POTATO. 
87 
POTATO. 
Solarium Tuberosum.—Pomme de Terre , Fr.— Kartoffel , Gei. 
Sir Joseph Banks (Hort. Trans, i, 8) , considers that the potato was first 
brought to Spain from the mountainous parts of South America, in the 
neighborhood of Quito. To England, however, this root found its way by a 
different route, being brought from Virginia by the colonists sent out by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, in 1586. 
Varieties. —These are very numerous, not only from the facility of pro¬ 
curing new sorts by raising them from seed, but because any variety culti¬ 
vated for a few years, in the same soil and situation, as in the same garden 
or farm, acquires a peculiarity of character and habit, which distinguishes it 
from the same variety in a different soil and situation. Dr. Hunter, in his 
Georgical Essays , has supposed the duration of a variety is limited to four¬ 
teen years : and Knight concurs with him in opinion. Potatoes, which are 
excellent in Ireland, Nova Scotia, and other high northern latitudes, do not 
answer a good purpose in New England. The potato taken from the south 
prospers better, such as the River Plate, or long red potato, which has suc¬ 
ceeded well in Massachusetts. Loudon asserts, that the best mode to order 
potatoes for seed is, to give a general description of the size, color, form, and 
quality wanted, and whether for an early or late crop, without being guided 
by the names attached to any varieties. 
Propagation. —The potato may be propagated from seed, cuttings, or layers 
of the green shoots, sprouts from the eyes of the tubers [roots], or portions 
of the tubers containing a bud or eye, or by planting the tubers whole. The 
object of the first method is to procure a new or improved variety ; of the 
second, little more than curiosity, or to multiply, as quickly as possible, a 
rare sort; and of the third, to save the tubers for food. The methods, by 
portions of the tubers [the roots cut in pieces], or whole potatoes, are the 
best, and almost universally practiced, for the general purposes both of field 
and garden culture. 
By seed. —“ Take the apples, in the beginning of October [or whenever 
they are ripe], before the frost has hurt them ; hang them up by the foot 
6talks, in a dry closet, where they will not freeze ; let them hang till March, 
or April; then mash the apples, wash the seeds from the pulp, and dry them 
in a sunny window. Sow the seeds in a bed about the first of May. When 
the plants are four or five inches high, transplant them into ground well pre¬ 
pared, one or two plants in a hill. 77 — Deane. Seeds from the same ball will 
produce a great variety of kinds, some of which may be of little value ; ana 
in order to make the most of such experiments, it will be well to proceed 
according to the folia wing directions, extracted from some remarks by Col. 
