CLARE, a county of Ireland, in the province of Mun ster, bounded to the south and east by the Shannon, which divides it from the counties of Tipperary, Limerick, and Kerry ; on the west by the Atlantic ocean ; and on the north by the county of Galway. It extends from north to south 33 English miles, from east to west 66, and its superficial measurement is about 1195 square miles. The sea-coast by which this county is bordered, consists of a chain of basaltic rocks. Towards the centre of it is an arm of the sea, or rather of the Shannon, known by the name of the Fergus river. It is remarkably bare of wood, and abounds so much with limestone, that whole tracts are entirely beds of it, the surface even having the ap pearance of a mass of stone.
The soil in this county is of various quality, some be ing of the nature of fattening and meadow ground, other parts consisting of light limestone pasture fit for rearing sheep and young cattle, and there is a great deal of ara ble land ; likewise extensive bogs, and some mountain land. Mr Young states that the Coreasses, a tract of ground consisting of about 20,000 acres, which extend along the Fergus and the Shannon, are peculiarly adapt ed to the fattening of bullocks, and that at the time he travelled there, 4000 were annually fattened on them. At present, also, the store-cattle of Clare are more numerous than in any of the adjoining counties. Mr Young de scribes the soil of the Corcasses as either a rich black loam, or a deep rich blue clay. The higher lands are chiefly limestone, or limestone gravel. The bogs in the county afford a valuable supply of fuel. Those particu larly near the Shannon yield a handsome return to the proprietors, by furnishing this article for the Limerick market. The worst grounds in the county are the eas tern mountains, the peninsula north of the Shannon, and the barony of Burren. Even this last, however, by the luxuriant pasturage interspersed among the seemingly barren hills, affords support to great numbers of cattle and sheep ; and the rocks themselves are limestone. The
rent of the green land, without including the Corcasscs, has been averaged at a guinea and a half per acre. The latter are let so high as from 3 to 5 guineas per acre.
The kind of grain chiefly cultivated in the county of Clare, and indeed in the whole of the surrounding dis trict, is oats ; and the establishment in this quarter of who ship that grain for Scotland, has indu ccd the farmers to sow with it many acres in these parts, which would otherwise have been covered only with sour grass. Indeed a large portion of the tillage this coun ty, especially that on the sides of mountains, or amongst rocks, is performed by the spade, the unevenness of the surface, as well as often the circumstances of the culti vator, not admitting of the use of a ploug-h and horses.
i Rape is sown here in considerable quantity on the moun tain or boggy grounds. Some of the seed which is the produce is pressed into oil at mills near Killaloc, and the rape cakes are sent to England for manure. For the most part, however, the rape seed is sent thither in its original state, and it is there pressed, for the use of the woollen manufacturers in Yorkshire. Beans•were formerly grown here in large quantities, but since they have ceased to be used for bread by the peasantry, the cultivation of them has been laid aside. Flax is sown, but not extensively, for home consumption. In the preparation of the ground for some of the crops, chiefly rape and potatoes, the prac tice of paring and burning, though illegal, and though much discountenanced by landlords, is still retained in this county, as well as in other parts of Ireland, especially where the ground is coarse, and in a little improved state. Some attempts have also been made towards increasing the value of the bogs in the county by means of irriga tion, which has the effect of converting them into good meadow land.