely of any, to guarantee his 

 subjects against the horrors of famine. This in- 

 genious mode of bringing a plant, which had hith- 

 erto been so much des|.'ised into fashion, was emi- 

 nently successful. The courtiers, ahvays ready 

 to flatter the tasfe and wishes of their monarchy 

 hastened to cidtivate an article honored with his 

 regard: and thus France, in a great measure, owes 

 the more extensive culture of potatoes to courtly 

 flattery."* 



To give a descrijition of the potato plant in art 

 Irish assembly, would certainly be an unnecessa- 

 ;y undertaking; Avith equal reason, I might begin 

 to describe a shower of rain, for both must be as 

 familiar to every one as the light of day. JVIy re- 

 marks, therefore, on this part of the subject shall 

 be very brief The potato, because it grows un- 

 der ground, has been usually called a roof, but 

 improperly. It more nearly resembles a kind of 

 under ground fruit; and, in conformity with this 

 idea, the French have given it the name of pom- 

 me de terre or ground-apple. The potato, in fact, 

 belongs to the class of plants called tuberous-root- 

 ed, or those having roundish knobs intermixed with 

 the fibres, which constitute the real roots that 

 draw nourishment from the earth. These tubers 

 or knobs have been considered as so many under 

 ground stems, enlarged by a deposition of farin- 

 aceous matter; and when, by any chance, they 

 lose while growing their covering of earth, and 

 continue to grow exposed to the light, they as- 

 sume the same green color as the rest of the j)lant. 

 But I am rather inclined to consider them as a 

 mode of increase analogous to the viviparous pro- 

 duction of a part of the animal kingdom; while 

 the seed or apple from the flower corresponds to 

 the oviparous prop.agation of birds. Tuberous- 

 rooted jilanls, therefore, are furnished bj- nature 

 with a two-fold mode of increase. The potato, 



*Sir John Sinclair. 



