p. 12 | The Potato

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 30, 1909

The Potato

An Australian agriculturist, Mr. Krichauff, has called attention to the fact that the potato will celebrate the three hundred thirteenth anniversary of its introduction into England this year. It was in 1596 that Sir Walter Raleigh returned to England from America with the first tobacco and potatoes, which originally grew in Peru. Although the potato, it is estimated, now furnishes one sixth of the nourishment of the human race, for a long time it was a delicacy for the rich alone. Even at the beginning of the seventeenth century noblemen paid two shillings a pound for potatoes, and seasoned them with sherry. People often visited the gardens of the botanist Gerard at Holborn to see the plants in bloom.—Selected.