WAUPACA POST

March 14, 1895

 

Origin of the Potato.

 

            When America was discovered the potato was cultivated in all temperate parts of South America but not in Mexico.  Hieronymus Cardon, a Spanish priest, is believed to have introduced the plant into Europe. From Spain it went into Italy, and thence to Belgium.  Some years later it was introduced into Virginia, and specimens were brought to Ireland about 1690.  For nearly 100 years it was cultivated very little in Great Britain.  In 1663 the Royal Society urged its cultivation, but it is only within the last century and a half that it has been a common vegetable there.  But the sweet potato was brought into England in 1563, and was called the “common potato” as early as 1567, when the white, potato was first described in an English book.