CASTLE CALDWELL. 261 



cofts 5s. more, which 6 fcore loads will burn 

 at the rate of a load and a half a barrel. They 

 plough all with horfes, 2 or 3 horfes abreaft. 



Land fells, at rack rent, at 20 to 24 years 

 purchafe: has not fallen. Rents are fallen in 

 5 or 6 years 2s. an acre. There is a great deal 

 of letting lands in the grofs to middle men, who 

 re-let it to others -, thefe middle men are called 

 terny begs, or little landlords, which prevail very 

 much at prefent. Thefe men make a great pro- 

 fit by this practice. The people in all the neigh- 

 bourhood increafe very faft. They are all in 

 general much more induitrious, and in better 

 circumftances than they were fome years ago. 

 Their food, for three-fourths of the year, 

 chiefly potatoes and milk, and the other quarter 

 oatmeal : in the winter they have herrings. 

 They have all a bellyful of food whatever it 

 is, as they told me themfelves ; and their chil- 

 dren eat potatoes all daydong, even thofe of 

 a year old will be roaiting them. All keep cows, 

 and fome cocks and hens, but no turkeys or 

 geefe. Six people, a man, his wife and 4 chil- 

 dren, will eat 1 8 (lone of potatoes a week, or 

 2521b. but 4olb. of oatmeal will ferve them. 

 Rent of a cabbin, garden, and one acre, 20s. a 

 cow's grafs 30s. a cow requires one acre and a 

 half for fummer -, and they buy a little hay for 

 winter, and give the cow fmall potatoes and 

 cabbage-leaves, &c. 



The common people are remarkably given to 

 thieving, particularly grafs, timber, and turf, 

 and they bring up their children to hoking po- 

 tatoes, that is, artfully raifing them, taking out 



the 



