It is possible to control the diseases and pests that caused the failures, partial and complete, of the potato crops, up to the time that spraying methods were perfected.
In Revolutionary times but two varieties of potatoes were generally known, a red and a white one. It was not known then, as now, that the vegetable is more important than most other garden and field crops, because it can be so cheaply raised, and so is within the reach of the poorest. By improvement in methods of cultivation the yield became constantly greater, and quality im proved. The species tends to vary greatly, so new varieties were developed, and put on the mar ket for " seed. " Many thousands of varieties are in cultivation now.
Any one interested can create new varieties, or improve old ones. A few horticulturists in each of the leading civilized countries have devoted themselves to the raising of potatoes from seed. From their experiments the best new varieties have come into existence.
Americans like big potatoes : Europeans like little ones. We like white ones: they like yellow and red-fleshed ones. The flavor of a fine potato is more considered by the French and English than by us. Our potatoes depend for flavor on the seasoning we add, for we eat the starchy part of the tuber.
The manufacture of starch and alcohol from potatoes is a great industry. Feeding potatoes to stock is a good practice. It puts a fresh vegetable element into the dry rations in winter that is both palatable and wholesome. Tons of potatoes put away in pits are opened and used in this way. Other economical methods include turning pigs into a patch of potatoes to root out the crop and fatten on it.
Like the other nightshades, potatoes have a bitter, poisonous sap in their stems and leaves. If a tuber is exposed to the sun it turns green, and its bitter taste warns us of the danger of eating it. Only potato beetles can eat the green parts of the plant with impunity.
When Sir Walter brought the potato over and presented the new vegetable to his Queen, he little thought the act might endanger his life. The plant was grown in the royal kitchen gardens, and the green leaves gathered and set before Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, in the form of a salad! Imagine how it tasted! Sir Walter was sent for, and faced the charge of trying to poison the Queen! He saved himself by explaining that only the tubers were fit to eat.
Cases of poisoning of children sometimes result from their eating the green balls that enclose the seeds, and look so good when served on the table in the playhouse. Timely warnings will prevent such occurrences.
Careful planters soak the potato cuttings in dilute formalin before planting, to destroy the spores of a potato disease called "scab. " Two hours in the liquid insures healthy potatoes from the "seed." That means a clean crop that beings a good price. The cost of the bath is very slight,
and the work is almost nothing. But the planting of scabby seed potatoes insures a crop that is scabby and a poor yield, because of the disease. Grain smuts are killed by soaking the seed in the same preparation of formalin.
A potato is a dormant shoot, set with buds, each with store of nourishment sufficient to feed its growth until it shall have roots and leaves to gather its own living from the soil and the air. If winter passes, and the tuber is not planted, it begins to grow wherever it happens to be. In the cellar bin the long, colorless shoots wind around in search of light. If there is a window, they all reach toward it. On the table in the light the shoots grow fast and produce green leaves, using the water that is in the fleshy substance, if none is supplied. Before the old tuber withers away new ones may be formed. So the plant renews its youth, undiscouraged by adverse conditions, that would make most plants give up and die.
Grate a raw potato after washing and peeling it, and pour cold water over the pulp. Drain and squeeze all the liquid possible into a glass tumbler. At first it is milky, then a white sediment appears, and the liquid above it is clear. Dry the sediment, and it cracks like dried mud. It is caked potato starch, like the laundry starch we buy. The clear fluid that you pour off of the starch contains albumen, like white of egg. Heat the liquid and this coagulates. With the albumen is a small amount of sugar, and fat, and gum. These are the elements, combined with starch, that make potatoes so important a food. Dried, the potato would be about the equivalent of rice, and a much more condensed food than it is. Three quarters of the bulk of potatoes when they are dug must be counted out. It is water.
To get the very best out of a fine potato, one should cook it in its jacket. Scrub it with a brush, rinse away all dirt, and bake it. Or steam it, by placing it in a colander over a kettle of boiling water. If one must peel potatoes, let it be the thinnest possible paring that is removed. Under the skin, that slips off so easily from new potatoes, lie the most nutritious elements. A thick paring throws away these, and sends the inner mass, chiefly starch, to the table.
Peeled potatoes should be plunged into hot water, so that the albumen coagulates and seals up all the contents when cooking begins. One gets by this method all the flavor and the value of the tubers. The common, wasteful method is to peel away the part in which the best of the pota to lies, soak them in water, then put them on to boil in cold water. The water drained off when potatoes are "done" contains certain acids, be sides other undesirable elements. For this reason, it has no food value, and should never be saved.