464 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



of spirituous liquors occurred during a time when Mr. 

 Craig was on a visit to Manchester. Three of the 

 members attended a " wake," where there was, as usual, 

 abundance of whisky, resulting in the not unusual fac- 

 tion-fight, during which stones were thrown and a 'xnan 

 was killed. The Ralahine blacksmith was accused of 

 throwing the stone which killed the man, was tried and 

 sentenced to seven years' transportation, and as the two 

 others were mixed up in the same affair they were dis- 

 missed from the society. Yet there was plenty of enjoy- 

 ment without drink, for once or twice every week there 

 was dancing in the evening, which both men and women 

 seemed to enjoy, notwithstanding their ten or twelve 

 hours work in the fields. On other evenings Mr. Craig 

 gave simple lectures on natural phenomena or the laws of 

 health, illustrated by such experiments as were adapted 

 to the intelligence of his audience. 



All the people, at Ralahine, with the exception of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Craig had been accustomed to live almost 

 entirely on potatoes, and often not enough of these. They 

 did not therefore expect or want meat ; but they had a 

 variety of vegetables and as much new milk as they 

 wished at every meal, with sometimes a little pork and 

 bread and butter as a luxury. Mr. Craig considered that 

 abundance of new milk with vegetables, constituted a 

 perfectly healthy and sufficient diet, on which the hardest 

 work could be and was done. There was also a large 

 orchard, which yielded so abundantly that although every 

 one of the eighty members had as much fruit as they wished, 

 in one year two cartloads rotted for want of consumers. 

 It was no doubt owing to this wholesome food, abundance 

 of fresh air, and cleanliness in all the houses and sur- 

 roundings, together with the contented cheerfulness 

 resulting from their improved condition and prospects, 

 that the perfect healthiness of the Ralahine community 

 is to be attributed. 



An interesting result of the experiment was the change 

 it produced in the peasant's attitude towards machiner}^ 

 Hitherto it had been impossible to use agricultural 

 machinery in Ireland, because as it clearly reduced the 



