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In comparison to other Polish lands, we still have a very limited knowledge of the origins and spread of potato cultivation in the western part of the former Austrian province of Galicia. One of the reasons is the lack of early economic, nation-wide sources (statistics, tithe records, etc). As a vegetable potato appeared in gardens in various parts of Galicia in the 1770s. Although one can identify early cases of the use of potatoes for vodka production, it was only after the end of the Napoleonic wars and a sharp drop in grain prices after 1816 that large scale field cultivation of this plant was launched for this purpose. Despite the economic backwardness of Galicia, in the early 1840s this province was the largest producer of potatoes in Austrian territory, and the potato blight did not have a significant impact on yields in this part of Poland in the 1850s.