Book VI. THE POTATO. 



5290. T'he nutritive products of these plants are thus given by Sir H. Davy 



845 



Sect. I. The Potato. Solamati tuberosuni L. ; Pentdndria Monogynia L., and 

 Soldjtece J. Pomme de Terre, Fr. ; Cartoffel, Ger. ; Tartvfflo or Porno di Terra, Ital. j 

 and Batata, Span. 



5291. The potato is ascertained to be a native of South America, having been found 

 wild both in Buenos Ayres and in Chili ; though Humboldt was very doubtful if that 

 could be proved : he admits, however, that it is naturalised there in some situations. 

 Sir J. Banks (Hort. Trans, vol. i. p. 8.) considers that the potato was first brought into 

 Europe from the mountainous parts of South America, in the neighbourhood of Quito, 

 where they were called papas, to Spain, in the early part of the sixteenth century. From 

 Spain, where they were called batlatas, they appear to have found their way first to Italy, 

 where they received the same name with the truffle, taratoujti. The potato was received 

 by Clusius, at Vienna, in 1588, from the governor of Mons, in Hainault, who had pro- 

 cured it the year before from one of the attendants of the Pope's legate, under the name 

 of taratovflo, and learned from him that it was then in use in Italy. In Germany it 

 received the name of cartoffel, and spread rapidly even in Clusius's time. 



5292. To England the potato was brought from Virginia by the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh 

 in 1584, who returned in July 1586, and " probably," according to Sir Joseph Banks, " brought with them 

 the potato." Thomas Herriot, in a report on the country, published in De Bry's Collection qf Voyages, 

 (vol. i. p. 17.), describes a plant called openanlc (not openawk, as in the Hort. Trans.), with " roots as large 

 as a walnut, and others much larger ; they grow in damp soil, many hanging together, as if fixed on 

 ropes ; they are good food, either boiled or roasted." Gerarde, in his Herbal, published in 1597, gives a 

 figure of the potato, under the name of the potato of Virginia, whence, he says, he received the roots; 

 and this apjiellation it appears to have retained, in order to distinguish it from the battatas, or sweet potato 

 (Convolvulus Batatas), till the year 1640, if not longer. " The sweet potato," Sir Joseph Banks observes, 

 " was used in England as a delicacy long before the introduction of our potatoes : it was imported in con- 

 siderable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and was supposed to possess the power of restoring 

 decayed vigour. The kissing comfits of Falstaffj and other confections of similar imaginary qualities, 

 with which our ancestors were duped, were principally made of these and of eringo roots." 



5293. The potato tras first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his estate of Youghall, near Cork, and, 

 Gough says, was " cherished and cultivated for food" in that country before its value was known in 

 England; for, though they were soon carried over from Ireland into Lancashire, Gerarde, who had this 

 plant in his garden in 1597, under the name of Batthta virginiana, recommends the roots to be eaten as a 

 delicate dish, not as common food. Parkinson mentions, that the tubers were sometimes roasted, and 

 steeped in sack and sugar, or baked with marrow and spices, and even preserved and candied by the 

 comfit-makers. There is a tradition among the peasantry in the county of Galway, that the potato was 

 introduced there previous to its being known in any other part of Ireland, owing to a vessel with some of 

 the roots on board having been wrecked on their coast, and a few of the roots having been roasted by 

 children who found them, they were so much approved of, as to induce the planting of the remainder. 



5294. Foi- encouraging the cultivation of potatoes, with the view of preventing famine, the Royal Society 

 took some measures in 1633. Still, however, although their utility as an article of food was better known, 

 no high character was bestowed on them. In books of gardening, published towards the end of the seven, 

 teenth century, a hundred years after their introduction, they are spoken of rather slightingly. " They 

 are much used in Ireland and America as bread," says one author, " and may be propagated with advan- 

 tage to poor people." " I do not hear that it hath been essayed," are the words of another, " whether 

 they may not be propagated in great quantities, for food for swine or other cattle." Even the enlightened 

 Evelyn seems to have entertained a prejudice againt them : " Plant potatoes," he says, writing in 1699, 

 " in your worst ground. Take them up in November for winter spending ; there will enough remain for 

 a stock, though ever so exactly gathered." But the use of potatoes gradually spread, as their excellent 

 qualities became better understood. It was near the middle of the eighteenth century, however, before 

 they were generally known over the country : since that time they have been most extensively cultivated. 

 In 1796, it was found that, in the county of Essex alone, about 1700 acres were planted with potatoes for 

 the supply of the London market. This must form, no doubt, the principal supply ; but many fields of 

 potatoes are to be seen in the other counties bordering on the capital, and many ship-loads are annually 

 imported from a distance. In every county in England, it is now more or less an object of field culture. 



5295. Potatoes, as an article of human food, are, next to wheat, of the greatest im- 

 portance in the eye of the political econonust. 



5296. Prom no other crop that can be cultivated will the public derive so much food as from this valu- 

 able esculent ; and it admits of demonstration, that an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of 

 people that can be fed from an acre of wheat. Potatoes are also a nourishing and healthy food, relished 

 by almost every palate; and it is believed there is hardly a dinner served up for six months in the year 

 without them, in any part of the kingdom. Notwithstanding all these things, and they are of great" im- 

 portance in one point of view, we are doubtful whether potatoes can be placed so high in the scale as 



