34 FOOD. 



kies, geefe, the cur, the cat, and perhaps the cow and all 

 partaking of the fame difli. No man can often have been a 

 witnefs of it without being convinced of the plenty, and I will 

 add the chearfulnefs, that attends it. 



"Is it, or is it not a matter of confequence, for the great bo- 

 dy of the people of a country, to fubfift upon that fpecies of 

 food which is produced in the greateft quantity by the fmalleft 

 fpace of land ? One need only to ftate, in order to. anfwer the 

 queftion. It certainly is an object of the higheft confequence, 

 what in this refpect is the comparifon between wheat or cheefe, 

 or meat and potatoes ? 



The minutes of the journey will enable us to fhew this. 

 No. i. At Shaen caftle, Queen's county, a barrel of pota- 



toes lafts a family of fix perfons a week. 

 No. Z. At Shaen caftle, Antrim, fix people eat three bufhels, 

 and twenty pounds of oatmeal befides, in a week, 

 twenty pounds of meal are equal to one bufhel of 

 potatoes i this therefore is a barrel alfo. 

 No. 3. Leflie hill, a barrel of four buftiels fix perfons a week, 

 No. 4. Near Giant's caufeway, a barrel fix people eight 



days. 

 No. 5. Caftle Caldwell, a barrel of eighteen ftone fix people 



a week. 



No. 6. Glofter, a barrel five perfons a week. 

 No. 7. Derry, five perfons eat and wafte two barrels a week. 

 No. 8. Cullen, two barrels fix perfons a week. 



Barrels. Perfons. Days. 

 No. i 6 7 



6 - 7 



6 - 7 



6 8 



6 - 7 

 5-7 



A barrel is twenty ftones, or two hundred and eighty pounds, 

 which is the weight of four Englifh buftiels ; the average of 

 thefe accounts is nearly that quantity lafting a family of fix 

 people fix days, which makes a year's food fixty barrels. 

 Now the average produce of the whole kingdom being eighty- 

 two barrels per acre., plantation meafure, one acre does rather 

 more than fupport eight perfons the year through, which is five 

 perfons to the Englilh acre. To feed on wheat, thofe eight 

 perfons wou!d require eight quarters, or two Irifh acres, which 

 at prefent, imply two more for fallow, or four in all. 



When, however, I fpeak of potatpes and buttermilk being 

 the food of the poor, the tables already inferted fliew, that in 

 feme parts of .the north that root forms their diet but for a part 

 , of 



