CHAP. VII.] POTATOES. 293 



caves. He may pie them in the garden, if he 

 has none; 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 :" ost. 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 ever 

 lasting 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 inac 

 tivity 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 pro 

 portion to its cost, 1 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, i it be more experj-, 

 sive than flour to the labourers the cowitry, 



