THE SOILS OF IRELAND. 29 



contour, 11,797 square miles; between 250 feet and sea-level, 13,242 

 square miles. 



It is thus seen that well-nig;h half the area of Ireland would probably lie 

 below the 300 feet contour line, and is thus favourably situated for the 

 mechanical operations of farming, which become more laborious with the 

 increase of declivities, while these, as well as unfavourable climatic condi- 

 tions, are dependent upon the increase of elevation. 



Referring to the arable and grass land, there are several areas where high- 

 class fattening pasturage prevails, such as the Golden Vein, on the confines 

 of Tipperary, Limerick, and Cork ; East Leinster, including parts of Meath, 

 Dublin, and Kildare ; and the Valley of the Lagan, including parts of 

 Antrim, Down, and Armagh. Against this, there are many parts where the 

 land is naturally poor, and where, because cultivated by the poorer classes 

 of tenantry, it has, through bad tillage and over-cropping, run down below 

 the condition which would be normal under circumstances of fair soil-treat- 

 ment. Beyond these exceptional regions there is a large proportionate area 

 of the country which presents a fairly high average quality of land, varied, 

 however, by the intervention of peat expanses, badly drained clay tracts, 

 and stony ground, which are of low value ; and by alluvial flats, many of 

 which show soils of good quality. 



The varieties of land have been classified somewhat as follows : — 



1. Finishing and fattening land. This land bears a thick sole of suc- 



culent grass interspersed with 

 clovers. 



2. Lowland pasture, first quality. This varies from land bearing 



suitable for dairying. mixed herbage to pasture on shal- 



low, clayey, and moory soils. 



3. Lowland pasture, second quality. Indifferently drained land, bear- 



ing rushy and coarse herbage. 



4. Mountain pasture. Mixed green and shrubby pasture, 



with furze, heather, and rocky por- 

 tions. 



5. Wastes. Unreclaimed cutaway bog, red 



bog, and mountain top. 

 Throughout the country, in what is now pasture land, there are indica- 

 tions of the extensive tillage which it once could boast — a somewhat melan- 

 choly reminder of itc lessened population, and of the correspondingly great 

 drop in the prices of cereals, and some other agricultural products. Even so 

 late as 1870, the area under rotation crops, including clover, meadow, and 

 fallow, was 5,659,796 acres ; at present it is 4,641,937 acres. The unlevelled 

 ridges or " lazy beds " to be met with in the grass land in many places, also 

 remind one of the wasteful character of husbandry in vogue in the first part 

 of the nineteenth century, when " beton " fires dissipated the organic matter 

 of old leas, and with it the valuable store of nitrogenous compounds with 

 which years of herbage-growth had enriched the sod. They were days of 

 innocence as regards the prudence of, rather, we may say, the necessity for 

 rigid conservation of the fertilizing ingredients in soils. It is now becoming 

 better known that if burning renders mineral substances, particularly potash 

 compounds in the sod more easily soluble and available to plants, this, in 

 the case of clay leas is at the expense of other beneficial ingredients : in the 

 case of a plentiful depth of moory soil, the loss of organic matter, including 

 nitrogen, is not felt. On the profit side of the soil account, it is doubtful if 



