ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 



Soil 



35 



The rock formations give very little idea of the soil of Ireland. 

 The soil is very often composed of drifts and local deposits. For 

 example, the old red sandstone formations in Cork, Waterford, 

 Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Mayo are 

 covered with local deposits which yield a sandy loam, rich in 

 plant food. On the other hand, the local deposits overlying the 

 same old red sandstone in Tyrone also yield a sandy loam, but 

 much less fertile than the soil on the other red sandstone rocks 

 just mentioned. Again, the soil on the silurian rocks in Meath, 



DONKEY CART WITH MILK AT PILTOWN 



Queen's County, Tipperary, Clare, Kilkenny, and Waterford is a 

 good, soil, suitable for dairying, whereas the soil on the silurian 

 rocks of Down, Cavan, Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, and Mayo is 

 of poor quality. The richness of Irish soil is often due to the 

 mixing of drift and local deposits with the soil derived from the 

 underlying rocks. It has been well said in that inexhaustible 

 book, " Ireland, Industrial and Agricultural," to which in the 

 preparation of this Keport we have always resorted when other 

 sources of information dried up, that the richness of " alluvial and 

 drift soils of the Golden Vein is attributable to detrital contri- 

 butions from the silurian and red sandstone rocks of the Keeper 

 Hills, and from the felsites, basalts, etc., of the Limerick basin, 

 mingling with the materials derived from the rich limestone of the 

 country." Similarly, the rich soils of Meath, Kildare, and Dublin 

 are due to the mixture of red sandstone and granite with the 

 limestone of the district, and the Lagan Valley owes its fertility to 



