in order to get rid of that soil, which he considers as worth but little. Whatever he sows, the land runs at once immediately to thick fine grass, even on the mountain top; so that a stubble will, in the first year, yield a great crop of hay. A strong proof how adapted this country is to pasturage. In the breed of cattle he has been very attentive, purchasing bulls and cows, at the expence of twenty guineas each, of the long-horned Lancashire breed, and from them has bred others. I saw two exceeding well-made bulls of a year old of his breeding, which would have made a considerable figure in Leicestershire. Turnips he has cultivated for many years, applying them chiefly to feeding deer; but he has fattened some sheep on them with good success. Hollow draining he has practised upon an extensive scale, and laid a large tract of wet land dry by it.

CHAPTER XVII.

Mr. Oliver's colony of Palatines at Rathkeal.-His pictures at Castle Oliver.-Sheep-farming in Tipperary.-Lady Clanwilliam's plantations. -Lord de Montalt at Dundrum.-Cashel.-Clonmel.-Sir William Osborne's mountain improvements.-" Employ, don't hang them."Emigrations.

MR

R. OLIVER planted a colony of Palatines 15 years ago, from about Rathkeal, 66 families in one year, which made 700 Protestants, on his own estate. Fixed them upon spots, of from thirteen to thirty acres each, charging them only two-thirds of the rent, which he could get of others; built houses for them at the expence of above £500, gave them leases for three lives. The benefit of them has been introducing much tillage; to the proportion of. their little farms, they till much more than the Irish. They drill their potatoes, and on stubble land worn out. House their cattle, feeding them with hay, and raising thereby dung. They are cleaner and neater, and live much better; are better cloathed, and all of them have neat little kitchen gardens. Many of them labour for nobody but themselves, and none of them constantly for others, being

employed principally on their own little farms. They live partly on sour crout.

Castle Oliver is a place almost entirely of Mr. Oliver's creation; from a house, surrounded with cabbins and rubbish, he has fixed it in a fine lawn, surrounded by good wood. The park he has very much improved on an excellent plan; by means of seven feet hurdles, he fences off part of it that wants to be cleaned or improved, these he cultivates, and leaves for grass, and then takes another spot, which is by much the best way of doing it. In the park is a glen, an English mile long, winding in a pleasing manner, with much wood hanging on the banks. Mr. Oliver has conducted a stream through this vale, and formed many little water-falls in an exceeding good taste, chiefly overhung with wood, but in some places open with several little rills, trickling over stones down the slopes. A path winds through a large wood and along the brow of the glen; this path leads to an hermitage, a cave of rock, in a good taste, and to some benches, from which the views of the water and wood are in the sequestered stile they ought to be. One of these little views, which catches several falls under the arch of the bridge, is one of the prettiest touches of the kind I have seen. The vale beneath the house, when viewed from the higher grounds, is pleasing; it is very well wooded, there being many inclosures, surrounded by pine trees, and a thick fine mass of wood rises from them up the mountain side, makes a very good figure, and would be better, had not Mr. Oliver's father cut it into vistas for shooting. Upon the whole, the place is highly improved, and when the mountains are planted, in which Mr. Oliver is making a considerable progress, it will be magnificent.

In the house are several fine pictures, particularly five pieces by Seb. Ricci, Venus and Eneas; Apollo and Pan; Venus and Achilles; and Pyrrhus and Andromache, by Lazzerini; and the Rape of the Lapitha by the Centaurs: the last is by much the finest, and is a very capital piece; the expression is strong, the figures are in bold relief, and the colouring good. Venus and Achilles is a pleasing picture; the Continence of Scipio is well grouped, but Scipio, as in every picture I ever saw of him, has no expres310. Indeed, chastity is in the countenance so passive a

virtue as not to be at all suited to the genius of painting; the idea is rather that of insipidity, and accordingly Scipio's expression is generally insipid enough. Two fine pieces, by Lucca Jordano, Hercules and Anteus; Sampson killing the lion both dark and horrid, but they are highly finished, and striking. Six heads of old men, by Nogari, excellent; and four young women, in the character of the seasons.

October 9th, left Castle Oliver. Had I followed my inclination, my stay would have been much longer, for I found it equally the residence of entertainment and instruction. Passed through Kilfennan' and Duntreleague, in my way to Tipperary. The road leads every where on the sides of the hills, so as to give a very distinct view of the lower grounds; the soil all the way is the same sort of sandy reddish loam I have already described, incomparable land for tillage: as I advanced, it grew something lighter, and in many places free from gravel. Bullocks the stock all the way. Towards Tipperary I saw vast numbers of sheep, and many bullocks. All this line of country is part of the famous Golden Vale. To Thomas Town,' where I was so unfortunate as not to find Mr. Matthew at home; the domain is 1,500 English acres, so well planted, that I could hardly believe myself in Ireland. There is a hill in the park, from which the view of it, the country and the Galties, are striking.

To the Earl of Clanwilliam's, where I was particularly fortunate in meeting Messrs. Macarthy and Keating, sons to two of the greatest farmers that ever were in Ireland. The country is all under sheep, and the soil dry sandy loam. The sheep system of Tipperary is to breed and keep the lambs till three-year old wethers, fat, and sell them at 268. at an average; keep the ewe lambs, and cull the old stock, selling an equal number of fat ewes at three to four years old, the average price 20s. in October; the wool of all the stock in general amounts to three fleeces, per stone, of 16 lb. or 68. a head. From hence to Clonmell, there are many sheep; to Cullen in Killkenny, three or four miles beyond Thurles, within two miles of Cullen, three or four and twenty miles N. to S. and from Cullen to within three miles of Cullen, which is 30: generally speaking, this is all sheep, but there are many spots in it where bullocks are fed. The stock

1 Kilfinnane, co. Limerick.

• Thomastown Castle, four miles east of Tipperary.

mixed with sheep are usually calves, bought in at six to eight months, 30s. to 40s. average 32s. and when they are three year od, send them to the richer lands in the county of Limerick (where every Tipperary grazier has a farm) to fat. When they have not enough of their own rearing, they buy three-year olds at Ballynasloe, and fatten them in Limerick. In general, this land will carry three to five sheep to the acre, and bear some calves besides. One acre and three quarters a bullock the year through, one half for hay.

Arrangement of a flock of 2,500 sheep.

500 ewes.

500 lambs.

300 hoggarts.

500 two-year olds.

250 fat wethers.

250 ewes, added to stock, instead of 250 older ones sold off.

A part of the stock of fat wethers is kept over from October to the spring, for the Dublin market, not merely for the high price, but because underlings, and not fat in autumn, and sell for less than the rest, seldom more than 198. or 20s. To 3,000 sheep s grazier in this neighbourhood has 30 acres of turnips, in order to feed this part of his wether stock with. Mr. Macarthy with 8,000 sheep, has seldom more than 30 acres. This system will be further explained by Mr. Allen's stock,

1,200 acres 2,000 sheep, besides lambs-Sells 200 four-year old wethers, at 26s.-200 three-year olds, at 268.-200 barren ewes, at 18s.-2,000 fleeces, at 5s.—400 two-year olds—400 year olds-500 Brood ewes-500 lambs-Land to feed this flock, 1,000 acres. Also 120 bullocks-40 cows and spayed heifers and working bullocks for work, and milk breeding-30 horses, mares, &c. -30 labourers, 5 shepherds-20 acres of wheat-10 barley-10 oats---10 turneps-8 potatoes-60 mowing ground-Rent of this large tract of sheep-land from 20 to 258. an acre.

Farms are generally large, commonly 3 or 4,000 acres, and rise up to 10,000, of which quantity there is one farm, this is Mr. Macarthy's, of Spring House, near Tipperary, and is I suppose the most considerable one in the world. Here are some of the particulars of it:

9,000 acres in all-£10,000 rent-8,000 sheep-2,000 lambs— 550 bullocks-80 fat cows-£20,000 value of stock-200 yearlings -200 two-year olds-200 three-year olds-80 plough bullocks -180 horses, mares, and foals-150 to 200 labourers-200 acres tillage.

Mr. Richard Dogherty, of Locklogher, 76 bags of wool at 500 lb. to 600 lb. this year. Loss of sheep and cattle one-half per cent. No folding. For hiring and stocking, £5 an acre. A shepherd is allowed four cows, a horse, a cabbin, and three acres of garden, and as much hay as they like for their cattle.

Slaughter at Corke of cows and bullocks undoubtedly much. lessened. The increase of tillage is in Tipperary owing to bolting mills.

The quantity of tillage in this country trifling, but the crops are large; there are several courses. The turnep husbandry often upon burnt land, some on lime and fallow, and some on fallow alone.

1. Turneps. 2. Fallow. 6. Oats. 7. Oats. 8. Oats.

1. Turneps. 2. Fallow.

3. Wheat. 4. Oats. 5. Oats. 10. Lay it out.

9. Oats. 3. Potatoes.

4. Bere.

6. Oats. 7. Oats. 8. Oats. 9. Oats.

2. Potatoes. 3. Wheat.

5. Wheat.

1. Burn for rape seed. 4. Oats. 5. Oats. Lay out. And sometimes they take two crops of wheat. They never hoe turnips.

Mr. Dexter of Cullen, had a ram, half a guinea a leap, and great numbers of ewes were sent to him, the breed much improving.

Potatoes, average produce, 80 to 100 Bristol barrels, at 5s. average price, and the poor people pay 5 to 6 guineas for land. They often take two crops with adding some seed, pay the same price for the second; they pay this price for turnep land burnt; grass potatoes not generally known. The quantity of wheat 10 barrels to 15.-Bere 15 to 18.-Barley 12 to 18.-Oats 12 to 15. Their turnips they seldom sow before the 12th of July. Their manures are lime and lime-stone gravel, the gravel for crops, and lime for grass; they use it on lime-stone land, and with great