[111] Letters on the state of Ireland, by the Earl of Rosse: London,
1847. _Halliday Pamphlets, vol. 1993_. These letters were originally
sent to the _Times_, but that journal having refused them insertion, the
noble author published them in a pamphlet. The Rev. Theobald Mathew
said, I do not know on what authority, that two millions of acres of
potatoes were irrevocably lost, being worth to those who raised them L20
an acre. This estimate would make the loss L40,000,000.
[112] _Mayne on the Potato Failure_. The potato crop, for the most part,
continued to look well up to the end of July, but the blight had
appeared, in the most decided way, during the first half of that month,
although not then very apparent to a casual observer. Mr. Mayne, like
many persons at the time, attributed the blight to an insect which some
called _Aphis Vastator_, others _Thrips minutissima_. There was a glass
case in the Dublin Exhibition of 1853, showing this insect feeding on
the leaves and stalks of the potato plant. Mr. Mayne and those who
agreed with him, seem, in this instance, to have mistaken cause for
effect. Indeed the insect, it would appear, was a natural parasite of
the potato, and some observers have gone so far as to assert that the
_Aphis Vastator_ abounded more on healthy plants than upon those
affected with the blight.
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