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Brian Fagan wrote a nice chapter (not sure which book) about the early adopters of the potato, namely, the Irish — while the rest of You-Rope regarded the potato as, at best, animal feed, the Irish were growing, shipping, and refining their crop, until, whoopsie, accidental genocide.

OTOH, my Irish ancestors left Ireland for America much earlier, probably on the run from the law, or transported. :’)

Population in Ireland
http://www.grantonline.com/grant-family-genealogy/Records/population/population-ireland.htm
http://www.grantonline.com/grant-family-genealogy/Records/population/population-ireland-1100-200.jpg

http://www.mapspictures.com/ireland/history/ireland_population.php
http://www.mapspictures.com/ireland/history/imgCF.gif

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/demographics_pre.html
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/charts/population_1700_2000.gif

Researchers Have Finally Solved The Mystery Of The Irish Potato Famine
http://www.livescience.com | 5-24-2013 | Denise Chow
Posted on 05/24/2013 9:45:13 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3023410/posts

Humble potato ‘must go to Africa’, Germany insists
EurActiv | 21 November 2013 | Dario Sarmadi
Posted on 11/21/2013 1:04:19 AM PST by Olog-hai
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3093790/posts

In his History of England, Macaulay basically devotes a chapter to his opinion that societies who eat bread as their staple starch are much more civilized than societies who eat potatoes dug out of the ground for heaven's sake. Which is one very important reason why the English were destined to rule over those benighted potato eating Irish.

It's an interesting if not amusing window into the English attitude. It also makes the Irish revolt against English rule quite understandable. You are entitled to occupy my country because I eat potatoes, really?