The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-06-05
TURF IN IRELAND.
Its Cutting and Selling-Rope Making
Cheating-The Lucky Colleen.

In the county of Kerry in Ireland an
Irishman pays % cents to the landlord
for the privilege of cutting a strip OF
turf 9 feet long. 3 feet wide, and from
to feet in depth. He cuts the turf
in the summer months, SO that it will
dry out during the hot weather. 1t is
cut with Il narrow spade, called IN
Gaelic Sian" When cut the turf IS
piled in little heaps, so that the moist
ure will eyaporate These heaps OF
turf have to be turned usually three
times before the fuel is dry enough to
be carried away and piled into ricks.
As a rule, after drying, the turf must
be carried from four to six miles to the
home of the peasant. This is done
with the aid of donkeys and horses.
Turf is measured by what are techni-
calIv called rails This word indi-
Gates donkey or horse load. The
load is held in place on the cart by
means of wooden frames, set into NOR
tises 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-
GAINS" A suggann is a rope made of
straw. These ropes are also used in
some parts of Ireland to hold thatch in
place.
1t is interesting to watch the process
of straw rope making. One man sits
on the floor of cottage with several
bundles OF straw by bis side. He picks
up Il good-sized wisp of straw and
makes Il loop by bending it in the mid
de. This loop he bitches over the end
Of Il piece of hawthorn, shaped like Il
fish hook and with Il shank six feet
long. \ piece of string is tied across
from The barb of the hook to the shank.
and in the corner thus made near the
barb 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 five
minutes Il suggann thirty feet long is
thus made.
A. the market is always from four TO
ten miles distant, the cart is loaded on
The evening prey ions TO the journey.
The START is made very early in the
morning. This is particularly needful
in the ease uf the donkey. rs his utmost
speed is three miles an hour. There
is no pressing need to be at the market
before l. o'clock, rs in the smaller Irish
towns very little business is transacted
before that hour. Occasionally Paddy
INDUCES in tricks when loading his
cart He corn cobs his load in the
middle, so that while on the outside it
looks to be 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 his
daughter. If it happens TO be the
daughter she almost invariably ties up
her shoes and stockings in piece of
paper and hides the bundle in the load
until she arrives within one mile of the
market town, when she stops the dom
key, sits on stone by the roadside, and
puts on her shoes and stockings. On
the homeward journey, after having
disposed of the load and walked around
the 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 us she came. This is Irish
economy. A story is told in Tralee to
the effect that after colleen had re-
moved her shoes on the way homeward
she stubbed her toe. As she sat by the
roadside crying from pain and trying
to stanch the flow of blood she eX-
claimed:
Amt it lucky l didn't have on re
shoes. Shure they'd be bruk intirely
wild that weltr'