B A L L Y C A N V A N. 193 



30 years purchafe; it did fell at 23, and the 

 fall has been owing to the failure of credit 

 in 1771 and 1772. 



Tythes, Potatoes, Wheat, Barley, and Oats, 

 55. to 6s. Cows, ad. Sheep, 6d. 



The poor people fpin their own flax, 'but 

 not more, and a few of them wool for them- 

 felves. Their food is potatoes and milk; 

 but they have a confiderable afliftance from 

 fifh, particularly herrings j part of the year 

 they have alfo barley, oaten, and rye bread. 

 They are incomparably better off" in every re- 

 fpet than twenty years ago. Their increafe 

 about Ballycanvan is very great, and tillage all 

 over this neighbourhood is increafed. The 

 rent of a cabbin jos. an acre with it 2os. The 

 grafs of a cow a few years ago, 208. now 253. 

 or 305. 



An exceeding good practice here in making 

 their fences 'is, they plant the quick on the 

 fide of the bank in the common manner, 

 and then, inftead of the dead hedge we ufe in 

 England on the top of the bank, they plant a 

 row of old thorns, two or three feet high, 

 which readjly grow, and form at once 

 a moft excellent fence. Their way alfo of 

 taking in fand banks from the river deferves 

 notice : they flake down a row of furzes at low 

 water, laying flones on them to the height of 

 one or two feet; thefe retain the mud, which 

 every tide brings in, fo as to fill ur> all within 



VOL. II. N the 



