THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



PRACTICAL REMARKS AND HINTS ON IRISH AGRICULTURE, 

 BY A PRACTICAL FARMER. 



At the meeting of the North Kerry FarmiDg Society, 

 Mr. Christy, a Scotch farmer, who has made Ireland his 

 home, said : " I cau bear teatimouy to the vast icuprovement 

 that has taken place in the stock and the general show since I 

 had the hoaour of actiag as judge this time two years. In- 

 deed, the improvement which has taken place is beyond all 

 credit, especially in the tenant farmers' classes. When I came 

 amongst you before, I fully expected to see some first-class 

 stock in the gentlemen's classes, as I knew that Mr. Crosbie 

 and Mr. Sandes had long been introducing some firat-class 

 animals into the county. But ou that occasion your tenant 

 farmers completely surprised me, and I warned the gentlemen 

 that if they did not bestir themselves the tenant farmers 

 would completely outdo them, and, I am happy to say, that, 

 from the stock they exhibited to-day, they have fully borne 

 out the high opinion I then had of them. I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that the tenant farmers' stock were the bast 

 brought out to-day. They cannot, of course, afford to lay out 

 the sums of money necessary now to secure first-class short- 

 horns. But if they will but steadily go on breeding from 

 pure-bred bulls (as not using pure-bred bulla I look upon as 

 the root of all evil in breeding), I feel sure they will in a very 

 short time leave the landlords in the back ground. In looking 

 at things in a general view, I believe there is not a county has 

 done more to improve its agriculture within the last ten years 

 than this. At one time to be a Kerry farmer, or to be called 

 a Kerry farmer, would be considered a stigma ; but if you go 

 on as you have done these few years past, it will soon be the 

 highest appellation that can be bestowed on an Irish farmer. 

 There can be no doubt but that the capabilities of this as a 

 butter-producing and green-crop-growiug county are very 

 great, and that you have been developing its resources in this 

 respect is evident. But there is one point in your general 

 management which has struck me, and which I cannot but re- 

 mark, viz., the great portion of your best grass land you keep 

 for meadow, and the total absence of clover. This I look upon 

 as your great drawback, as I hold that any farm (that is, at 

 least, any farm over 50 Irish acres in extent), with the aid of 

 turnips, oat-straw, and clover-hay, can supply itself with suffi- 

 cient wmter keep. This will at once bring us to look for a ge- 

 neral system of improved mixed husbandry, which, doubtless, 

 in any country ,take3 time to accomplish, but which, had we 

 once thoroughly established it in this country, I have no hesi- 

 tation ill saying, would place Irish agriculture the foremost in 

 the world, especially in the breeding, rearing, and fattening 

 of slock. Indeed, the advances we are making in this respect are 

 being invariably admitted. The gentlemen who come from 

 England and Scotland to our leading agricultural shows are 

 continually telling us we bid fair to rival the famed land of the 

 ahort-horns itself. When we add to this the reiterated 

 opinion of that best and most energetic friend of the short- 

 horn, Mr. Strafford, that Ireland is the best-adapted country in 

 the world for the propagation and improvement of that most 

 noble breed, and when we take into consideration the fact that 

 we have in this country some of the very best tribes of them, 

 I think it is not going too far to say we bid fair to be the first 

 breeding country in the world. You must not understand that 

 I consider the natural advantages we possess of soil and cli- 

 mate are of themselves sufficient to ennble us to go through 



the English and Scotch show-yards with flying colours now; 

 for the parent stock of the short-horns are in England, and 

 in the hands of men who bestow a degree of care and atten- 

 tion on them that, even had they a far more ungenial clime 

 and soil than that of England to contend with, would still 

 prove competitors that no ordinary exertions could overcome. 

 But, taking us as a breeding country, from Cape Clear to 

 the Causeway, we will give th?m somcthiiig to do to keep 

 pace with us. The truth of this was never so forcibly 

 brought to my mind as ou reading an article about this time 

 twelve months in the Mark-Lane Express, complaining of the 

 still unimproved state of the stock in many of the backward 

 English districts, and comparing this with the vast improve- 

 ment which has taken place within the last ten years in the 

 large lots of Irish stock which have been daily imported to the 

 El rglish markets ; thus bearing ample testimony to the im- 

 provement we are making in rhis respect. We must not, 

 however, rest satisfied here : little has been done to what still 

 may be done, and it is the landlords of the country who can 

 now make the great advance in this particular. This reminds 

 me of one thing that struck me in your show-yard to-day. 

 Though it may, perhaps, be presumptuous on my part to 

 offer any remarks as to the premiums you offer, still I take 

 the liberty to suggest that where you make three classes of 

 your farmers, I think, at least in the third class, the money 

 given for bulls would be far better applied by increasing the 

 premium for their cows and heifers, and let the landlords sup- 

 ply them with bulls. Because it is impossible for those far- 

 mers to lay out capital to supply a pure-bred beast ; and I hold 

 that no landlord can confer a greater benefit on his tenants, 

 and do himself more good, than by bringing into the country 

 pure-bred su-es of every class and stock, and letting them have 

 the free use of them. And I consider it is the landlord's duty 

 to do this, as in many cases the tenements are too small to 

 admit of the tenant laying out the capital necessary to secure 

 a first-class animal. When we take into consideration that 

 the benefit which the landlord could thus so essentially con'er 

 would be of such vast importance to the tenants, I think it is 

 not going too far to say it is his duty to do so. The increased 

 demand that would thus arise at home for pure-bred animals 

 would bring our breeders iu a far better condition to bear 

 comparison with English and Scotch ones, whilst the general 

 improvement and superiority of our stock could not but strike 

 every visitor to our shows. Who can say but, with a few 

 years' steady improvement in this respect, we may be able to 

 share the lucrative trade which the English breeders are now 

 enjoying at the foreign markets ? The advantages that 

 might thus accrue are but nominal, a mere drop in the bucket, 

 to those that would be sure to arise from the great imjirovej 

 uient of our general stock, and the much greater weight cf 

 beef and butter it would enable us to send into the English 

 market, even in the very same number of animals. But to 

 make the country tell to the full extent, much has to be done. 

 Our whole system of agriculture must be remodelled. We 

 must adopt those systems of cropping which would enable us 

 to grow the greater amount of green crops. Much of our 

 land must be so managed as to carry large herds of dairy- 

 cows, stores, or fattening stock. The due proportion of tillage 

 must be so arranged as to afford the greatest possible amount 



