HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 
32 
sorts of persons and this at a time when that sorry 
root, the underground or Jerusalem artichoke (helian- 
thus tuberosus) was in great esteem, and extensively 
cultivated. And we must bear in mind the disinclina- 
tion, the prejudice I might almost call it, that this root 
manifests to particular soils. Most of our esculent ve- 
getables thrive better— are better flavored, when grow- 
ing in certain soils, and under different influences ; but 
the potato becomes actually deteriorated in some land. 
And every cultivator knows from experience, that the 
much-admired product of some friend’s domain, or gar- 
den, becomes, when introduced into his own, a very 
inferior, or even an unpalatable root. Potatoes will 
grow in certain parishes and districts, and even remain 
unvitiated ; but the product will be scanty, as if they 
tolerated the culture only, and produced by favor ; 
whereas in an adjoining station, possessing some differ- 
ent admixture of soil, some change of aspect, the crop 
will be highly remunerative. These circumstances in 
earlier days, when their value, and the necessity of pos- 
sessing them, were not felt, counteracted any attempt 
for extensive cultivation, or, probably, influenced the 
dislike to their use. 
However locally this solanum might have been plant- 
ed, yet it appears, after consulting a variety of agricul- 
tural reports, garden books, husbandmen’s directions, 
& c. down to the statements of Arthur Young, that the 
potato has not been grown in gardens in England more 
than one hundred and seventy years ; or to any extent 
in the field above seventy-five. At length, however, as 
better sorts were introduced, and better modes of dress- 
ing found out, it became esteemed; and the value of 
this most inestimable root was so rapidly manifested, 
and the demand for it so great, that we find by a survey 
made about thirty years ago, that the county of Essex 
alone cultivated about seventeen hundred acres for the 
London market. I know not the extent of land now 
required for the supply of our metropolis, but it must 
be prodigious. 
Amidst the numerous remarkable productions ushered 
into the old continent from the new world, there are 
