CH. I.] CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 123 



they were not expected, they had never seen upon the 

 table more than a third part of the necessary food. 



The potatoe-crop, said a witness, is in Ireland an af- 

 fair of life or death. When it fails, a complete famine 

 ensues ; corn is out of the question, as the rich alone have 

 the means of buying it. 



A single year of scarcity, said another witness, affects 

 many following years, for the people are compelled to eat 

 the seed-potatoes, and they then plant such bad ones 

 that it is impossible to eat them. 



The Commissioners investigated the comparative ad- 

 vantages of corn over potatoes, as food for the people. 



The great weight of potatoes, said one witness, is an 

 obstacle to their transport, which is not the case with 

 corn, so that one district is in a state of famine whilst 

 another is overflowing with provisions. 



Another witness said that the crop of potatoes is very 

 variable, notwithstanding that their cultivation is better 

 understood; and if it were as precarious as formerly, 

 the great increase of the population would produce in- 

 calculable evils, for the public peace depends upon the 

 harvest. 



A country like this, said a third witness, in which the 

 food entirely consists of potatoes, has always three months 

 of positive famine June, July and August ; and the 

 longer the time that intervenes between the growth of 

 the potatoes of the old crop and the new one, the greater 

 is the distress of the whole population. The people are 

 then obliged to dig up the potatoes, although they are no 

 larger than a pigeon's egg. 



The crop of the poor labourers, who rent small plots of 

 land by the year, is more backward by two or three weeks 



