356 



BOOT CROPS. 



The roots of TropcBolum tuberosum are eaten in Peru, those of 

 Ocymum tuberosum in Java. In Kamschatka they use the root of 

 the Lilium Pomponium as a substitute for the potato. In Brazil 

 the Helianthus tuberosus. The rhizomsB and seed vessels of the 

 Lotus form the principal food of the aborigines of Australia. As 

 a matter of curious information, I have also briefly alluded to many 

 other plants and roots, furnishing farinaceous substance and sup- 

 port in different countries. 



The comparative amount of human food that can be produced 

 upon an acre from different crops, is worthy of great consideration. 

 One hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre is not an uncommon 

 crop. One peck per week will not only sustain life, but give a 

 man strength to labor, if the stomach is properly toned to the 

 amount of food. This, then, would feed one man 400 weeks, or 

 almost eight years ! 400 bushels of potatoes can also be raised 

 upon an acre. This would give a bushel a week for the same 

 length of time ; and the actual weight of an acre of sweet potatoes 

 (^Convolvulus batatas) is 21,344 lbs., which is not considered an 

 extraordinary crop. This would feed a man (six pounds a day) 

 for 3,557 days, or nine and two-third years ! 



To vary the diet we will occasionally give rice, which has been 

 grown at the rate of 93 bushels to the acre, over an entire field. 

 This, at 45 lbs. to the bushel, would be 4,185 lbs. ; or, at 28 lbs. to 

 the bushel when husked, 2,604 lbs., which, at two pounds a day, 

 would feed a man 1,302 days, or more than three-and-a-half years ! 



POTATOES. 



The common English or Irish potato {Solarium tuberosum'), so ex- 

 tensively cultivated throughout most of the temperate countries 

 of the civilised globe, contributing as it does to the necessities of 

 a large portion of the human race, as well as to the nourishment 

 and fattening of stock, is regarded as of but little less importance 

 in our national economy than wheat or other grain. It has been 

 found in an indigenous state in Chili, on the mountains near Val- 

 paraiso and Mendoza; also near Monte Video, Lima, Quito, as 

 well as in Santa Ee de Bogota, and more recently in Mexico, on 

 the flanks of Orizaba. 



The history of this plant, in connection with that of the sweet 

 potato, is involved in obscurity, as the accounts of their introduc- 

 tion into Europe are somewhat conflicting, and often they appear 

 to be confounded with one another. The common kind was doubt- 

 less introduced into Spain in the early part of the sixteenth century, 

 from the neighbourhood of Quito, where, as well as in all Spanish 

 countries, the tubers are known as papas. The first published 

 account of it we find on record is in " La Cronica del Peru,'' by 

 Pedro de Cieca, printed at Seville, in 1553, in which it is described 

 and illustrated by an engraving. Erom Spain it appears to have 

 found its way into Italy, where it assumed the same name as the 



