POTATO. 24-1 



in the author's time (above seventy years ago) they 

 were not held in the highest estimation. It was not 

 till the beginning of the present century that they 

 were used as a substitute for corn bread in the 

 greater part of England, and then only through the 

 fear of want. The lower classes, to whom this 

 vegetable is the greatest blessing that the soil pro- 

 duces, forming as it does flour without a mill and 

 bread without an oven, were the last to become 

 acquainted with its value, so difficult is it to over- 

 come prejudices in certain minds. 



This palladium against famine was not cultivated 

 in Scotland before the year 1683. In 1728 Thomas 

 Prentice, a day-labourer, first planted potatoes in 

 the open fields in Kilsyth ; and the success of the 

 experiment was such, that every farmer and cottager 

 followed his example. What honour does he not 

 deserve ? 



The discovery of this inestimable root has been 

 of the greatest consequence to mankind ; and the 

 cultivation of it has now become almost of equal 

 importance with that of corn. Young, in his ac- 

 count of Essex, so far back as the year 1807? 

 states that Mr. Pittman, of Barking, in that county, 

 was one of the greatest growers of potatoes in the 

 kingdom, having in general 300 acres annually 

 planted with this useful root, and sending to market 

 3000 tons, all washed ready for sale. 



It has now become a question of great import- 

 ance, and one which deserves the most serious investi- 

 gation, whether this root, justly styled the bread fruit 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, degenerates or loses 

 any of its good qualities by the continued practice 



