132 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



eminent nurserymen, Loudon and Wise, the seventh 

 edition of which was published in 1719, no mention 

 is made of this root; and Bradley, who wrote about 

 the same time, and whose very extensive works on 

 horticultural subjects treated expressly on new im- 

 provements in the art, notices it as if by compulsion. 

 ' They (potatoes) are,' says he, l of less note than 

 horse-raddish, radish, scorzonera, beets, and skirret ; 

 but as they are not without their admirers, I will not 

 pass them by in silence.' 



These facts and extracts are curious, as they serve 

 to show that this most valuable article of food was 

 not brought into general use by the skill and labour 

 of professional men, but in defiance of their pre- 

 judices, and the bad methods of culture which they 

 promulgated. There can indeed be little doubt 

 that the imperfect modes of both cultivating and 

 preparing the potato as an esculent were in a great 

 measure the causes which prevented its more speedy 

 adoption as a wholesome and substantive article of 

 food ; while this very ignorance of its nature and 

 management produced the low estimation in which 

 it was held by writers about the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century. 



To those who know anything practically of the 

 cultivation of this plant, it must be evident how 

 much the early sowing, the late taking up, and the 

 leaving in the ground during winter of the roots 

 intended tor propagation, tended to deteriorate the 

 quality of the potatoes. These circumstances, to- 

 gether with the little culinary skill exercised in its 

 preparation, caused it to appear under no very 

 tempting form. A person who had been invited to 

 taste the first potatoes which were planted in the 

 county of Forfar, in or about the year 1730, related 

 that the roots had been merely heated, and that they 

 adhered to the teeth like glue, while their flavour 



