232 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
should have the weather accurately observed during two complete cycles, one at a late, 
another at a distant-period, so as to be able to compare them, before we would be war- 
ranted in attempting to draw precise conclusions. 
The potatoe culture is well fitted for draining the moist surface of the island, the 
trenches run from the summits of the hills to carry off superfluous water. 
Not only have bogs been reclaimed, but in some districts they have been absolutely 
removed, and the peat which they afforded consumed as fuel. In some places, a bog is 
the most valuable part of an estate, where fuel is dear. Great masses, therefore, of 
this vegetable sponge, retentive of moisture, and liable to be quickly frozen, have been 
removed or reclaimed, and mixed with clay in the recollection of our peasantry. These 
places must have been fertile sources of vapour; and in time of frost, when once 
frozen, they must haye been magazines of cold for a considerable time. 
We have the testimony of Sir James Ware, of Boate, and of Cox, that good ef- 
fects on the climate from cultivation, were experienced in Ireland when they lived ; 
then why should we reject the testimony of the old peasants who are yet alive, parti- 
cularly when it is consistent with science ? 
Smith, in his History of the County of Kerry, predicted that the culture of potatoes 
would render the country more wholesome, and stated that enclosures sheltered the 
land, and improved it, and kept it warm in winter.—Smith’s Kerry, p. 159. 
The process of adding calcareous, vegetable, and animal manures to the soil is con- 
stantly going on in Ireland, year after year. Sir H. Davy ascertained by experiment, 
that a dark-coloured soil, containing animal or vegetable matter, if heated within the 
common limits of solar heat, will cool more slowly, than a wet pale soil, composed 
entirely of earthy matter. Therefore it is what ought to be expected, that snow 
should not remain on the ground now, so long as formerly.— Agricul. Chemis. p. 156. 
The few observations made with instruments in Ireland, have been made in towns, 
not in the country parts. Towns are not the fit places for observations ; the heat from 
fires, the number of inhabitants and of domestic animals crowded together, the friction. 
of vehicles and of machinery, the dark colour of the streets from animal and vegeta- 
ble manures, the process of fermentation going on, all these matters tend to raise 
the temperature of towns. 
Registries of the weather, kept for a very long period, and in country parts, only 
could disprove popular opinion on the subject of snow remaining on the ground. 
The observations should be made with great care and for an extended series of 
years. 
We have the authority of Howard for thinking, that implicit reliance is not to be 
placed on the registry, even of the Royal Society of London.—Howard on the cli- 
mate of London, Vol. IT. p. 190. 
The name of mountain ground is frequently given in Ireland, to rough grounds 
producing heath, and such kind of vegetation of little yalue. In such places, not 
