POTATO. The potato was first brought to this country from Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh, and was first planted in his garden at Youghal, in Ireland. But the potato had been known iu Spain and Portugal at an earlier period, and it is from them that we most directly derive the name by which we know it. The in habitants of Quito called it by some name which the Spaniards corruited into battata, to which potato is a close approximation. The potato was limited to the garden for at least a century and a half after it was first planted at Youghal, and it was not until 1732 cultivated as a field crop in Scotland.
The farina of the potato, properly granu lated and dried, is sold in our shops as tapioca, to which it bears the closest resemblance both in appearance and essential properties. For confectionary the flour is so delicately white, and it is so digestible and nutritious, that it ought to be in more general use, among the children of the poor especially, in the winter season, when they so rarely enjoy the luxury of milk; and the cost is not more than a sixth or seventh of the price of tapioca or arrow root, if it bo made at home. Few
housewives are ignorant of the method of obtaining it by the use of a common hand grater and sieve ; but for yielding larger supplies some machinery is necessary.
The misery of Ireland, consequent on the failure of the potato crop, is too well known to require notice here. In 1847, the Earl of Clarendon, wishing to know the exact amount of vegetable food grown in the country, caused an accurate enumeration to be made. It was found that there were 284,116 acres of land under potato-crop in 1847; the produce of which was estimated at 2,046,195 tons of potatoes. No means are at hand for deter mining the ratio which these numbers bear to those of former years ; but it is well known that the quantity was greatly diminished during and immediately after the disastrous year 1846 it has been lately estimated that the potatoes sold in Covent Garden market an nually amount to about 6,600 tons, or about 14,000,000 lbs.