The Scotch immigrants, who were the first to introduce the manufacture of linen in the American colonies, were also the first to introduce the potato on the shores of the New World. In referring to this fact, the Boston "Transcript" mentions the following interesting particulars: ---
"These frugal and industrious persons were descendants of a Scotch colony, who settled in Ireland about the middle of the seventeenth century; but on account of religious persecution were obliged to flee to this country, where they arrived in 1718. They came over in five ships and landed in Boston, having previously sent over an agent to make necessary arrangements.
They introduced the culture of the potato, which they brought with them from Ireland. Until their arrival this valuable vegetable, if not wholly unknown, was not cultivated in New England. They passed the previous winter in Andover, before settling in Londonderry, and there left some potatoes, which were planted and came up luxuriantly. The family who raised them cooked the balls instead of the vegetable, and after trying them in various ways, pronounced them unfit for use, and the mistake was not discovered until the plow turned up the real potato."
[By recent forein papers we learn that two intelligent Irishmen, from the same part of Ireland as the above-mentioned New England settlers, have, in the potato line, put forth the theory that the potato can only propagate by cuttings for a certain number of years, when its propagating force, by such a plan, fails, andthus they account for the potato disease. To recruit or renew the propagating force of this apple of the earth, they propose to renew the new stock from the plumbs. This theory is not new, yet we think favorably of the recommendation to raise new seed potatoes from the balls. The cause of the disease, as set forth is not correct, in our opinion.]
From the Scientific American, Vol. 9, Issue 18 (1854).
Origins of the English breakfast tea
Irish efforts at learning Gaelic
North polar exploration
Tragedy in Klondyke
The Long Walk of the Navajo
Sir Douglas Forsyth
Chinese manuscripts
A Galician Jew POW in Siberia
