LOED LUCAN'S FARMS. 19 



whose comfortable circumstances, during all the famine, 

 can be attributed only to the good crops of grain which 

 the application of this substance enabled them to grow 

 without any other expeuse. It is a most valuable 

 deposit. — A little farther on, the country is covered with 

 masses of limestone, extending to the borders of the 

 county of Gal way, (between Loughs Corrib and Mask,) 

 which are so thickly studded as altogether to put a stop 

 to the labours of the husbandman. Much of this tract 

 might be profitably planted with oak or larch, which 

 would at the same time enhance, by shelter, the value of 

 the pastures intermingled with it. 



Some of the soil over which we rode to-day from 

 Hollymount, proved, when turned up by the spade, of 

 uniform appearance for 18 inches in depth, beneath 

 which was limestone, sand, and gravel. It reminded 

 me of the deep black loam on the braes of the Carse of 

 Gowrie, which, however, wants the limestone substratum. 

 Other parts were a reddish, and what is here considered 

 a richer soil — deep friable land, suitable for all kinds 

 of crops. 



Next day we examined the farms of Cloonagashel 

 and Gallowshill, a portion of Lord Lucan's estate, in 

 the neighbourhood of Ballinrobe. A considerable part 

 of both these farms, which are nearly 2000 acres in 

 extent, is under tillage ; nearly all of it divided into 

 regular enclosures, with excellent stone-and-lime walls. 

 The soil consists partly of a fertile black mould, of great 

 depth, on a limestone gravel, with some stronger land 

 and some lighter, but all admirably adapted for green 



