

NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 



CHAITKK IV. 



TIIK I MTK1) KINGDOM: lid \W PRODUCE, Ml 



\ MJH Mil I , A MM VI.. 



Halation between Baw Product- mul Industry Geological Condition* of 

 Mineral Produce Application of Principle* to Ireland- I: 

 n.it noted for Mineral* Pre-eminently Pastoral Vegetable Pro- 

 duce Natural Advantage* of Ireland European Analogue*. 



TIIK industrial occupations of the people of the United 



Kingdom have 1 11 pro\ed in the preceding pages to be 



ult of natural laws, and not of chance. The seats 

 of mining und of manufactures are determined by tho 

 Ini-iil miiiiTal deposits, Mul tho importance of tho one is 

 proportionate to tho richness of tho other especially 

 so in relation to iron and coal. (jivcn tho geological 

 character of tho rocks and soil, with tho physical distinc- 

 tions of highland, lowland, plain, and marsh, and thu 

 climatic phenomena, we may infer much of tho raw 

 produce, organic and inorganic. 



Tho mountain borders of Ireland give occupations to 

 labourers in mines and quarries, and copper and lead 

 are produced in the counties of Wicklow, Cork, and 

 Waterford. Iron is more widely dispersed, but for want 

 of coal is unprofitable to smelt. Peat is almost the 

 only fuel. Limestone is the principal rock of the 

 interior; statuary marble of fine quality is met with in 

 < lalway and Donegal, and granite in many parts. Never- 

 theless, Ireland is not noted for its minerals. The 

 special feature of its geology is the dreary expanse of 

 bog, occupying 3,000,000 acres, or a tenth of the central 

 plain of the kingdom. Tho great bog of Allen, once a 

 forest, spreads through four counties. These bogs are 

 considerably above the level of tho sea, and sometimes 

 very deep. They lie upon vast deposits of clay and 

 drift, which overspread the mountain limestone, and, in 

 steep im pervious embankments, form the confines of 

 stagnant reservoirs of saturated vegetable soil, unsafe 

 in places for tho smallest quadruped to walk upon. The 

 structure of the bogs indicates the proper method of 

 drainage, but notwithstanding a river system unusually 

 complete, little has been reclaimed; and, since bog eartti 

 is deficient in mineral constituents, it is doubtful if 

 vlrainage would ever repay, in produce, the cost of recla- 

 mation. Ireland is pastoral, and there appears no limit 

 to its dairy and grazing capabilities. Pastures cover two- 

 thirds of the country, and four-filths of the people depend 

 upon field labour. As a rule, however, the farming 

 is inferior, the tillage slovenly, and the implements rude. 

 The production of butter and provisions for export is, 

 nevertheless, prodigious. Salt beef, pork, bacon, lard, and 

 many millions of eggs, are consigned to England. Cork 

 has, virtually, the victualling of our navy. Waterford 

 dispatches abroad over 100,000 casks of butter yearly, and 

 slaughters every week an average of 5,000 swine, while 

 the quays, a mile long, swarm with live stock for em- 

 barkation. 



The eastern provinces are more flourishing than the 

 western. The Curragh of Kildare competes with the 

 English downs as a grazing-ground, and sheep have fed 

 for ages upon its sweet herbage. In the open country 

 corn intervenes between the breadths of potato, and 

 meal and milk are used for food. The fields smile with 

 the blue-flowered flax, which the cotters grow for their 

 families and weave in the hand-loom. The people of 

 these districts are of English or Scotch descent, and have 

 carried their native skill and thrift into the country of their 

 adoption. They command higher wages, and can pay 

 higher rents for less propitious soil, than the nat ivr Kr.-t"-. 



Ireland's resources arc, to a great extent, undeveloped. 

 With a coast-line of 2,000 miles, and inlets penetrating 

 the land from opposite coasts, with a matchless system 

 o rivers and lakes, the surface is a dissected map, every 



99 N.E. 



dividing line bi-ing a meanH of production or a facility for 

 trade. Tho ill-fated Lord Stratford, mon- than -J'N) yea 

 ago, saw how wdl th<; tlatm wintry and the 



slow flow of tho rivers suited inland communication, and 

 ho devised a great scheme of intersecting canals, as yet 

 but, | cirtially carried out. 



Oats hiivo in recent years become tho largest tilled 

 crop, while wheat has so increased as sometimes to leave 

 a surplus for exportation: nevertheless, tho humidity of 

 Ireland will ever render the harvests capricious. The 

 nat i v<; sheep was covered with a coarse hair, but by inter- 

 mixture with English breeds is now improved. The 

 production of wool is valuable and abundant, but the 

 manufacture is confined to coarso goods, and carried on 

 with insuflii ii nt capital. For cattle-rearing and dairy 

 produce, Ireland might be matchless. Her only European 

 analogues are Denmark* and the Netherlands, where the 

 prevalence of water shrouds tho plains with vapours, 

 which clear away before the summer winds, to reveal 

 meadows covered with kine. The quays and jetties of 

 tho Hanso Towns and tho Dutch ports resemble those 

 of Cork and Waterford, swarming with stock, and filled 

 to repletion with cheese and " provisions." While 

 Ireland has languished, however, and a fifth of her in- 

 habitants have disappeared, Denmark and the Nether- 

 lands, with disadvantages from which Ireland has never 

 suffered, have grown prosperous and opulent. 



CHAPTEE V. 



THE UNITED KINGDOM : GREAT BRITAIN RAW PRODUCE, 



MINERAL, VEGETABLE, ANIMAL. 



General Description Relation between Industrial and Geological 

 Features Mineral Produce of England and Scotland contrasted 

 British Mineral Produce compared with European Animal dud 

 Vegetable Produce of Great Britain Population. 



ENGLAND is more a mining and manufacturing than an 

 agricultural country, although the mineral region occupies 

 but a third of the surface. The mining and manufac- 

 turing industries of Scotland assumo larger proportions, 

 with a still more confined space for their operation. The 

 chief mineral products of Scotland, as in England, are 

 coal and iron, the beds of which, together with limestone 

 and sandstone, cover nearly a thousand square miles 

 lying south of a line joining the estuaries of the Clyde 

 and the Tay the densest, wealthiest, and most busy 

 part of the kingdom. Rich mines of lead, with which 

 a small quantity of silver is intermixed, are worked in 

 tho Lowther Hills. The Highlands ore deficient in 

 metals. The Grampians, especially, are as destitute of 

 ores as their summits are of vegetation. 



Tho most important quarries of granite are those of 

 Kircudbright and Aberdeen. Whole towns in Scotland 

 are granite-built, and with tho improvements in the 

 machinery for cutting and preparing this stone, its use 

 has greatly extended in England. Many of tho new 

 buildings which adorn London are decorated with 

 polished shafts and columns of coloured granites. Its 

 great weight prevents its more general adoption for 

 monumental and national designs. Monoliths of any 

 size are rare. Felt in the greatest depths and found in 

 the highest peaks, underlying tho ocean and overtop- 

 ping the cloud, unyielding in substance but variable in 

 I colour and in chemical constitution, this primeval rock 

 has sometimes been called a type of truth, and an em- 

 blem of the virtues, faith, hope, and charity. 



Roofing-slates, also, are extensively quarried in a few 

 parts of Scotland. 



" When the plains of Germany are brown and ashy with the sum- 

 mer beat, the isles of Denmark delight the eye with a fresh bright 

 green, and as truly deserre the title of Emerald Isles as our sister 

 kingdom. Vegetation is everywhere luxuriant, and long retains a 

 vernal, appearance, owing to the humidity of the atmosphere and of 

 the soil." Milntr't " JBa'lic," p. 82. 



