"The plan I would suggest," he writes, "is briefly this:
to HIRE THE LABOURERS TO THE SMALL FARMERS ALL THROUGH THE COUNTRY, AT
HALF-PRICE, TO TILL THE GROUND. The farmers would be delighted at the
arrangement."[131]
The necessity of applying labour to the cultivation of the soil was also
most strongly insisted upon by a high Government official, Sir Randolph
Routh, the head of the Commissariat Relief Office, Dublin Castle, whose
experience was of the most extensive and valuable kind, he having
superintended the relief works through Ireland in 1846. He says: "Under
the circumstances which you describe, I recommend you to call a meeting
of the proprietors, to explain to them the state of the country; to
state the liberal intentions of the Government to give a grant equal to
the amount subscribed, when the Workhouse is full; to explain to them
that this grant is tantamount to selling them the supply at half-price,
as their funds, being doubled, go twice in the purchases they require.
Point out to them also the dreadful responsibility the whole country
will incur, if they neglect the cultivation of the soil. The transition
from potatoes to grain," he says, "requires a tillage in the comparison
of three to one between grain and potatoes.
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