38 My Little Farm 



reason for attacking me. It was rather because 

 I had persistently pointed out to them the 

 economic fact that no gain in rent could ever be 

 more than a fraction of the gain in good farming. 

 They are now coming to see the truth of it, and 

 organised barbarism has to shut its foul mouth 

 before the irresistible evidence of industrial 

 sanity. There is even some danger of my becom- 

 ing " popular," a sort of social disease which has up 

 to now destroyed possibly useful Irishmen in large 

 numbers. In my part of Ireland at least, persecu- 

 tion is still as much a compliment as " popularity " 

 would be an insult. 



The work in the paddock was my first serious 

 performance on the agricultural stage, and it 

 taught me something. On such soil, I should not 

 now begin with phosphates and potash, but rather 

 with potash and slag, adding a good deal of lime 

 on the wilder areas, especially the pure peat and 

 the stiff clay. With this combination, the process 

 would be more slow, but more permanent and 

 less expensive. I should not now confine the 

 seeding to red clover and Italian ryegrass, but 

 add some alsike, Timothy and rough-stalked 

 meadow grass to take permanent possession on the 

 death of the two first, which takes place largely on 

 any soil in two to three years. At that time, 

 however, I meant to plough up the whole field as 

 soon as the fertilisers could give me a sufficiently 

 workable surface. This has not been done, 

 because I have found the red clover and ryegrass 

 followed thickly with indigenous herbage of good 



