deep, four and a half wide, thrown on the nine feet plot, raising the centre higher than the sides; with dibbles put in potatoes in holes one foot apart, and chop and lay the surface smooth. So go over any piece, that may be marked out for this experiment; by this plan, the surface would be more consolidated, the digging of the potatoes would mix the soil and manure, one half of the understratum would be exposed to the sun for six months, the banks would be easily levelled, and the whole surface brought to a great degree of tilth. I only throw out these loose untried hints for your better judgment; if I can in ever so small a degree serve you, I serve the public good, which must profit by your example, and will greatly repay

June, 1801.

Your very obedient Servant,

T. J. R.

P. S. The corn-gravel of the country, mixed with a tenth of quicklime, would form an excellent topdressing for your uplands; some of the bog would be a good addition: a heap composed of bog surface and golden mine, I am convinced, would do wonders,

Since the above was written, I have had much inspection of bog, &c. &c. The result is, my conviction that the best mode of improving bog is, to mark out the bog, after gravelling, liming, or dunging, into squares of twenty feet; cut with a bog-knife every

second

second square one foot deep, and embank and raise in mounds on the uncut plots or squares; by this, one half of the surface will be heaped up on the other. When chopped and mangled, dibble in potatoes sixteen inches deep; when they appear, cover with the shovellings from the cut part; make drains in straight lines through the centre of each cut, eighteen inches wide, and eighteen inches deep, connecting them so as to form an under-drainage; when the potatoes are digging, begin in the centre of each square. The second year dibble in potatoes, rape, or any vegetable at pleasure in the bank squares. At the end of the second summer look well to the eighteen inch drains, see that they carry away all surface water; then get loppings of hedges, briars, or furze, make them into faggots, so as that they can be pressed half way down lengthways; when the crops are off the standing squares, throw back the mould to its original situation. By the exposure of half to the influence of the sun for two summers, the draining, and the weight of the cut thrown on the uncut, which will compress and force out all surface water, in the two seasons the uncut squares will be so rotted, that the whole will be found mellow and so dry, as to admit plough and barrow; immediate sowing with grass-seeds, white hay-seed, and ray-grass should follow,

I constructed,

I constructed, and have used for years a knife for cutting bog, paring the sides of drains, &c. ;/ on trial, it will be found that a man with it, attended by a forkman, will do more than ten men with spades: straight blade two feet long, with a socket to insert long or short handle as may be necessary, two inches and a half deep, well steeled, and cut as a reaping hook; as each piece is cut, it is removed by the fork. Deep drains may be scoured by this and a drag, without the labourers going into them.

SECT. 15. Habits of Industry;-Use of the English Language.

So far as industry consists in working on potatoe food, and bearing all vicissitudes of climate without a murmur, no nation can boast more than the hardy sons of Ireland; such is their desire of acquiring means to grow their potatoes, that, wherever a cabin is placed by a public road, it becomes a nuisance by the owner and his children constantly scraping off the gravel, when reduced by the passage of carriages; there is no want of industry among the lower classes; they are all exceedingly attentive to every thing, in which they are themselves interested. Right sorry I am to make the remark, but regard for truth obliges me to say, there is scarcely an instance of an

Irish peasant giving a preference to his employer's interest. You must ask the lower orders a question and repeat it, and then will hardly get a direct answer. From its vicinity to the capital, the English language is very general, and the Irish seldom used.

The regiment of Glengarry, Scotch fencibles, who spoke with correctness the ancient Celtic, though they understood the corrupt Irish spoken by the natives, could scarcely make themselves intelligible to them. I had much pleasure, and instructive conversation with Colonel M'Donald, and the Rev. Mr. M'Donald, and by their reading with me the works of General Vallancey, they proved the great correctness, and wonderful exertions, which must have been used in collecting so much information on the ancient language and state of Ireland, &c. &c. &c.

SECT. 16. Account of Towers, Castles, Monasteries, ancient Buildings, or places remarkable for any Historical event.

THIS has been fully answered in the Introduction.

SECT.

SECT. 17. Resident Clergy.

THE Clergy are generally resident in their glebe houses.

SECT. 18. Whether the County has been surveyed?

THE County has been surveyed by Captain Taylor; a map was published by subscription. All those printed off are in the hands of the original subscribers. Thanks to the assiduous care of General Vallancey, an accurate copy on a contracted scale is annexed.

SECT. 19. Weights, Measures, &c.

ALL grain, flour, potatoes, stone, coals, &c. &c. are sold by the stone of fourteen pounds; in no instance are they sold by measure.

CHAPTER