THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



315 



really feels to have the power to give some better notions 

 of managing land than is here practised. Stay a bit ; 

 here are some large fields of grass, better grazed and 

 managed ; but no, some baggy land to the right again 

 appears, not much under tillage ; country and farming 

 much better ; capital herds of cattle for Ireland. We 

 are now on a single line of rail, broad-gauge generally. 

 Much cattle grazed. Now again in a better district, 

 and very well farmed. Now meet with flux, the first I 

 have seen in culture on this line. Reach Dunleer. It 

 appears to be the precise time for haymaking, all being 

 in the very midst of the season : the potato crops look 

 unpromising ; soil good. How do they manage to get 

 their hay together without forks or rakes, or neurly so ? 

 By arms and hands. Fine country now; small hold- 

 ings; crops indifferent all the way from the past station, 

 and fuither. 



We are now at Castlebelliugham. We pass on. The 

 crops now give evidence of better farming ; all looks to 

 be better done. But we soon leave it, and complain again ; 

 no good oats ; work slovenly done ; stock black Irish 

 down here all along the route ; all poor, poor. On, 

 on ! not better. Now a nice park to our right, and an 

 old tower ; and, what is better, we find larger fields, 

 much better farmed and grazed where it is to be found, 

 and also larger farms, equally well done. 



Now reach Dundalk. The country is undulating, and 

 of a very useful agricultural character. Notice a capital 

 union-house, and a singular-looking building on our 

 right appears to be an infirmary or charitable institu- 

 tion ; larger farms with gates off line, of singular radial 

 make, and regular appointments. Now pass a high hill 

 or mountain at some distance on our right ; the radial 

 gates all along ; sad villages, cottages they can scarcely 

 be called, not fit for humanity ; stone cropping out now ; 

 queer-looking stone walls, but not high ; poor land and 

 poorly ordered, boggy and wretched, still very poor ; 

 abrupt and rather steep rugged dales or uncouth ravines, 

 but not high, 



Inniskeen : Now pass cabins — cabins, but such 

 cabins — narrow gullies, and watercourses, the borders 

 all under some kind of farm management, but rude in 

 the extreme; passing now along a very picturesque 

 stream; no stock anywhere. We go on and on, and 

 find worse and worse. Now most desolate and dreary, 

 have not seen its counterpart in my travels for country 

 and dwellings ; reminds me of some parts of Westmore- 

 land, where the nooks and occasional flat plots on the 

 mountain sides receive a kind of cuHure, There is a 

 degree of reclamation of the soil attempted almost every- 

 where, as we observe on passing, but it is without judg- 

 ment, and the crops, such as they are, are in a most 

 foul and unsatisfactory state. Many spots, if drained 

 and cleaned, would yield a good return ; but the idea of 

 draining or road-making in this part of the country is 

 certainly yet in its infancy. Nasty, dirty, slovenly 

 homesteads. We still go on ; now water and bog, bog 

 and water ; hay very thin ; more weeds. Now we come 

 to somewhat better doings ; better and better. Reach 

 Castleblaney : better potatoes and fair flax crops ; again 

 all poor, and likely to be; tiax, potatoes ; no drainage; 



bogs deep ; pass a good place to the left amongst this 

 sheer desolation. 



Ballybay : All bad, bad ; flax, flax ; ditto, ditto ; plot 

 after plot, and none good. Evidently all small holdings, 

 say from three to five acres each, apparently all on the 

 limestone rock. The land, when tired of cropping, 

 appears to rest itself ; I see no signs of laying down 

 anywhere. Potatoes here, as elsewhere, are nearly all 

 cultivated upon the lazy-bed system, i. e., little stetches 

 set and covered by the soil from a trench dug along the 

 whole length, and scattered over the stetch : all looks 

 uncomfortable. 



Monagbau-road Station: Pass numbers of miniature 

 lakes or meres ; plots of flax everywhere — bad, bad ; 

 more, and still more, but not one fair crop to be seen. 

 This must be very unprofitable cultivation. We soon 

 reach a better country, broad and open, forming a good 

 agricultural district under proper culture. But these 

 four and five acre holdings, how are they to be farmed ? 

 It can only be in accordance with cottage husbandry, 

 upon its best principles ; and much may in this way be 

 effected, with care, economy, and industry. I shall try 

 and help, if possible. Much good arises from discus- 

 sion and public remarks upon failures here, and bad ma- 

 nagement there, I will try and engage the press to lend 

 its all-powerful aid. But I forget that at this time, 

 Aug. 12, all are here fully engaged in mowing, hay- 

 making, and the like ; matters of business almost for- 

 gotten, for this season, in England. How is all this ? 

 Now in an improving district. Flax better. Nearly all 

 three to four acre holdings, each having a plot of flax 

 growing, or, rather, pulled from them. Country fair; 

 but such little plots. Bad cabins— cottages ? No, no ! 

 Now reach Newbliss Station. Still mowing grass and 

 making hay. How very backward ! All potatoes in 

 the district fair, but failing; badly managed. Pass 

 now some very pretty spots or residences in a good 

 country ; some beautiful scenery in dell and valley cha- 

 racter, but boggy. Pass a canal — some choice scenery. 

 Mowing, as usual. Arrive at Clones, a very pretty and 

 undulating district. For once, see some nice cottages — 

 gardens cultivated and fenced. The country for a con- 

 siderable distance appears to partake much of Leicester- 

 shire scenery and character of soil. All might be made 

 available for the best cultivation, and profitable; grain 

 upon seed-shift rotations. Pass a large bog—" Irish 

 bog'' — the mound for scores of acres twenty feet thick. 

 Potatoes everywhere. Another bog, about ten feet 

 thick. Pass a well-stocked fruit-orchard, an unusual 

 thing along the route. The country now is more even, 

 but has nice undulations, and soil rather heavier. We 

 could easily imagine some beautiful farms might be 

 made in this country — but those interminable small 

 holdings ! Well, we doubt not but that these small 

 occupiers, when properly instructed as to their best in- 

 terests, will make much of them. We do not propose 

 to make large farms out of these holdings. 



We are now at Newtown-Butler. What foul grass land, 

 and in such a country as we have passed ! What a shame ! 

 Ragwort, scabious, thistles, and other wc eds in great and 

 interesting variety. Passing on, we find the country 



