30 INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO. 



equally due to other crops : but the cultivation of this 

 tuber requires that the soil should be moved and turned 

 repeatedly ; it is generally twice at least plowed, trench- 

 ed by the spade for sets, backed when the plant is above 

 ground, then hoed into ridges, and finally, the whole 

 turned over again when the crop is got out : thus is the 

 soil six times turned and exposed to the sun and air 

 and it is kept perfectly free from weeds of all kinds 

 both of which circumstances are essentially beneficial 

 to the soil. If the potato must have manure, it does 

 not exhaust all the virtues of it, as the crop wJiich suc- 

 ceeds it, be it wheat or barley, sufficiently manifests: 

 there are, besides, exertions made by the renter to ob- 

 tain this profitable crop, that greatly improve the farm, 

 and which a less promising one would not always stimu- 

 late him to attempt he will cut up his ditch banks, 

 collect the waste soil of his fields, composting it with 

 lime and other matters as a dressing for the potato crop, 

 and it answers well : the usual returns from corn, and 

 fluctuations in the price, will not often induce him to 

 make such exertions. All this is no robbery of the 

 farm-yard, but solely a profitable reward and premium 

 to industry. 



Much has been said and written about the potato ; 

 but as some erroneous ideas have been received con- 

 cerning its early introduction into Europe, perhaps a 

 slight sketch of the history of this extraordinary root 

 may not be uninteresting, a summary of the perusal 

 of multitudes of volumes, papers, treatises ! 



The sweet Spanish potato (convolvulus batatus), a 

 native of the East, was very early dispersed throughout 

 the continent of Europe ; and all the ancient accounts, 

 in which the name of potato is mentioned, relate exclu- 

 sively to this plant, a convolvulus : but our inquiry at 

 present regards that root now in such extensive culti- 

 vation with us, which is an American plant*(solanum 

 tuberosum). Perhaps the first mention that is known 

 concerning the root is that of the great German botanist, 

 Clusius, in 1588, who received a present of two of the 

 tubefs in that year from Flanders ; and there is a plate 

 of it among his rare plants. The first certain account 



See note A, appendix. 



