The Portland daily press., 1897-09-29
FEARS OF FAMINE IN IRELAND.
1t Is Fifty Years Since the Great Irish
Famine, aud the Prospects Are Dark.
(Harold Frederics Letter in London
Chronicle

(Harold Frederic's Letter in London
Chronicle.)
The inquirer in Ireland finds always
two stereotyped cases of authorities-the
people who think that it is going to be
very bad winter, and the people who
declare that there is really no cause for
apprehension whatever. For the first
time in an experience of some IA years
find this latter class oonfessing to some
anxiety. AS for the general population
every fresh meeting and com pairing OF
notes and rumors on market days in
| creases tendency to panic. On every
side you hear the frightened prediction
that 1t is to be ''1847" over again.
Two districts have personally inspected
within the past fortnight, both in Coun-
Gus country, of which Yougha, Middle
ton, Carrigtwohill and Cloyne are the
principal points of population. Here,
as elsewhere, the potatoes are bad, but
here, under ordinary circumstances, this
would be of secondary Importance if
the barley had been well saved. It is a
brewing and mailing district, and barley
is it's money crop. Up to the last week
of August this crop promised all that
could be desired. Then, on Sunday two
weeks ago, the heavens opened and such
flood descended as had not been seen be-
fore this year On Tuesday when the
storm had begun to abate, l drove through
80 miles of barley country, and in seven
fields out Of ten the cut grain was still
spread, but drenched, discolored and
sodden by the incessant, untimely down
pour. In two other of the ten the grain
would be still uncut, but smashed to
earth and practically ruined. In only
the tenth field would the clean stubble
tell the story of a far-seeing farmer
whose crop was safe under cover.
The little peninsula of West Carbery,
which lies between Koaring Water bay
and Dunmanus bay, has heartrending
history. Skibbereen, which stands at
it's inland gate. possesses a horrible su-
premaoy over all other parishes in Ire
land in the matter of human deaths by
starvation. All the smaller towns and
villages round this wild ooastbelt-
Ballydehob, Schulz, Colleen, Crookha-
ven, Dunmanus, and Durrus-have
memories of the famine years hardly to
be matched in the remotest parts OF Gal
way and Mayo. This peninsula is q
place where | am much at home, and
where have many friends among the
farmers and fishermen. | am able to
speak OF it, therefore, with considerable
certainty, and with the advantage of
standards of comparison with other
years. Here everything, with solitary
exception to be examined later, is worse
than it has been before in 30 years. OF
course the potatoes are here the great
staple food crop, and they are practically
total failure. Perhaps fifth or a sixth
part of them can be Ssed for human eat
ing, but even this selected fraction is of
miserable quality. wet, coarse grained
and tasteless. In many places the de
spairing small farmers told me they
would not dig them at all, but pillow up
the fields as they stood. In other cases,
where there was plenty of idle labor avail
only for fodder. Here, as seems to be the
case elsewhere, by the reports, the only
potatoes good for anything are those
which were sprayed" twice.
l see in some of the papers which stray
gle out to these parts a dispo .ition to
scold the farmers for not having en-
ployed this "spraying'' process uniyer-
sally. These critics seem not to under
stand what spraying means. First of all.
only q few people own spraying ma
chimes; these are either village traders
or strong farmers, and in neither case do
non owners get the use of the machines
without paying for them-the rental
ranging from half a crown to four sh1l-
lings day. The chief ingredient in the
solution used-popularly called bluestone
costs three-pence the pound, and it
takes 40 POUNDS to the acre. There will
be another shilling for lime, and 30 spray
an acre thoroughly consumes tho better
part of two days. Thus the cheapest
acre could hear of cost IL shillings for
q single spraying; the more usual
outlay was from 16 shillings to 81. This
is very serious outlay to propose TO a
poor peasant, who probably will never in
his life be handling $40 in ready money
in year. so far as l can see, very few
of the people in Iyehagh who did not
spray could have done SO if they had
wanted to.
The explanations of this disastrous
failure OF the potato bear a sinister like
ness to the accounts of 1877. There was
an exceptionally wet spring, which de-
layed the planting for nearly month.
Then, as tho belated shoots came to q
certain height, there came across the
land kind of blighting mist which
withered the plants as it passed Most
of the mountain people speak of this as
storm or a flood, which misled me
at first, but it seems that they all mean
the same thing-n sort of sultry and
sweating mist, which lay upon the fields
Tor two or more days. Very old women
are credited now with having said at the
time that it was by similar hot fog that
the potatoes were destroyed just so years
ago.
What makes the outlook in this Schulz
Crookhayen district peculiarly bad ls'
that the fishing has also failed. Ever
since Baroness Burdett-C outts gave her
magnificent present of cutter boats, nets