"[30] This writer's remarks apply chiefly to Cork, Waterford, Kerry,
and Limerick. He proceeds: "The feeding of cattle on large dairies of
several hundred acres together, may be managed by the inhabitants of one
or two cabins, whose wretched subsistence, for the most part, depends
upon an acre or two of potatoes and a little skimmed milk."[31]
Many think that the yield per acre of potatoes has greatly increased
with time in Ireland. This opinion, although true, is not true to the
extent generally supposed; for, when Arthur Young travelled in this
country, and even before it, the yield, as far as recorded, seems nearly
equal to the quantity produced at present, except in some peculiar
cases. A well-known agriculturist, John Wynne Baker, writing in 1765,
says, in a note to his "Agriculture Epitomized," that he had in the past
year (1764) of apple potatoes (not a prolific kind) in the proportion of
more than one hundred and nine barrels an acre.
Arthur Young came to Ireland in 1776, and he brings his account of the
country down to 1779. Thirty-six years had elapsed since the great
Famine, only one generation, and he found the famous root of Virginia a
greater favourite than ever.
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