were crops of hay
floated off the lowland meadows, but in various places fields of
potatoes were completely washed out of the ground and carried away. The
crops were deficient, especially the potato crop, much of which was left
undug until the ensuing spring, partly on account of the inclement
weather, partly because it was not worth the labour. The low grounds
were, in many instances, inundated to such a depth that even the
potatoes in pits could not be reached. About the middle of December "the
Shannon at Athlone," says an eye-witness, "looked like a boundless
ocean," covering for weeks the potato fields, souring the crop, and
preventing all access to the pits. The loss of the potato in this year,
and its cause, are thus epitomised in the following extract from the
Report of the London Tavern Committee:--"From the most authentic
communications, it appeared that the bad quality and partial failure of
the potato crop of the preceding year (1821)--the consequence of the
excessive and protracted humidity of the season--had been a principal
cause of the distress, and that it had been greatly aggravated by the
rotting of the potatoes in the pits in which they were stored. This
discovery was made at so late a period that the peasantry were not able
to provide against the consequences of that evil."[34] From the letters
published in their own Report, the Committee would have been abundantly
justified in adding, that the distress was greatly increased by the
almost total want of employment for the labouring classes, arising from
the fact, that very many of the landlords in the districts that suffered
most were absentees. A writer on this Famine, who, in general, is
inclined to be severe in his strictures upon the people, thus opens the
subject:--"The distress which has almost universally prevailed in
Ireland has not been occasioned so much by an excessive population as by
a culpable remissness on the part of persons possessing property, and
neglecting to take advantage of those great resources, and of those
ample means of providing for an increasing population, which Nature has
so liberally bestowed on this country."[35]

The winter and spring of 1822 continued very wet, and it was extremely
difficult to perform any agricultural work. Seed potatoes were
excessively scarce, and the first relief that reached the country was a
prudent and timely one; it consisted of fourteen hundred tons of seed
potatoes, bought by the Government