278 POTATOES. [PART u. 



that, I will add some calculations as to the 

 comparative value of an acre of wheat and an 

 acre of potatoes. The article was a letter to 

 the Editor of the Agricultural Magazine ; and 

 was in the following words. 



T > afttfi -'a 



'To THE EDITOR OF THE AGRICULTURAL MA 

 GAZINE. 

 SIR, 



269. IN an article of your Magazine for the 

 month of September last, on the subject of 

 my Letters to Lord Sheffield, an article with 

 which, upon the whole, I have reason to be 

 very proud, you express your dissent with me 

 upon some matters, and particularly relative to 

 potatoes. The passage to which I allude, is in 

 these words : " As to a former diatribe of his 

 " on Potatoes, we regarded it as a pleasant ex- 

 " ample of argument for argument's sake ; as 

 " an agreeable jumble of truth and of mental 

 " rambling." 



270. Now, Sir, 1 do assure you, that I never 

 was more serious in my life, than when I wrote 

 the essay, or, rather, casually made the ob- 

 servati3ns against the cultivation arid use of 

 this worse than useless root. If it was argument 

 for argument's sake, no one, that I can recollect, 

 ever did me the honour to show that the argu- 



