perhaps two: the temptation of so good and near a market as Galway, frequently leaves little milk for the children. In other parts of this county there are too many cottiers without a cow, who endure great misery where there are children, even of those who have a cow, many are without milk great part of the year, waiting most anxiously for the calving of the cow, which generally does not take place until May or June, which leaves them without milk in winter when it is most necessary. It is an almost universal practice with those even in good circumstances, to pursue this losing method; frequently where four cows are kept, only one gives milk in winter: where little land is occupied, the cow should be sold out immediately when she grows slack in her milk, and replaced with one in full milk. I do not think any cheese is made in this county, except cream cheese, and that not as general at the table of a man of fortune as it should be; it only appears on state days. Butter may be preserved sweet for several years, by the following receipt; it never becomes hard or too brittle, but continues to look and taste like butter fresh churned. It requires to be a month made before it is used.

10 ounces of common salt,

2 ounces of saltpetre,

2 ounces best brown sugar,

made very fine;

they should be all intimately mixed; to each pound of butter, put one ounce of the mixture, with which it should be well incorporated, and packed close in tubs or crocks in the usual way, and the sides of the vessel well closed.

It is not a little extraordinary that the filthy custom of permitting the calf to empty two teats, whilst the dairy-maid is milking the other two, prevails in this county: the economy is certainly praiseworthy, as no

thing is lost; the calf contributing to the milk pail any thing that dribbles from his mouth. Will it be believed in other parts of Ireland, that the reason given for this vile, lazy practice is, "that the calves would not "thrive if fed in any other way." By this method there can be only a guess at the quantity each calf gets, the strong calf drinking more than the weak one. As the calf is always permitted to finish the milking, the cow habituated to this method often retains the strippings or last milk, for the calf. It is well known that the proportion of butter produced from milk drawn at this period, and the first milk has been ascertained to be in some cows from 16 to 1, and 8 to 1 in favor of the strippings. It is highly probable that calves suffer much from getting milk only twice a day, and even then, the quantity is given at the discretion of the dairymaid. The method practised in some parts of England of feeding them three times a day, seems to be much better, and probably an extension of the plan would be still more beneficial: I only allude to those calves fed by hand, and not those by the cow, as those can be fed only when the cows are milked; it is also a good practice to milk cows three times a day, when they are in the heighth of their milking. From the general bad feeding that cows receive, they yield but a small proportion of the quantity of milk they should do; and it diminishes rapidly as winter approaches. The cows that poor people are able to buy are of the very worst description, they are wretched animals, half fed from their infancy. Near large towns where there are breweries, cows often get grains, which encrease the quantity of poor thin milk. In winter there is frequently a division made between the cow and pig of small potatoes, but far from what either could consume. In general the cows of this county are very far behind

other parts of Ireland as milkers, whether this proceeds from the breed, or want of early feeding, I am ignorant, probably both causes may operate.

SECTION IX.

PRICES OF HIDES, TALLOW, WOOL, AND QUANTITY

SOLD.

THE prices of hides and tallow vary so much, that it would require better information than I could procure, to make any satisfactory statement. The hides are all tanned in Galway and other towns; the quantity tanned, bears but a small proportion to the consumption of the county, for which purpose large quantities of leather are brought from Dublin, Athlone, and some from England, and esteemed much better than that tanned at home, especially heavy hides: the tallow is all consumed in the country by the chandlers. The price of wool varies with the quality, and often with the period at which it is sold. A demand from England raises the price, as this year (1818), owing to a demand for woollen goods in the manufac toring towns in England, wool has risen to 32s. per stone of 16lb. The great wool fair of Ballinasloe, that used formerly to bring together all the graziers of three or four counties, and buyers from Leinster and Munster, has dwindled to almost nothing, and now almost all the wool is sent to Dublin to different commission houses, where the most honorable dealings are observed. Formerly above six weeks were ridiculously lost, and great expence incurred by the competition between buyers and sellers, which should name a price

first; to such extent was this carried, that the buyers have made excursions to view the country, and the sellers in the mean time have either gone home, or too often have been tempted into habits of drinking or gambling: the present mode is much better for both parties. The wool is generally sent to Dublin in packs containing about 7cwt.: each pack takes 21 bundles of coarse home-made canvass, at about 10d. per bundle: the expense of carriage, commission, &c. may be about 10d. per stone.

Except in Cunnamara, and a few places in the hands of gentlemen, there is little short wool grown in the county. In Cunnamara a very considerable quantity, indeed I believe the whole, is worked up in stockings, of which there is a very considerable sale. There may be some flannel and frizes made, but I imagine not much. The genius of the women seems to lean to knitting stockings, which only wants encouragement to make them superior to any in the world for the same price: the usual retail price of the pedlars is twenty pence per pair. What can be expected from so inadequate a price, when their profit is deducted?

L

CHAPTER IV.

FARMS.

SECTION I.

THEIR SIZE.

THE size of farms varies infinitely from one acre (if such can be called a farm) to those in mountain districts of many hundred acres, set by the bulk. I rather think that any piece of land that does not give constant employment to a plough, cannot be with propriety called a farm. Those that do not, may be called cottier holdings, a most wretched mode of occupation if too large, for by aiming at crops which can be only cultivated to advantage by the plough, they are generally the most distressed kind of tenants; a mongrel race between farmer and labourer. It is not easy to say what the size of a cottier holding, cultivated entirely with the spade, should be; it depending much on the quality of the land and the assistance that may be derived from grown-up children. Probably six acres of good land would be sufficient. That question, which