TIREY. AGRICULTURE. 29 



liarities of the climate and soil, of which the severity 

 and defects are too often overrated, improvements of a 

 radical nature and a considerable extension of the 

 present system may be effected . As far as climate is 

 concerned, earlier as well as better crops will be the 

 result of improvements in the methods of tillage ; and 

 the harvest, of which the uncertainty chiefly depends on 

 its lateness, will be ready at a better season. A further 

 effect also of an improvement in the system, would be a 

 more regular occupation throughout the year ; of which a 

 great portion is now spent without employment, while at 

 one particular season its whole accumulated labours are 

 pressing on the farmer for attention. The introduction 

 of green crops, for example, a necessary part of the 

 improved or convertible system, would tend to divide 

 the occupations of the year, and at the same time preserve 

 the stock of the farm fit for labour when wanted. 

 Such also is the connexion between pasturage and agri- 

 culture, that an increase in the latter will enable the 

 insular farmer to rear a greater number as well as a 

 better breed of cattle and sheep, and to deliver their 

 produce to the market, not only of superior quality, but 

 in better condition. 



The ancient system consisted in producing crops of 

 corn, either with or without manure, as that could be 

 procured, from the richest fields; and this practice was 

 continued till the land refused to bear any longer; 

 such grass or weeds as happened to grow on it, were 

 then suffered to accumulate for a series of years, and 

 the same process was repeated in a perpetual rota- 

 tion. The natural pastures were at the same time 

 grazed by the indigenous cattle, by which they were 

 almost invariably overstocked to such a degree, that 

 numbers died at the end of every winter. Finally, 

 the farms, held in run-rig, or common, were overrun 

 with superfluous horses. Such is still the funda- 

 mental part of the present system, where better practices 



