136 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



ceding district. There is no clover, and hardly any wheat. Clover is unknown, and the only mill for the 

 preparation of grain is in Derry. {Ibid. i. S72.) 



817. The third district comprehends the northern parts of Fermanagh. Here the farms are much larger 

 than in the former, and the agricultural system pursued far superior. They plant potatoes on a lea, 

 twice reversing the lands ; and the course is flax, oats, and weeds. Some wheat is grown, but oats is 

 still the prevalent crop. In the neighborhood of Enniskillen, the farmers are so rich as to be able to 

 eat butcher meat daily, and drink smuggled wine {Wakefield, i. 379.) 



818. The fourth district comprehends Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare, and parts of Roscommon, and 

 Longford. In some parts of this district the spade culture is pursued ; but, in general, the land is cul- 

 tivated by a plough drawn by four horses abreast. In Roscommon, the old custom of yoking the horses 

 by the tail is still continued, although, so early as 1634, an act of parliament was passed against this 

 absurd practice. (Life of the Duke of Ormond, i. 79.) 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. {Ibid. 

 i. 381.) 



, 819. 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. {Ibid. i. 387.) 



820. 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. {Toivnsend's Cork, 194.) 



821. The seventh district includes part of Tipperary, with gueen'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 Roseria the cultivation of turnips is followed, and they succeed well. 

 Ninety acres is considered a large farm. Leases are generally for three lives. {Wakefield, i. 398.) 



822. The eighth district comprises Wexford and a part of Wicklow. Beans are here sometimes intro- 

 duced into cultivation, but they are sown broadcast, and never hoed. The mode of ploughing is very 

 awkward; one man holds the plough, another leads the horse, and a third sits on it to keep it down. 

 Notwithstanding this rude culture, however, the rents are enormous, owing to the demand for land created 

 by an excessive population, who if they had not a portion of land to grow potatoes (getting no employ- 

 ment) could not live. {Ibid. i. 407.) 



823. The ninth district comprehends the northern part of Kilkenny, Kildare, the cultivated parts of 

 Westmeath, Meath, and Lowth. Wheat here enters into the system of culture, but the preparatory 

 fallows are very bad. Clover has been introduced into the district, 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 what 

 is pursued in England, though the details are executed in a much more slovenly manner. {Ibid. i. 413.) 



824. The agricultural implements and operations used in Ireland are all of the rudest 

 construction. The plough, the spade, the flail, the car, all equally partake of imper- 

 fections and defects. The fallovi^s are not well attended to ; three ploughings are usually 

 deemed sufficient, and, from the imperfection of the plough, 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. The expense of this 

 operation is about eight shillings an acre. Wheat, as will be seen from the preceding 

 details, is not by any means generally cultivated. It is unknown in Monaghan, Tyrone, 

 Derry, Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, and Cavan, though it is grown to a consider- 

 able extent in Kilkenny, Carlow, Dublin, Meath, Lowth, and parts of Limerick, 

 Tipperary, Clare, and Cork. It is generally sown after potatoes or fallow. 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. ( Wakefield, i. 429. 442.) 



825. Barley is more generally cultivated in Ireland than ivheat, and it is generally 

 sown after potatoes. Oats, however, constitute the species of grain 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. 



826. 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. Potatoe land lets from six pounds six shillings to ten pounds ten 

 shillings per acre ; and the expense of culture, including rent, varies from thirteen 

 pounds to sixteen pounds per acre. The produce is from eight hundred stone to one 

 thousand stone the acre, at twenty-one pounds to the stone; that is, from sixteen 

 thousand eight hundred to twenty-one thousand pounds. {Ibid. i. 450.) 



827. The indigenous grasses of Ireland are not of any peculiar excellence. Notwith- 

 standing all that has been said of the fiorin grass, its excellence and utility may be called 

 in question. Their hay is seldom from sown grasses, generally consisting of the 

 spontaneous prxjduce of the soil. Clover is almost unknown. Newenham calculates 

 that there are not five thousand acres under this crop in the v/hole island. (Newenham, 

 .314.; JFakeJield, i. 467.) 



828. There arefeio live hedges in Ireland ; in the level stone districts, stone walls, and 

 in other places turf banks, are the usual fences. 



829. The dairy is the most extensive and the best managed part o^ Irish husbandry. 

 Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Carlow, Meath, West Meath, Longford, and Fermanagh, as 

 well as the mountains of Leitrim and Sligo, are principally occupied by dairy farms. 

 Butter is the chief produce. 'J he average num.ber of cows on a dairy farm is thirty or 

 forty ; three acres of land, of middling quality, are deemed necessary for the subsistence 

 <)f each cow. The average produce of a cow is eight (]uarts in twenty-four hours in 

 fiummer, and five in winter; four good milkers will yield half a cwt.'of butter in a 



