SECTION XV. STATE OF MILLS OF EVERY KIND. IN the town of Galway there are about 23 flour mills, 6 oat mills, 2 malt mills, 4 tuck mills, I paper mill, and 1 bleach mill: there are also, in different parts of the county, upwards of 12 large flour mills, and several of a smaller though not less useful description, and several oat and tuck mills. As the Galway mills are almost always at work, it may be conjectured what a quantity of flour must be dressed annually, of which, after supplying the neighbouring counties and the adjacent country, the remainder is sent to Dublin. It is calculated that even at a very low average there are at least 12,000 tons annually manufactured by the millers of Galway alone. This, even at the low rate of £20. per ton, shews what an impulse must be given to the agriculture of the country, by the expenditure of upwards of £200,000. and, added to the great export of corn during the war, and the liberal discounts of the banks at that period, accounts for the high rents paid for land. If all the mills are now at full work, I trust the distresses of our farmers will be only temporary. The great encrease of flour mills has been chiefly since 1790; previous to that period there were but two; the late Mr. Patrick Ward and Mr. Rickard Burke's, near the fish market. There have been two capital mills erected a few years since on Nun's island, one by Mr. Fitzgerald, and the other by Mr. Regan, finished in 1814; they have every advantage of the late improvements in arrangement and machinery. Mr. Regan's, I understand, is composed entirely of metal, contrived and executed by Mr. Macky, a very ingenious millwright from Scotland. This mill was begun in 1813; it is erected on five arches, is 80 feet long by 41 feet broad, has 12 floors, lighted by an hundred glass windows; it was finished and ready for work in one year, and considered to have cost £10,000. It has four pair of stones, which can be worked either together or separately, with only one undershot water-wheel. The power is so great, and the machinery so complete, it can grind with one pair of stones 20 cwt. in an hour. The machinery of this mill is highly worth the inspection of the curious, and reflects high credit not only on the ingenious man who executed it, but the spirited individual who has risked such property in the concern, and most sincerely do I wish him every success. Such men are a blessing to a country, as they assist the industrious farmer, upon whose prosperity every other class of society depends, an opinion, it were to be wished, prevailed more generally amongst our legislators.* About forty years ago a Mr. Waddlesworth erected the first flour mill in Galway: he was opposed by all the bakers, and at length they burned his mill, and from the injuries and insults he received, was obliged to quit Galway. Before his mill was erected, each baker had a large chest in the mill that ground for them, with a lock and key, in which he usually kept as much wheat as he judged would be sufficient until the next market day. As he wanted it, it was ground in the mill. When we compare this with the present number (23 flour mills) it must be with feelings of joy at the encouragement it gives to the farmer. Many of the mil F F It must be sincerely regretted that this gentleman's speculations have not been so fortunate as he deserves; but I trust his difficulties will soon terminate. I fear (a very usual thing in Ireland) his capital did not keep pace with his ardent mind, lers of this county give a preference to the mill stones raised near Dunmore; which, if well chosen, they say, are for some species of the manufacture equal, if not superior to French burr, though not more than about one third of the price. SECTION XVI. STATE OF PLANTATIONS AND PLANTING. PLANTING has long been a favourite pursuit in this county, especially since the days of Shanley and Leggett, who certainly gave a considerable impulse to it; but there are scarcely any of such extent as to be called a wood, much less a forest. The formal style of surrounding the demesne with a screen, or called more appropriately, from its narrowness, a belt, (in many places it might be justly termed a thread) and the interior blotted with circular clumps (they could not from their general want of connection be called groups) prevented, in a few years, when they admitted light through them, all idea of extent. The designers of that period are not to be much blamed, for such works were the fashion of the day, and a tame copy of the Browne school. Probably in the days of London and Wise, of topiary memory, their works were esteemed of the highest order of taste, until, with the assistance of Addison and Pope, Kent and Nature prevailed over the Sheers. It is however disgraceful to the present age, that they obstinately pursue the same tame method as their forefathers. Many gentlemen have planted extensively, but still they have not planted forests. I have scarcely ever seen one that a quarter of an hour's ride would not bring you from one end to the other. The late Mr. Lawrence of Bellevue, planted a great extent of screens and clumps,* upwards of 370 acres ; but from their narrowness, want of timely thinning, and a deficiency of underwood, they admit the light to be seen through them. This is the general fault of the Irish planting, and if we may judge from different publications, of English planting too. When, some years since, by an order from the court of Chancery, I thinned the plantations of Bellevue, I advised them to be carefully copsed, and an additional breadth, and more varied outline to be given to the screens and clumps, These would in a few years have shut out the light, and relieved them from that wretched tameness that Mr. Lawrence, in conformity with the fashion of the day, adopted, and would have converted his clumps into groups. I regret to say that none of these ideas have been adopted; cattle have been admitted into most of the plantations, and something like an American improvement has been pursued. It was the late Mr. Lawrence's intention to have added considerably to those screens, and I am informed he often wished his demesne extended seven miles, that he might have planted it all. The study of the demesne of Bellevue would, however, be well worth the attention of the lovers of this charming art; exclusive of those very general faults he would learn to avoid, he would perceive some of the best oak trees growing in several feet of turf bog, badly drained; whilst in dry ground, apparently more appropriate to their growth, they have made little progress. Here also may be FF 2 "But ah! how different is the formal lump, KNIGHT'S LANDSCAPE. seen (or might have been seen) some of the most beautiful ash trees growing luxuriantly in upwards of three feet of turf bog, completely surrounded by stagnant water within a foot of the surface; and what is very remarkable, there are Scotch fir and alder amongst them, greatly inferior in growth and health. In the servants' hall there is a table made of pineaster, planted and cut down by the late Mr. Lawrence. The first length of the tree was nine feet, cut into boards nineteen inches broad; another length nine feet also, cut into boards sixteen inches broad, exclusive of a considerable top; the wood beautiful, and of excellent quality. There was a Weymouth pine of about forty-four years growth, (planted by Mr. Lawrence,) cut down for a pump stick; the circumference was four feet ten inches; the timber was very fine, very red at the heart, and full of turpentine: the top was decayed, which caused its conversion to this use; until then, I had been always led to think that Weymouth pine was a soft, white, worthless timber. Balm of Gilead fir uniformly decayed in every part of this demesne when about fourteen feet high. Indeed I do not recollect to have seen a flourishing tree of this species of considerable age, in any part of Ireland. Pineaster invariably flourishing at the west side of every plantation, whilst on the south and east they have mostly decayed. I cut down many hundreds in that state. Larch, Scotch fir, and sweet chestnut, bent by the westerly winds; but oak, spruce and silver fir, and Weymouth pine, not bent; beech a little bent. The following dimensions of trees, (if they have not been cut down) will show, in a forcible light, the spirit of planting Mr. Lawrence possessed; and, in addition to what I have just detailed, the profit of planting. That has been so often doubted by those who are eager to |