88 Survey of the Contuy of Kilkenny, Feb. 



age. A confumption of the lungs is the diforder of which they 

 iilually die ; for a year or two before which event, thej often 

 throw up continual! J a black fpittle : thofe who work in wet pits 

 live longefi;, as thev do not fwallow^ fo much of the volatile dufl 

 of the coal. The leaning pofture in which they work is unfa- 

 vourable to health, as the mufcular action is conftrained and par- 

 tial, and the play of the lungs impeded : many do not furvive it 

 for ten years, thoup-h there are peculiar inftances of workmen that 

 have been in the collieries for forty. 



* in the defcription of foils, it was omitted to include the moun- 

 tain-land, which is of great extent, and remains moftly unimpro- 

 ved. Nature, how^ever, has not left this tract without the means 

 of improvement ; for marl, and pits of limeftone-gravel are found 

 in it. Mr Robert St George, an active agriculturill, flates his 

 operations wuth clearnefs and precifjon. >» 



* I will give an account of the improvement made by me and by 

 INIr Carroll on the lands of Knocknamuck, 33 c acres of which, when 

 I purchafed them in the year 1792, were inhabited by different fa- 

 milies, who were not able to pay the flipulatcd rent of 7s. per acre. 

 This farm flood in 12s. 9d. per acre, andhavinghaditunderimprove- 

 inent for three years, I let it to Mr Carroll for 28s. gd. per acre, for 

 300 acres, to finifli the improvement. Apart of this land was in very 

 poor worn out oat-flubbles, part in poor cojheers, as termed, land 

 which had been burned and tilled for as many crops as it would bear, 

 then left to nature ; by which means it was covered with a mat of 

 couch-grafs, and was very barren, having been feme years out of 

 tillage, but the greater and more valuable part of all was in heath, 

 and had never been in tillage ; had a black peat of from four to 

 eight inches deep over a fliff clay, called lac leagh, from two to four 

 inches deep, and that in fome places over a black flaty rock * ; in 

 others a limeftone-gravel. This heathy land was retentive of the 

 rains from its matted roots, and the lac leagh underneath the peat, 

 and was not conlidered w^orth above half rent for cattle, or 6s. per 

 acre. The flubble land was of a clayey nature over ilaty flone, 

 and in part over limeftone gravel. This I fallowed for a whole 

 year by four ploughings, and as many harrowungs to clean it of all 

 weeds, and prepare it fo'r laying down in fpring ; which I did, after 

 laying on 200 barrels of roach-lime, ploughing it in lightly, then 

 harrowing it when flacked in the earth, by which means it was 

 moft comlpetely mixed with the foil : then fowing two barrels of 

 clean rye-grafs to the acre, with ten pound of white clover-feed 

 mixed with it, being the feed moll natural to this kind of land, 

 where lime has its greatefl effcfl. I paired with the plough, and 

 burned a larr:e tract of the heathy part, then laid on a coat of lime- 

 ftone-gravel from a pit funk for the purpofe on the hill, fpread the 



afiies 

 • Called in \n\h,figga. 



