98 BUIST^S FAMILY KITCHEN dAnTlTNTIi. 



POTATO. 



Soldnum tuherdswn. — Pomme de Terre, Fr. — Kart&jfel., Ger. 



Tins universal vegetable is a peresnial, well known npoD 

 e-v'ery table. It is a native of Sonth Ame-riea. In the YLcinitj 

 of Quito, tbey are known under the name of Papas. The}! 

 appear to have been known in Yirgicjia as early as 1584, and 

 were at that period cultirated by the Colonists. It is verj 

 amusing to observe the remarks of early writers u;poii. theis 

 character, some saying they are only fit for '' swine," while 

 others recommend them as a delicate dish. It is a species oi 

 a very extensive family of plants, inhabitants of every part of 

 tl'.e globe, all of a forbidding aspect, and not a few of them of 

 tlie most deadly poison, while others are being extensively c^al- 

 tivated ooth as food and luxmy to man. Among- them aix) the 

 Egg-plant and the Tomato. We are now arrived at a perioc5 

 of the history of the Potato when there appears to be a universal 

 scourge or blight passed over the crop, in every country where 

 it is cultivated — universal in its effects and as universally ^n- 

 accounted for, some attributing it to one eauso, while others 

 take an altogether opposite view. It has always and does still 

 appear to me to be an atmospheric disease, a kind of Cholera, 

 as I ten led it two years ago, which has threatened the past 

 year neai'ly to extirpate the whole crop. We now predict that 

 it has come to its height, and another season will produce a 

 more healthy crop. Cultivation may promote health, though 

 it will not avert the calamity. New soil in the past year has» 

 been more genial to the production of sound tubers, than ol(i^ 

 cultivated fields, though the former has not been entirely ex- 

 empt from disease. The vines have always been affected after 

 a few dull, cloudy, moist, warm days ; these, succeeded, h^ 

 «(rong sunshine, made visible the first blighting effects. To 

 cat off the stems close to the ground, as soon as the diseas«j 

 appeared, has invariably benefited, and in raany iustaucss, mv 



