POTATOES 



strengthen cunning Dick, I do not know ; but, at any rate, it is 

 certain, that, while he is eating as much of potatoe as is equal in 

 nutriment to i Ib. of bread, he must swallow about 14 oz. of water, 

 earth, straw, &c. for, down they must go altogether, like the 

 Parliament s bread in the years of wisdom, 1800 and 1801. But, 

 suppose every pound of potatoes to bring into Dick s stomach 

 a 6th part in nutritious matter, including in the gross pound all 

 the dirt, eyes, peeling, and other inevitable waste. Divide his 

 gross 300 Ibs. by 6, and you will find him 50 Ibs. of nutritious 

 matter for the same sum that John has laid out in 72 Ibs. of 

 nutritious matter, besides the price of 288 Ibs. of bread in a year, 

 which Dick lays out in extra fuel for the eternal boilings of his 

 pot. Is it any wonder that his cheeks are like two bits of loose 

 leather, while he is pot-bellied, and weak as a cat ? In order to 

 get half a pound of nutritious matter into him, he must swallow 

 about 50 ounces of water, earth, and straw. Without ruminating 

 faculties how is he to bear this cramming ? 



278. But, Dick s disadvantages do not stop here. He must 

 lay in his store at the beginning of winter, or he must buy* through 

 the nose. And, where is he to find stowage ? He has no caves. 

 He may pie them in the garden, if he has one ; but, he must not 

 open the pie in frosty weather. It is a fact not to be disputed, 

 that a full tenth of the potatoe crop is destroyed, upon an average 

 of years, by the frost. His wife, or stout daughter, cannot go out 

 to work to help to earn the means of buying potatoes. She must 

 stay at home to boil the pot, the everlasting pot ! There is no such 

 thing as a cold dinner. No such thing as women sitting down on 

 a hay-cock, or a shock of wheat, to their dinner, ready to jump 

 up at the approach of the shower. Home they must tramp, if 

 it be three miles, to the fire that ceaseth not, and the pot as black 

 as Satan. No wonder, that in the brightest and busiest seasons 

 of the year, you see from every cottage door, staring out at you, 

 as you pass, a smoky-capped, greasy-heeled woman. The pot, 

 which keeps her at home, also gives her the colour of the chimney, 

 while long inactivity swells her heels. 



279. Now, Sir, I am quite serious in these my reasons against 

 the use of this root, as food for man. As food for other animals, 

 in proportion to its cost, I know it to be the worst of all roots that 

 I know any thing of ; but, that is another question. I have here 

 been speaking of it as food for man ; and, if it be more expensive 

 than flour to the labourer in the country, who, at any rate, can 

 stow it in pies, what must it be to tradesman s and artizan s 

 families in towns, who can lay in no store, and who must buy 

 by the ten pound or quarter of a hundred at a time ? When 

 broad-faced Mrs. Wilkins tells Mrs. Tomkins, that, so that she 

 has &quot; a potatoe &quot; for her dinner, she does not care a farthing for 

 bread, I only laugh, knowing that she will twist down a half pound 

 of beef with her &quot; potatoe,&quot; and has twisted down half a pound 

 of buttered toast in the morning, and means to do the same at 



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