On Potatoes. 57 



root being cultivated for the use of horses, cattle, and 

 hogs, in order that the farmers might be able to spare 

 a portion of their crops in times of scarcity, to sell to 

 the people ; and I presume to suppose, that if four or 

 five per cent, of the land of every farm were thus em- 

 ployed, the advantage to the farmer would be very con- 

 siderable ; as he would in such a case be paid for that 

 support of the people, which in the present order of 

 things, has cost, as stated above, more than 30,000,000 

 pounds sterling paid for foreign wheat. 



The inducement to landlords and farmers thus to 

 extend this branch of cultivation, would necessarily 

 depend on their being convinced that the root is profit- 

 ably applicable to the live stock I have mentioned : 

 to prove this point I quoted a great variety of experi- 

 ments, published by the men who made them, shew- 

 ing, that potatoes paid Is. 6d. per bushel of 66 lbs. as 

 food for horses, in saving oats or hay, or both ; and Is. 

 per bushel on the average of horses, cattle, and hogs : 

 these trials were made by practical men, many of them 

 ©f great experience, and of known accuracy. In what- 

 ever manner the produce of potatoes is, on an average, 

 reasonably calculated, it will evidently appear, that 

 no farmer could entertain any well-founded apprehen- 

 sion of the culture proving disadvantageous. It is ad- 

 mitted that in many cases the root is an exhauster, 

 and consequently by no means beneficial to the farm, 

 relative to that portion of the crop which is sold ; but 

 for all the rest of the produce applied to feeding and 

 fattening live stock, the dunghill amply remunerates 

 for the deficiency. 



When the present state of the corn markets is con- 



VOL. TIT. h ^- 



