2 Different Estimation of the Acre. 



cultivation and improvements in the county of 

 Cork. As the distance between Macroom and 

 Cork is twenty miles, and the intercourse very 

 considerable, it is singular there should be no 

 intermediate place where a feed of oats could 

 be obtained. In passing the military (the Queen's 

 County Militia) it seemed to be doubtful, whe- 

 ther the women and children did not form a 

 corps as numerous as the regiment. 



The perplexity arising from the use of dif- 

 ferent measures is not unknown, or uncom- 

 plained of, in this country. The land is let 

 under three distinct estimations of the acre : in 

 the north it is governed by the Cunningham 

 in the midland, the plantation and in this part 

 of the south of Ireland, by the statute acre. Near 

 Macroom the rents are from twenty to sixty shil- 

 lings the acre. The predilection for the plough 

 is universal, and white crops succeed each other 

 as long as the land will produce them : when these 

 fail, they have recourse to grass, which rises lux- 

 uriantly without cultivation ; and what is unac- 

 countable, exhausted as the soil by this conduct 

 must be considered, the grass is not less nutri- 

 tious than abundant. As far as I was enabled 

 to judge, in spite of this barbarous treatment, 

 deterioration from repeated cropping does not 

 follow as a consequence here, except on strong 



