Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1912 — The POTATO AMERICA'S EDIBLE TUBER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The POTATO AMERICA'S EDIBLE TUBER

By ALBERT HALE

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ITH corn and potatoes America has fed the world. The term “corn” is commonly used in the western hemisphere to mean “maize,” or Indian corn, and not the rather generic expression under which all grains are included, according to English nomenclature. Indian corn has spread over the whole earth, till now it is a sta-

ble crop in Africa, in many parts of Europe, and even in Asia, where the original Indians cultivate it without knowing or perhaps caring whence it came. If it has not displaced it has at least supplemented rice, the great life-Bup-porting grain, which from, time immemorial has been grown in the far east; but Indian corn is an antipodal product, having come, as hißtory teaches us, from the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, In North America. The potato, came originally from South America. But here it is necessary to pause a moment to state that what is really meant by the word potato is the plant and tuber vulgarly called the Irish or white potato, although it has no more relation to the Emerald Isle

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 faqjily, because tbe batata is a native term for the real potato as well. Again, it is unjustly suspected that this sweet potato is the vegetable actually brought by Drake and Hawkinß into England, where it masqueraded for some years as the genuine South American food of contemporary - rumor. It must be understood, however, that the sweet potato is likewise a native of America, but itß 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—dioscoreae —belong to a group of climbing plants. A number of varieties are found throughout the tropics and subtropicß, and they are cultivated in both the East and the West Indies. Other roots and tubers may resemble the potato, and the tomato is related to it, but they must not be confounded with the far better known, vegetable, which alone is entitled the name. The commercial and domestic classification is stronger, however, than the scientific, and therefore no attempt should be made to separate thefh in the popular mind. The common, or white, or Irish potato is undoubtedly American all through. Its prehistoric 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 Bogota in Colombia, to the central region of Chile. Botanically, the potato is a solanum, one of the most diversified plants of the vegetable kingdom. Something like 1,000 varieties have ben described, but, assuming that several of these are not substantially accurate, there remain at least 800 which are well known. It 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 a common origin. This first habitat of 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 European and American variations have been developed, was undoubtedly cultivated by even the inhabitants of the west coast of South America who occupied the land before the arrival of the Incas. When the Spanish conquer* era arrived there, they found one great source of food supply in this native vegetable. In Peru, however, it was not a 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 7,000 feet, back of Lima; it was small, round, with a thin skin, and was yellowish inside (papa amarllla). 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. V . - Passing farther along -the coast into Chile, where the elimate is quite temperate and consequently is suitable, even near the coast, for such vegetables, there is found dial other form r vj . • ... -L. • '

of the indigenous potato, the Magfia, which so attracted the attention of Darwin when ho made his famous voyage in the Beagle. As far south as the Chonos Archipelago (about 45 degrees south) this plant grows wild near the sea. The potatoes from it resemble English potatoes, and have the same smell, but do not stand cooking so well. Little effort seems to have been made to develop the original tubers, although they form a good part of the food of the people, yet in this neighborhood the island of Chlloe alone has about 25,000 acres under cultivation, of the 128,000 acres devoted to potatoes In all Chile. That the Europeans found potatoes in Quito and Bogota need not be denied, but there is no strong reason for ' supposing that it was more than the same plant already mentioned, transported thither before they came. Quite another story is uncovered along the coast of South America. There the potato is considered a European vegetable and. is cultivated only by those whose experiences are derived from the old world. No tradition com nects the few remaining natives with a past in which the potato flourished, and in the minor instances in which the “wild potato” has been found, experiment shoyes that it is inedible and perhaps even poisonous. _• This is the case in the “wild potato” of Paraguay. Such a plant has for years been kUown to exist in the basin of the River Parana, It grpws on toe plains, budding in March and April, and ripening diming the winter months of May‘to August. The tubers are about the size of a walnut and sometimes larger, soft and watery, full of Irritating so-, lania (tbe active alkaloid of the potato), and of a poor taste. . They are sot eaten nor are they cultivated; the so-called edible potato is considered an impqrted vegetable, foreign to native experience and judgment, while the vegetable that takes tbe place of potato In all native dietary is the “mandloca,” which has been prepared aa a food from time Immemorial by tbe pre-Colnmbiaa inhabitants. The food potato of commerce made its way, therefore, from its prehistoric home in the Andes to North America and via Europe to the eastern shores of South America. Great credit belongs also to sir Francis Drake, who learned of the potato about 1578, either in Peru itself or in some near-by Island. He took specimens back with him, stopping test In Virginia, where he helped to plant them in 1585. In 1585 be arrived in England, carrying potatoes among his treasures, and thus tha story arose that potatoes came from North America. Closely allied to this error that other, which confused the South American

potato with what is now known as the sweet potato, the “batata,’ samples of which surely came from Virginia somewhat earlier than this time. It is probable that Drake gave potatoes to Raleigh. At any rate, It is an accepted statement -that Sir Walter Raleigh was responsible for their use in Ireland, because he gave several to the grandfather of Sir Robert Southwell, who, to check the famine spreading in that island after the disastrous failure., of the grain crop, cultivated them at once there, and popularized their use to his eternal credit. John Gerard, a celebrated English botanist, grew them in England, following the example of Raleigh, who ordered his own gardener. with a utilitarian purpose, to cultivate them along with other vegetables. The story runs that this man, whose curiosity was intensely aroused by the new plant from America, watched its growth carefully, and when the fruit (sic) was ripe, gleefully plucked it

from the stem and tasted it As he found this part of the plant merely insipid, spat it out in disgust and complained to Sir Walter that he had wasted so much time upon the miserable thing: “I* 1 this, then, yoiir delicious fruit from America?” The reply startled the gardener, for he was told to drag up the offender by the npots, for fear that the other plants might be contaminated. On doing so, however, he was astonished to discover among them a mass of exactly the same kind of tubers he had planted In the spring. “Cook them,” said

Sir Walter Raleigh, “and then give me your opinion.” At the first flavor of this strange vegetable he was delighted, apd ever afterwards gave particular attention to increasing his supply of the wonderful potato. By such experiences the potato was over Europe. In France it was a rare but prized vegetable in 1616; in Germany it was recognized in 1650, and from that time on, Europe, as well as other parts of the world, gradually accepted it as an addition to the food supply of all peoples. It is nnwlse to discuss here the mooted point about the so-called indigenous potato of Mexico add Arizona; about the origin of the 8. commersonii in Uruguay and Argentina; for the settlement of it cannot disturb the fact that the Solanum tuberosum, the common potato of today, came from the west coast of South America, and that the natives of these regions must be given credit of having recognized its food value long before they were discovered by ropeans. The widespread botanical order of the solanaceae, to which our potato belongs, embraces plants of little sparest similarity. There are, as members of .the great family, among medicinal plants, for example, toe hyoscyamus, dulcamara, belladonna, and datura; among “lood supplies are the thorn apple (a tree, In this case), the artichoke, and the tomato; and adding to man’s enjoyment if not to his vital sustenance, the capsicum or the chile of commerce, and ton American tobacco. Not many of them have tubers. however, and of the tubas, the potato holds toe prize for its usefulness in human economy. The tuber of toe plant we are Interested in is the common potato. Now, the tuber is a curious provision of nature which by propagation can be carried on by means of the regular and normal plant activity of the seed above ground, and also by anomalous stems, enlarged by‘ the development, to an unusual' degree, of cellular tissue, which are below the ground. Potatoes have seeds and fruit like any other member of the botanic kingdom, but when left to themselves it may happen that more energy is expended in storing up food in the tubers, so that flowers and seeds are imperfect Theoretically it little difference which element—tuber or seed—is Used for perpetuation of the potato, but practically so much encouragement has been given to too tuber that the seed Is hablt- , - unity Ignored. Incidentally It deserves mention that. toe popular Burbank potato, toe spread of which was one of the earliest demonstrations of toe genius of the botanical wisard, 1 jftthMr Burbank, was propagated from toe

seed, as he had- noticed what splendid fruit certain plants were showing, and reasoned correctly that the product must equal the parent. Exactly what the tuber is, is another question. By some its production is ascribed to a fungous iritation, although this is not proved. As has been said, not all the soianaceae have tubers, nor are all tubers members of the family. Be the cause what It may, the tuber is not a true root, but a leafless branch, usually below yet sometimes above the ground; the eyes on a tuber are leaf buds which in due time lengthen into shoots and form stems. The contents of a tuber are a reserve supply of food, supporting the young growth until it Mn put forth roots of its own. \ The food supply In the potatoes shown by aanlysls to be about as follows: Parts. ‘Starch, etc 18.8 Nitrogenous matters '• 2.1 Sugar 2,2 Fat • Salines "•* Water , a 75,0 Total 100 (> although of course variations in these proportions, depending upon soil, climate and methods of cultivation, are to be expected. It is evident. therefore, that the potato is not a perfect food, and that it lacks sufficient nitrogenous matter while having a superabundance of starch and sugar. That does ndt< destroy its value nor its usefulness, by any meaps, nor its popularity, for next to Indian corn, and rice, the potato is the m6st widely used vegetable in the world. Today no hopeful settler, after trecking into a virgin wilderness, thinks his little garden complete without the pretty patch of potatoes; no domestic or public meal is served without its tuberous embellishment, and after mastering the art of boiling eggs, the next step of the young housewife is to learn how to prepare potatoes. The grand total of potato production for one year amounts to about 6,600,000,000 bushels, and this gigantic crop comes from every continent in the world. Over one-fourth ©f the output is grown In Germany; not quite oneeighth from Russia; usually a little.ldas even than that, from Austria-Hungary; about oneninth from France; about one-sixteenth from Poland, and a slightly less quantity from (contiguous) United States. * In the United States, almost one-tbirtt of the year’s crop Is grown in the North Atlantio states, but the group of North Central states east of the Mississippi river runs a close second; of the other subdivisions, the Central states west of the Mississippi are next in Importance, and the far Western states are fourth. This illustrates one fact about the potato; it is very susceptible to climate and cultivation. Left to nature, It is only a moderately prolific plant, and cannot thrive in a country too hot or too cold, but has its habitat essentially in the temperate zone; on the other tiftnd, it responds readily to good care, so that the more it is nursed the better does it grow. The few rules to (ollow in successful potato growing can be learned by any farmer. First ~ the Mll he - ndtable, but this is not hard to find. It must be light, so as to offer no great resistance to the enlargement of the tubers; well supplied with organic matter, yet no more than moist, and containing abundance of natural fertilizing ingredients. Well drained sandy loam is excellent; clay should be avoided. Crop rotation is advisable, as the- potato bears well after certain preceding crops, but may wither if succeeding itself too regularly. Liberal manure is necessary, but of the right kind. The rows should be laid off as close together as practicable without Interfering with horse cultivation, and generally speaking the seed pieces should be dropped about 12 Inches apart in furrows made in the level field and

not on the ridges, yet deep enough—say four Inches—to afford ample cover to them. It must be mentioned that in speaking of .potatoes the word “seed” means the tuber or portions cut from it in which an “eye” has formed; the botanical seed may be used, tout no benefit is derived from tbat method; care must be taken, however, that the sprouts from toe eye are not injured, and it is best, therefore to use eyes from Which sprouts have not. appeared. The uses of tbe potato as a food have long ago been vindicated. Nothing can dislodge it Not even tbe latest discovered dashen, a Japanese and Chinese claimant to tuberous popularity, will take its place, even though it may be proved to possess more protein than the South American predecessor. Whole books have been written on the culinary art of cooking the potato. Bolted, baked, stewed, or fried, it has been a garnishment to the more aristocratic dishes of every feast since it was discovered, and has supplied many a full meal to the humble masses who do the world’s work. Nothing but a poem could toll its praises, sad a sonnet la the least tribute through which our gratitude to Peru should be expressed. Aa a source of industrial alcohol, eepedaUy that substance which is commercially known aa denatured alcohol, potatoes are being regarded 'ifT of increasing value. ——— Next to food, however, the greatest value to mankind of the American potato tor* source of starch. In this, too, it vice with corn. Potato starch is every year proving its merit, and whatever can provide starch, haa a long popularity ahead of itself. Starch is one of the essentials of civilisation. Its uses are proi tean, the demand for it is unceasing, and tot both art and industry the supply must be constant. With such a varied field for Its mett# tty, therefore, no one should doubt that few blessings to humanity can'surpass that which came tq the world through the famous potato