CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 



do, and a plentiful subsistence, when grain would 

 be poverty and want. , The injudicious manner in 

 which some farmers have let their land has certain- 

 ly, under old acts of parliament, brought many 

 families into a parish ; but we have very few in- 

 stances where a potato-land renter to any extent is 

 supported by the parish. In this village a very 

 large portion of our peasantry inhabit their own 

 cottages, the greater number of which have been 

 obtained by their industry, and the successful cul- 

 ture of this root. The getting in and out of the 

 crop is solely performed by the cotter and his 

 family : a child drops a set in the dibble-hole or the 

 trench made by the father, the wife with her hoe 

 covering it up ; and in harvesting all the family are 

 in action ; the baby is wrapped up when asleep in 

 its mother's cloak, and laid under the shelter of some 

 hedge, and the digging, picking, and conveying 

 to the great store heap commences ; a primitive 

 occupation and community of labour, that I be- 

 lieve no other article admits of or affords. 



It has been said that the culture of the potato 

 is injurious to the farm in general, and I know 

 landlords who restrict the growth of it ; but per- 

 haps the extent of injury has been greatly over- 

 rated. The potato, it is true, makes no return to 

 the land in straw for manure, and a large portion of 

 that which is made in the barton is occasionally 

 required for its cultivation; and thus it is said to 



