in
the preparation of the food, and requiring cleanliness in its consumption
or preservation; leaving these out of the question, though they are all
matters of great moment, when we consider their effects in the rearing of
a family, we shall find, that, in mere quantity of food, that is to say of
_nourishment_, bread is the preferable diet.

79. An acre of land that will produce 300 bushels of potatoes, will
produce 32 bushels of wheat. I state this as an average fact, and am not
at all afraid of being contradicted by any one well acquainted with
husbandry. The potatoes are supposed to be of a _good sort_, as it is
called, and the wheat may be supposed to weigh 60 pounds a bushel. It is a
fact clearly established, that, after the _water_, the _stringy_
substance, and the _earth_, are taken from the potatoe, there remains only
one _tenth_ of the rough raw weight of nutritious matter, or matter which
is deemed equally nutritious with bread, and, as the raw potatoes weigh
56lb. a bushel, the acre will yield 1,830lb. of nutritious matter. Now
mind, a bushel of wheat, weighing 60lb. will make of _household bread_
(that is to say, taking out only the _bran_) 65lb. Thus, the acre yields
2,080lb. of bread. As to the _expenses_, the seed and act of planting are
about equal in the two cases. But, while the potatoes _must_ have
cultivation during their growth, the wheat needs none; and while the wheat
straw is worth from three to five pounds an acre, the haulm of the
potatoes is not worth one single truss of that straw. Then, as to the
expense of gathering, housing, and keeping the potatoe crop, it is
enormous, besides the risk of loss by frost, which may be safely taken, on
an average, at a tenth of the crop. Then comes the expense of _cooking_.
The thirty-two bushels of wheat, supposing a bushel to be baked at a time,
(which would be the case in a large family,) would demand _thirty-two
heatings of the oven_. Suppose a bushel of potatoes to be cooked every day
in order to supply the place of this bread, then we have _nine hundred
boilings of the pot_, unless _cold potatoes_ be eaten at some of the
meals; and, in that case, the diet must be _cheering_ indeed! Think of the
_labour_; think of the _time_; think of all the peelings and scrapings and
washings and messings attending these _nine hundred boilings of the pot_!
For it must be a considerable time before English people can be brought to
eat potatoes in the Irish style; that