BALLINA CHRONICLE Ballina, Mayo, Ireland Wednesday, May 15, 1850 REMITTANCES FROM AMERICA - We have been favoured says the Advocate, with a list of the persons to whom remittances have been sent from America within the last eighteen months in the parish of Ballinahill, county of Galway; and we find that from forty-eight persons no less a sum, than £686 has been transmitted to this country during that period, two-thirds of them also being labourers or servants. These remittances have been chiefly to the mothers and sisters of emigrants, and sometimes to their wives and families to bear the expense of outfit and passage to the New World. INTERESTING TO EMIGRANTS The arrival of each American mail conduces more to stimulate the farming classes of this country to emigrate by the cheering accounts of prosperity and contentment, with numerous money orders from friends abroad, encouraging their relatives to quit their native country. A letter from a settler in Wisconsin, only 12 months out out, states - "I am exceedingly well pleased at coming to this land of plenty- on arrival I purchased 120 acres of land at 51 dollars an acre, there being 20 acres of it clear, and a beautiful home, with spring well, on the farm. Since then I cleared 30 acres more, and should God spare me life, in another 12 month I will have it all cleared. You must bear in mind that I purchased the land out and it is to me as mine an "estate for ever"- without a landlord, an agent, or tax gatherer to bother me. I would advise all my friends to quit Ireland- the country most dear to me- as long as they remain in it, they will be in bondage and misery. Here every man is his own master- what you labour for is sweetened by contentment and happiness- there is no failure in the potato crop, and you can grow Indian corn, and every crop you wish, without measuring the land during life! You need not mind feeding pigs, but let them into the woods and they will feed themselves until you want to make bacon of them. I shudder when I think that starvation prevails to such an extent in poor Ireland. After supplying the entire population of America, there would still be as much corn and provisions left, as would supply the world, for there is no limit to cultivation, or end to land. Here the meanest labourer has beef and mutton, with bread, bacon, tea, coffee, sugar, and even pies, the whole year round- every day here is as good as Christmas day in Ireland. Cathy Joynt Labath Ireland Old News http://www.IrelandOldNews.com/