Cassell's dictionary of cookery

It appears that the potato was brought into Southern Europe by a different channel, and at an earlier date than the introduction of the root from Virginia into this country. Clusius received it during his residence at Vienna, in 1596, from the Governor of Mons, in Hainault, who had procured it in the preceding year from Italy, under the name of Taratouffi. For some time after its introduction into this country the potato was planted in the gardens of the nobility as a curious exotic ; in the reign of James I. it was considered a delicacy, being provided in small quantities for the queen's household, and at the price of 2s. per pound. It remained extremely scarce through the succeeding reign and during the Commonwealth, and not until nearly a hundred years after the discovery of Virginia by Kaleigh was its cultivation gradually spread. A letter from Mr. Buckland, a Somersetshire gentleman, to the Royal Society, in 1663, drew attention to its value as a preservative in case of famine ; the consequence was that the Society did its best to encourage potato cultivation. But though their utility as articles of food was beginning to be recognised, potatoes bore no very high character. Books upon gardening published about the end of the seventeenth century, a hundred years after their introduction, speak rather slightingly of them. One author says, "They are much used in Ireland and America as bread, and may be propagated with advantage by poor people." " I do not hear that it hath been yet essayed," remarks another, " whether they may not be propagated in great quantities, for food for swine or other cattle." Even the famous Eveljii regarded them with no favour. " Plant potatoes," he says, writing in 1699, "in your worst ground. Take them up in November for winter spending; there wiU enough remain for a stock, though ever so exactly gathered." In The Complete Gardener^ published in 1719, the well-known nurserymen, Loudon and Wise, completely ignore the potato ; and in another work of the same period it is mentioned as inferior to radishes. Gradually, however, the excellent qualities of the potato became recognised, and the use of the tuber spread. But it was not till the middle of the eighteenth century that potatoes were generally known over the country. Since that time they have been extensively cultivated. Fifty years later no fewer than 1,700 acres were planted with potatoes in Essex alone for the use of the London market. In Scotland the cultivation of potatoes in gardens was very little understood tiU. about 1740 ; as a plant for field growth they received POT (624 ) POT no attention till twenty years after that period. About the same time the potato was introduced into Saxony and some parts of Germany ; and in the latter part of the century it made its way into France. There it owed much to the exertions of Parmentier. In some German districts, Government took an interest in the plant, and aided its culture by compulsory enactments.