CHAPTER IV. 



THE CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 



Botanical Name : Solanum tuberosum. 

 Natural Order : Solanacecs. 



THE potato is a native of South America. The 

 history of its discovery and introduction into Europe 

 is rather obscure, but it is believed to have been 

 brought over by the early Spanish voyagers about 

 the middle of the sixteenth century. They found it 

 under cultivation in the west of South America from 

 Chile to Colombia, and flourishing at various heights 

 above sea-level. It was thence introduced by the 

 Spaniards into North America ; and from there it 

 was brought to England first, some say, by Sir 

 John Hawkins in 1563, certainly ten years later by 

 Sir Francis Drake, and again by colonists under the 

 auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, returning from Vir- 

 ginia in 1586. The plant was grown from this period 

 on Raleigh's estate near Cork, and became known 

 as a food in Ireland long before it was cultivated in 

 England. Its valuable properties having become 

 more generally known, the Royal Society in 1663 

 took measures to encourage its cultivation ; but a 

 long time elapsed before it was grown to any extent. 

 To Scotland the potato was introduced in 1725, and 



42 



