THE IRISH LABOURER. 107 



yokes his plough without first having fed his 

 horses and seen that otherwise they had been 

 properly cared for ? How much more shall we 

 attend to the wants of our fellow-creatures ! 



Owing to very peculiar circumstances, we 

 have had perhaps a wider field for experiment 

 and observation than many practical men, both 

 in Ireland and also in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, among the potato-fed labourers of the 

 north, while we have been able at the same 

 time to contrast our experience in those two 

 provinces with that in England and the Low- 

 lands of Scotland. The result of our observa- 

 tion, independent of any chemical knowledge 

 which we may possess, satisfies us that no 

 labouring man can consume a quantity of 

 potatoes sufficient to supply the muscular waste 

 of the body while subjected to hard labour. 

 In Ireland we had servants of every extrac- 

 tion English, Scotch and Irish, Celt and 

 Saxon, and found them alike. The anxiety of 

 the poor people to ameliorate their condition, 

 and their inability to do so for the want of 

 physical support, furnished a subject of serious 

 contemplation to us. By the successful opera- 

 tion of taskwork among them for two years, 



