Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-19
ERIN'S STAPLE FOOD.
Evolution Of the Potato From Wild
and Neglected Root
TO A FIRST PLACE ON THE TABLE.
Sir Walter Raleigh's Gallant Struggle for
Its Recognition.
THE PIG AND THE TUBER GU TOGETHER
rwnrrrrr ron THE p1spArcH.,

4
DR.. johnson says Shakespeare had as
little regard for those violations of the pro-
prieties in times and circumstances, as they
appear in the plays, as the lion would have
| for the dew which he shakes off his name,
when, in the morning, he rises from his lair
| Critics have found many anachronisms in all
the plays, some of which are amusing, and
| with which most readers are familiar; for it
| is taken as granted that everyone who finds
pleasure in reading is more or less ac-
quainted with the works of the greatest
writer of all time-King Shakespeare as
Carlyle calls him. 1t is we'll known, for
examnle, how that in Winters Tale, Bo.
| hemia is located on the seacoast, when in
reality it is an insular country. and how
billiards are spoken of in Antony and
Cleopatra.
So in like manner has he been taken to
task for mentioning potatoes" in Troilus
and Cressida, and of allowing Falstaf to
use such expressions as 'let the sky rain
potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green
Sleeves" as he does in the "Wives of
Windsor" The former of these plays was
laid at the siege of Troy; and Falstaf was
contemporary with Henry ~, whereas pota-
toes were not used in Europe until they
were introduced there from Virginia by Sir
Walter Raleigh, as the school books declare,
in 1884, or thereabout.
FIRST IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. ,
But the defenders of the fame of the
great dramatist declare that the potatoes
here spoken Of were sweet potatoes, and not
the common sort, and that sweet potatoes
had then been in use in England for some
time, whittier they were brought from Spain
and the Canary Islands. This proves moth
ing, and the only point made in the con-
tention is that the mention here made of
it is generally taken to be the first
in English literature. 1t certainly is
among the first, but in the reprint OF an old
book called Elizabethsp England, taken
from Holinshed's Chronicles. in the chapter
on ''the food and diet of the English" under
date o. 1887, it is said that potatoes and such
like roots we're then "beginning to be
brought out of Spain and the Indies to
furnish up our banquets"
The name is of Spanish derivation, and
probably at first was a corruption of its In
dian name. Raleigh tried persistently to
have the potato recognized as an article OF
food, but without avail. 1t was not till af-
ter long struggle with prejudices and
ignorance that its edible properties were
appreciated. BY virtue of this fact, Sir
Walter, by common consent, is regarded as
one of the benetactors of his race
IMPROVED BY CULTIVATION.
But this familiar vegetable as we have it
now is nevertheless largely the product OF
cultivation and development. Although by
nature it is wild, yet it nowhere grows wild
in fha in tha
state. II is otherwise with the sweet potato
and the yam, the varieties raised in New
Jersey differing little from those grown in
South America. Some of us may be sur
prised to learn that in no part OF the world
has the potato been recognized as a common
article OF food-not even with US in America
until within the last hundred years. In
some parts OF England, even up to the mid
die OF the last century, they were reckoned,
by good authorities. as inferior to radishes
and carrots.
The new English colonists did not take
kindly to tirem. During the Revolutionary
War, however, they were made part Of the
commissariat of the army; and the fact that
at Valley Forge the soldiers were reduced
to such an extremity as to have to subsist on
this diet was much commented upon.
Colonel Francis Marion, it will be remem-
bered, invited the British staff officer to
share with him his supper, which consisted
of some sweet potatoes raked out of the
ashes. But they were even then, and still
later, used as second or only choice.
POTATOES AND WEALTH.
The potato was used in Ireland much
earlier as a common and substantial article
OF food than elsewhere in Europe, and its
in Trola nd
one of the greatest of modern writers, an |
opportunity to mention the fact in con-
nection with theory he had pertaining to
food and wages. He said that Ireland was |
the only instance of great European peo-
pie possessing cheap national food; that |
potatoes are perhaps cheaper than any other |
food equally wholesome; that one acre sown |
in potatoes will support twice as many as |
the same quantity sown IN wheat; that as a |
consequence, In country where men live |
on potatoes, the population will, other
things being equal, increase twice as fast;
that this actually occurred as between En-
gland and Ireland; and the result was that
in the two countries the distribution of
wealth was altogether different.
1t is commonly admitted to be fact that
on at least two occasions potatoes saved the
people Of Ireland from starvation; but if the
LneOry OF Duckle Is COrreCG, IL would be
more proper to say that potatoes on these oc-
casions were the cause of the people being
brought to the verge of starvation. At the
present time there Is lear of much misery
ind want incident to the failure of this
7ear's crop there.
From the history OF that unfortunate peo-
Die the prospect OF such calamity is alarm
ng. No one OF the generation living at the
ime Of any former famine" in ireland
ver forgot, or could forget, that era. But
rom such, and like experiences, it has been
demonstrated very satisfactorily that in
lines OF scarcity, dearth or famine, nothing.
xcepting only the -four of grain, has an
wered in the emergency so well as potatoes.
IRELAND's OTHER FOODS.
While it is said the potato is the chief
ood OF the peasantry in Ireland, it Is not to
,e taken that it is the exclusive and only
liet. 1t is supplemented by milk, such
rains as barley and rye, the flesh of the
log, and in some parts, so we are informed,
ther vegetables and fish aud domestic
owl. But the potato is understood to be
distinctly the staple reliance; other produc-
ions being contributary to this. Or these.
A. &c he |