262 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



certain that any phosphates of which the soil is 

 deprived by milk or grazing can be thus restored at 

 small cost ; and it is also certain that there are 

 many intelligent men in Ireland, ready to try Mr. 

 Thompson's prescription, and all other suggestions 

 for keeping up the condition of .grass land. 



The conclusion I wish to draw from the facts 

 and considerations I have stated is, that Ireland, 

 notably the South and West, is from its climate 

 a land of grass, and that for farming profitably in 

 Ireland grass should be the first object, and tillage 

 only so far as it helps the grass. I believe this is 

 what all our best farmers are, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, working to. Mr. Pringle's strictures on the 

 fault of much of our Irish grass-farming are gener- 

 ally quite true, and the remedy he proposes is in a 

 measure good, but only in a measure not as an 

 end, but as a means to better grass. In truth our 

 grass privileges (as an American might call them) 

 are very great. Farmers, who know their business, 

 are doing excellently. It is sometimes said that 

 landowners farming their own land in Ireland lose 

 by it. Never was there a greater delusion. The 

 profit on grass-farming makes it all easy, whatever 

 scale a landlord farms on ; much easier than in a 

 country fit for tillage alone. Numbers of us are 

 making more than double the rent we used to get 

 for the land, when let to tenants, and three times 

 the present valuation of the land. 



