Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1884 — The Origin of the Potato. [ARTICLE]

The Origin of the Potato.

The potato, originally a South American plant, was introduced to Virginia by Sir John Harvey in 1629, though it was unknown in some counties of England 150 years later. In Pennsylvania, potatoes are mentioned very soon after the advent of the Quakers; they were not among New York products in 1695, but in 1775 we are told of 11,000 bushels grown on one sixteen-acre patch in this province. Potatoes were served, perhaps as an exotic rarity, at a Harvard installation dinner in 1707; but the plant was only brought into culture in New England at the arrival of the Presbyterian immigrants from Ireland in 1718. Five bushels were accounted a large crop of potatoes for a Connecticut farmer; for it was held that, if a man ate them every day, he could not live beyond seven years.— The Century.