PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 15 1 



Root crops, including the turnip, Swedish turnip, and a 

 root of the chenapodeae tribe, the mangel wurzel, have 

 been of great service by providing material for feeding 

 sheep in folds and cattle in stalls during the winter, thus 

 enabling animals to be made flit just at the season when 

 such meat is required, and abolishing the necessity for the 

 old plan of feeding animals fat in the autumn and then 

 kilhng and salting them for consumption during the 

 winter and spring, a plan which was productive of scurvy 

 and other cutaneous diseases, which were also accelerated 

 by the dearth of green vegetables of the brassica group of 

 the cruciferse, which are now in general use. 



The potato is a domesticated plant of the solanum 

 tribe, which has been, and is, of great service to civiliza- 

 tion. 



The early explorers of America discovered a plant of 

 the solanum tribe with a small, bitter root, growing on the 

 sea shore, which plant, having been brought to these 

 islands and carefully cultivated, has developed into the 

 large and palatable potato. 



Besides the fact that the potato produces a large 

 quantity of wholesome food, without much skill or 

 expense being necessary on the part of the grower, there 

 is another advantage connected with the potato which is 

 not, I think, generally appreciated, and that is that the 

 potato crop could not be burnt nor easily destroyed in 

 other ways in war time. I will give an illustration of this 

 from events in the history of Ireland. 



During the Cromwellian wars Coote, Inshiquin, and 

 other parliamentary officers invariably caused the lighted 

 torch to be applied to corn, hay and all combustible food 

 for man and beast. Depopulation therefore ensued, and 

 the country was reduced to a desert. But some fifty 

 years or so later, during the war of the Revolution, when 

 King WiUiam's soldiers killed and wasted without control. 



