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| THE POTATO MARKET, DROGHEDA, -The foregoing characteristic sketch gives a faithful idea of the Potato Market at Drogheda, where the country people and town dealers meet to buy and sell the omnipresent "spuds" of Ireland. Some patriots claim that the Irish have had no luck since Sir Walter Raleigh, in the reign of Elizabeth, introduced the potato from the Colony of Virginia into Ireland. It has become so far naturalized in the Green Isle that Americans call the esculent "the Irish potato," so as to distinguish it from the sweet bulb so common in this country. If the "pratie" were a reliable vegtable it would be much more popular in Ireland than it is at present. But it has "gone back on" the Irish rural population several times-notably in "the Black '47" of fifty years since, when, "aided" by the neglect of the British government a million and a half of them died, because of the universal potato rot. This reads "awfully" but it is strictly true. Does Ireland raise nothing but potatoes? Yes, the finest beef, mutton, pork and poultry in Christendom, but the landlords, supported by the English government, take almost all worth eating and sell it beyond the seas for their "rent." Hence the people either starve or go on short rations. Observe in the picture, the potatoes heaped on the ground, the bags half open, for convenience sake, the rude scales, and the animated groups making their bargains. In Ireland, the "new potatoes" come in season on "Garlic Sunday," the last Sunday in July. |
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