ESCULENT-ROOTED PLANTS. — THE POTATO. 



201 



The first instance we have met with of the 

 potato being brought forward as an object of 

 national importance is the letter of Mr Buck- 

 land read before the Royal Society in 1662-3, 

 recommending the planting of potatoes in all 

 parts of the kingdom to prevent famine. His 

 contemporary, the celebrated John Evelyn, held 

 them in small estimation. He says in " Sylva," 

 writing in 1699, " Plant potatoes in your worst 

 ground. Take them up in November for winter 

 spending ; there will enough remain for a stock, 

 though ever so exactly gathered." London and 

 Wise did not consider the potato worthy of 

 notice in their " Complete Gardener," published 

 in 1719. Bradley, a voluminous writer of the 

 same date, says, after having described parsnips, 

 carrots, onions, &c, " Potatoes and Jerusalem 

 artichokes are roots of less note than any I have 

 yet mentioned." It was not until towards the 

 middle of the last century that they were even 

 generally known throughout England, and their 

 cultivation even in gardens was scarcely under- 

 stood in Scotland till about the year 1740, and 

 it was not practised in fields till about 1760. 

 So little was their cultivation understood in 

 1 725-6, that, as we are informed by " The 

 General Report of Scotland," vol. ii. p. Ill, the 

 few potato plants then existing in gardens about 

 Edinburgh were left in the same spot of ground 

 from year to year, a few roots being taken up 

 for use in autumn, and the remainder left in 

 the ground covered with straw to protect them 

 from the frost. In 1728, Thomas Prentice, a day- 

 labourer at Kilsyth, showed the first example 

 of planting them in the open fields; yet in no 

 country in the world are they cultivated to so 

 great a degree of perfection as they are in Scot- 

 land at this day. 



Uses. — Most of these are so well known that 

 it would be superfluous to recapitulate them all. 

 Still there are many purposes to which they are 

 applied not generally known j to these, therefore, 

 we shall now only refer, premising, however, 

 that those curious in the matter will find an in- 

 teresting paper on the subject in the 1st vol. of 

 the " Gardeners' Magazine," p. 438, in which 

 thirty-one different uses of the potato will be 

 found noticed. An agreeable brandy has been 

 produced from the roots by distillation — an in- 

 vention due, according to the " Memoirs of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden for 1747," 

 to Mr Chas. Skytes. He states that an acre of 

 potatoes, compared to an acre of barley, will 

 yield a spirit in the proportion of 566 to 156, 

 even admitting the potato to be planted on 

 worse ground than the barley. Dr Anderson 

 states in the " Bath Society," vol. iv. p. 50, that 

 he had distilled from 72 lb. of potatoes that had 

 been properly fermented (with no addition ex- 

 cept yeast), an English gallon of pure spirit, con- 

 siderably above proof, and about a quart more 

 below proof. The tender tops are used, both in 

 Canada and Kamtchatka, as spinach ; the boil- 

 ing, no doubt, freeing them of their narcotic 

 property. The starch or fecula obtained from 

 the roots is now extensively used to adulter- 

 ate and even pass off as a substitute for sago, 

 starch, arrow-root, tapioca, &c. — a very harm- 

 less imposition, and a great boon to cultiva- 



tors, particularly since the appearance of the 

 potato epidemic, as those judged unfit for the 

 food of man in their natural state, are manufac- 

 tured into representations of these supposed 

 nourishing articles. Mrs Morris, a London lady, 

 so early as 1807 discovered that the liquor ob- 

 tained in making potato-starch would clean silk, 

 cotton, or woollen goods, without damage to the 

 texture or colour. Potato fecula is by many 

 preferred for making souffles, and is for that 

 purpose, as well as others connected with do- 

 mestic economy from a souffle to maccaroni, sold 

 in the shops under the learned names of Fecule 

 de Pomme de Terre, and others of more recent 

 date, with which the public allows itself to be 

 gulled. A size is made from potatoes, which has 

 great advantages over common size, for the pur- 

 pose of white-washing, as it does not smell, and 

 it has also a more durable whiteness. Yeast 

 may also be made from the roots, fit for the use 

 either of the baker or the brewer. 



Potatoes are extensively employed by bakers 

 to mix with their flour in making bread, and 

 bread so made is considered lighter, and by 

 many preferred to that made of flour alone. 

 They are washed and peeled, and the pulp 

 grated down, and in that state are mixed with 

 the dough. Before potatoes became scarce in 

 consequence of the disease, and their value 

 approximated so near to that of wheaten flour 

 as to render the operation scai-cely remunera- 

 tive, almost all cottagers, and indeed many 

 families who baked their own bread, used them 

 constantly. We know well that families of dis- 

 tinction, who keep their own baker, have pota- 

 toes mixed with most of their fancy bread, rolls, 

 &c. ; and this is done on their parts not for eco- 

 nomy, but for improving the lightness of the 

 bread, and rendering it more digestive. 



Much has been said on the value of the potato 

 as an article of food, and there can be little 

 doubt that more dependence has been placed 

 on it, as such, than it deserves. It is more than 

 thirty years ago since Mr Cobbett stigmatised it 

 as " the accursed root ; " and that extraordinary 

 man foretold then the disappointment that 

 would in course of time arise from its too ex- 

 tensive cultivation. Without entering into the 

 question of political economy, we may safely 

 assert that much of the human miseiy that has 

 taken place both in Ireland and the Highlands 

 of Scotland may be traced to a too implicit re- 

 liance on this root as an article of human sus- 

 tenance. Wherever the potato can be advan- 

 tageously cultivated, there the cereal crops will 

 prosper also ; and if we analyse the produce of 

 an acre of wheat, barley, or oats, with one of 

 potatoes, the difference in the amount of nutri- 

 tious matter will be sufficiently evident. 



Man is said to be made up of a bundle of 

 habits. Before the introduction of the potato, 

 the Jerusalem artichoke was much appreciated, 

 and were that plant sufficiently hardy to stand 

 our climate, or rather to perfect its tubers with- 

 in the same space of time as the potato, the loss 

 of the latter would not be regretted, as the 

 former is far more wholesome and much more 

 nutritious. It maintained its place in public 

 estimation even long after the potato was intro- 



