VARIETIES OF THE POTATO. 27 



for this culture, the profits of which enable him fre- 

 quently to build a cottage, and, with the aid of a little 

 bread, furnishes a regular, plentiful, nutritious food for 

 himself, his wife, and children within, and his pig 

 without doors ; and they all grow fat and healthy upon 

 this diet, and use has rendered it essential to their being. 

 The population of England, Europe perhaps, would 

 never have been numerous as it is, without this vege- 

 table ; and if the human race continue increasing, th 

 cultivation of it may be extended to meet every demand, 

 which no other earthly product could scarcely be found 

 to admit of. The increase of mankind throughout 

 Europe, within the last forty years, has been most re- 

 markable, as every census informs us, notwithstanding 

 the havoc and waste of continual warfare, and most ex- 

 tensive emigration ; and as it seems to be an established 

 maxim, that population will increase according to the 

 means of supply, so, if a northern hive should swarm 

 again, or 



" Blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic shore " 



once more arise, future historians will probably attribute 

 this excess of population, and the revolutions it may 

 effect, to the introduction of vaccination on the one 

 part, and the cultivation of the potato on the other. 



The varieties of this tuber, like apples, seem annually 

 extending, and every village has its own approved sorts 

 and names, different soils being found preferable for 

 particular kinds, and local treatment advantageous. We 

 plant both by the dibble* and the spade : our chief sorts 

 are pink eyes, prince's beauty, magpies, and china 

 oranges, for our first crop ; blacks, roughs, and reds, fo 

 the latter crop ; and horses' legs, for cattle. We have 

 a new sort under trial, with rather an extraordinary 

 name, which I must here call " femora dominarum ! " 



* But dibbling is not held in esteem by us : we think that in wet 

 easons the holes retain the moisture and the sets perish ; and that 

 n dry weather, being less covered than when planted by the spade, 

 they are more obnoxious to injury by birds and mice, become affected 

 by droughts, are longer in shooting out, and produce, in most cases, 

 inferior crops. In a lighter soil these objections, perhaps, would not 

 be found reasonable. 



