286 Irish Harvest Laborers. 



mapped out, they would present an interlaced pat- 

 tern of lines crossing and recrossing without any 

 appreciable order ; yet one family never interferes 

 with another family. This statement seems to me 

 to be most interesting if compared with the habits 

 of birds that roam hither and thither apparently 

 without order or method, that come back in the 

 spring to particular places, and depart again after 

 their young are reared. Though to us they wander 

 aimlessly, it is possible that from their point of view 

 they may be following strictly prescribed routes 

 sanctioned by immemorial custom. 



And so itinerant laborers move about. In the 

 particular district which has been described their 

 motions are roughlj' these : In the early spring 

 they go up on the uplands, where there are many 

 thousand acres of arable land, for the hoeing. Then 

 comes a short space of employment — haymaking in 

 the water meadows that follow the course of the 

 rivers there, and which are cut ver^^ early. Next, 

 they return down into the vale, where the ha3'making 

 has then commenced. Just before it begins the Irish 

 arrive in small parties, coming all the wa^' from their 

 native land to gather the high wages paid during the 

 English harvest-time. The}- show a pleasing attach- 

 ment to the employer who has once given them work 

 and treated them with a little kindness. To him they 

 go first ; and thus it often happens that the same 

 band of Irish return to the same farm year after jxar 

 as regularly as the cuckoo. They lodge in an open 

 shed, making a fire in the corner of the hedge where 

 it is sheltered. The}' are industrious, work well, 

 drink little, and bear generally a good character. 



