III.] MAKING BREAD. 43 



of that straw. Then, as to the expense of gathering, 

 housing, and keeping the potatoe crop, it is enormous, 

 besides the risk of loss by frost, which may be safely 

 taken, on an average, at a tenth of the crop. Then 

 comes the expense of cooking. The thirty-two bush- 

 els of wheat, supposing a bushel to be baked at a time, 

 (which would be the case in a large family,)' would 

 demand thirty-two heatings of the oven. Suppose 

 a bushel of potatoes to be cooked every day in order 

 to supply the place of this bread, then we have nine 

 hundred boilings of the pot, unless cold potatoes be 

 eaten at some of the meals ; and, in that case, the 

 diet must be cheering indeed ! Think of the labour ; 

 think of the time ; think of all the peelings and scra- 

 pings and washings and messings attending these 

 nine hundred boilings of the pot ! For it must be a 

 considerable time before English people can be 

 brought to eat potatoes in- the Irish style ; that is to 

 say, scratch them out of the earth with their paws, 

 toss them into a pot without washing, and when boil- 

 ed, turn them out upon a dirty board, and then sit 

 round that board, peel the skin and dirt from one at a 

 time and eat the inside. Mr. Curwen was delighted 

 with " Irish hospitality" because the people there re- 

 ceive no parish relief; upon which I can only say, that 

 I wish him the exclusive benefit of such hospitality. 



80. I have here spoken of a large quantity of each 

 of the sorts of food. I will now come to a compa- 

 rative view, more immediately applicable to a labour- 

 er's family. When wheat is ten shillings the bushel, 

 potatoes, bought at best hand, (I am speaking of the 

 country generally,) are about two shillings (English) 

 a bushel. Last spring the average price of wheat 

 might be six and sixpence, (English ;) and the ave- 

 rage price of potatoes (in small quantities) was about 

 eighteen-pence ; though, by the wagon-load, I saw 

 potatoes bought at a shilling (English) a bushel, to 

 give to sheep; then, observe, these were of the 

 coarsest kind, and the farmer had to fetch them at a 

 considerable expense. I think, therefore, that I give 

 the advantage to the potatoes when I say that they 



