additional quantities are required for the
especially coffee-bibbing nations which lie between
Ceylon and this country, surpasses all present
calculation; enough, we should think, sails
away from this island in the course of every
year, the transit of which to its sea-board,
would pay for a regular net-work of railways.

CHIPS.

THE SPADE IN IRELAND.

IN the "famine year," of 1846, an application
was made to the benevolent public for
food and seed by the Irish Presbyterian Home
Mission, on behalf of the peasantry of the
West of Ireland, and particularly of those in
a remote district in the county of Mayo.
The usual practical shrewdness of Scotchmen
suggested to some gentlemen of Edinburgh
the uselessness of aggravating the future
destitution of the Irish people, by merely
squandering money in doling out rations;
which, when exhausted, would leave the
recipients more destitute, and with weaker
habits of self-reliance than before the period
of relief. They had learnt from history the
success with which Cromwell had planted
Ulster, by the introduction of Saxons and
Saxon habits among the population. They
were struck with the wisdom and practical
views which Sir Robert Peel had developed
in his proposals for a renewal and extension
of the experiment. Surprised that it received
no countenance from Parliament and no
encouragement from the authority of other
statesmen, they resolved to try, on a small
scale, the experiment which might worthily
have been expanded in imperial dimensions.
An experienced agriculturist from the South
of Scotland was dispatched to the proposed
scene of operations. From his representation
it appeared that the people inhabiting
this district, being found to be of a peaceable
and industrious character, and little acquainted
with the common practice of systematic
husbandry, it was afterwards thought, that in
place of continuing the temporary assistance
which was still required, the money to be so
expended, might be thrown into a channel of
a more permanent character, by renting a
few hundred acres, for the double purpose of
introducing an improved system of cultivation,
and of affording profitable employment to the
destitute. Taking a more enlarged view of
the matter, it was considered not unreasonable
to expect that if the example were set, and
followed out with success, private individuals
from England and Scotland, looking out for
farms, might be induced to follow such
example, and enter upon the cultivation of the
thousands of acres which are lying untenanted
on all sides.

A lease of Castle and Parkmore farms and
the Townland of Ballinglew for twenty-one
Years, and three lives, has been taken. The
land is two miles from the sea-coast, nine
from the sea-port of Killala, and sixteen from
the market-town of Ballina. It has good
roads, abundance of lime and freestone
peat for fuel, and sea-weed for manure.
It is three hundred and seventy-four statute
acres in extent, the rent is only sixty-four
pounds, and that rent (only three shillings
and sixpence per acre) is higher than that on
the surrounding holdings. Although the
tenants were greatly in arrear, the lessees
wisely procured a remission of the landlord's
claims, and paid the holders a handsome
premium in consideration for the tenant right,
to maintain the policy of conciliating, and
giving confidence to the "natives." Useless
fences and roads were removed, unnecessary
hedges and ditches rooted out and filled
up, fields put into convenient shape and
dimensions, an immense quality of surface
stones removed from the soil, buildings
repaired, proper housings and cattle sheds
erected, and a thrashing mill, to be driven
by water power, is constructed. At the
end of the first complete year (1849),
sixty-five acres of oats, potatoes, barley,
vetches, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, of
considerable yield and excellent quality, were
gathered, and employment afforded for forty
men at sixpence per day, and as many women
and children at from threepence to fourpence;
thereby securing subsistence to
upwards of two hundred individuals.

Scotchmen can do nothing without schools,
and the first building which the subscribers
erected was a school-house. They had great
difficulty in procuring a teacher, being
generally told by those to whom they applied,
that they declined being shot by wild Irishmen.
They, at last, secured the services of
an able and enthusiastic Scotch schoolmaster,
who understands and can direct all country
work, and who finds not only his pupils apt
and docile, but his full grown neighbours
peaceable and friendly.

The chief burden of the success of the
experiment has devolved upon a hard-headed
Caledonian farm overseer, one James Carlaw,
who has not only the faculty of farming skilfully,
and making every one about him work
efficiently, but whose natural tact and
knowledge of human nature have made him
universally acceptable to his labourers, and
placed him on the highest terms with his
Catholic neighbours, including the priest.
Nor has this been effected by any compromise
of his stiff Presbyterian prejudices. He was
"awfully scandalised" by the "heathen
disregard of the Sabbath-day;" and
remonstrated with all and sundry on the
subject. With the caution of his race, he
left his family behind him, until by
personal residence among the "wild Irish," he
had assured himself that they were not so
wild as they were called. After due probation,
he imported his wife and five children to
Ballnglew, the whole hands on the farms
having travelled to their sea-port of