882 



rage, 13,440 lbs. ; the maximum, 67,200 lbs. The two latter publi- 

 cations were of 1843, Wakefield's being 1812, still the test of dividing 

 the produce from potatoes by four would produce about the same re- 

 sults as the table he had given from Sir Robert Kane's computation. 

 Now, as regarded the amount of absolute nutrition, that table states 

 it exhibits " from the best authorities the quantity of actual nutritious 

 material usually derived from an acre of ground." It might be pre- 

 sumed the table itself was sufficient authority; but all doubt would 

 be removed by the following : — M. de Lomes, author of the ' Statis- 

 tics of Great Britain and Ireland,' states " In Ireland the potato gives 

 an annual produce of 42 to 52,000 lbs. per hectare. On dividing 

 that number by four, to reduce it to the standard nourishment which 

 wheat affords, the hectare thus cultivated, gives 10 to 13,000 lbs. 

 weight of subsistence ;" and he adds, " Newnham considers three 

 pounds of potatoes equivalent to one pound of wheat." Kortes states 

 the main result of the examinations of fifty-five varieties of potato, 

 gave him, for solid matter, 24'9 ; for starch, 11'85 per cent. ; conse- 

 quently the residue was almost 14 per cent. And Professor Solly, in 

 his ' Tables of the average weight per acre of thirteen crops of corn 

 or vegetables, and also of their organic or inorganic constituents,' 

 gives — 



And, although Solly only allows eight tons of potatoes per acre, in 

 place of what may be produced, thirty tons, and gives a much higher 

 average of wheat than other authors, we find the gross quantity of 

 protein compound from an acre of ground, to be from potatoes almost 

 exactly double the quantity from wheat, and the per centage to be 

 14-16, almost similar with Sir Robert Kane's table ; besides which, 

 Solly gives six per cent, of inorganic matter. Therefore there can be 

 no question of the quantum of nutriment (assumed to be for the pro- 

 duction of bone and muscle) in the potato when in its healthy state ; 

 but let them now look at the last analysis made, when of course the 

 tuber was diseased, as, under existing circumstances, it could hardly 

 fail to be otherwise. Professor Johnson says, in an article recently 

 published, with an accurate analysis of the potato, " The quantity of 

 dry solid matter depends upon ripeness — the ripest leave 30 to 32 per 



