d and in the Highlands it quickly came to be the main food of
the people during the greater portion of the year; but in the Lowlands
of Scotland, and the rural districts of England, it was only used as a
food accessory, though it soon became an important article of commerce.
It has often happened that the potato crops have realized higher prices
than any other product of the farm.

It has been sometimes stated that the man who planted the first field of
potatoes in Scotland died within the last forty years. This is an error.
The first field planted in the Lowlands was at Liberton Muir, about the
year 1738, by a farmer named Mutter, who died in 1808. An attempt had
been made some years earlier by a farm-labourer, named Prentice, near
Kilsyth, but not as a farming operation.

In any case we do not get farther back than about 1730 for
potato-planting in Scotland, whereas in England, by 1684 the
recommendations of the Royal Society had been largely adopted,
especially in Lancashire, where the first serious beginning seems to
have been made. On the other hand, the cultivation has not extended so
rapidly in England as in either Ireland or Scotland.

The annual crop of Ireland is estimated as, on the average, equal to
about one thousand three hundred and twenty pounds per inhabitant; that
of Scotland, about three hundred and ninety pounds; and that of England,
about one hundred and twenty pounds. Germany is the next largest
producer to Ireland, and also the next largest consumer--the crops being
equal to about one thousand and sixty pounds per head. Holland and
Belgium each produce about five hundred and eighty pounds, and France
about five hundred and fifty pounds, of potatoes per inhabitant per
annum.

It is curious that, although Spain and Italy were the first cultivators
and users in Europe, the product of each of these countries is now only
about fifty-five pounds per head.

The annual value of the entire potato crop of Europe may be stated at
about one hundred and sixty million pounds; and that of the United
Kingdom at about one-tenth of this total. That of North America is about
twenty million pounds more; and it is a curious instance of the vagaries
of time that the _Solarium tuberosum_ is now known in America as the
'Irish potato,' to distinguish it from the batatas, or sweet potato.

All this immense development of cultivation does not complete the
topographical record of our tuber. It has been introduced into