the best homes and halts the world over, will be entirely Irish. It is reckoned that one girl in this Industry will work up in a year the wool of 225 sheep. Thus, when the number Of girls employed grows to i,000-the matter it is expected of a very few years-it would mean the con- :::umption of the fleeces of over 10,000 score of sheep annually, and a sum divided 1among the sheep-farmers of something like £15,000. Again, for the spinning, dyeing, and weaving of this wool, the families of those farmers or ::mall holders would earn in wages from £20,000 to £30,000, making a total of perhaps £40,000 circulated annually among the inhabitants of tho3e Donegal hills. So far as one can judge, the scheme is both feasible and eminently practicable. Confining their efforts entirely to Donegal at fint, the promoters are building a place at Killybegs to accommodate over 400 workers, this quantity being availab:e within a radius of two miles from the village. Having an ideal harbour, ,as well as a branch of the Donegal Railway, Killybegs is meant to be the centre depot, where all wool .will be collected, and spinning and dyeing done for the entire Industry. Other branches, for weaving only, will be made ,at villages such as Kilcar, Ardara,. Glenties, &c., and the products collected to the central depot for finishing and despatch. For more . scattered and outlying parts wher~ ·girls could not walk morning''and evening to a factory, a simple device has been invented whereby, after the girls have learned the art, they cati take the frame-loom to thelt homes, and weave the quaintlydesigned rugs or Ta-pestry panels in their houses, or as they watch the sheep on the hillsides. "We are sure all wish success to this estimable and highly interesting enterprise. Those who have seen the Doneg-al Carpets must agre~ that they need to depend on no "Support-Home-Industries" sentiment for trade. The e'.'loice touch of art in the design and colouring are the same that have already won for the promoters ·;a world-wide reputation, and with the .sound quality of the texture, we have little doubt that the Irish Hand-made fabrics will soon bulk largely in the markets of the world. Already .Carpets· have been made at Killybegs for some of the highest Decorative_ Art Critics in England and America, and work is at present going on for important public buildings. Now that the succ.ess of such a scheme has been established, it is to be hoped ot;hers · will take advantage of this hitherto almost unrecognised vein of wealth in our \Vestern Highlands. For by using the latent intelligence and activity of a people to convert the raw products of the hills into articles of high i11terchangeable value, they will link them to an outside world that can give in return comforts which the most slavish drudgery on bog could never approach. The wits of the people it is, after a11, that form the real wealth o{ the hills, and if these can be propeily :·it~pped" things undreamt of ·\lipl · diiubtless spring up. Freed from the.· rude struggle for existence, and amid those inspiring hills, the inherent
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