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TURF IN IRELAND.ft« Cutting and Selling—Rop* Mkbtar-Ch«ktlnf-Th« Lucky (latlMKi.hi la i uniIn the county of Kerry In Ireland anfor the privilege of cutting a strip ofturf 9 feet lonsr, 3 feet wide, and fromV? a de, A*Irishman pays 25 cents to the landlord6 to 9 feet in 'depth. He cuts the turf In the summer months, so that it will dry out during the hot weather. It ie cut with a * narrow spade, called inGaelic a “slan.” When out the turf is piled in little heaps, so that the moisture will evaporate These heaps of turf have to oe turned usually three times before the fuel is dry enough to be carted away and piled into ricks. As a rule, after drying, the turf must be carted from four to six miles to the borne of the peasant. This is done with the aid of donkeys and horses. Turf is measured by what are technically called “rails.” This word indicates a donkey or horso load. The load is held in place on the cart by means of wooden frames, set into mortises on the sides and ends of the cart. The turf is piled to a cone on top of the cart, and is held in place by “sug-ganns.” A suggann is a rope made .of straw. These ropes are also used in some parts of Ireland to hold thatch in place.It is interesting to watch the process of straw rope making. One man sits on the lloor of a cottage with several bundles of straw by his side. He picks up a good-sized wisp of straw and makes a loop by bending it in the middle. This loop he hitches over the end of a piece of hawthorn, shaped like a tish hook, and with a shank six feet long. A piece of string is tied across rom the barb of the hook to the shank, nd in the corner thus made near the arb the loop of straw is hitched. Another man holds the end of the hawthorn stick. He walks backward, slowly turning the stick. Meanwhile the man who is seated keeps twisting in more straw. In the course of live minutes a suggann thirty feet long is thus made. .As the market is always from four to ten miles distant, the cart is loaded on the evening previous to the journey. The start is made very early in the morning. This is particularly needful in the case of the donkey, as his utmostWspeed is three miles an hour. There is no pressing need to be at the marketbefore 12 o’clock,as in the smaller Irish ; towns ver}’ little business is transacted before that hour. Occasionally Paddy indulges in tricks when loading his cart. lie corn cobs his load in the middle, so that while on the outside it looks to be a good, solid load, on the inside there are a good many vacant spaces. Sometimes the cart is driven by the wife of the Irishman or hisdaughter. If it happens to be thedaughter she almost invariably ties up her shoes and stockings in a piece of paper and hides the bundle in the load until she arrives within one mile of the market town, when she stops the don- j kev.sits on a stone bv the roadside,and40 0 r Iputs on her shoes and stocking^. On the homeward journey, after having disposed of the load and walked aroundthe town with the proud consciousness of being the owner and wearer of a pair of shoes, she takes off her shoes and stockings again and walks home barefooted as she came. This is Jrish economy. A story is told in Tralee to the effect that after a colleen had removed her shoes on the wav homeward—she stubbed her toe. As she sat by the roadside erying from pain and trying to stanch the llovv of blood she exclaimed:“Ain’t it lucky I didn't have on me tfkoes. Shure they’d be bruk iutirely Fid that welt!”
Newspaper Details
Paradise Messenger
Paradise, Texas, US
Sat, Aug 02, 1890
Page 3
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Elizabeth B.
TX, USA 01 Feb 2022
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