228 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
tablish a silk factory ; the first season it appeared to have gone on well, and it was 
imagined that it would have been successful ; however, the following season came wet, 
and the worms perished.” ; 
A great deal depends on favourable seasons. In 1768, a bounty of twenty guineas 
was given to a Mrs. Gregg, for having raised a considerable quantity of silk in the 
county Clare.— Transactions of Dublin Society for 1799. 
In the Pacata Hibernia, it is stated, that they were prevented from reaping in 
Kerry in the month of July, the crops being backward on account of an unfavourable 
season. Barley was much cultivated in Ireland at that time, the country was but 
thinly inhabited, and of course the best lands were selected for cultivation, and the 
computation of time was according to the old style. Arthur Young, in his tour in 
Ireland, describing the rotation of crops in the Mahagree islands, near Tralee, in the 
County Kerry, observes—“ All grain is remarkably early, they have sown English 
barley, and made bread of the crop in six weeks. I was assured, that in these islands, 
they have known two crops of barley gained from the same land, in one year, and the 
second better than the first. ‘They sowed the first in April, and reaped the middle of 
May, and immediately sowed a second, which they reaped the end of August.”— Vol. 
I. p. 472. 
It would be a desirable thing, if we had an exact account of the weather in the 
south of Ireland for a long time. There is no registry of the weather made at the 
Royal Cork Institution, on Sundays. When the writer of this essay visited that es- 
tablishment, to compare the statements in Smith’s History of the County Cork, with 
a considerable series of years in modern times ; the officers of that establishment could 
not tell what was become of the registry, previous to the year 1825. 
In Smith’s time the rain was as follows in Cork :—In 1738, 54 inches 5 tenths— 
the same nearly in 1739—in 1740, but 21 inches 5 tenths—in 1741, 33 inches 6 
tenths—in 1742, 38 inches 1 tenth—in 1743, 39 inches 3 tenths—in 1744 33 inches 
6 tenths—in 1745, 48 inches 4 tenths—in 1746, 30 inches ; the same nearly in 1747— 
and in 1748, 37 inches 4 tenths.—Smith’s Cork, Vol. II. p. 404. 
The quantity of rain at the Royal Cork Institution, was in round numbers as 
follows : 
years inches 
1825 - - 32 
1826 - . 28 
hy ae = ar 
1828 - . 40 
1829 - - 39 
Hamilton gives the mean temperature of different parts of the City of Cork in 
1788, at 52—5 to 53—5.— Transactions Royal Irish Academy, Vol..II.. 
The mean temperature at the Royal Cork Institution on the average of five years 
le 
