"The Praties They Grow Small", also known as "The Famine Song", is an Irish song refering to the great potato famine of 1845-1848. The first of the blights occurred in 1845; the blight continued to strike for the next three years; it was not until 1849 that there was a decent crop, by which time Ireland's population, which exceeded eight million before the blight (twice the current total), had fallen to about six million; in very round numbers, a million had died and a million had emigrated. The blight was a fungus that arrived from America, which caused potatoes to wither almost instantly. To make matters worse, potatoes were the chief crop of Ireland. There were many reasons for this, including the fact that potatoes were easy to grow, but the basic reason was British rules. The Irish had been forced almost entirely onto small holdings, usually of five acres or less (in 1841, over 80% of Irish farm families had property of 15 acres or less; 45% had five acres or less). Few families could feed themselves on such small fields using other crops. And if they had enough property to improve things, the British landlords took the excess in rent. So the Irish grew potatoes and when the crop failed, they starved. This song is probably a parody of a song, "The Wonderful Song of 'Over There'", published by Atwill in 1844. It is another case of the parody outlasting the original. The tune is somewhat similar to "Captain Kidd" in the Songs section. It is in the Roud Folk Song Index as #4455 and was printed in The Burl Ives Songbook.