136 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



But notwithstanding the success that attended 

 the culture of the potato among the cottagers, its 

 progress among the higher classes in Scotland was 

 retarded by the opinions of the writers formerly al- 

 luded to ; while, what is not a little singular, a mis- 

 taken zeal in religious matters made some of the 

 Scotch folks hostile to the innovation. ' Potatoes,' 

 said they, ' are not mentioned in the bihle,' and thus 

 the same anathema was pronounced against them as 

 against the ' spinning-wheel,' and the ' corn farmers.' 



The name of this plant was indeed inserted in the 

 ' Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis,' published by 

 Sutherland in 1683. It is therefore probable that 

 the potato had been introduced as a curiosity into 

 some of the gardens about Edinburgh some time 

 before it was brought into full culture by Prentice. 

 But if its management was the same as that recom- 

 mended by so great an authority as Evelyn, the 

 produce was, most probably, of little value. 



The year 1742, which was long remembered in 

 Scotland as ' the dear year,' gave an impulse to 

 the cultivation of the potato. Old people who 

 were still living at the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury, represented the state of things in the summer 

 of 1743 as being dreadful. Many of the destitute 

 wandered in the fields seeking to prolong the misery 

 of existence by devouring the leaves of pease and 

 beans, of sorrel and other wild plants, while not a few 

 perished from absolute want, and still more were car- 

 ried off by those diseases which always follow and 

 aggravate the devastations of famine. This state of 

 distress naturally called the general attention to the 

 cultivation of the potato, and indeed to the whole 

 agriculture of the country. So that, during the 

 latter half of the eighteenth century, the practice and 

 science of husbandry made much more rapid progress 



