![]() In the potato, the weary and harassed cultivator had to his hand a food which was easier to prepare than any of which he had had experience one which would feed him, his children and his livestock, out of the same cauldron, cooked on his open hearth of burning turves. Its greedy acceptance by the people was no mere accident, for it satisfied their needs as efficiently as it symbolized their helpless destruction…. ![]() It was under such conditions that the potato made its entry into Ireland. The vegetable crops, cabbage and parsnip, were no less vulnerable, at best they were but auxiliary foods, and there was never much of either. Every seed crop, be it oats or barley, rye or wheat, might be trampled over and ruined in a day if it escaped that hazard, the garnered harvest might be raided or burnt overnight. The people were famished to sow their usual crops, was but to invite their destruction. ![]()
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