IRELAND (AGRICULTURE.) 



125 



the ground at the end is generally full of weeds. 

 Trenching land is very general ; they form it into 

 beds, and shovel out a deep trench between them, 

 throwing up the earth. Wheat is not by any means 

 generally cultivated. The Irish wheat is, for the 

 most part, coarse and of inferior quality, and does 

 not yield so much saccharine matter by twenty per 

 cent, as the English. Barley is more generally 

 cultivated in Ireland than wheat, and is generally 

 sown after potatoes. Oats, however, constitute the 

 species of grain which is most extensively raised; 

 it is calculated that, throughout the whole kingdom, 

 there are ten acres of oats sown for one of any 

 other species of corn. The Irish oats, however, are 

 decidedly inferior to the English. The potatoes of 

 Ireland have long been celebrated, both on account 

 of their quantity and excellent qualities; they are 

 cultivated on every species of soil, either in drills or 

 lazy beds. 



The dairy is the most extensive and the best 

 managed part of Irish husbandry. Kerry, Cork, 

 Waterford, Carlow, Meath, Westmeath, Longford, 

 and Fermanagh, as well as the mountains of Leitrim 

 and Sligo, are principally occupied by dairy farms. 

 Butter is the chief produce. The average number 

 of cows on a dairy farm amounts to thirty or forty ; 

 three acres of land, of middling quality, are deemed 

 necessary for the subsistence of each cow. A cow 

 produces on an average eight quarts in twenty-four 

 hours in summer, and five in winter ; four good 

 milkers will yield a quarter of a cwt. of butter in a 

 week. The best butter is made in Carlow ; the 

 worst in Limerick and Meath. Generally speaking, 

 the Irish are very cleanly in making this article : 

 and it is exported to England, the East and West 

 Indies, and Portugal. The art of salting butter, 

 Chaptal observes, is better known in Ireland than in 

 any other country. The grazing of Ireland is not, as 

 in England, a part of the regular rotation of crops, 

 but is carried on in a country exclusively devoted to 

 the breeding of cattle, like the highlands of Scot- 

 land. Great tracts of the country also are devoted to 

 the grazing of sheep. Roscommon, Galway, Clare, 

 Limerick, and Tipperary are the chief breeding 

 counties for sheep ; and Galway, Clare, Roscommon, 

 Tipperary, and Meath are the places where they are 

 fattened. The sheep are of the long-wooled kind, 

 and very large : they are never kept in sheep-folds, 

 and hardly ever fed on turnips ; which is chiefly 

 owing to the very limited demand for mutton among 

 the labouring people. 



Ireland is divided, by Wakefield, into nine agricul- 

 tural districts, in each of which the mode of culture 

 is somewhat different from what it is in the others. 



The first district comprehends the flat parts of An- 

 trim, the eastern side of Tyrone, Down, Armagh, 

 Monaghan, and Cavan, Throughout this district, 

 the farms are extremely small, and the land is gene- 

 rally dug with a spade. Potatoes, flax, and oats are 

 the crops usually cultivated, and these are grown till 

 the land is exhausted, and suffered to " lie at rest," 

 as they term it, till its strength is recruited by the 

 cow, the goat, two or three sheep, and the poultry 

 lying upon it for some years. The ploughs used in 

 this district are of the rudest structure, and perform 

 their work in the most slovenly manner. Three or 

 four neighbours unite their strength to each plough, 

 every one bringing his horse, his bullock, or his cow. 

 All the other operations of agriculture are performed 

 in an equally slovenly manner. The little wheat that 

 is raised is "lashed," as they call it; that is, the 

 grain is knocked out by striking the sheaf across a 

 beam placed above a cloth : it is, however, after- 

 wards threshed witli a flail. The operation of thresh- 

 ing usually takes place in the highway, and it is 



dressed by letting it fall from a kind of sieve, which, 

 during a pretty strong wind, is held breast-high by a 

 woman. Many cotters in this district have a cabin 

 with no land attached to it. They hire an acre or 

 two, for grass or potato land, from some cotter in 

 their vicinity. The custom of hiring labourers is un- 

 known The neighbours all assist each other in their 

 more considerable occupations, such as sowing and 

 reaping. The dwellings here are miserably small , 

 often too small to contain the numerous families that 

 issue from their doors. Land is every where divided 

 into the most minute portions. 



Under the second district may be comprised the 

 northern part of Antrim, Londonderry, the north and 

 west of Tyrone, and the whole of Donegal. Agri- 

 culture here is in a worse state than in the preceding 

 district. There is no clover, and hardly any wheat. 



The third district comprehends the northern parts 

 of Fermanagh. Here the farms are much larger 

 than in the former, and the agricultural system pur- 

 sued far superior. They plant potatoes on a lea, 

 twice reversing the lands ; and flax, oats, and weeds 

 constitute the course. Some wheat is grown, but 

 oats still form the prevalent crop. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Enniskillen, the farmers are so rich as to be 

 able to eat butcher's meat daily, and drink smuggled 

 wine. 



The fourth district comprehends Sligo, Mayo, Gal- 

 way, Clare, and parts of Roscommon and Longford. 

 In some parts of this district the spade culture is pur- 

 sued ; but, in general, the land is cultivated by a 

 plough drawn by four horses abreast. In Roscom- 

 mon, the old custom of yoking the horses by the tail 

 is still continued ; although, as early as 1 634, an act 

 of parliament was passed against this absurd practice. 

 Oats are chiefly raised in this district, and, along the 

 coast, barley is cultivated. A large portion of the 

 rent depends on the illegal distilleries, and much of 

 the district is let on lease to several persons jointly, 

 according to the village system. 



In the fifth district, which comprehends Limerick, 

 Kerry, the south side and northern part of Cork, and 

 the county of Waterford, cultivation is in a very rude 

 state ; little corn is grown here, with the exception 

 of the southern part of Cork. Land is extremely 

 divided, and the farms very small. The greater part 

 is a grazing country. 



The sixth district includes the southern parts of 

 Cork. The spade culture is here almost universal, 

 and the farms unusually small. Hogs constitute the 

 main support of the poor. 



The seventh district includes part of Tipperary, 

 with Queen's county and King's county. The best 

 farming in Ireland is observable in this district ; a 

 systematic course of husbandry being pursued, by 

 which the land is kept in good heart. Oxen and 

 horses are used in the plough, and hedgerows and 

 good wheat fallows are to be seen. Near Roscrea 

 the cultivation of turnips is followed, and they suc- 

 ceed well. Ninety acres are considered a large farm. 

 Leases are generally for three lives. 



The eighth district comprises Wexford and a part 

 of Wicklow. Beans are here sometimes introduced 

 into cultivation, but they are sown broadcast, and 

 never hoed. The mode of ploughing is very awk- 

 ward : one man holds the plough, another leads the 

 horse, and a third sits on it to Keep it down. 



The ninth district comprehends the northern part 

 of Kilkenny, Kildare, the cultivated parts of West- 

 meath, Meath, and Louth. Wheat here enters into 

 the system of culture, but the preparatory fallows are 

 very bad. Clover has been introduced into the dis- 

 trict, but under the bad system of sowing it upon 

 land exhausted, and covered by weeds. Farms are 

 large, and the mode of culture similar to the English 



