River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-02-22

than that the good people there are very fond
Of it. The misnamed Sweet" potato has no
right whatever to the title. That pleasant vege-
table belongs to the morning-glory family,
botanically being known as Ipomoea batatas.
thus again betraying a fictitious relationship
TO the other family because the batata is a
native term for the real potato as well.
Again, 1t is unjustly suspected that this sweet
potato Is the vegetable actually brought by
Drake and Hawkins into England where it
masqueraded for some years as the genuine
South American food of contemporary ru-
NOR. 1t must be understood, however, that
the sweet potato is likewise native of Amer
tca, but it's original home was probably the
West Indies and Central America. At any
rate, 1t grows in the tropics and subtropics
and finds it's climatic limitations at about the
temperature and altitude at which the Irish
potato begins to thrive. The yam is another
Sappellation of the sweet potato, although
shat, tOo is an error, for the yams-diosco-
areae-belong to a group of climbing plants.
A number of varieties are found throughout
ythe tropics and subtropics, and they are cul-
,tivated In both the East and the West Indies.
tOther roots and tubers may resemble the po-
gRto, and the tomato is related to it, but they
must not be COMPOUNDED with the far better
known vegetable which alone Is entitled to the
NAME The commercial and domestic classif-
cation is stronger, however, than the scientific
and therefore no attempt should We made to
separate them In the popular mind.
The common or white or Irish potato is un-
doubtedly American all through. It's prehis-
toric and aboriginal habitat was the western
slopes of the southern continent, from the
neighborhood of Quito in Ecuador, or as some
claim even from that of BoSota in Colombia, to
the central region of Chile.
Botancally, the potato Is solanum, one of
the most diversified plants of the vegetable
Kingdom Something like 1000 varieties have
ben described, but, assuming that several OF
these are not substantially accurate, there re-
main at least 500 which are we'll known. 1t is
remarkable that only about 40 varieties have
pinnate leaves and rroduce tubers on the roots
beneath the ground, and that these special
varieties are chiefly of American origin. All
these tuberous, pSunate-leayed kinds of the
solanum are nearly related and very probably
have a common virgin. This first habitat of
the potato has been laid by some students, quite
as much for the wake of poetic harmony as for
historic exactitNde, in Central America near
the home of the primitive maize, but in all
fairness South America deserves and will hold
the honor.
The edible potato, from which all the Euro
pean and American variations have been de-
veloped. was undoubtedly cultivated by even
the inhabitants of the west coast Of South
America who occupied the land before the ar
rival of the Incas. When the Spanish conquer
ers arrived there. they found one great source
of food Nupply in this native vegetable. In
Peru however it was not coast product, for
the climate there semed unfavorable, and
what happened to grow on the lower levels
were small, insignificant and watery. The
best kind of potato grew at an altitude of about
7,Ge0 feet, back of Lima; it small round,
with a thin skim and was yellowish inside
(Dapa amarilla). In southern Peru, not far
from MolfendO hut among the fOggy regions
June to September), up among the rocky hills
she potato has been found wild.
Passing farther along the coast into Chile
where the climate is quite temperate and con
%equently is suitable, even the coast, fol
such vegetables, there is found that other form