Year: 1876

the history OF the world Tor the last
century. This influence has been felt
and may be shown in almost every civ
ilized country, but nowhere has it been
SO marked as in Ireland.


Ireland, with climate not unlike
this, is quite different as to soil. Only
about one-half of the surface of the is
land is worth cultivating at all, or in
deed can be cultivated, but this one
half is very rich and productive. One
hundred years ago, or a little more,
Ireland had a population about equal
to what it has to-day, but they were a
very different people. Hardly behind
England OF Scotland, in anything liter
ary, intellectual or scientific, and, as
warriors, they could hardly have been
called conquered at any time. Food
was scarce; it was struggle for exis-
tence, the rich soil was taxed to the
utmost to sustain the population of the
island, and manufacturers were start
ing everywhere to force the other ma
tions lin the way Of trade) to send them
them the extra food they needed. But
England, being little in advance in
this respect, disliked the competition
of Ireland, and brought to bear every
thing in her power to stop Irish manu-
facturing This effort would only have
caused still further rebellion on the
part of Ireland, except for certain in
fation in the matter of food, which was
caused by the cultivation of the potato.
All classes suddenly found it easy to
live without war and without manufac-
turers, and so they settled down to cul-
tivate this wonderful tuber and live in
peace and domestic tranquility, and
ambition slowly died, because the peo-
pie were we'll fed with little pains,
foresight or labor. OF the remarkable
increase of population it is impossible
to obtain exact figures till after the
year 1921, the year of the first complete
census, when the population was be-
tween six and seven million, the in
crease being something over million
in ten years, in that little island which
we could almost sink in the waters of
of Puget Sound.


So in the year 1874 there was pre-
sented in this island the picture of
nearly nine million people, number
equal to one-ffth the population of the
whole United States at the time, SUBJ
sisting mainly upon this single vegeta-
BILE, the Sota,auna Iuberosum. Then in
1845 came the potato-rot, followed by
such famine and exodus as has not been
seen in any other country in modern
times. The story of the suffering and
of the relief by food sent from every
country that had food to spare, sent
without price by ship-loads; relief
by transporting the starving poor by
thousands to other countries, especially
ly to our own shores, most of you
know, and, at any rate, to enter into
it's details would lead me away from
my subject.


We will now leave the potato for a
time and consider the word 6" rot, ="
which marks the second division of our
discourse. And particularly ask your
patient attention to this part of the
subject, for although am not speak
ing of the "dry rot, know this
branch of the subject will be dry to all
except those who are willing to think
laboriously and learn something of the
science of an important matter, though
it is hedged about with long and hard
words.


divide my subject in this way, and
take up the subject Of rot, by itself, for
the purpose of saying, with emphasis
that nothing rots IN any d'regalar or hap
hazard manner. Every organic sub
stance that finds it's way back into the
inorganic kingdom through the process
of decay, goes through the process in a
manner as regular, as learnable and as
predictable as the same thing came up
from the inorganic to the organic
world. This is not the common way
of thinking about it. We plant our
potatoes, and consider ourselves un-
learned, or foolish, if we are not able
to predict, by observing the conditions
of soil, moisture, or heat, whether or
not they. will grow. But the rot
strikes" them, and we forget our SCI
ence, feel perfectly helpless, feel as
though by accident this thing had come,
and that it is useless to try to learn
anything about it. We hear such ex-
pressions as this, If they don't take
a notion to rot I'll have hundred
bushels" It is not the personifcation
of the tubers in this sentence that I
find fault with; it is the implied un-
certainty Of the matter. tits as though
he said, It is beyond all finding out
whether they will rot or not.


My point is, that it ought not to be
SO uncertain, since decay has its laws
that are just as definite and certain as
the laws of growth. And think the
time will soon come when if a man
potatoes rot, or his wheat rusts in the
field, he will speak of it in the same