all Munster, even from Waterford to Smerwick, about six score miles, he
should not meet man, woman, or child, saving in cities or towns, nor yet
see any beast, save foxes, wolves, or other ravening beasts."[6] Such
was Munster when the great colonizer planted the potato there, in the
hope, perhaps, of averting future famines!

It is generally assumed by writers on Ireland that, soon after the
introduction of the potato, it became a general favourite, and was
cultivated in most parts of the country as an important crop. This seems
to be far from correct. Supposing the potato which we now grow, the
_Solanum tuberosum_ of botanists, to have come to Ireland in 1586, the
usually accepted date, it does not seem to have been in anything like
general favour or cultivation one hundred and forty years later, at
least in the richer and more important districts of the country. In a
pamphlet printed in 1723, one hundred and thirty-seven years after the
introduction of the potato, speaking of the fluctuation of the markets,
the writer says: "We have always either a glut or a dearth; very often
there are not ten days distance between the extremity of the one and the
other; such a want of policy is there (in Dublin especially) on the most
important affair of bread, without a plenty of which _the poor must
starve_." If potatoes were at this time looked upon as an important
food-crop, the author would scarcely omit noticing the fact, especially
in speaking of the food of the poor. At page 25 of the same pamphlet,
after exposing and denouncing the corruptions of those who farmed
tithes, the writer adds: "Therefore an Act of Parliament to ascertain
the tithe of hops, now in the infancy of their great growing
improvement, flax, hemp, turnip-fields, grass-seeds, and dyeing roots or
herbs, of all mines, coals, minerals, commons to be taken in, etc.,
seems necessary towards the encouragement of them."[7] No mention of the
potato.