32 THE SOILS OF IRELAND. 



Limestone land usually affords the necessary conditions for percolation 

 and drainage ; but in the extensive flats of central Ireland, natural facilities 

 for drainage are wanting, and, as a consequence, much of the country is 

 covered with peat, as in the great Bog of Allen, and with peaty alluvium, 

 as found along the chief rivers draining that region — the Shannon, Barrow, 

 etc. Much of these flat lands has been reclaimed, work rendered feasible 

 by the extensive schemes of Arterial Drainage carried out in the first half 

 of the last century ; and much more might be brought under profitable 

 cultivation. 



The hills of Old Red Sandstone which form most of the Counties of Cork, 

 and Waterford ; and parts of Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, 

 Mayo, and Tyrone, are flanked by accumulations of local detritus, which 

 yields sandy loams vrell suited for tillage and dairying. A considerable dif- 

 ference in fertiHty is noticeable between these soils in Cork, Waterford, etc.. 

 and the Old Red soils of Tyrone, which is probably attributable to a less 

 quantity of hme in the Tyrone soils, than in those of the former counties. 



The areas of Silurian rocks which dot the geological maps in Meath, 

 Queen's County, Tipperary, Clare, Kilkenny, and Waterford, are clothed 

 with soils which vary from sandy to clay loams — being in part derived from 

 slate and grit, and in part from slate without grit bands. These rocks 

 throughout are calcareous, and the soils in consequence — probably not very 

 deficient in potash — show a fair covering of herbage. They are, to a large 

 extent, used for dairying, and are suitable for this industry: near 

 Castle Otway, in Tipperary, these Silurian soils rank high, even in com- 

 parison with the rich limestone soils of the Golden Vein and about Nenagh. 

 The late Colonel Spaight, of Deny Castle by Lough Derg, informed the 

 writer that he fattened small three year old cattle on his land, where Silurian 

 calcareous slate is the prevailing rock. 



The Silurian rocks of Down, Cavan, Louth, Armagh, and Monaghan, 

 Mayo, and south-east Ireland, yield sandy and stony loams which are poor 

 in natural resource, and therefore make poor pasture land : being very defi- 

 cient in lime as an ameliorative (though possibly there may be sufficient of 

 this substance to serve as plant food), percolation is bad, and artificial drain- 

 age usually required. Happily facilities for this are not wanting, for the 

 weathering of these rocks has produced an uneven surface — undulating 

 ground — with good fall. 



The locally formed soils which scantily cover the schists of Donegal, 

 Mayo, and West Galway are very uninviting, unless where relieved by 

 bands which here and there traverse the areas, marking the presence of 

 partially concealed beds of limestone, or " dykes " of basalt or of felsite. 

 The soils usually contain an admixture of peaty matter Which renders cul- 

 tivation less difficult and more profitable ; where this is wanting, the shallow 

 soils are stony and contain a trifling proportion of clay. Even where a 

 considerable depth of schist detritus occurs, as in the case of accumulations 

 of locally formed drift, the soils capping these accumulations are in their 

 natural state only a few inches deep. Under artificial treatment — to be 

 more explicit, through long continued cultivation of a good type — the soils 

 around Derry, Raphoe, and Dunnamanagh have become deepened and 

 enriched, so that they are now by no means indifferent receptacles for 

 manures, nor unresponsive. 



The granites of Donegal, Down, Leinster. ]\Iayo, and Galway usually form 

 ground which lies above the limit of profitable cultivation. In Galway and 

 around Dungloe in Donegal, its elevation is not great, but it forms ground 



