102 On the Potato as National Diet, 



belonging to civilized life four most useful and agreeable 

 articles — the potato, tobacco, maize, and the turkey ; and 

 also, it is said, two most serious pests, the potato blight and 

 the apple blight, both pertaining to the genus AjjMs, or 

 plant-louse — a genus not more remarkable for its extreme 

 fecundity than for the singular fact disclosed by the 

 researches of entomologists, that one sexual congress is 

 sufficient to propagate numerous generations of Aphides. 

 The ravages of the apple blight seem to have been first 

 noticed in a nursery in Sloane-street, London, into which 

 apple trees from North America were imported in 1787. 



History would scarcely have suffered any material incident 

 in the account of a battle to have perished ; yet the name of 

 him to whom we are indebted for the potato, — which has 

 spread over the globe from Hammerfest, in Lapland, about 

 71° north latitude, to Van Diemen's Land, 40° south, and 

 become an indispensable article of diet for all the races of 

 men, — has found no record.* 



Even Spain and Portugal, countries the least disposed 

 to improvement, have at length adopted the potato as an 

 article of subsistence ; for, though they were the earliest to 

 introduce it from their colonies, they have been the last to 

 cultivate it. I quote from a friend's letter just received : — 



" I spent six months in Portugal, which country is quiet 

 enough (no small matter in these times) ; the Government 

 insolvent and powerless, and the law of no force beyond the 

 neighbourhood of the large towns : and yet the interior 

 thriving after its fashion, as if to show us how little govern- 



* Sir George Simpson mentions having found potatoes in a lodge of Pend 

 d'oreille Indians, not far from the sources of the Columbia river, and nearly in 



the line of the Rocky Rloutitains " In one of tiieir lodges we were surprised 



to find several baskets of potatoes; and, in answer to our inquiries on the 

 subject, we were shown two patches of ground where they had been produced ; 

 the seed and implements having been supplied from Fort Colville." — Vol. I, 

 page 144, — Journer/ round the World. 



