Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1880)
84 THE WEST SHORE. March, 1880. THE POTATO ITS BOTANY, USE AND CULTURE. BjtC. I. Axdsisos, M D. The following notai of a lecture before the Rente Cruz Farmers' Association, March 0, 1880, are prepared especially for the Pacific Rural Prut: The potato belong to a useful family of planti, and for good or evil, powerful aa useful. It is the Nightshade Family (SoUinacf.tr), and includes' the tomato with all its varieties, the egg plant, tho oapsicum, the tobacco, atropa (belladonna or deadly nightshade), tho ground cherry, the stramonium, and a multitude of other plants too tedious to mention. Many of those are cultivated in California, and some mombers of the family are natives. Home are valuable only for food, others furnish the most poworful and useful mediciuos, and others again are cul tivated chiefly for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers. Of this latter class I may men tion the petunia, the datura and some climbing solanums. We havo all seen the tall, tropical looking brugmansia with its large trumpet shapou flowers in our gardens, sending its fra granoe out to the sidewalks and streets a din taut cousin of the less-showy solatium tulier osum, the subject of our discourse, and the potato of our gardens and Holds. The potato is found native on the uplands of Mexico, Chile, I'vru and perhaps other parts of the American continent. In its wild atato it was first found in the elovated regions of tho tropica. Hut it adapts itself to almost any climate, and is cultivated from northern Alaska and Labrador to Patagonia, and from I, iphmd to the Capo of flood Hope. It his Iwooino wild in New Mcxiuo and California, anil oven in the oold climate of northern Minnesota, on the shore of l-ake Superior, it hsi beou known to run wild for years. Wildness, however, with the potato does not mean improvement. It soon degenerates and becomes worthless. Cultivation is almost every thing with this plant; and when left to itself, or badly cultivated, it soon relipses into its or iginal uondition. The tubers decrease in size and nearly disappear, affordiug a striking oxample of involution, as its cultivation docs that of rti ouion. Whilst cultivation of this plant in different soils ami climates may cause a wide variation iu the form, character and color of the tuber, the plant as a whole preserves, except in the color of the flowers, its oharaoteristica. In some highly cultivated varieties flowering and matur ing of seed-balls erases almost entirely. Early in the IGlh century, or some 330 years ago, the potato found its way into Europe, sup- osed to nave been introduced by the Spaniards, t wai carried into (ireat I in tain from the col ony in Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh in the I ear I'M He llrst planted it on hii estate in relaud near Cork. In 1,107 it was first figured and described by the noted English botanist, John (lerard. He named it Batata Vinjinnna, and recommended it as an article of food. The price at llrst was so high that it oould only be afforded bv kings. It waa used iu Ireland aa an article of food long tafore the people of England were induced to oeteem it of value. It was nearly 100 years after ita introduction by Sir Waller, and ita description by (lerard, before the wnple of England began to use it aa an arti cle of food extensively. MANN ICR or I1KOWTII. What " call the potato is the tuberous mot took of the Solatium tubrrotum. It is the only part of the plant that we have discovered of any use. It ia not botanioally correct to call the potato a root, for that is quite another thing. It U really a thiokened underground branch or tarn. It haa axillary buds (eyes), around whn-h are the thickened imperfect leaves (scales). These buds are similar to buds on branches of other plants. Each one contains the embryo of the new plant the stem, the roots, the leaves. The scale or imperfect loaf serves as a protection to the bad until it has fairly commenced growing. This bud is but another form of seed in which all the organs are folded np ready to be ex panded at the proper season into item, root and leaves. The root descends into the earth and i...l,il.na wnfnr with wVmfmr,.,- of (in f rimenf: that fluid contains, and the leaves open out in the air with mouths and lungs to breathe the gases that surround them, and by this process to assimilate materials for the plant. We are taught by some vegetable physiolo gists that the tuber is necessary to nourish the young plant after the bud has expanded into stem, root and leaf. This is incorrect, after the rootlets have started into the soil and the leaves have reached the air, the remaining por tion of the tuber ia of little consequence to the new plant. We often see the old tuber remain ing after the new tubers have matured. The potato plant is perennial. The top stem grows and dies each season, but the under ground stem, which is tho tuber, remains ready to start with favoring conditions, and thus con tinue the growth. The buds are sometimes compound, t. ., two or more may be contained in one eye. In fact some tubers are so prolitio that buds start out from places showing to external observations no sign of a bud. The seed end of a tuber may be recognized by having a greater number of buds. The item end is the end attached to the parent vine. A fragment of the atom end usually remains at tached to the tuber. The buds for planting may lie cut out by commencing at the stem and holding the seed end upwards, and proceeding upwards and to the left, turning the potato as we go. It will be noticed that the eyes are ar ranged spirally, so that ono bud is obliquely above another, and thus in going around the tuber we remove all the buds without material injury to either; for it is not well to cut acrosB a bud. The seed end may be cut so as to divide the cluiters of buds equally. In cutting, en deavor to carry the lower point of each pieoe to wards the i cuter of the stem end, for the reason that tho vascular system radiates from that point towards the hiiils, Tho stem grows by elongation of tho tcrmiual bud, which as it goes forward develops lateral buds. These form side stems. In case of in jury or destruction of the terminal bud by frost or otherwise, the noxt axillary or side bud be comes terminal and continues the growth. When an eye contains mop) than one bud, usually the extra buds perish. Sometimes they all grow at the same time, or if tho tuber does not decay they may remain dormant for a long time waitiug for favoringconditions to commence growing. ANATOMY OF THE POTATO. Tho structure of a potato tuber is oomposed principally of men anil ducta. The sac is a little receptacle for holding the material brought to it by the duct, and in it are formed the starch grains. It has a membraneous wall on all sides, and wheu fully matured is tilled with starch. The duct is of a fibrous or thread-like structure and oouveys the nutriment to the little bsgs. Tho process of starch manufacture ia through the lining membranes of the sacs out of material brought by the ducta. The law of action called rumiMM by physiologists- exchauge of material through a membrane ia exercised in all proba bility in thii cue. Au examination of the tuber with a micro soope reveals the sacs and ducta as a fine net work, the interlacing flbers holding the saos, large and small (for they vary considerably), in place. The grains of starch in these sacs have a peculiar structure. They are egg or kidney shaped aomewhat and made up of layers around a point or eye, which is situated at one end of the granule. Plants that produce starch may often be dis tinguished by the site and structure of these starch grains, aomewhat as animals are dis tinguished by the size and shape of their blood cclU. Hence in adulterations the microscope serves a valuable purpose in testing those grains as to their source. The starch grains in the potato tuber are larger than in almost any other plant used aa food, and to this fact much of its value is due. And that potato that has the largest and best developed starch sacs and grains is the best va riety. The best cultivation leads to this end. A maximum development of the staroh (Trains and a minimum of the fibrous or vascular bundles seem to produce the most satisfactory quality of tuber. "Watery" and "waxy" tubers indi cate an excessive vasoular growth or a degenera tion of the starch grains. CHEMISTRY OF THE POTATO. The chemical composition of the potato 'varies greatly with soil, olimate and season. Accord ing to the most numerous and careful analyses of the potato we find an average to be about as follows: Percentage. Water 70.00 Nitrogenous matter 1.70 Fatty matter 0.16 Sugar 1.10 SI are 1 1 23.00 Mineral matter and sktn N 4.00 The ash of the tuber yields on an average about 60 of potash salts and 17 of phosphoric acid, anil smaller, and nearly equal amounts of lime, soda, magnesia, silica, chlorine and sul phuric acid. A soil then containing a large amount of potaBh and phosphates would be indicated; and the successful fertilization with these materials has frequently been demonstrated. These con stituents in a loose, deep sandy loam, in which there is a large percentage of vegetable mold and good drainage, will give the beat crops other things being equal. The food part of the dried tuber is about 28, 24. of which is staroh. Although the analysis of the potato doee not show a large proportion of nutritious matter, the easy transformation and assimilation of the staroh and mineral constituents, owing to their peculiar properties, into animal tissue, places it among the most valuable and important of food material. It is estimated, perhaps correctly, that a bushel (or 60 pounds) of tubers will pro duce 3 pounds of beef or 5 pounds of mutton, or the same of pork, or 30 pounds of milk, or 3 pounds of butter, and so on in like proportion throughout all the animal products. But their value depends on oombining with other food and by being fed judiciously to animals of good breed. Thus 20 pounds of potatoes and 20 pounds of good hay with either 1 pound of bean meal or 2 or 3 pounds of shorts or bran, will give the best results. It is in such combina tions that the potato becomes most valuable as a food for domestic animals. And its value as a food for man is no less important. As an illustration of what the potato will do, let us look at the inhabitants of the northern coast of Ireland, strong and healthy, yet having only for food potatoes and sour milk, with an occasional scrap of fish or sea weed. It is said that Parmentier, who did io muoh in the last century to promote the cultivation of the potato in France, onoe invited a number of guests to a grand entertainment in Paris, among whom were Lavoisier, one of the fathers of modern chemistry, and Benjamin Franklin. Every dish consisted of potatoes prepared in va rious ways, wonderfully differing from eaoh other, and even the wines and brandy were the produot of these tubers. The starch of commerce has for a long time been largely manufactured from the potato, both in Europe and the United States. Lately attention has been called to the manufacture of potato Hour. The ease and simplicity of the process commends itself to the people of Cali fornia, where the potato can be raised so abund antly and cheaply that even the harvesting of the crop at times will not pay. As flesh formers they are estimated to be superior to carrots, mangolds, rutabagas, tur nips, or sugar beets. According to results at German experimental stations, when dried they are more than half as valuable aa wheat or oats, and two-thirds equal to corn. There is a popular idea that potatoes will mix if different varieties are planted together. This is an error. They will no more mix than