720 [Assembly 



September 21st, 1847. 

 Col. Lewis Saunders of Kentucky, in the Chair. 



H. Meigs read the following translation, made by him. 

 ^HISTORY OF THE POTATO AND ITS DISEASE. 



By Bonjean of the Duchy of Savoy, published in Paris, Lyons, Geneva and Turin. 1846. 



Extracts, translated by Henry Meigs, Secretary of the Farmers' 

 Club, from the volume presented by the Minister of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, by the hands of M. Alexander Vattemare, Sept. 13, 1847. 



" Notwithstanding the general use of the potato for many years 

 past, little was known of the precise origin of it. This ignorance 

 is somewhat removed by the studies of a learned naturalist of Paris, 

 Monrt. Virey. The potato came originally from the intertropical 

 parts of the American Continent. It grows spontaneously from Ca- 

 rolina to Valparaiso in Chili, where it is generally known by the 

 name of Papas. It grows abundantly on the Andes, at a height of 

 ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, and in the vicinity of 

 Lima, in Peru, where it is generally known by the name of Papas, 

 There the celebrated Joseph Pavon, one of the authors of the Peru- 

 vian Flora, found it wild or spontaneous. The Indians cultivate it 

 abundantly in Chili and Peru, for their subsistence. It is also met 

 with in the Forests of Santa Fe de Bogota. It was brought from 

 Peru to the province of Betanzos, in Galicia, Spain, about, the year 

 1530, where it became indigenous under the name of Castana Mart- 

 «a, (sea coast chestnut) and it produced very small tubers, some of a 

 mild taste, and others very hitter — the former round or long and 

 white, the others long and red. Specimens of the wild potato were 

 sent to France in 1825, and were found to grow very slowly; the long 

 ones having an eye very distinct, with a mark like that of the finger 

 nail impressed in wax, the round ones having an eye equally distinct 

 without the mark. 



One of the first authors who has spoken of the potato was a Span- 

 iard, who was a soldier in the armies which conquered Peru, Pierre 

 Gieca, who thus describes the potato. ' In the neighborhood of Qui- 

 to the inhabitants cultivate, besides corn, (maize) a sort of plant 

 which is their principal food, which they call Papas. These roots 

 are much like Trufflles, but having no bark or any particular cover- 

 ing. They eat these as we do chestnuts, roasted. They also dry 

 them in the sun to preserve them, under the name of Chumo.' Some- 

 what later Zarate, and afterwards Lopez de Gomara, a Spanish 



