THE CLIMATE OF IRELAND. 265 



farms. When they have got it, they often let it 

 run the whole winter over one spot, which is thus 

 made into a morass, especially as the cattle are 

 seldom kept out of the field. The opportunities of 

 making regular water meadows are very frequent, 

 and will be made use of more and more. I have 

 found a dressing of five or ten cwt. of bones per 

 acre on water meadows greatly to thicken the grass 

 and improve the quality of the hay. They are applied 

 as soon as the hay is off, so as to be well trodden 

 in by the stock eating the after-grass, and avoid 

 risk of the water washing them away when the 

 meadow is flooded in autumn. I believe they pay 

 well every few years, as often as the hay shows 

 any signs of becoming inferior. My theory, I know 

 not how correct, is that the water must contain the 

 other food of grass in larger proportion than phos- 

 phates. The bones thus make up all that is wanted. 

 The course on my own farm, which has been 

 arrived at simply from experience and the pressure 

 of facts, will, I think, show what we are coming to. 

 For nearly twenty years the course, instead of a 

 regular rotation, has been to choose fifty or sixty 

 acres of the worst grass on the farm each year for 

 ploughing. Most of this is sown with lea oats ; but 

 if the land is very poor, no oats are taken, and then 

 it is ploughed with two ploughs following each 

 other, one skimming the grass as lightly as possible, 

 the other turning a good furrow of earth over it. 



