THE HISTORY OF THE POTATO IN ROMANIA

          The history of the potato in Romania as a cultivated plant, probably, starts at the beginning of the 19^th  century. However, it may have been planted much earlier at smaller scale on the gardens, at least in Transylvania. First of  all, it was planted in Transylvania and from here it spread in Wallachia and Moldavia as well.

          From the documentary point of view,  the potato appears on the Transylvanian territory on 14th of March 1769 when officials of  Grand Royal Guberniat of  Transylvania ( Sibiu ) give out a circular letter on the potato crop because there were serious voices of the people who opposed the culture of this plant.

          According to C. Teodorescu in the district of  Brașov in 1780, Bucșa – birăul  from the New Tohan reported to the public notary  that in that year nobody cultivated apples in the ground. In 1781 those from Zărnești reported to the authorities that the production of potatoes was good.

          At the beginning of the 19th century  the potato spreads because a series of  measures were taken by the local and central authorities. Gheorghe  Șincai, in his paper  `` The advising to the economy of field  `` ( 1806 ) mentions the potato under the name of   `` crumpene ``  and  `` the pears from ground  ``. The book, written  in Romanian with cyrillic letters,  was destined to the Romanians  outside Transylvania.

          In 1814, Vasile Moga,  the first Orthodox bishop of Ardeal during the habsburg administration, tells the priests to urge people cultivate `` picioci `` in spring.

          Because of the famine in 1814, the governor of  Transylvania,  Gheorghe Banffy II gives a circular letter that advised the crop of potatoes even in the absence of animals. It seems that during the reigning of Scarlat Callimachi (1812-1819 ) the potato crop was introduced in Moldavia , brought from Transylvania, according to the agronome Simion P. Radianu  in 1906. This information is confirmed by the work of the Austrian diplomat Ștefan Raicevici who says that a French teacher held in 1812 rental land in Moldavia, which was cultivated with potatoes. From the work of Nicolae Iorga called  `` The documents of  Callimachi family `` ( 1902) results that the Callimachi, in order  to extend the culture of potatoes, said to A. I. Beldiman to translate in greek language a brochure called ```The learning making bread from potatoes `` ( printed in Iași in 1818 ). This might be the first book in romanian  about the potato.

          In Wallachia, the chronicle of  Ioan Gheorghe Caradja ( 1812-1818 ) reminds about the selling of potatoes from Ardeal on the Bucharest market and about the crop of potatoes made by peasants from around the capital.        

 By Prof. Vasile Ciubotaru