IG 



ni-ticle ; in fact, they like it. AVlien this subject was mooted 

 in the House of Conimous some time ago the Government 

 promised to immediately adopt measures to suppress this 

 tratfic, but nothing- has been done, and the stuft' is openly 

 sold, without restriction, in the village where I am located. 

 Discussing" the subject the other evening with one of tha 

 leadino- Government officials in Ulster, he said he had little 

 doubt that this use of ether as an intoxicant was doing an 

 immense amount of injury, and that it ought to be rigor- 

 ously suppressed. In his opinion, the increase of insanity 

 was attributable to the drinking of ether. On Wednesday 

 I found myself in proximity to a market towm, and there- 

 fore devoted a couple of hours to pricing some of the goods. 

 All kinds of live stock were very cheap, including horses, 

 of which there was an unlimited supply, mostly 3'oungsters. 

 Farmers' wives were selling new laid eggs at 8d. per dozen, 

 and fowls ranged from 7d. to 9d. each, according to size and 

 condition. Geese fetched from Is. Gd. to 2s., and mutton 

 was selling at 7d. to 8d. per lb. for the prime joints, whilst 

 pork went at 5d. and Gd, per lb. It sounds all right to hear 

 of fowls at 7d. each, but they are like the cows, poor little 

 things, and a hungry man could eat two of them for a meal 

 — the chicken, I mean, not the cows. Of an Irishman's 

 fowls you might with truth say : — • 



" Your salmon are so fat and red. 



Your chicken are so thin and blue ; 

 'Tis plain to see TFhich God has fed, 

 And which was fed by rou." 



Everywhere one hears the same bitter complaints as to the 

 decline of the potato crop in Ireland. I discussed the sub- 

 ject with a lot of farmers, and the}'' were unanimously of 

 opinion that potatoes had been going back, as a crop in 

 Ireland, for many years, and that every season they got 

 worse, and the disease became greater. One old man closed 

 the discussion by saying, "I can mind when 'taties was 

 sixpence a bushel of three stone, and this year I paid 5s. a 

 bushel for seed !" The truth is, that on these small hold- 

 ings the same ground is cropped with potatoes, year after 

 year with the same old seed, until the ground sickens for 



