The disease made its first appearance in the form of little brown spots on the leaves of the plant. These continued to increase until the leaves became withered, leaving the stem bare, and so brittle that it snapped off on being handled. The whole was effected in less than a week, the fields appearing as if they were burnt, and the growth of the root entirely destroyed. No potatoes were pitted this year, and the wheat crop barely amounted to an average, whilst barley and oats were decidedly deficient. “On the continent the rye and potato crops again failed, and prices rose there early in the season above those ruling in England, which caused the shipments from the Black Sea, Turkey and Egypt to be sent to France, Italy and Belgium; and it was not till late in the season that our prices rose to a point which turned the current of supplies towards England and Ireland. The Indian corn crop in the United States this year was however happily very abundant, and it became a resource of the utmost value to this country.[135] ----- [135] See ‘The Irish Crisis,’ by Sir Charles Trevelyan, p. 41. ----- [Sidenote: Reduction of duty on corn imported.] In June 1846, _The 9th and 10th Vict. cap. 22_, was passed, providing for the gradual reduction of the import duty on corn, and fixing it at 1_s._ per quarter on every description imported after the 1st of February 1849. On the assembling of parliament in January 1847, two other Acts were passed[136] making further reductions in the duty on corn, and removing the restriction imposed by the Navigation Laws on the importation of corn in foreign vessels; and shortly afterwards the whole duty on rice and Indian corn and Indian meal was suspended. ----- [136] _The 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 1 and 2._ ----- [Sidenote: Relief committees formed.] In the early part of 1846, relief committees were formed throughout Ireland, under the superintendence of a central commission established in Dublin, for the purpose of dispensing food, the requisite funds being furnished by private subscriptions assisted by donations from government. The months of June and July was the period of heaviest pressure, during which one of the central depôts established by government, issued in a single week no less than 233 tons of meal to its various sub-depôts, and one of these latter again retailed 20 tons to the public daily. If the people had lived by wages like the labouring classes in England, the providing a cheap substitute for the potato would have been sufficient for the present emergency. But money-wages were comparatively little known in Ireland, the people chiefly subsisting on produce raised by themselves; and it was therefore necessary to adopt some plan for enabling them to purchase the new description of food which had been procured for them. [Sidenote: The Public Works Act, _9th and 10th Vict. c. 1_.]