September 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
407 
unknown to the peasantry of Herefordshire, whose 
gardens were then almost exclusively occupied by dif¬ 
ferent 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 pre¬ 
valent, 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 fre¬ 
quently not to stand exposed to the sun in May, lest I 
should get an ague. 
“ The potato was then cultivated in small quantities 
in the gardens of gentlemen ; but it was not thought to 
afford wholesome nutriment, and was supposed by 
many to possess deleterious qualities. 
“ The prejudices of all parties, however, disappeared 
so rapidly, that within ten years the potato had almost 
wholly driven the cabbage from the garden of the 
cottagers.”—( Knight's Papers, 319.) 
Mortimer’s “ Whole Art of Husbandry," was pub¬ 
lished in 1707, and a sixth edition in 1701, and in these 
the potato is dismissed, after a brief notice of ten lines, 
about half of which are occupied with these observa¬ 
tions :—“ The root is very near the nature of the Jeru- 
salem artichoke, but not so good or wholesome. These 
are planted either of roots or seeds, and may probably 
be propagated in great quantities, and prove good food 
for swine! ” 
One reason, certainly, that the plant remained so long 
in disrepute, was the defective mode of its culture. This, 
and ignorance of the proper mode of cooking the tubers, 
would make them certainly anything but a tempting- 
article of food. The following anecdote illustrates 
this: — “A person, who had been invited to taste the 
first potato planted in his own country of Forfar, N.B., 
about the year 1730, related that the roots had been 
merely heated, and that they adhered to the teeth like 
glue, while their flavour was far from agreeable. The food 
was thus about to be condemned, when the accidental 
arrival of a gentleman, who had tasted a potato in 
Lancashire, caused the rejected roots to be remanded 
back to the hot turf ashes till they became as dainty as 
they had before been nauseous.” 
According to the old statistical account of Scotland, 
potatoes were first cultivated in the field there in the 
year 1739, in the county of Stirling; and Dr. Walker 
assures us, that they were not known in the Highlands 
and Isles till 1743. It is stated in the General Report 
of Scotland (vol. ii. p. 3.), as a well-ascertained fact, 
that in the years 1725-0, the few potato plants then 
existing in gardens about Edinburgh were left in the 
same spot of ground, from year to year, as recommended 
by Evelyn ; a few tubers were perhaps removed for use 
in the autumn, and the parent plants well covered with 
litter, to save them from the winter’s frost. Notwith¬ 
standing the success that, after this period, attended the 
culture of the potato among the cottagers, its progress 
among the higher classes in Scotland was retarded by 
the opinions of different writers on agricultural subjects, 
already mentioned; and also, what is not a little 
singular, a mistaken zeal in religious matters made some 
of the Scotch folks hostile to the innovation. ‘Potatoes,’ 
said they, ‘ are not mentioned in the Bible ! ’ and this 
was deemed a quite sufficient reason for rejecting them. 
Famine, at last, gavo the great impulse to the cultiva¬ 
tion of this root, and during the latter part of the 
eighteenth century its excellent qualities became gene¬ 
rally understood.”— {Quart. Journ. of Agrie.) 
We have republished this memoir of the potato, 
because wc are told by some prophets of ovil, that this 
source of food is rapidly becoming extinct, and wo havo, 
therefore, endeavoured to secure a full and correct 
biography of tho departing plant! However, having 
done this, let us call to remembrance that it is not quite 
gone—and some will be such good liopers, and among 
these we confess to be ourselves, as to believe the time 
will come when years of murrained potatoes will be 
rare, and years of healthful crops usual. We found 
this opinion upon many facts, amongst which we will 
only mention that, in high northern latitudes, in New 
Zealand, and in the districts of South America, of which 
the potato is a native, the disease is unknown; and in 
Europe, every year some districts are unvisited. It is, 
therefore, not a plant to which the time of extinction 
has come. Indeed, we know of no species that has such 
an allotted time. Varieties, probably, are less enduring; 
but then fresh varieties may be raised to succeed their 
predecessors. It is true, that new varieties have been 
found as liable as tho elder varieties to the disease in 
England; but this proves no more than that there are 
some circumstances, at present undiscovered, which occa¬ 
sion the disease in tho temperate regions of Europe,— 
circumstances not constantly nor universally in opera¬ 
tion, because in some years, as in 1850-51, tho disease 
nearly disappeared, and even in the years when this 
murrain most widely prevails there are districts in 
which it does not break out; even in two neighbouring 
fields, the potatoes are known in the one to bo almost 
destroyed, and in the other to be scarcely injured. 
We have received the following letter, relative to this 
deeply interesting subject, from the same highly intelli¬ 
gent correspondent, whose communication we published 
at p. 328, and. we must conclude by recommending it 
to the attention of our readers, with the few notes we 
shall append. 
“ When I said that my farmer’s potatoes were better than 
mine, you ask if they were not ‘ different varieties.’ His 
potatoes were of the Early American kind, and so were a 
part of mine ; but I generally plant three or four sorts, 
hoping that if one should fail another might succeed; but 
his were better than any of mine. Again, when I say that 
the later-planted potatoes in my garden were better than 
the earlier ones, you ask if they were ‘ the same varieties;’ 
and I answer—the two samples spoken of were both Forty¬ 
folds. But I will give you another instance of my experience 
in potato culture, in support of my opinion. About seven or 
eight years ago, when I was living in the neighbouring 
county of Durham, and when we were all considering how 
we should destroy or escape from the disease, which had 
then but a short time appeared, I read in several of the 
newspapers that the best way was to plant in autumn, and, 
as I was always fond of trying experiments, I determined to 
