FAILUEE OF THE POTATO CROP. 363 



seed, is the most nutritive of all vegetable substances, and is, 

 therefore, when at moderate price, quite as economical as some 

 of the cheaper kinds of grain. It is only when wheat has risen 

 to an unusual price that substitutes are sought for it in inferior 

 articles. According to Liebig, Boussingault and others, 107 

 parts of wheat are equal in nutritive power to 111 of rye, 117 

 of oats, 130 of barley, 138 of Indian corn, 177 of rice, 894 of 

 potatoes, and 1335 of turnips. 



Severe as the evils have been to Ireland in the failure of the 

 potato crop, there is no doubt that much good has resulted to 

 that country and to our own, from this convincing proof of the 

 uncertainty of the potato, and of its unfitness, on that account, 

 to be the common food of the people. It is exceedingly de^ 

 sirable that the potato should not be made more than a subsi- 

 diary article ; for, as above shown, its powers of nutrition are 

 very low compared with wheat and other grain. " Wherever 

 it supersedes bread," says Mr. M'Culloch, " the population, 

 though there should be no increased demand for labour, inva- 

 riably increases ; wages are gradually lowered ; and poverty 

 and its attendant train of evils diffuse themselves over the 

 vicinage. We are not, therefore, of the number of those who 

 regard the potato rot as a manifestation of the Divine wrath, 

 and who suppose that its continuance will be ruinous to the 

 poor. On the contrary, we do not hesitate to say, that;, 

 judging of its influence in time to come by that which it has 

 hitherto exercised, we should look upon the total extinction 

 of the plant as a blessing, arid not as an evil. The transition 

 from an inferior and cheap to a superior and more costly 

 species of food might, no doubt, occasion, considerable incon- 

 venience in some parts of Great Britain, while in Ireland it 

 would be a matter of much difficulty. But this inconvenience 

 and difficulty, how troublesome soever in the mean time, would 

 be got over in no very lengthened period ; and when the change 

 had once been accomplished, the benefit to the country, and 

 especially to the labouring classes, would be greater than can 

 be easily imagined. It would not, we think, be difficult to show 

 that the gradually extending use of the potato has done more 

 to depress the labourers, or, at all events, to countervail those 

 causes that would have raised them to a higher position than 

 all the other unfavourable influences to which they have been 

 exposed put together. And supposing such to be the case, it 

 is matter for grave consideration, provided (as is indeed most 

 probable) the potato rot should turn out to be accidental and 

 temporary only, whether some restrictions should not be laid 



