244 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 20, 1863. 
published a new edition of Gerarde’s Herbal, and it is very 
apparent that the Potato had then improved under cultiva¬ 
tion, for the tubers there represented by him are large, and 
in form resembling the Julys now cultivated ; whereas those 
portrayed by Gerarde are small and globular, like those pro¬ 
duced by the plant in its wild state. 
The positive testimony of Gerarde proves that the Potato 
was forwarded to him from Virginia; and how they reached 
that province of North America will be made to appear pro¬ 
bable by the suggestions of Humboldt, which we will presently 
mention. Gerarde, we may conclude, received the tubers 
from some of the settlers in Virginia, who emigrated thither 
about twelve years previously, in 1584, under a patent granted 
by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh. And thus much 
is certain, that in 1693 Sir Robert Southwell, President of 
the Royal Society, communicated to that learned body the 
fact that his grandfather first cultivated the Potato in Ireland, 
and that he obtained it from Raleigh. Tradition states 
further that Sir Walter himself also had the root planted on 
his estate near Youghall in the south of Ireland, and that he 
gave them to his gardener as a desirable fruit from America. 
When the berries were ripe in September the gardener 
brought them to his master, with the inquiry of disappoint¬ 
ment, “ Sir, are these the fine American fruit?” Sir Walter, 
either really or pretendingly ignorant of the Potato’s habit, 
desired them to be dug up as weeds, and thrown away; but 
in doing this the tubers were revealed, and found to be the 
available produce. 
Humboldt rationally concludes that the Virginian colonists 
obtained the Potato from the Spanish settlements, for it is 
•quite clear that it is not a native of Virginia, nor even of 
intervening Mexico, and that it was cultivated in Spain and 
Italy before it was made known in England from Virginia. 
Although the Potato was known to English botanists in 
1596, yet horticulture was too ignorantly practised in this 
country to permit its rapid introduction among our cultivated 
crops. In 1619 Potatoes were here a desired yet expensive 
luxury; for in that year of James I.’s reign a small dish of 
them provided for his Queen’s table cost Is. per lb., when 
money was at least twice as valuable as it is now. 
Potato cultivation spreads rapidly in Ireland, and it 
became established, it is said, in Lancashire and that por¬ 
tion of our northern coast still celebrated for its culture, 
owing to some being on board a vessel wrecked upon its 
shore. Yet the value of the root was not generally known at 
a still later period ; for in a time of scarcity—namely, in the 
March of 1663—it required to be recommended as a crop of 
national importance in a letter addressed to the Royal Society. 
The writer of this letter was Mr. Buckland, a Somersetshire 
■gentleman, and the recommendation was referred for con¬ 
sideration to a Committee of the Society. The report of that 
Committee was favourable, and the Society not only urged 
its cultivation to landed proprietors, but requested Mr. Evelyn 
to enforce the Society’s opinions in his “ Sylva,” then pub¬ 
lishing under its auspices, although it was no favourite with 
him, for in 1664 in his “ Kalendarium Hortense,” he says, 
Plant Potatoes in February in your worst ground.” Before 
the “ Sylva ” appeared—namely, in 1664—was published a 
pamphlet, the first devoted to the subject of cultivating the 
Potato, and bearing this prolix title—“England’s happiness 
increased, or a sure and easy remedy against all succeeding 
■dear years, by a plantation of the roots called Potatoes, 
whereof (with the addition of wheat flour) excellent, good, 
and wholesome bread may be made every year, eight or nine 
months together, for half the charges as formerly. Also, by 
the planting of these roots, 10,000 men in England and Wales 
who know not how to live, or what to do to get a maintenance 
for their families, may of one acre of ground make £30 per 
annum. Invented and published for the good of the poorer 
sorts by John Forster, Gent., of Harslop, in Buckingham¬ 
shire.” 
He says that the Potatoes he recommends for general 
cultivation “ are the Irish Potatoes, little differing from those 
of Virginia, save only in the colour of their white flowers. 
These roots, although they came at first from the Indies, yet 
prosper well in Ireland, where there are whole fields of them, 
from whence they have been brought into Wales and the north 
parts of England, where they likewise prosper and increase 
exceedingly.” He recommends a dry well-drained soil for 
them, to be enriched with dung if necessary. Planting in 
March, with tubers cut into quarters or halves, to be buried 
6 inches deep and 8 inches asunder. The roots, he says, may 
be begun to be taken up in September, and as wanted until 
March ; so that even then it was known to the cultivators 
that the colds of winter would not destroy the tubers ; and 
Mr. Forster further adds that the very small roots must be 
left in the ground to produce a crop the next year. In con¬ 
clusion, he gives directions for making Potato bread, Potato 
biscuits, Potato pudding, Potato custards, and Potato cheese¬ 
cakes. The produce from good ground was three or four 
heaped bushels per rod. No one, he says, will grudge for 
them a shilling per bushel. Mr. Forster then considers the 
growth of Potatoes as a political question, and recommends 
the Kins (Charles II.) to order an importation of the root 
from Ireland ; and that every man in every parish shall grow 
an acre or two ; and that out of every £30 worth grown in a 
parish £5 shall be paid to the King! He concludes by 
stating how the Potato may be raised from seed instead of 
from the root. 
Notwithstanding the widely disseminated opinions of the 
Royal Society, and these published appeals to the public, the 
introduction of the Potato as an object of cultivation was 
extremely slow. 
Worlidge, in 1687, although he remarked that the Potato 
was then common in some parts of the Continent, merely 
suggests that they may be useful for swine or other cattle. 
Houghton, writing in 1699, says they were then very 
common in Lancashire, being introduced from Ireland, and 
that they begin to spread over England. The roots were 
boiled or roasted, and eaten with butter and sugar!—(“ Col¬ 
lections ” ii., 468.) 
Sharrock, Ray, Lisle, Bradley, Mortimer, &c., writing at 
the close of the seventeenth, and early in the eighteenth 
century, make most slighting mention of the Potato; and even 
Miller in the 4to edition of his Dictionary, published as late 
as 1771, only mentions the same two varieties, the red and 
the white tubered, which had been noticed by writers a century 
his predecessors. 
Salmon, who wrote in 1711, speaks of the Virginian and 
the English or Irish Potato as distinct kinds, though his 
description shows their identity—the only difference being 
that the colour of the skin of the tubers of the first was dirty 
white, and of the second red. “ They are only nursed up in 
gardens in England and Ireland, where they flourish and 
come to perfection, prodigiously increasing to a vast plenty. 
The roots are boiled, baked, or roasted.” — ( Salmon's 
“ Herbal ,” 905.) 
London and Wise, in the seventh edition of their “ Corn- 
pleat Gardener,” published in 1719, do not even mention the 
Potato; but it must be remembered that this is only an 
abridged translation of M. Quintinye’s work, published some 
years previously. However, even as late as about 1770, the 
Potato was not known generally in the south-western counties. 
Knight, writing in 1831, when he was seventy-two years of age, 
says—“ I can just recollect the time when the Potato was 
unknown to the peasantry of Herefordshire, whose gardens 
were then almost exclusively occupied by different varieties 
of the Cabbage. Their food, at that period, chiefly consisted 
of bread and cheese, with the produce of their garden, and 
tea was unknown to them. About sixty years ago, before the 
Potato was introduced into their gardens, agues had been so 
extremely prevalent that the periods in which they or their 
families had been afflicted with that disorder were the eras to 
which I usually heard them refer in speaking of past events; 
and I recollect being cautioned by them frequently not to 
stand exposed to the sun in May lest I should get an ague. 
