The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-03
POTATOES.
South American EmIgrants NaturalIzed In
Europe.

From he IndependeRi.
The chronicle Of one OF the old Spanish travellers.
published In 1853, says; The people of Peru eat a
tuberOus root which they call papas." The Span.
lards took this root 20 Spain. where It was grown
as the trufie root" The Italians very quickly
adopted II into their gardens, and soon the
Dutch were cultivatiRg II with much the same
zeal that they displayed for tulips. OF Its intro.
ductlOn into England, all that We are sure OF Is that
In 1919 Sir Walter Raleigh was growing pouioesln
his Irish "a rden. Thomas Hariot, In his account Of
Virginia, names potatoes among the roots that
were found growing there, saying that some OF them
were as big as a walnut, and others considerably
larger. This VlrgIaia potato seems to have been
that which Is now known as the Irish. while shat
grown In Peru Is more likely TO haYe been a sweet
potato. Another writer, describing the esculents
o. Virginia. says that the potato root Is thick, fat and
tubeEOus. not differing much In shape from the
sweet potato, except that the roots are not 80 great
or long, while some of them arc round as a ball.
and others are oval, In the egg fashion, of which
the knobbie rOOtes are fastened with an INFINITE
number Of threddie strings"
Early In the seventeenth century Raleighs plan
tAtiOn of potatoes had been repeated all over Ire
land; but the farmers OF England, moved By stub
born prejudice and possibly In part by Jealousy,
decided that they would have nothing To do With
the tuber. ShAkespeare makes Fdst1F Imagine
that the heavens ire raining potatoes upon him
an imagination which could hardly have been de-
Ilghttul. unless the potatoes retained their original
small size. IL was as late as the time of Charles H.,
certainly II was after the Omwelll episode
before the potato rot any fair hold In English soil.
Gilbert White, writing In ITS, says that pOtato's
had prevailed In his district for about twenty yean
and that this had been brought about "oaly BY
means OF prem iums. /" but that potatoes were thea
much esteemed by the poorer people, who would
scarcely have Ventured to taste them In the pre-
viOus reign. Another writer speaks OF them as
rather questionable product possibly to become
human food, although rather nhtulent and Add
for the human stomach" He boiling
them with dates, and thinks that such a comhlna.
tion would keep soul and body together, Tor those
who are TOO poor 10 get any thing better. III prob
able that the storage OF this csculent was very
little understood. and SO, being left In the Ugh after
digging. they became continuously less and less
suitable for food.
The story OF the Introduction OF the potato into
France has been often told, The country people
were so convinced Of the poisonous nature o' the
tuber that they would not give It a trial. Its friends
were actually mobbed for trying to introduce a
food that would poison the people, The story
goes In two Ways. One Of these tells us that King
Louis XIV. wore potato blossoms In his button
hole, and had potatoes on his royal table Until
they became popular with the arstocrauc clasSes
Another story recounts how a celebrated physician
and phllAhthr0pist planted a neld OF potatoes
about which he placed a guard. with instructions
to allow Just as much thieying as possible the
poorer people, believing a vegetable that deserved
such watchtul care must be OF great value sioe
nearly the whole of them. In this way their prtlu.
dIces were overcome, and a valua bic esculcn' added
to their dieta ~.