80 ' CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 



is always to be obtained by the cotter, upon appli- 

 cation. We have a marked instance in the year 

 1825 how little we can predict what the product of 

 this crop will be, or the change that alteration of 

 weather may effect ; for after the drought of the 

 summer, after our apprehensions, our dismay (for 

 the loss of this root is a very serious calamity), the 

 produce of potatoes was generally fair, in places 

 abundant ; many acres yielding full eighty sacks, 

 which, at the digging out price of 6s. the "sack, 

 gave a clear profit to the labourer of 11Z. 7s. 6d. 

 per acre ! But at any rate it gives infinite comfort 

 to the poor man, which no other article can equally 

 do, and a plentiful subsistence, when grain would 

 be poverty and want. The injudicious manner in 

 which some farmers have let their land has cer- 

 tainly, 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, pick- 



