961 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
RURALISMS 
The Potato; Its Origin and History 
The enclosed sheet of the New York 
Evening Sun, on which appears an article 
entitled “Personality of the Potato.’’ is 
sent for your consideration. The article 
contains so many statements at variance 
with all that I have read of the history 
and character of the growth of the potato, 
presuming, as I must, that the white or 
“Irish” potato is the one referred to, 
that I would ask, if the article strikes 
you as it does me, that you republish it 
with the hope that some of your readers 
will take enough interest to tell us the 
truth about the potato. j. M. C. 
Tottenville, N. Y. 
Here is the article referred to: 
The potato, or Solanura tuberosum, is 
an anomaly among edible vegetables in 
that it is neither a fruit, a bud nor a root, 
but just a tuber. It is a “swelling of an 
underground branch,” but why it acts 
that wav, what causes the branch to swell 
and become a “spud” is still a mystery. 
Scientists are not agreed, but the prevail¬ 
ing opinion is that “it is the presence of 
a fungus, Fusarium solani, which, grow¬ 
ing in the underground shoots, irritates 
them and causes them to swell.” 
Historically, it is a newcomer among 
table staples! By no means a parvenu, 
since it has an Aztec or Inca ancestry of 
countless generations, it is but a recent 
addition to the diet of most^ of the world. 
Contrary to the popular belief, it is prob- 
ablv not a native of North America. The 
vegetable that Sir Walter Raleigh took 
back to England from Virginia has been 
shown, beyond much doubt, to have been 
the sweet potato—a bird of very different 
plumage. 
The potato emerges into modern his¬ 
tory with the Spanish conquest of Peru. 
It is mentioned in the Croiiica de Peru of 
Pedro Cieca, published in 1.553. who calls 
it the “battata,” or “papa.” It had 
been found growing wild in the Andes 
and was also cultivated by the Peruvians. 
The monk Hieronymus Cardanus took it 
to Spain*. It w'as carried thence to Italy, 
then to Belgium and so to England. For 
many decades it was merely a botanical 
curiosity, atlhough the Royal Society 
urged its cultivation in 16G3. Yet the 
learned Charbaeus. writing in IGGG. calls 
it one of the “plantae malignae et veue- 
natae.” 
The Fungus Theory Disproved 
the plant may die of old age, if it is not 
killed in some other way, and still be per¬ 
petuated by the tuber. This means of 
propagation has an advantage over the 
seed habit in that it does not require 
transfer of pollen to initiate development, 
and none of the factors of seed and pol¬ 
len sterility are involved. It has disad¬ 
vantages in that by this means of repro¬ 
duction hybridization is not possible, and 
the tuber also lends itself more readily 
to the inroads of disease than does the 
seed. The tuber shares with the seed the 
advantage of multiplying the plant, for 
there is the possibility of not only many 
tubers on a single individual, but each 
eye on each tuber has the potentiality of 
giving rise to a new plant, 
TIIOS. A TATLOB. 
National Agricultural Department. 
History of the Potato 
The pamphlet by Mr. Wight is exceed¬ 
ingly interesting, as it traces the history 
of the potato and gives the results of a 
thorough reseai’ch through the South 
American languages as well as through 
sections where wild potatoes are said to 
thrive. Mr. Wight concludes that: 
The cultivation of the potato was, 
therefore, probably confined previous to 
the discovery, to the mountain regions of 
western tropical South America, where 
the altitude was sufficient to afford a 
temperate climate, and to Chile, where it 
was introduced by the Inca invasion, re¬ 
corded as having taken place during the 
fifteenth century, or more probably by 
some previous incursion of Central An¬ 
dean tribes into Central Chile and thence 
southward gradually nearly to the point 
of the present range under cultivation. 
It was probably not known to the Span¬ 
ish previous to their conquest of Peru. 
Its introduction into Europe, doubtless 
first going into Spain, occurred between 
1.532 and 1580, with the probability that 
it took place between 1532 and 1550. Its 
introduction into Spain, however, long 
remained unknown except to compara¬ 
tively few, and it is doubtful if it was 
carried to Italy more than a year or two 
previous to the time tubers were ob¬ 
tained by Clusius. Apparently it was 
taken from Spain direct to Italy, and 
was not introduced into France until a 
later date. 
Mr. Wight says that the Spaniards car¬ 
ried the potato to Mexico. It was not 
grown there until they introduced it. He 
does not think the root carried by Sir 
Walter Raleigh to England from Virginia 
was the potato, but more likely Apios tu- 
berosa, or ground nut. Sir Francis Drake 
visited the Roanoke colony in 1556 and 
carried the colonists back to England. 
Possibly the potatoes which later appeared 
in England were on Drake’s ship when 
he reached Roanoke and went on with 
him. Mr. Wight finds potatoes mentioned 
in an English catalogue in 1597, but it 
was merely as a sort of botanical curi¬ 
osity. It was not used as food to any 
extent for many years—a deep prejudice 
existing against it. As for its use in 
North America, Mr. Wight says it was 
introduced into this country from Ire¬ 
land in 1719 by a colony of Presby¬ 
terian Irish who settled in New Hamp¬ 
shire. Most people seem to think that the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth found the Indians 
raising potatoes and obtained the tuber 
from them. There is nothing to that 
story. Even as late as 1740 there was 
such a prejudice against the potato that 
apprentices would stipulate in a contract 
with masters that they were not com¬ 
pelled to eat potatoes. Mr. Wight gives 
some interesting facts about native pota¬ 
to growing, which we will print later. 
Mks. NRWI.YWED went to the grocery 
store to do her morning marketing, de¬ 
termined that the grocer should not take 
advantage of her youth and inexperience. 
“These eggs are dreadfully small,” she 
criticised. “I know it,” he answered. 
“But that’s the kind the farmer bring.s 
me. They are just fresh from the coun¬ 
try this morning,” “Yes,” said the bride, 
“and that’s the trouble with those far¬ 
mers. They are so anxious to get their 
eggs sold that they take them off the 
nest too soon !”—^Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
Vl B lUmT lfig BTiyyyil lllllllll l . | |ii'riiiffrinnoQqpwwininiinrinrimH 
I am sending herewith a copy of a 
paper by Mr. W. F. Wight, botanist in 
this Bureau, entitled “Origin. Introduc¬ 
tion and Primitive Culture of the Potato.” 
This paper was presented by Mr. Wight 
before the 1916 meeting of the National 
Potato Growers’ Association, and pub- 
li.shed in their proceedings. 
With regard to the statement in the 
newspaper clipping that it is the prevail¬ 
ing opinion of scientists that the forma¬ 
tion of potato tubers is due to the pres¬ 
ence of a fungus which._ growing in the 
underground shoots, irritates them and 
causes them to swell, our specialists ad¬ 
vise me that there is no evidence what¬ 
ever that Fusarium solani or any other 
fungus is the cause of the tuberization 
in the Irish potato. 
Bernard, a French scientist, who stud¬ 
ied the relation of fungi to tuberization 
in orchids, suggested the tlmory that fungi 
might cause tuber formation in the po¬ 
tato. His evidence was not convincing 
and subsequent woi’kors have brought his 
conclusions into discredit . Dr. C. S. 
Gager of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
has probably given the best answer to the 
question of why the potato plants form 
tubers. He says: “We may ascertain 
experimentally what external conditions 
or combination of circumstances must be 
realized in order that tubers may re.sult. 
but that they form at all is because the 
plant is Solanum tuberosum (potato) 
rather than Pisum sativum (pea) or So- 
ianum dulcamara (nightshade).” 
The tuber of the “Irish” or white po¬ 
tato is a modified portion of the stem. In 
tliis respect it differs from that of the 
sweet potato, which is an enlarged por¬ 
tion of the root. The main stem of the 
Irish potato extends vertically above and 
below the surface of the ground, both the 
aerial and subterranean portions branch¬ 
ing. The aeri.al branches bear leaf buds 
along their sides at more or less regular 
intervals, and leaf buds are also located 
on the underground branches of the stem. 
The tips of the latter become enlarged by 
grow'th and storage of water and food 
materials. It is the.se enlarged tips which 
are the tubers, bearing leaf buds in little 
groups which are commonly known as 
“eyes.” The true roots of the plant de- 
veiop from the region of the union of the 
main stem and its underground branches. 
The tuber plays a very important role 
in the economy of the potato plant. Be¬ 
ing a structure in which food is stored 
abundantly in the form of starch, it be¬ 
comes an organ for tiding the plant over 
unfavorable periods. The subterranean 
position protects it against low tempera¬ 
tures, and the heavy cork envelope pre- I 
vents the loss of water during dry peri¬ 
ods, so that the entire remainder of the 
plant may be killed by low or high tem¬ 
peratures or drought and still the tuber 
will continue to live, and upon the return 
of favorable temperature and moisture re¬ 
lations will sprout and develop new 
plants. It is true also that the longevity 
of the tuber is greater than any other 
iiurt of the plant except the seed, so that 
Why live stock prices 
go up and down 
W HEN there is more dressed meat 
on the market than there is con¬ 
sumer demand for it, meat and live 
stock prices go down. 
But when the consumer demand for 
m.eat is greater than the supply, meat 
and live stock prices go up. 
This is the law of supply and demand. 
It is the law that determines the prices 
the producer gets for his cattle. 
* * * * 
Between the producer of live stock 
on one hand and the consumer of dressed 
meat on the other hand is the service of 
the packer. 
The packer turns the live stock into 
dressed meat and by-products and then 
distributes them to the retailer. 
Out of every dollar the packer re¬ 
ceives for this meat and by-products he 
pays 90 cents, approximately, for the 
cattle. 
The remaining 10 cents on the dollar 
must pay for dressing, freight to mar¬ 
ket, operation of distributing houses, and 
in most cases delivery to the retailer. 
Out of what is left must come the 
packer’s profit. For Sw’fi: & Company 
during 1917 this amounted to a net 
profit of of a cent per pound of beef. 
On a//products, it was only a little over 
half a cent per pound. 
A reasonable profit margin is necessary 
to enable the packer to operate without 
endangering the efficiency of the business 
and its value to the producer as a mar¬ 
keting agency for live stock. Complete 
elimination of these profits would have 
practically no effect on the farm prices 
of live stock nor the retail prices of meat. 
Swift & Company will gladly co-oper¬ 
ate in the carrying out of any national 
policy that will tend to steady the prices 
of live stock and meat. 
Swift & Company, U. S. A. 
A nation-wide organization with more than 20,000 stockholders 
