MITCHELSTOWN. 271 



from 5!. to 50!; a year, with a very few large 

 farms. 



The foils are as various as in fuch a great 

 extent they may be fuppofed : the worft is the 

 wet morafTy land, on a whitifti gravel, the 

 fpontaneous growth, rufhes (juncus conglome- 

 ratus) and heath (erica vulgaris)-, this yields a 

 fcanty nourifhment to cows and half ftarved 

 young cattle. Large tracts of wet land has a 

 black peat or a turf furface j this is very re- 

 claimable, and there are immenfe tracts of it. 

 The profitable foil is in general a fandy or a 

 gravelly loam, of a reddifh brown colour, and 

 the principal distinction is its being on lime or 

 grit ftone, the former generally the beft. It 

 declines in value from having a yellow fand or 

 a yellow clay near the furface under it. There 

 are traces of fuch incomparable land that I 

 feen very little equal to it, except in Tipperary, 

 Limerick, and Rofcommon. A deep friable 

 loam, moift enough for the fpontaneous growth 

 to fat a bullock, and dry enough to be per- 

 fectly under command in tillage : if I was to 

 name the characterirtics of an excellent foil, I 

 fhould fay that upon which you may fat an ox, 

 and feed off a crop of turnips. By the way I 

 recollect little or no fuch land in England, yet 

 is it not uncommon in Ireland. Quarries of 

 the fineft lime-ftone are found in almoil every 

 part of the eftate. 



The tracts of mountain are of a prodigious 

 extent j the Galties only are fix or feven miles 



long, 



