316 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. ' [Jan., 



by the foe. No stacks to be burned, cavalry migM be turned 

 into the potato patch, but did no harm to it; neither the enemies 

 horses nor the neighbors cows would touch the green tops; if 

 mowed ofi by the scythe, they grew again and no special harm 

 was done, only by digging the crop up hill by hill could its 

 growth be stopped, and even then, the tubers could not be destroyed 

 or even materially injured — they would not burn, if thrown upon 

 the ground they were not materially injured, they were too heavy 

 and bulky to be carried off; even if dumped into the neighboring 

 bog, they remained sound, to be fished out as good as ever by 

 the miserable inhabitants, as actually occurred more than once. 

 Moreover, it was a crop that could be used green as well as ripe, 

 as soon as the young tubers were large enough they could be eaten; 

 on the other hand they were not injured if they remained in the 

 soil after ripening; the harvest might be put off for a more con- 

 venient season. Simple as was their- cultivation, the spade or hoe 

 the only implement necessary, their preparation for the table was 

 even more simple. The crop required neither sickle nor reaper, 

 nor thresher nor mill, nor even oven; just as dug from the soil 

 they could be roasted in the ashes and eaten with salt. 



No, hard as were the conditions, Irish agriculture was not killed 

 even by all that, it kept alive after a fashion, and is to-day one of 

 the liveKest questions in European politics, and not European 

 merely, for the "Irish Land League" is agitating the local poli- 

 tics of more than one American town. 



I have cited this one example of adaptation of local agriculture 

 to unfriendly conditions, because it is a striking one and a very 

 simple one, but it is not more remarkable than numerous others ; 

 the history of the world is filled with them; various countries and 

 districts about the Mediterranean could match this. I have cited 

 it merely to illustrate the great law spoken of, that agriculture 

 cannot be killed in any country short of destroying its inhabitants 

 or its civilization, but that it can be modified to any extent. When 

 it feels the force of any pressure on it, it yields but does not break. 

 Under any amount of new pressure, no matter how heavy, the 

 new question is not, shall this industry continue to exist ? but 

 rather, what shall it be ? Connecticut farmers feel the pressure of 

 western competition more sharply than English or Irish farmers 

 do, so far as it is a purely agricultural competition, but there are 

 no signs that Connecticut agriculture is dying out. The question is, 

 what is the most profitable shape for it to take, and not, shall agri- 



