Previous to the years of 1846 and 47 Ireland had a population of about 8 1/2 millions of people. The poorer classes lived in low, thatched, mudwalled cabins in the bogs and dales. They had no land to grow wheat to supply them with bread.
When the farmers had the harvest reaped and the wheat put up the scattered ears that lay on the ground. They called it the lazing. They took this into their houses and beat the ears against wooden blocks to thresh out the grains.
The corn was then threshed into meal between two long narrow stone flags and finally baked into bread on the old Irish griddle. In parts of Ireland it was called Buck-shot-bread.
An old rhyme says:-
The Irish boys are all well fed,
with skips of 'Spuds' and Buck-Shot-Bread.