ON THE POTATO. 'i 1 7 



uncertain. It is probable he was possessed of this root about 

 the year 1586. He is said to have given it to his gardener 

 in Ireland, as a fine fruit from America, which he desired 

 him to plant in his kitchen-garden in the spring. In August 

 the plant flowered, and in September produced a fruit, but 

 so different to the gardener's expectation, that, in an ill hu- 

 mour, he carried the potato-apple to his master, " Is this 1 " 

 (said he), " the fine fruit from America you prized so high- 

 ly ?" Sir AVai.teu either was or pretended to be ignorant of 

 the matter, and told the gardener, since that was the case, to 

 dig up the weed, and throw it away. The gardener soon 

 returned with a good parcel of potatoes. 



Gerard, an old English botanist, received seedling's of 

 the potato about the year 1590, and tells us that it grew as 

 kindly in his garden as in its native soil Virginia. The plant 

 was cultivated in the gardens of the nobility and gentry, early 

 in the last century, as a curious exotic, and towards the end of 

 it (1684), it was planted out in the fields, in small patches, 

 in Lancashire : from thence it was gradually propagated all 

 over the kingdom, as well as in France. 



In 1683, Sutherland has the Solanum tuberosum in his 

 Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis ; and it is probable that many 

 others in Scotland cultivated the potato in their gardens about 

 that time. It was not, however, cultivated in open fields in 

 Scotland till the year 1728, when Thomas Prentice, a day- 

 labourer, first cultivated potatoes at Kilsyth. The success 

 was such, that every farmer and cottager followed his ex- 

 ample, and for many years past it has become a staple article, 

 Thomas Prentice, by his industry, had saved L. 200 Ster- 

 ling, which he sunk for double interest : upon this he sub- 

 sisted for many years, and died at Edinburgh in 1792, aged 

 86 years. 



Culture. — After the number of able reports to the Society 

 of Agriculture, and the notices in many of the statistical 



