THE SWEET POTATO 



CHAPTEE I 



ORIGIN AND DESCRIPTION OF THE 

 SWEET POTATO 



Foe many centuries the inhabitants of the warmer 

 countries of the world have recognized the usefulness 

 of the sweet potato as a source of food. Thus Bret- 

 schneider writes ^ that the plant " was described in 

 Chinese books a long time before the discovery of 

 America," in the third or fourth cfentury of our era. It 

 was early an important cultivated plant, the roots of 

 which supplied the place of com in Southern China. 

 The root was said to be reddish and as large as a goose 

 egg. Bretschneider identifies the plant with the sweet 

 potato. 



Although the exact origin of the sweet potato is 

 doubtful, its widespread cultivation, which in range 

 compares favorably with that of such plants as tobacco 

 and maize, argues for it antiquity of many centuries. 

 The aborigines are said to have recognized such 

 maijked similarity between the sv?eet potato and the 

 Irish potato that they called them by the same name, 

 though they are not only very different species, but the 



1 Bretschneider, " Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works," 

 p. 13. 



