Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-23
IN IRELAND.
Digging Turf for Fuel and Ca--ying 1t to
the Market

In the county of Kerry in Ireland q
man pays % cents to the landlord for
the privilege of cutting strip of turf
nine feet long three feet wide and
from six to nine feet in depth, says a
letter from the Green isle. He cuts
the turf in the summer months, so
that it will dry during the hot weather.
! 1t is cut with Il narrow spade, called in
Gaelic ''slan." When cut the turf is
piled in little heaps so that the moist
ure will evaporate. 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 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. If
the peasant happens to be Spectator,
he carts the turf into Tralee or some
other market town and sells it. Turf
is measured by what are technically
called rails This word indicates a
donkey or horse 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 cone on top of the
cart, and held in place by ''sugganns."
A suggann is a rope made of straw.
These ropes are also used in some parts
of Ireland to hold the thatch in place
1t is interesting to watch the process
of straw-rope making. One man sits
on the floor Of a cottage with several
bundles of straw by his side. He picks
up a good-sized wisp of straw and
makes loop by bending it in the
middle. This loop he bitches over
the end of a piece of hawthorn shaped
like fish-hook and with a shank six
feet long. A 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. Mean
while the man who is seated keeps
twisting in more straw. In the course
of five minutes a suggann thirty feet
long is thus made.
As the market is always from four
to ten miles distant the cart is loaded
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 ut
most speed is three miles an hour.
There is no pressing need to be at the
market before II o'clock, as in the
smaller Irish towns very little business
is transacted before that hour. Occa-
sionally the peasant INDUCES in tricks
when loading his cart He corncobs
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
peasant or his daughter. If it hap
pens to be the daughter she almost
Invariably ties up her shoes and stock
ings in piece of paper, and hides the
bundle until within mile of the mar
ket town, when she stops the donkey,
sits on a 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
pair of shoes, she takes off her shoes
and stockings again and walks home
barefOOted, as she came.
A stor}' is told in Tralee to the effect
that after colleen had removed her
shoes on the way homeward she stubbed
her toe. As she sat by the roadside cry
ing from pain and trying to stanch the
flow Of blood, she eXclaimed:
Amt it lucky didn't have on me
shoes. Shure they be bruk intirely
wild that Weltr