Mr. Gerrard of Gibstown, has 1400 acres of the finest grazing land that can be imagined; but it was covered with thistles and rag-wort, which were growing with more luxuriance than I conceived to be possible. They would have amounted, I believe, to several tons per acre. He permitted his labourers to mow them when nearly ripe, that is, after they had shed their seeds, to produce another crop the year following. These people burn them and sell the ashes.

JULY 31st. On the farm of Mr. Hopkins, near Athboy, in Meath, I observed thistles, rag-wort, and docks, flourishing in the most extraordinary manner. Lord Darnley does not allow under-tenants on his estate.

AUG. 11th. WESTMEATH.

HIGH. PARK.-Sir Richard Levinge keeps some large bony, capital, blood mares for breeding. Much land in this neighbourhood might be improved by sinking the beds of the rivers and draining swamps. The lakes into which all the rivers rún, are 180 feet above the level of the sea; but their basons being of rock, until they are blasted, nothing can be done.

--

Lough Owell contains 1783 Irish acres. Sir Richard Levinge grants a twentyone year's lease without a life, and in this acts very judiciously. AUG. 12th. WESTMEATH. RENNELA. The rent of land here from two guineas to fifty shillings per acre. Leases for twenty-one years and two lives. The stock of the late Mr. Renel is still preserved and in excellent condition; it consists of Hereford cattle and Leicester sheep. The land now occupied by his executors amounts to about 200 acres, the remainder having been let during the minority of his son. One farm of 230 acres is let for £600. per annum. Land near the house lets for £3. and at a distance for about fifty shillings per acre. The plantations, for the most part about twenty years old, are in a thriving condition. Visited a farmer in this neighbourhood, and obtained from him the following account: he occupies forty acres of an estate which contains a hundred. With the name of the owner he is unacquainted, but he knows that he lives in the King's County, and has let the whole estate at forty-eight shillings per acre, to some person who resides at a distance. This man has hired forty of the worst acres at about fifty-two shillings. The rest of the farm is let out in corn acres, which average about six guineas. His stock consists of three horses, six cows, three cars, one plough, and one set of harrows. He employs one labourer, but gives him no wages, because he is paid by conveniences, such as grass for his cow, together with meadow-land and corn acre, in which he raises flax and potatoes. He keeps one man-servant, wages £5. and has four daughters, who fill and spread muck and drive the plough. Threshing is performed by the whole family; and when that work is going on, money is raised by oats to pay the rent, and also by the three cars working on the roads in summer, at two shillings and eight-pence halfpenny per day. A great deal of these forty acres is moor-land, incapable of being ploughed, and producing little or no grass.

AUG. 12th. ROCHFORD.-Mr. Rochford and Mr. Robinson both have fields of spring wheat. Bere is cut and in shocks.

AUG. 15th. From Mullingar to Coolure the divisions between the fields consist of earthen banks, without furze or any other plants growing upon them. The cattle turned into them are all fettered with hay-bands to prevent them from straying beyond the boundaries. Observed people spreading flax all the way. Parsnips and carrots grow most luxuriantly on Admiral Pakenham's bog.

AUG. 16th. The harvest universally begun, and the people at work in the fields. In reaping, one woman is attended by two men. Potatoe-oats forwarder by three weeks than common oats. Black oats superior, both for meal and for straw, but they find no sale at market.

Visited a tenant of Admiral Packenham, who farmed 108 acres under an old lease, at a rent of twenty shillings per acre, with his own life and that of his brother included. He had fifteen acres of oats; one acre of bere, seven of fallow, four of potatoes, and eighty-one of meadow. His stock consisted of fourteen cows, thirty ewes, eight horses, eight calves, six cars, three sets of harrows, one plough and harness for eight horses, worth one guinea each. He employs on an average throughout the year eight men, to whom he pays sixpence-halfpenny per day with their board; but in all probability they do not work above 200 days each. He sells 140 barrels of oats at the average price of fifteen shillings per barrel; twenty barrels of bere at eighteen shillings; thirteen stone of wool at eighteen shillings; thirty lambs at sixteen shillings; two horses at twenty-five guineas each; five bullocks at £7. 10s. besides poultry. He pays no taxes, but a county cess of one shilling and three-pence per acre. He is an old man; has made a fortune, and can give his daughter £2000. yet she was feeding the pigs dressed in a linsey gown, without shoe or stocking. She had been taught to read, write, and cast accompts, at one of the common schools, The occupier had built a good farm-house, the Admiral finding timber and slates, but it was only one story high.

AUG. 17th. COOLURE.-Observed people sowing rape, and was told that this was the best season for it. Saw at the seat of Lord Longford three and a half acres of flax, the seed of which cost £15. It was sown upon cut-out bog, which had been allowed to rest some time, and was afterwards prepared by paring and burning, at the expense of £1. 11s. 6d. per acre. It was then ploughed three times, each ploughing valued at fifteen shillings. The crop was sold standing for £12. per Five acres of hemp were sown upon land pared, burned, and ploughed at the same expense as the former; the pulling cost one pound per acre; watering, spreading, and drying, twenty-five shillings; taking up and tying in bundles, seven shillings and sixpence. But while I was there the process was carried no farther. The male plant seems to ripen much sooner than the female. Saw carrots on land pre

acre.

pared in the same manner. A crop raised according to this plan, produced last year 224 cwt. per acre, and equal in weight to potatoes.

AUG. 18th. COOLURE.-Rode to Fore, through a country covered with hills' but cultivated to the very tops. The harvest at this time was general throughout the country. Labour is performed for the most part by the day; if four men with two women following to bind, reap an acre, it is called a good day's work. I heard of little being done in the task way: when labourers are paid in this manner they receive from nine shillings and nine-pence to eleven shillings and four-pence halfpenny per acre. The women were carting turf, and in general they work as much out of doors as the men. The price of labour is various. Gentlemen, who supply their labourers with land, cabins, &c. pay them only ten-pence per day the whole year round; farmers, when they employ them, give them sixpence halfpenny a day and their victuals. The cultivation of turnips is coming fast into use among gen

tlemen.

AUG. 20th. COOLURE.-The rent of corn acres here six guineas. Marny's land, referred to by Mr. Young, in his Tour in Ireland,* now lets for fifty-five shillings per acre, and the sub-tenants let part of it at eight guineas for potatoes. Cows here, when they have first calved, give so much milk for two months after, that they are milked three times a day. Houses are thatched by putting on a layer of heath, and then another of straw.

SEPT. 25th. COLLON.-Came this day from Castle Blaney, and within five miles of Ardee saw some good fallow, with clover, and a wind-mill, three things very uncommon in this part of Ireland. The fields were large and well divided; and many stacks of corn in the haggard. I observed two pieces of clover reserved for seed. The land at Collon appears to be cold and heavy.

SEPT. 27th. MEATH. BRITTAS.-Rode to this place from Collon, over a well cultivated district, where I saw some good fallows. The enclosures were large, and surrounded by earthen banks and live hedges. I observed a great deal of young quicksets lately planted, and I have no doubt that in a few years the face of the country in this respect will be very much altered. Around the mansion there is rich grazing land which has never been ploughed. Mr. Bligh gets from two guineas to fifty shillings an acre for his estate, [but it is much under-let.

SEPT. 27th. MITCHELSTOWN.-The land around Kells appears to be very fine. Sir Benjamin Chapman, at whose house I called, was from home; but I learnt that he occupies an extent of land, which if let would bring £6000. per annum. The quantity of rouen grass was uncommonly great. I remarked that Meath is a low, flat, and rich country.

OCT. 29th. WESTMEATH. COOLURE.-Walked over Lord Longford's park,

where I saw much bog reclaimed, but it has this inconvenience, that after a few years it returns again to heath. Land which has this tendency, though almost level, is called mountain. Lord Longford pays his men eight-pence a day throughout the whole year; and on the 1st of December, if they have conducted themselves properly during the preceding twelve months, he adds two-pence more for every day they have worked; but this additional payment is gratuitous, and depends on his lordship's pleasure. By these means a small bank is created, which is attended with the best effects, as it is employed to purchase the little comforts of life for these poor people, who, if they received their wages weekly, would spend a great part of them perhaps in whisky. On his lordship's farm I saw some pretty good turnips. The farm-yard is most magnificent. Hemp was not yet scutched. I observed that young clover thrives remarkably well under flax. The hay now making is called "woodcock hay."

APRIL 25th, 1809. DUBLIN.-Straw in Dublin is sold by the cart-load, of 44 cwt. for eight shillings and sixpence. Labour within four miles of the city is ten shillings or twelve shillings per week.

MAY 18th. Dublin is supplied with early produce of every kind, potatoes, poultry, &c. from the county of Wicklow. The soil and the climate being both favourable, contribute to the production of corn, every kind of which is of the best sample. Very little wheat, however, is raised in this neighbourhood.

JUNE 14th. CARLOW. BROWNHILL.-Land, where ferns grow, produces good potatoes. Mr. Brown let some of this kind lately for two crops, at £8.

per acre.

JUNE 15th. CARLOW.-The best grazing land is in the county of Carlow; lets for from 3. to £3. 10s. per acre. Onions and cabbages are raised near the town in great abundance. This county produces barley of the best quality in Ireland, and a larger quantity is sown than in any other part; but a great deal of it is brought hither from the county of Wexford to be sold as Carlow barley.

Seed wheat six shillings to eight shillings per stone. Straw two shillings per cwt. Hay from fifty shillings to seventy shillings per ton. The red lammas wheat is always sown in this neighbourhood. The threshing of barley costs ten-pence per barrel; of oats eight-pence: taking up an acre of drill-potatoes twenty shillings; if they have been planted according to the lazy bed method, forty shillings; what are called drill-potatoes are nothing else than those which have been planted in The wedder sheep of this county are sent to market when two years old; the average price is £1. 12s. 6d. Lambs are fed during winter on common pasture, and when a year old are put on good grass, after shearing day. Four sheep of the Irish breed are a collop; but five of the English. Three collops are assigned to two acres of the best land.

rows.

In this part of the country there is no task work or extra labour after the usual

hours.

The best labourer earns no more than the worst. The farmers here use cast iron socks. From sixty to eighty barrels of lime, each containing four bushels, are allowed to an acre. The bushel, which is heaped, is equal to sixteen inches square, and ten and a half inches deep, with planks two inches in thickness. Sheep are very fond of ragwort when young, and if turned out into a field where it grows, will keep it down.

JUNE 20th. KILDARE. KILKAYE.-Saw people employed in sowing turnips. I observed also good spring tares, and that the use of clover seed is increasing. Mr. Green formerly sowed 21lbs. when he bought the seed, but as he now saves his own seed, he sows 24lbs. Here, as well as every where else in Ireland, laying lands to grass is attended with great facility. Any kind of clay is manure for a bog. It appears that fog grass is the most beneficial. If sheep be suffered to go into water meadows in summer, they acquire the rot; but in winter, and till the month of May, no effect of this kind is produced.

The farms in this neighbourhood are large, 300 acres in tillage being very common; but the capitals employed are so miserably small, that to name them would fill the English farmer with astonishment. The fallows also are bad, and the few ploughings they get are ill executed. The houses are miserable hovels, and the sheep are scabby: scarcely any thing is paid for labour, and the whole system pursued is as wretched as can possibly be conceived. It is only doing justice, however, to a meritorious individual, to mention, that this observation is not applicable to Mr. Green but to his neighbourhood.

JUNE 21st. KILKAYE.-Four bullocks plough about a quarter of an acre a day. The agricultural implements used here are hardly worthy of that name.

JULY 14th. BORRIS.-Every person who can beg, borrow, or hire a horse, drills potatoes. In the drill sets, five barrels are used. One advantage attending the drill method is, that they grow to a more equal size. Colonel Gore digs them up, as he cannot take them entirely out with the plough. Mr. Cavanagh had ten barrels of wheat from half an acre, which yielded 11 cwt. of flour. The red kidney potatoes are accounted the best. The common rate of labour is one shilling per day. In winter the poor live on potatoes; those who are able, keep a cow, and those who are not, buy skimmed milk; if they have not the means of purchasing potatoe acres they hire land.

JULY 15th. CARLOW. GOWRAN.-Three roods of land produced 560 bushels of carrots, which were preserved in river sand. Mr. Cavannagh estimates the expense of a plough with two horses and a man, at five shillings per day. Two days are required to plough an acre. His course is lea, oats, oats, oats, potatoes, barley, clover, and oats again. He is the only person in this neighbourhood who has any clover. One hundred barrels of lime, at two shillings and sixpence per barrel, are allowed to an It is a poor floor which has not a beneen (pig) upon it. Rails are made of gra

acre.