242 APPENDIX. [No. XV.B. 



which is unsown cannot be reaped, that which is not planted cannot afford 



fruit. 



Famine now exists ; its subsequent pestilence is beginning to appear ; 

 it is now then high time not only to regard the present scarcity, but to 

 look to the probability of future want. Our land is untilled in many 

 parts of the country, seeds cannot be procured in others, and the potato 

 crop, the great resource of Ireland, is abandoned, as though it were to fail 

 for ever. 



There is no evidence to show that the potato, rather than the wheat, 

 turnip, carrot, or any other plant, will perish this year ; and from the 

 great produce which the potato affords, and the poverty of land which 

 suffices for its culture, it f onus a highly eligible crop to be planted to the 

 ordinary extent. 



Potato tubers are now scarce, and high in price. Any attempt to 

 buy them for seed would double or treble their cost unless those who still 

 use this vegetable will cease to employ it for food. It becomes now, there- 

 fore, highly desirable that all who use potatoes should, for this season, at 

 once abandon them. By ceasing to use potatoes, they would preserve that 

 which should afford food and prevent famine next year. And by eating 

 them, they are tending to aggravate the scarcity, and cause the death of 

 numbers, by destroying their food. 



Let every householder at once substitute other food for the potato, 

 this year, for if there are none to buy, there can be none to sell ; and 

 there is now a sufficient abundance of good tubers for planting, if 

 no more be used. 



Their present application for food should be prohibited, if not by an 

 Order of Council or by Act of Parliament, by that which is more powerful 

 than law universal public opinion. The preservation of the lives of 

 our fellow- creatures is at stake, and I feel confident that all those will 

 abstain from potatoes who hear that such abstinence is eminently cal- 

 culated at this season to prevent the poor from perishing from want 

 next year. 



Having stopped their employment as a luxury at this time, they should 

 be sent directly to Ireland, and freely distributed amongst the poor for 

 planting, and the sets now to be met with in the London market are far 

 superior to those heretofore cultivated by these unhappy people, and are 

 far better adapted to resist the ravages of the vastator, should it un- 

 fortunately again appear. 



Sets from f ormer healthy plants which I have cultivated this year in 

 my friends' greenhouses, are now perfectly healthy, showing that healthy 

 sets and absence of the vastator will ensure the usual abundant produce. 



In the event of the reappearance of the destroying insect, I trust and 

 believe that, under the blessing of Providence, I shall be enabled to give a 

 simple and effectual plan for its complete eradication. 



March 24, 1847. 



