IRELAND. 307 



The piercing frosts, the deep snows, and the dreadful effects of thun- 

 der and lightning, which are so frequently observed in the latter 

 country, are never experienced here. 



The moisture above alluded to, being peculiar!}'' favourable to the 

 growth of grass, has been urged as an argument why the inhabitants 

 should confine their attention to the rearing of cattle, to the total de- 

 sertion of tillage, and consequent injury to the growth of population ; 

 but the soil is so infinitely various, as to be capable of almost every 

 species of cultivation suitable to such latitude, with a fertility equal 

 to its variety. This is so conspicuous, that it has been observed by 

 ^Jr. Young, that " natural fertility, acre for acre, over the two king- 

 doms, is certainly in favour of Ireland ; of this there can scarcely be 

 a doubt entertained, when it is considered that some of the more 

 beautiful, and even the best cultivated counties in England, owe al- 

 most every thing to the capital, art, and industry, of its inhabitants." 



M The circumstance which strikes me as the greatest singularity of 

 Ireland," adds the same respectable traveller, " is the rockiness of 

 the soil, which should seem at first sight against that degree of ferti- 

 lity ; but the contrary is the fact. Stone is so general, that I have 

 good reason to believe the whole island is one vast rock, of different 

 strata and kinds, rising out of the sea. I have rarely heard of any 

 great depths being sunk without meeting with it. In general it ap- 

 pears on the surface in every part of the kingdom : the flattest and 

 most fertile parts, as Limerick, Tipperary, and Meath, have it at no 

 great depth, almost as much as the more barren ones. May we not 

 recognize in this the hand of bounteous Providence, which has given, 

 perhaps, the most stony soil in Europe to the moistest climate in it ? 

 If as much rain fell upon the clays in England (a soil very rarely met 

 with in Ireland, and never without much stone) as falls upon the 

 rocks of her sister island, those lands could not be cultivated. But 

 the rooks here are clothed with verdure ; those of limestone, with 

 only a thin covering of mould, have the softest and most beautiful 

 turf imaginable." 



Tillage in Ireland has been too much discountenanced, and is ill 

 understood, even in the best corn counties. The farmers are op- 

 pressed by the persons called middle men, who rent farms of the. 

 landlords, and let them out to the real occupiers. 



Ireland rears vast numbers of black cattle and sheep, and the Irish 

 wool is excellent. The prodigious supplies of butter and salt provi- 

 sions (fish excepted) shipped at Cork, and carried to all parts of the 

 world, afford the strongest proofs of the natural fertility of the Irish 

 soil. 



Vegetables. ...The vegetable productions of Ireland are nearly the 

 same as those of England. Few countries yield better grain than 

 what is produced in the parts of the island where the cultivation of 

 it is attended to. Great quantities of hemp and flax are raised, espe- 

 cially in the northern counties, where the linen manufacture is prin- . 

 cipally carried on. Potatoes, as is well known, seem especially to 

 suit the soil of the country, and are a particular object of cultivation 

 in all parts of Ireland. 



Animals. ...Wolves were formerly found in Ireland, and were not 

 exterminated till near the end of the seventeenth century. The. Irish 

 wolf-dogs, a species of large grey-hounds, near four feet in height, 

 are now very nearly extinct. In some parts of the country some 

 herds of red deer are still found wild, particularly in the mountain- 



