[32] The average produce of the entire country he gives at
three hundred and twenty-eight bushels per acre--about sixty-six
barrels. "Yet, to gain this miserable produce," he says, "much old hay,
and nineteen-twentieths of all the dung in the kingdom is employed."
Potatoes grown on the coast were frequently sent to Dublin by sea; and
Lord Tyrone told Arthur Young at Curraghmore, that much of the potatoes
grown about Dungarvan were sent thither, together with birch-brooms. The
boats were said to be freighted with _fruit_ and _timber_!
Amongst the endless varieties of the potato which appeared from time to
time, that known as the "apple" was the best in quality, and stood its
ground the longest, having been a favourite for at least seventy or
eighty years. The produce recorded above as raised by Mr. Wynne Baker
was as we have seen from this species, what kind gave the still greater
yield at Castle Oliver is not recorded. Thus it is perfectly clear that
in 1780, and even before that time, the staple food of the Irish nation
was once again the potato. In fact, it was cultivated to a far greater
extent than before 1740, which caused the population to increase with
wonderful rapidity.
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