Aristocrat in Burlap: A History of the Potato in Idaho

A history of the Idaho potato industry must necessarily be different from histories of wars, politics, people and nations even though all of these have had their affect. The history of Idaho potatoes involves such unlikely events as a man sifting through the soil of his garden for one lost pod from a potato plant, volcanic eruptions that took place in Western America millions of years ago and the development of highly sophisticated pumps that can lift water from great depths in the earth to irrigate potato fields. In certain ways the mighty Snake River is the mother of Idaho's potato industry. It has, through the centuries, transported and deposited much of the silt that farmers cultivate today in lower lying fields along the river course. It provides much of the water that makes possible the growing of a plant that needs a soil moisture of eighty percent for ideal growth. As it plunges a mile downward in elevation along its course, the Snake generates electrical energy that makes pumping from deep wells possible, and most of the potato growing areas of the state lie contiguous to the Snake River Valley as it twists its way in a 550-mile arc across southern Idaho. Although natural history has greatly affected the Idaho potato industry, the vision, the decisions and the hard work of thousands of people have, in the end, made possible the establishment, growth, promotion and the future of the industry and their names have a place in its history. Unfortunately time has taken most of the pioneers, and the information of their struggles, discoveries, triumphs and disappointments must come from family members and what documentation is available. Like all histories, this one searches for the milestones, the unusual, the significant and must by necessity omit persons and events that have played parts of importance. --- from book's Foreword