40 HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 



him in all his wanderings, by his treatment they 

 remain obedient to his desires, and are identified 

 with colonization, but as soon as he remits his 

 attentions, the seeds perish in the soil, or their off- 

 spring dwindle in the earth, and are lost. Or we 

 may say, that nature, having created these things, 

 permits him, in the sweat of his brow, to effect an 

 improvement, and consigns the custody of them to 

 his care, satisfied that he will preserve them for his 

 own benefit as long as required ; when his occasion 

 for them ceases, or when by sloth he neglects them, 

 they return to their original creation: the earth 

 might be cursed to bring forth thorns and thistles, 

 but an attendant blessing and mercy was reserved 

 of permitting them to be cultivated, producing 

 healthful recreation and grateful food. If these are 

 plants of immemorial antiquity, the potato is yet of 

 comparatively modern introduction, but the original 

 species from whence all our endless varieties have 

 emanated cannot probably now be ascertained, 

 man having, as observed above, almost created an 

 essential article of food ; and it is not unimportant 

 to note the great difference that subsists in the 

 component parts of these varieties for though, in 

 common estimation, a potato may be a potato, yet 

 we find them very differently compounded. The in- 

 fluence of different temperatures and years may 

 cause these proportions to vary, but I give them as 

 observed in 1828. 



