CHAPTER XXVITI. 

 POTATOES. 



The Potato. Solanum tuberosum. 



French, pomme de terre; German, kartoffel; Dutch, 

 aardappel; Danish, jordepeeren; Italian, patata; Spanish 

 and Portuguese, patatas. 



The Sweet Potato. Convolvulus batatas. 



French, patate douce ; Italian, patata ; Spanish and 

 Portuguese, batata. 



Potatoes may be grown everywhere in California with- 

 out irrigation, except on strictly arid plains and deserts, 

 and it needs but slight watering to enable the light but 

 rich soils of the arid regions to surpass the naturally moist 

 lands both in the size and quality of their produce. Some 

 of the grandest potatoes every grown in the State have 

 been taken from light, warm soils whose natural growth 

 was sagebrush and other desert flora. The superiority of 

 the higher, lighter lands, either with adequate rainfall or 

 irrigation, to the moist lowlands of the interior river bot- 

 toms or the coast valleys, has been clearly recognized 

 during recent years. In the earlier days, the coast and 

 the interior river bottoms were supposed to be par ex- 

 cellence the potato regions, and their products were trans- 

 ported great distances to interior uplands which were 

 thought to be unfit for the plant. Now the choicest po- 

 tatoes are grown in these places and the production in 

 the older regions has decreased, though the potato still 

 constitutes an important crop. The present situation is 

 that the potato may be seen everywhere from the skirts 

 of the cliffs which look down upon the ocean, along the 

 bottoms and sides of the coast valleys, on the reclaimed 

 lands and benches of the great interior rivers, up the 



