VARIETIES OF THE POTATO. 
27 
for this culture, the profits of which enable him fre- 
quently to build a cottage, and, with the aid of a little 
bread, furnishes a regular, plentiful, nutritious food for 
himself, his wife, and children within, and his pig 
without doors ; and they all grow fat and healthy upon 
this diet, and use has rendered it essential to their being. 
The population of England, Europe perhaps, would 
never have been numerous as it is, without this vege- 
table ; and if the human race continue increasing, the 
cultivation of it may be extended to meet every demand, 
which no other earthly product could scarcely be found 
to admit of. The increase of mankind throughout 
Europe, within the last forty years, has been most re- 
markable, as every census informs us, notwithstanding 
the havoc and waste of continual warfare, and most ex- 
tensive emigration ; and as it seems to be an established 
maxim, that population will increase according to the 
means of supply, so, if a northern hive should swarm 
again, or 
“ Blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic shore ” 
once more arise, future historians will probably attribute 
this excess of population, and the revolutions it may 
effect, to the introduction of vaccination on the one 
part, and the cultivation of the potato on the other. 
The varieties of this tuber, like apples, seem annually 
extending, and every village has its own approved sorts 
and names, different soils being found preferable for 
particular kinds, and local treatment advantageous. We 
plant both by the dibble* and the spade : our chief sorts 
are pink eyes, prince’s beauty, magpies, and china 
oranges, for our first crop ; blacks, roughs, and reds, fo 
the latter crop; and horses’ legs, for cattle. We have 
a new sort under trial, with rather an extraordinary 
name, which I must here call “ femora dominarum ! ” 
* But dibbling is not held in esteem by us : we think that in wet 
seasons the holes retain the moisture and the sets perish ; and that 
in dry weather, being less covered than when planted by the spade, 
they are more obnoxious to injury by birds and mice, become affected 
by droughts, are longer in shooting out, and produce, in most cases, 
inferior crops. In a lighter soil these objections, perhaps, would not 
be found reasonable. 
