III.] BAKING BREAD, 41 



reduce poor-rates, and to restore husbandry to prospe- 

 rity. Undertaken this work must be, and performed 

 too ; but whether we shall see this until the estates 

 have passed away from the present race of landlords, 

 is a question which must be referred to time. 



76. Surely we may hope, that, when the American 

 farmers shall see this little Essay, they will begin se- 

 riously to think of leaving off the use of the liver- 

 burning and palsy-producing spirits. Their climate, 

 indeed, is something : extremely hot in one part of 

 the year, and extremely cold in the other part of it. 

 Nevertheless, they may have, and do have, very good 

 beer if they will. Negligence is the greatest impedi- 

 ment in their way. I like the Americans very much ; 

 and that, if there were no other, would be a reason 

 for my not hiding their faults. 



No. III. 



MAKING BREAD. 



77. LITTLE time need be spent in dwelling on the 

 necessity of this article to all families ; though, on ac- 

 count of the modern custom of using potatoes to sup- 

 ply the place of bread, it seems necessary to say a few 

 words here on the subject, which, in another work I 

 have so amply, and. I think, so triumphantly discussed. 

 I am the more disposed to revive the subject for a mo- 

 ment, in this place, from having read, in the evidence 

 recently given before the Agricultural Committee, 

 that many labourers, especially in the West of Eng- 

 land, use potatoes instead of bread to a very great ex- 

 tent. And I find, from the same evidence, that it is 

 the custom to allot to labourers " a potatoe ground" 

 in part payment of their wages ! This has a tenden- 

 cy to bring English labourers down to the state of the 

 Irish, whose mode of living, as to food, is but one re- 

 move from that of the pig, and of the ill-fed pig too. 



78. I was, in reading the above-mentioned Evi- 



