The morning call., 1890-11-03

A FAMINE IN IRELAND.

Unless the British Government bestrs
itself there is every prospect of a famine in
Ireland, perhaps as devastating as the fam
ines of 1S46-47 and 1880. There seems
to be no doubt that the potato crop and
other food crops have at least partially
proved failures There is no widespread
distress at present-tllat is to come-but
there is every indication that it may be eX-
pected
The reader of Irish history is amazed by
the fact that, though out of the 10000
acres contained in the island over 10 00o, 900
acres are arabic, famines should have been
chronic for several centuries. The anomaly
is chiefly due to the persistent cultivation
by Irish agricuturiStS of food products
which contain little nutrition and furnish
the human system with little staying power.
Ever since the first Introduction of The
potato Irish farmers have cultivated that
eSculent side by side with the turnip, to the
exclusion of more wholesome foods, simply
because its yield per acre was larger. One
man can plant and harvest potatoes enough
to feed forty men. This tendency has been
even more marked than ever of late years.
The product of cereals in Ireland has been
falling off for half century, while the
product of potatoes has been increasing.
When the last census was taken the wheat
crop was averaged at 10000 tons aud the
barley crop at 10000 tons, but the yield OF
potatoes was 3,0000 900 tons and that of tur-
nips was 100000
Now, the potato plant IS subject to peri
odical diseases for which no cure has ever
been discovered, and which are apt to de-
| stroy nearly the entire crop in certain locali-
| ties, and to make the tuberS which survive
unfit for human food. Even when no disease
occurs, human life cannot be sustained on a
| diet consisting wholly or mainly of potatoes
without serious consequences. Three
| fOarthS of the substance of the potato is
water. The only value which it possesses
| as an aliment is derived from the starch it
| contains. and this cannot be eaten regularly
without meat. or milk or other heterogeneous
matters. If it is. loss of fiber, muscle,
| bone and blood will follow. A population
| which subsists on potatoes only has no re-
serve strength. and breaks down under the
| first strain. That has always been the
trouble with the people in years of scarcity
The chief obstacles to agricultural reform
| in Ireland have been the unsatisfactory and
often contradictory laws respecting the
| tenure of land, and the persistent absentee
| ism Of the chief landowners, who should
nave leu the way IN improving the agrl-
| cultural system. The old laws were calcu-
| lated to convert the whole island into 4
| pasture; newer laws made the rental sys-
TEN burning source of quarrel; between
the two, the Irish peasant has starved on
one OF the most fertile spots on the earth
| And despite all that one hears, and not
| withstanding the premiums which Irish
| leases command his situation does not APP
| pear to be improving. There are great
! tracts in the west and north of Ireland
| where the people live so absolutely from
hand to mouth that crop failure, even over
a few hundred acres, makes some one go
| hungry; there are other tracts where the
women and children are glad to supplement
| their meals of potatoes, cabbage and turnips
| with sea-weed gathered on the rocks. These
are hard facts which no reasoning can gain
say nor any political theory justify. The
! ultimate cure is matter for study, and f
| there is any conscience in England, it will
be studied in conscientious spirit. But in
the meantime there is prospect that men,
women ard children are going to die of
| famine in Ireland If they are not relieved !;
in that work of relief every human creature
should be proud to take share.