INEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



l>l.'BI,I^Hi:i) 1!Y rilOMAS W. SlIErAUU, ROtlKllS' TtUII.DINGS, CONCiliKSS STRFJ'.T, (rolJKTII DUOR 1 IIOM iSlATK STRKtT.) 



Vol. if. 



BOSTON. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 182:5. 



No. 1. 



rem the Philadelphia .lonnial of the Medical and 

 Physical Sciences. 



We liave much pleasure in presenting to our 

 eailers the ensuing essay, in which is traced 

 vilh considerable success, the natural, botanical, 

 connmical, and medical history of the potatoo. 

 t is the production of one of our pupils, who was 

 ed. at our suggestion, to tlie investigation of the 

 uhject, more particularly with a view of tost- 

 ng by further experiments, the validity of some 

 ecent reports by Dr. Latham, of London, rela- 

 ive to the medicinal powers of an extract from 

 he leaves of this vegetable. These reports, 

 ve regret, have not been conlirmed, and can 

 ■nly account for the discrepancy in the result, 

 y supposing, that the potatoe, as so commonly 

 appens with regard to plants, has undergone a 

 hange in this country, by whicli its narcotic 

 rinciple is lost, or impaired, from the influence 

 f climate, or peculiarity of culture, &c. 



1)1 Essay on the Solamtm Ttiberosiij)i. By H. C. 

 WoRSHAM, U. D. 



The solanum tuberosum, according to botan- 

 ;al writers, belongs to the class pentandria, or- 

 er monogynia, and of the natural family lurida; 

 f Linnseus, and solana; of Jussieu. It is known 

 y the following characters. 

 "Root bearing tubers. Stem herbaceous, not 

 -raed, segments of the leaves unequal, alter- 

 ite — pedicles pointed, corolla five — angular.'' 

 The natural history of this plant, seems not 

 I well settled as its botanical character*. \l- 

 scovery and native history are, indeed, involv- 

 1 in doubt and obscurity, and rendered still 

 ore intricate to trace, from the little attention 

 ey have received. That the history of this 

 iportant vegetable, which now forms alike the 

 7ich man's luxury, and the poor man's bread," 

 lould not in common with other subjects of 

 ss interest, have received the attention of the 

 ituralist, is a circumstance not readily to be 

 jplained. It is, however, generally believed 



have been indigenous to this country, as far 



I can determine, from the few vague and un- 

 innected remarks to be met with in different 

 ilhors. \ et there are not wanting others, who 

 sert the contrary, and consider it to have its 

 •jgin in South America — among those are Cic- 

 1, Gomana, and Acosta, who wrote about the 

 iddle of the sixteenth century, and by whom 

 e are told, that the inhabitants of Quito and 

 ) vicinity, have beside maize, a tuberous root, 

 hich they eat and call papas. Clusius suppos- 

 1 this to be the convolvulus battata, which he 

 ceived from Flanders in 1598, during his re- 

 dence at Vienna, under the name of taratoufli, 



appellation by which the Italians distinguish 

 I tuberous roots — and this conjecture appears 



be conlirmed by travellers, who have since 

 sited that country. If this had been the sola- 

 im tuberosum, how, as Clusius asks, "could 

 e knowledge of it have been so long in reach- 

 g us ?" and continues he, "how could they 

 ive been ignorant of it at Padua, until I sent it 

 om Frankfort." 



In his characters of the kings of England, 

 olt describes the introduction of this plant into 

 eland, to Sir John Hawkins, who brought it 



from Santa Fe, as early as the year 1565. But 

 little foundation existed for.^uch an assertion, as 

 appears from his own description. It is doubt- 

 less, the convolvulus to whicli he alludes, as we 

 have no account of the \ irginia potatoe so ear- 

 ly- as that period. I state this upon the aiilhori- 

 ty of Miller, as I have not been able to lay my 

 hands upon the description alluded to — which 

 may, iiowever, be seen by reference to the 

 Gentleman's Magazine, for the year 1739. 

 From the most authentic accounts, it would ap- 

 pear, that the potatoe now so extensively culti- 

 vated on the continent of Europe, was carried 

 thither hy Sir waiter Raleigh on his return (rom 

 Virginia, in the year 1536. There is some 

 doubt, however, whether Sir Walter ever car- 

 ried it, or that it was afterwards sent to him by 

 Thomas Greenville, or M'Lane, the first gov- 

 ernor of Virginia. Mr. Thomas Merriot, one of 

 the colonists who went out with them, v/rotc an 

 account of the root called openaivk, which he 

 describes in the following manner. "The roots 

 are round, some as large as a walnut, others 

 much larger: they grow in a damp soil, many 

 hanging together as if fixed on ropes, they are 

 good food either boiled or roasted." 



It is plainly to be seen from this description, 

 that the root under consideration, is the one to 

 which he alludes, and that openawk is nothing 

 more than the Indian name for the potatoe. 

 The authority, however, for the fact does not 

 rest with those writers. We are told by Gcr- 

 arde, that he received roots from Virginia, in 

 1597, called noremb^ga, which prospered as 

 vvcll in his garden, as in their own native coun- 

 try. He called them Virginia potatoes, to dis- 

 tinguish them iVom the convolvnhis battata, 

 which was at that time much better known and 

 called potatoes, from the Spanish name battata. 

 He thus describes them. "The root is thick, 

 fat, and tuberous, not much differing in shape, 

 colour, or taste, from the common potatoe, sav- 

 ing that the roots are not so great nor long, 

 some of them round as a ball, some egg fashion, 

 some longer, others shorter. It grovvetli natur- 

 ally in America, where it was discovered." Bau- 

 ken also observes, that the potatoes came from 

 Virginia into England, thence into France, and 

 other countries. 



Writers are not surticiently agreed, as to the 

 time when the potatoe was introduced into En 

 rojje. It was certainly cultivated and used for 

 food by the Irish, long before its utilty wa: 

 known in England. It is stated by Mr. Camp- 

 bell to have been introduced into Ireland about 

 the year 1610, and by Miller as late as the year 

 1623. Why they should have assigned so late 

 a period to its introduction, is not e.isily account- 

 ed for, when we are informed by Gcrarde, that 

 he cultivated it in 1597. It is no easy matter to 

 reconcile the statements of those different au 

 thors, much less to divest the subject of that ob- 

 scurity, svith which it seems to be enveloped 

 The most generally received opinion, and that 

 which is substantiated by far the greater mass of 

 evidence, ascribes its introduction to Sir Walter 

 Raleigh on his return from Virginia, in 1586 

 Gouge in his edition of Camden's Britannia, 

 states, that Raleigh planted the potatoe at bis re- 



sidence, Youghhall, in the county nf f ork. An 

 anecdote is also related of his gardener, which, 

 sheds such addilional light upon the introduc- 

 tion of the potatoe into Ireland, that I hnpe I 

 shall be excused the liberty of transcribing il. 

 On his return he gave ?ome of the potatoes to 

 his gardener, as a line fruit from .\nierica, aud 

 ordered them to bo planted in his kitchen gar- 

 den. In ,\ugust the plants flowered, and in Sep- 

 tember produced the fruit. But the berries 

 were so difl'erent from what the gardener ex- 

 pected, that in an ill humor he carried the po- 

 tatoe apples to his master, and is tl;is (said he,) 

 the lino iVnit fVom .Amerira you )]raised so high- 

 ly ? Sir Walter either was, or pretended to be 

 ignorant of the maUer, and desired the garde- 

 ner, since that was the case, to dig up the weed 

 and throw it awny. The gardener, however, 

 soon returned willi a fine parcel of potatoes. I 

 have thus been particular in introducing this 

 anecdote, because it clearly shows that the pota- 

 toe could not have been generally known at that 

 time. It will also be perceived by Sir Walter's 

 instructions, the high importance in which he 

 held it, as well as the attention he wished it to 

 receive, by specifying the spot where it was tc 

 be planted. 



The potatoe from Ireland, gradually made its 

 way into England, as some say, by the acciden- 

 tal shipwreck of a vessel on the coast of North 

 Melos, in flic county of Lancashire, a place even 

 now famous tor the production of this vegetable 

 in the gi'oalest perfection. Its cultivation was 

 for sornc considerable time confined to this sec- 

 tion of countr}'. Nearl}' half a century elapsed 

 before it received any attention in the vicinity 

 of London — and it was considered even then, as 

 a mere article of luxury, without any concep- 

 tion of the vast utility that would arise from 

 bringing it into general use. Such, indeed, was 

 the little attention it received, that it lingered 

 m obscurity until the year 1662, when the Roy- 

 al Society considered it as an article of national 

 importance, and recommenlid its general culti- 

 vation. The potatoe did not make its way into 

 France as early as might have been expected, 

 from the high recommendations it received in 

 England. Lister, in his journey to Paris, in 

 1693, informs tis, that the potatoe at that time 

 was scarcely to be found in the French markets. 

 Its fortune there, appears to have been various, 

 and determined very much by the sudden revo- 

 lutions which have particularly characterized 

 that nation. Miller tells us, that it was not 

 much cultivated till the year 1712 — and in 1749, 

 it fell into contempt — and its cultivation left 

 wholly to the lower class of people. Its impor- 

 tance, however, soon began to revive, and claim 

 a general notice, when, by a sudden fluctuation of 

 opinion, it again lost its reputation. Yet it was 

 not doomed to slumber long, for the necessities 

 of the people had driven them to invention, and 

 they were willing to seize upon any thing that 

 would be likely to resist the ingress of famine. 

 The prejudices against its introduction still, 

 however, continued, amidst this vaccillation of 

 opinion, until the production of bread made 

 from the farina of the potatoe in combination 

 with wheaten flour. Tiiis at least, gained for 



