The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1912-03-07

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 fictitious relationship
to the other family, because the batata is
native term for the real potato as we'll
Again, it is unjustly suspected that this sweet
potato is tie 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
&ca, but its original home was probably the
West Indies and Central America. At any
rate it grows in the tropics and subtropics
and finds its climatic limitations at about the
temperature and altitude at which the Irish
potato begins to thrive. The yam is another
appellation of the sweet potato, although
that too is an error, for the yams-diosco-
xeae--belong to a group of climbing plants.
A number of varieties are found throughout
the tropics and subtropics, and they cul-
tivated in both the East and the West Indies.
Other roots and tubers may resemble the po-
tato, and the tomato is related to it, but they
must not be COMPOUNDED with the far better
known vegetable which alone Ia entitled to the
name The commercial and domestic classifi-
and therefore no attempt should be made to
separate them in the popular mind.
The common, 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
peighborhood of Quito in Ecuador, or as some
claim even from that of Bogota in Colombia. to
the central region of Chile.
Botanically, 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
ihese are not substantially accurate, there re-
main at least 800 which are well known. 1t is
remarkable that only about 40 varieties have
pinnate leaves and produce tubers on the roots
beneath the ground, and that these special
varieties are chiefly of American origin. All
these tuberous, pinnate-leaved kinds Of the
solanum are nearly related and very probably
have common origin. This first habitat Of
the potato has been laid by some students, quite
as much for the sake Of poetic harmony as for
historic exactitude, 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 supply in this native vegetable. In
Peru. however, it was not coast product, for
the climate there seemed unfavorable, and
what happened to grow on the lower levels
we're small, insignificant and watery. The
best kind of potato grew at an altitude OF about
1000 feet, back of Lima; it was small, round
with thin skin, and was yellowish inside
(papa amarilla) In southern Peru, not far
from Mollendo but among the foggy regions
(June to September), up among the rocky hills,
the potato has been found wild.
Passing farther along the coast into Chile.
where the climate Is quite temperate and con-
sequently is suitable, even near the coast for
such vegetables, there is found that other form