ADARE — CROOM — SCOTCH FARMER. 71 



on their way. If any judgment may be formed of a 

 place by its hotels, the stranger will speak well of 

 Limerick — Cruise's being the best-managed hotel which 

 I saw in Ireland. 



On 25th October I proceeded on my tour through 

 the county. To Adare the land is of fine quality, and 

 much of it under tillage. The greater part of the coun- 

 try is on the limestone formation, generally of a flat 

 character, and at a low elevation, with rounded hills and 

 gentle slopes running through it. On the borders of 

 Tipperary and Cork it is somewhat hilly ; and on its 

 western side, next Kerry, it lies on the coal formation, 

 which gives a more elevated and colder country than the 

 limestone. 



In the neighbourhood of Adare is the farm of an 

 East Lothian man, who came to Ireland thirty years 

 ago. The land here is a fine deep red soil, open 

 and friable. The country is well wooded, and warm- 

 looking. This gentleman farms very extensively in 

 this county, having another large farm of nearly 400 

 Irish =640 English acres, near Croom. Here he 

 grows all the usually cultivated crops — wheat, barley, 

 oats, turnips, &c. On this farm he keeps a stock of 

 forty large half-bred cows, rearing all their calves, 

 which are crosses with the short-horn ; making besides, 

 from each cow, three firkins of butter, worth from 40s. 

 to 50s. a firkin. His young stock are very good, the 

 bull calves particularly large and fine. The soil of this 

 farm is good sharp turnip -land, for which he pays a 

 smart rent, running from 20s. to 30s. an English acre, 

 besides poor-rate and grand-jury cess ; and having been 



