390 COUNTY OF GALWAY. 



is 4 cwt. of fcutched flax, and the medium 

 price 40s. a cwt. There are confiderable im^ 

 provements of mountain, and fome of bog, that 

 have been carried on by the poor villagers. 

 They dig and burn the mountain, and get by 

 that means very fine potatoes without dung, 

 paying 20s. an acre for it. If they have the 

 land to themfelves, they will, after the pota- 

 toes, get good wheat, and after that, feyeral 

 crops of oats, till the land is exhaufted. Thefe 

 village farmers, I remarked, as I went through 

 the country, were indufhious in forming com- 

 ports of boggy moor, turf, and lime-ftone, 

 with what dung they can raife. They were 

 now making ready againft the winter's dung ; 

 thefe are for potatoes the following fpring, and 

 they find it anfweis fo well that the practice 

 increafed very fad. Such of them as are near 

 the bogs, Mr. French gives the bog to them 

 for 10 years rent free, and then they pay him 

 3 os. an acre for it. They drain them, manure 

 with lime-ftone gravel and a little dung, and 

 plant potatoes, getting fine crops, and good 

 corn afterwards. In one of the bogs which 

 a village was cutting away, the men called Mr. 

 French to it, to fhew him the old ridge and 

 furrow at the bottom, and he found them per- 

 fect. It, was 4 feet deep: that this country 

 was once generally cultivated, there are other 

 figns. There are vaft numbers of lime-ftone 

 gravel pits among the mountain heathy lands, 

 though there is not the leaft tradition when 

 they were ufed, 



