continuing- Friday 27 Mar, 1846 Famine and Destitution in Ireland Even in Ulster (says the Dublin Evening Post) where, we are told, the peasantry are so much better off than in the other provinces and where, in some places, there is much better cultivation, whilst employment is much more diffused by manufactures, yet in this favoured province, famine stalks abroad and pestilence is appearing. This is the case, to some extent, even in Antrim and Armagh, but to a much greater in Cavan and Donegal, where the consumption of diseased potatoes is producing dysentery and fever. Elgin Courier (Scotland)
13 May 1846 destitution In Ulster Downpatrick - On Tuesday, the 5th instant, pursuant to a requisition to the Seneschel, Hugh WALLACE Esq., a public meeting of the inhabitants of this town was held, to take into consideration the best means of affording relief during the ensuing summer, to the poor of Downpatrick. The Seneschal having read the requisition, S. H. ROWAN Esq. proposed the first resolution, to the effect that owing to the high price of potatoes, great distress prevails among the working classes and that it was necessary that something should be done to afford them assistance. This was seconded by the Reverend B. M'AULEY P.P., who remarked that the clergy and several gentlemen had divided the town into districts and made an examination of the condition of the poor and found distress to prevail to an alarming extent. Numbers of the poor were actually starving. The reverend gentleman detailed some heart-rending instances of individual distress. The resolution was passed unanimously. The second resolution was proposed by James QUAIL Esq. and seconded by Hugh CROSSKERY Esq. that a subscription be entered into to raise funds to meet the approaching distress - unanimously agreed to. Banner of Ulster 24 Jul. 1846 We cannot conceal the fact, we have again been visited by the potato blight of last year. Strabane, Clogher, and even in our own neighbourhood, great quantities of the reds, blacks, burrowses and kidney sorts are found to be diseased. This is sad news, so early in the season. The cups and all hardy sorts are still safe. It will be seen, from our farmers column, in another page, that the failure appears general over Ireland, while the reports from England, Scotland, and the Continent are equally desponding. Sat. 25 Jul. 1846 Monaghan, July 23rd Complaints are very general in this neighbourhood respecting the potato crop. Wherever the tuber is full formed, the disease of last year has appeared, and where the tuber is yet young, stalks show all those symptoms of decay which preceded the ravages of disease. The flax crop, too, we hear from many quarters, is attacked with some vegetable distemper, the root and several inches of the stalk next it becoming hard, brittle, and incapable of conveying nourishment through the plant. Ballyshannon, July 24th We regret to state, that in many places throughout this county, disease of an alarming nature has made its appearance in the growing crops; the staks in many cases appear healthy and strung at top, but at the bottom they are decayed and the potatoes in a putrid state. Londonderry, July 24th In our own dintrict, embracing the counties of Derry, Donegal, and Tyrone, complaints and fears of a failure in the potato crop are very prevalent. A Cavan correspondent says -“I regret that l am obliged to report very unfavourably on the potato crop in this county, the disease having made its appearance to a most alarming extent. Monday 10 Aug, 1846 To the Editor of the Freeman's Journal Belturbet, 7th August, 1846 Sir - I have just returned after a tour of inspection into the present appearance and future prospect, of the potato crop in this entire thickly cultivated neighbourhood. Suffice it to say, it is indeed frightful, the mainstay of the poor man is gone and unless unremitting attention be paid by the government to this melancholy fact, nothing but starvation stares the population in the face. It may indeed, be unprofitable to the authorities to commence on a most extensive scale, public works and the reclaiming of waste lands, but unless they do so immediately, their 'only hope' is gone; they have no money, and unless they get employment (immediate and extensive) they will be unable to purchase, no matter where it comes from. I really believe, from the most minute inspection (speaking literally) that on 1st of November next, there will not be a potato in Ireland, as if even disease did not exist at all, what is now grown would not last longer, supposing they were sound and healthy, than that period. It is only a waste of time talking of the effects of electric fluid, or the many supposed causes of the blight. Let scientific men look after those things for the future, but the present is what the government must look to; let distillation from grain be forthwith stopped and if whiskey must be made, it can be done as in former years, from sugar. If the rich must have this intoxicating luxury, let them pay for it, but not be allowed to destroy the only food now remaining for the poor. - "The Corn." I remain, Sir, you obedient servant James FINLAY Fri. 14 Aug. 1846 Potato Rot ln our last we noticed this sad calamity. No language can depict the deplorable state of the potato crop in this district scarcely any have escaped. Fields are clearing that the ground may be got in readiness for other crops and all that they dig, would not bring their day’s pay at market. Instances of this have come within our knowledge. They have fallen at market from 8d. to 2d. per stone, from the quantities hurried in. It is now positively ascertained that the lightning has done all the mischief. Thorn hedges and every other description of tree, have been burned and linen left out at night to bleach has dropped into holes. 18 Aug. 1846 The Harvest The late warm weather has ripened the grain crops very rapidly. Wheat, barley and oats are now being cut in every quarter round Omagh and near Strabane, a large proportion of the grain is already in stocks. As in other parts of the country, the flax crop has been short, in many cases rather thin, but, it is believed, the quality will be very superior. We regret to be forced to add that the potato rot continues to spread; even where the tops do not appear to be much injured, the potatoes are found to be scarcely worth digging. Several varieties are already totally lost! and even the hardiest sorts are failing fast! It has been strongly recommended to dig all those that are any size, to place the good ones in layers, so not to touch each other, covering the layers with sand or dry clay to exclude the air and this, we conceive, to be the most rational plan we have yet heard of and the most likely one to preserve the roots. Small ones so preserved, will make excellent seed. The Potato Disease The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman in Armagh "In reference to the potato blight, it is truly distressing in this neighbourhood. Our markets are daily glutted and there are few carts in which tainted potatoes are not to be seen. I have observed several fields in the vicinity of this city, all in the most beautiful bloom last week and giving hope of a most luxuriant crop, but in a few days they became withered, as if by the keen frost of October. One field in particular, Cork-reds, was green and healthy looking on Wednesday and the succeeding Saturday evening the same field had one half, as it were, burned away, while the other side presented their former luxuriant appearance. This shows that electricity must be the cause and if any doubt existed on the subject, it should cease when the fact is known that scarcely a night passes, that there are not continuous flashes of lightning and in some cases, it has been observed, rolling along the earth like balls of fire. Many farmers were in great hope that late crops were safe, but one with whom I was in conversation yesterday, told me he feared his entire stock was diseased. This, I would hope, will not be general case. All the grain crops around this quarter look well, wheat in particular. Oats and barley present a full average. Flax is pulling well. The Potato Crop The potato crops throughout the three kingdoms have turned out an utter failure; the blight is not partial here or there, but one universal destruction seems to have swept over them wherever the sweet esculent was cultivated. Nor is the ravages of the disease confined to the United Kingdom; we believe the accounts from all parts of Europe, and, in fact from all parts of the world, in which the potato was planted, tend to the same melancholy story; the loss of the crop. We, heretofore, notified the sad ravages made by disease in the early crops throughout the country and the insufficient produce compared with former seasons. Matters so far from mending are daily growing worse and the fields that, but last week, looked green and healthful and promised the husbandman a rich reward for his labours, are now burned up and withered away. In a field of this kind, 8 men were put to work yesterday, and the result of the days labour amounted in the whole, to not more than 30 stone weight of saleable potatoes. The cost of digging, picking, and carriage amounted to 9s. 6d. and the price of the potatoes at 4½d. per stone, just came to 11s. 3d., leaving the grower 1s. 9d. for his seed, ground, and tillage. We could mention many instances of this kind. It is much to be feared that the late sown crops will be a total loss, as the stalks are already more or less affected, and the tubers are not well formed; if vegetation ceases with the partial Injury of the stalk, there can be no crop. These articles are transcribed by Teena from the Banner of Ulster, Dublin Evening Mail, Dublin Mercantile Advertiser, Freeman's Journal, Northern Whig, and the Tyrone Constitution. (unless otherwise noted) -- www.cotyrone.com http://lists.cotyrone.com/mailman/listinfo/ulsterancestry https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoTyroneIrelandGenealogy/ _______________________________________________ UlsterAncestry@cotyrone.com UlsterAncestry Mailing List Searchable Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/ulsterancestry@cotyrone.com/ http://lists.cotyrone.com/mailman/listinfo/ulsterancestry Website: https://cotyrone.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoTyroneIrelandGenealogy/
