ig+ A R D S. 



Eight pound of flax, and three of tow, worth 

 6d. or flone, rough ; make 30 hanks of yarn 

 for a 1400 linen: one woman will fpin it in 

 30 days, and earn 4d. a day. 42 hanks make 

 a web of 25 yards, which is wove in 2 weeks, 

 and he earns 5'd. a yard or 4£d. and will fell 

 green for i-j?d. or i8d. a yard. Not a bleach- 

 ing green in all Ards for want of water. All 

 along the coaft of Ards and in Strangford 

 Loch, fea wrack is collected by the country 

 people with great diligence, for burning into 

 kelp ; it yields at prefent from 40s. to 50s. a 

 ton, the bleach greens have much of it, and 

 the reft of it exported to England. Some gen- 

 tlemen, who keep their fhores in their own 

 hands, pay the men 20s. a ton for collecting 

 and burning : at other times they pay rent for 

 the fhore. In Loch Strangford the kelp is 

 better than on the open fhore : an inftance of 

 induftry in this Loch deferves to be recorded. 

 It is not uncommon for the men to draw ftones 

 from their fields, and fpread them on the fhores 

 in order to make the wrack (fucus) grow ; a 

 good crop being only obtained from rocks and 

 ftones. Upon the coaft of Ards, they have in 

 winter much tangle wrack, which they col- 

 led very carefully, form into heaps, and when 

 rotten fpread it on their barley lands, and get 

 very fine crops, but it is not lafting. 



The plentifulnefs of the country about 

 Portaferry, Strangford, &c. is very great: this 

 will appear from the following circumftances, 



as 



