the Cultivation of Potatoes. 231 



In looking over some potatoes which were going to be planted, I observed on 

 several of them small buds breaking out where there was no appearance of an eye : 

 these I cut out and planted, all of which grew and produced potatoes. Willing to 

 trace this principle of vitality and self-propagation to its source, I took a certain 

 number of potatoes, which, after paring off the rind, I cut into cubes of about an 

 inch square. These cubes being kept in a dry place for a day or two, that they 

 might heal over, were planted in the same manure as common cuttings. Of these, 

 two-thirds at least produced healthy vigorous plants, and came to maturity. 



How is this phasnomenon to be accounted for? Do the embryo plants extend 

 themselves in all directions from the eyes through the whole parenchymatous sub- 

 stance of the potatoe, converting it, as it were, into a vegetable polypus ? There is 

 nothing obvious to the eye, at least, which leads to any such hypothesis. 



Had this plant and its properties been known to the Egyptians, they would, pro- 

 bably, have consecrated it^ to their principal divinity, not only on account of its 

 important application to the sustenance of human life, but as a symbolical instance 

 of the mysterious obscurity of nature in the generative process, to which their my- 

 thology is perpetually allusive, and as an emblem of fecundity. 



Potatoes, for domestic purposes, are best taken fresh out of the ground as they 

 are wanted. Those persons, therefore, who are particularly curious in having this 

 vegetable in its highest state of perfection, should have them taken up only as they 

 are called for. It seems needless to observe that before winter sets in, they should 

 be carefully covered over with straw, or any other protecting substance, to secure 

 them from the frost. 



It may not be amiss to mention, that potatoes for the table are much improved 

 by being boiled in milk, especially if they are of the watery kind. The reason 

 seems to be, that milk requiring a greater degree of heat to bring it to the boiling 

 point than the watery part of the potatoe, the watery part of the potatoe is exalted 

 into vapour and expelled before the milk boils; and even should the potatoe remain 

 in the vessel, which it ought not to do after the ebullition ceases, it would absorb, 

 and be saturated by the milk only, receiving back none of its own juices, as it would 

 have done in part, had it been boiled merely in water. 



It may, perhaps, be unnecessary to observe, that to give a minute detail of all 

 the various modes of cultivating potatoes, which have been adopted in different 

 parts of the kingdom, makes no part of the business of this Essay. Had such, 



