32 HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 



sorts of persons ;" and this at a time when that sorry 

 root, the underground or Jerusalem artichoke (helian- 

 thus tuberosus) was in great esteem, and extensively 

 cultivated. And we must bear in mind the disinclina- 

 tion, the prejudice I might almost call it, that this root 

 manifests to particular soils. Most of our esculent ve- 

 getables thrive better are better flavored, when grow- 

 ing in certain soils, and under different influences ; but 

 the potato becomes actually deteriorated in some land. 

 And every cultivator knows from experience, that the 

 much-admired product of some friend's domain, or gar- 

 den, becomes, when introduced into his own, a very 

 inferior, or even an unpalatable root. Potatoes will 

 grow in certain parishes and districts, and even remain 

 unvitiated ; but the product will be scanty, as if they 

 tolerated the culture only, and produced by favor; 

 whereas in an adjoining station, possessing some differ- 

 ent admixture of soil, some change of aspect, the crop 

 will be highly remunerative. These circumstances in 

 earlier days, when their value, and the necessity of pos- 

 sessing them, were not felt, counteracted any attempt 

 for extensive cultivation, or, probably, influenced the 

 dislike to their use. 



However locally this solanum might have been plant- 

 ed, yet it appears, after consulting a variety of agricul- 

 tural reports, garden books, husbandmen's directions, 

 &c. down to the statements of Arthur Young, that the 

 potato has not been grown in gardens in England more 

 than one hundred and seventy years ,* or to any extent 

 in the field above seventy-five. At length, however, as 

 better sorts were introduced, and better modes of dress- 

 ing found out, it became esteemed ; and the value of 

 this most inestimable root was so rapidly manifested, 

 and the demand for it so great, that we find by a survey 

 made about thirty years ago, that the county of Essex 

 alone cultivated about seventeen hundred acres for the 

 London market. I know not the extent of land now 

 required for the supply of our metropolis, but it must 

 be prodigious. 



Amidst the numerous remarkable productions ushered 

 into the old continent from the new world, there are 



