POTATOES 



nothing in getting home his five bushels of potatoes, and supposing 

 him to have got the right sort, a &quot; fine sort,&quot; which he can hardly 

 fail of, indeed, since the whole nation is now full of &quot; fine sort,&quot; 

 let us now see how he goes to work to consume them. He has a 

 piece of bacon upon the rack, but he must have some potatoes 

 too. On goes the pot, but there it may as well hang, for we shall 

 find it in continual requisition. For this time the meat and 

 roots: boil together. - But, what is Dick to have for supper? 

 Bread ? No. He shall not have bread, unless he will have 

 bread for dinner. Put on the Pot again for supper. Up an hour 

 before day light and on with the pot. Fill your luncheon-bag, 

 Dick : nothing is so relishing and so strengthening out in the 

 harvest-field, or ploughing on a bleak hill in winter, as a cold 

 potatoe. But, be sure, Dick, to wrap your bag well up in your 

 clothes, during winter, or, when you come to lunch, you may, 

 to your great surprise, find your food transformed into pebbles. 

 Home goes merry Dick, and on goes the pot again. Thus 1095 

 times in the year Dick s pot must boil. This is, at least, a thousand 

 .times oftener than with a bread and meat diet. Once a week 

 jbaking and once a week boiling, is as much as a farm house used 

 |to require. There must be some fuel consumed in winter for 

 warmth. But here are, at the least, 500 fires to be made for the 

 sake of these potatoes, and, at a penny a fire, the amount is more 

 than would purchase four bushels of flour, w r hich would make 

 288 Ibs. of bread, which at 7 Ibs. of bread a day, would keep 

 John s family in bread for 41 days out of the 365. This I state 

 as a fact challenging contradiction, that, exclusive of the extra 

 labour, occasioned by the cookery of potatoes, the fuel required 

 in a year, for a bread diet, would cost, in any part of the kingdom 

 more than would keep a family, even in baker s bread for 41 days 

 in the year, at the rate of 71 Ibs. of bread a day. 



277. John, on the contrary, lies and sleeps on Sunday morning 

 till about 7 o clock. He then gets a bit of bread and meat, or 

 cheese, if he has either. The mill gives him his bushel of flour 

 in a few minutes. His wife has baked during the week. He 

 has a pudding on Sunday, and another batch of bread, before the 

 next Sunday. The moment he is up, he is off to his stable, or 

 the field, or the coppice. His breakfast and luncheon are in his 

 bag. In spite of frost he finds them safe and sound. They give 

 him heart, and enable him to go through the day. His 56 Ibs. 

 of flour, with the aid of 2d. in yeast, bring him 72 Ibs. of bread ; 

 while, after the dirt and peelings and waste are deducted, it is a 

 very doubtful whether Dick s 300 Ibs. of potatoes bring 200 Ibs. 

 of even this watery diet to his lips. It is notorious, that in a 

 pound of clean potatoes there are n ounces of water, half an 

 ounce of earthy matter, an ounce of fibrous and strawey stuff, 

 and I know not what besides. The water can do Dick no good, 

 but he must swallow these 1 1 ounces of water in every pound of 

 potatoes. How far earth and straw may tend to fatten or 



128 



