654 



If therefore this universal mania for writing on the subject, and this 

 boundless love of speculation, produce no effects that he can feel, may 

 he not reasonably hope that the calamity is not so enormous as the pub- 

 lic has been led to suppose? — may he not hope that it is one which 

 by prudence, judgment, and above all by experiment, may yet be 

 averted from those whom it seems more particularly to threaten ? 



We happen to possess that peculiar temperament that is more in- 

 fluenced by precise facts than by superlative expressions : thus, if the 

 parish of Littletown produced 20,000 tons of potatoes in 1844, 18,000 

 in 1845, and 16,000 in 1846, we should have facts to comment on; 

 and if a thousand parishes taken together exhibited an equal decrease, 

 it would become still more serious, and calculations might be made 

 with still greater precision : but no one seems to aim at obtaining 

 or disseminating such information as this. If the facts of the case were 

 as we have stated, we should find them set forth in these terms, " horri- 

 ble famine in Littletown, total failure of the potato crop." Living in 

 Littletown we should know this statement to be false, and should there- 

 fore doubt the truth of any similar statements. Let us come to tons, 

 hundred-weights, quarters and pounds, or to pounds, shillings and 

 pence, anything intelligible, but vague poetical statements, albeit 

 clothed in forcible language, have little weight with the lovers of 

 facts. 



That there is disease, and consequently deficiency, it is impossible 

 to doubt ; the statements cannot be altogether false ; but there is so 

 much exaggeration, so great a love of the marvellous, that it requires a 

 very sound judgment, and no small portion of labour, to separate the 

 real from the ideal, truth from fiction. 



After taking the preliminary step of ascertaining with something 

 approaching to precision the real amount of the injury, the next 

 would be to publish the result, and thus defeat, as far as practicable, 

 the interested designs of speculators, and at the same time allay the 

 fears which had been raised by fictitious or exaggerated statements. 

 It is to be feared that no information can be gained as to the cause of 

 the disease, at least the labours of botanists have failed in achieving 

 this most desirable object. Nevertheless we may consider the question 

 of mitigation or cure, which, in the absence of all knowledge of the 

 complaint is certainly a difficult one, nor do I know any other resource 

 than experiment, and here we have been wofully deficient. Instead 

 of the innumerable and elaborately detailed suggestions and recom- 

 mendations as to different modes of treatment, the very penning of 

 which must have been a work of prodigious labour, the recommenders 



