[33]
The prolific but uncertain root on which the Irish people became, year
after year, more dependent for existence, once again dashed their hopes
in 1821, and threw a great part of the South and West into a state of
decided famine. The spring of that year was wet and stormy, retarding
the necessary work, especially the planting of potatoes. The summer was
also unfavourable, May was cold and ungenial; in June there was frost,
with a north wind, and sometimes a scorching sun. The autumn, like the
spring, was wet and severe, rain falling to a very unusual extent. The
consequent floods did extensive injury; not merely were crops of hay
floated off the lowland meadows, but in various places fields of
potatoes were completely washed out of the ground and carried away. The
crops were deficient, especially the potato crop, much of which was left
undug until the ensuing spring, partly on account of the inclement
weather, partly because it was not worth the labour. The low grounds
were, in many instances, inundated to such a depth that even the
potatoes in pits could not be reached. About the middle of December "the
Shannon at Athlone," says an eye-witness, "looked like a boundless
ocean," covering for weeks the potato fields, souring the crop, and
preventing all access to the pits.
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