El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-15

"a
M Up to January Of the pres
ent year, according to the fig
ures OF the Immigration bureau, A.
$4,000 Irish people have abandoned
their native country and come to the
United states. They are now more
irish here than in Ireland, and a flood
Of them is still pouring in
An Irish patriotic organization, the
Sim Fem. recently addressed q Tor
NAL appeal TO president Taft, asking
him to discourage the "deplorable eN-
odus' by which Ireland has lost one
half Of its population within the 4asJ
Emigration fiSUres even now are IN
creasing at a ate which threatens 10
obliterate the Irish nation
Now. there are in connection with
this statement a number OF facts more
than ordinarily interesting lrsl
amone- them being the circumstance
that the Irish were the first people 10
come 10 the United States IN large num-
bers as immi grants me liSlIes o.
fhe immigration bureau go back only
70 1920 (uD to which time IT was an
office Of the state Department., put IN
that wear 1914 persons from the I'm
ersl6 Isle landed upon our shores. our
inr the next thirty years (le21-lS7O)
the Irish contributed more tnan Two
fifths of all our immigrants
Famine Starts Exodus
In 1883 the arrivals from ireland
took a sudden jump, rising to SS,64S-
great famine" that the exodus began
in real earnest During eight years,
from 1S47l to 1854, the immigration
from Ireland ran Up TO total OF j,
I1547
Since then there has been q steady
and enormous leakage of population
especially Of young men and women.
the bone and sinew Of Ireland But
before discussing this branch Of the
subject further it viii be worth while
10 consider the curious relation of that
much-esteemed vegetable the potato to
The population and afterward TO the
TepOpGlatiOn Of the country
We call it the Irish potato" but
not by reason of its origin. Its ear
lest home is now known TO have been
the little archipelago of Chloe. off the
south coast Of Chile. These islands
remote and inaccessible. owing to fire.
quent storms and swift ocean cur
rents. are rarely visited by ships. They
are inhabited by Spanish-speaking
white people whose sole food, practic-
ally, is potatoes Many kinds of pO-
tatOes grow wild there with which we
are unfamiliar and some Of them re-
Gently introduced into the United
States. are expected to prove useful
for improving our own tuberS, through
cross breeding.
At the time Of the discovery Of the
New World, the potato was cultivated
over a large part of South America,
and in some portions Of North America,
though not in Mexico. The Spaniards
found the vegetable growing in Peru,
near Quito. and took 1t back with them
TO Europe. Along about the year 1900
some Of the tUbeTs were carried from
what is now North Carolina to England
by coIonists who had been sent out by
Sir Walter Raleigh, and thus it came
about that the potato made its first en-
trance into Ireland, being cultivated on
e5Lare near Cork
Proves blessing to Irish.
The vegetable was a most substan-
tiaI blessing to the Irish. and its cUl-
ture spread with extraordinary rap
idity. Here was plant which pro
duced so much fOo6 to the acre that the /
labor of one man would yield susie I
nance for forty people. No attempt
was made TO store the potatoes; they
were simply leE5 in the ground, and
dug as they were wanted A frost that
penetrated unusually deep in 1879 de-
stroyed immense quantities Of the tu-
bers. causing the first potato famine. /
supply brought at least q Temporary I
prosperity. There was much marry 1
ing and giving in marriage, and child /
ren multiplied surprisingly Whereas,
in 17S5, the population OF Ireland was /
?, S45,922, only IS years later. in 1903, I
il was ;. 356, 594, having almost doubled |
ia the interval In 1925 it was $685. I
budk Of the people depending |
almost wholly upon the potato for 1
food
Unfortunately, the potato, like other Z
vegetables. is subject to diseases One ]
Of these, commOn1y called the blight |