ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 



37 



finish them for the fat market. Dairy farming ranks next in 

 importance to cattle rearing. It has lost instead of gained ground 

 during the last fifty years, but it will almost certainly be the 

 most important branch of farming in the near future, when 

 winter dairying is more fashionable than it is to-day. Meantime, 

 it is carried on in a leisurely way during the summer months on 

 the pasture lands of Munster and in Ulster. There is another 

 type of farming in Ireland — arable farming, such as you find in 

 the North where oats and flax predominate, and such as you find 

 in the South where barley is the main crop — a type of farming 

 which will be exceedingly difficult to carry on in the future in 

 view of the fierceness of foreign competition. These figures shew 

 the live stock in the country, and the area under the different 

 crops in 1906. 



Typical Farms 



We had an opportunity of visiting different farms. We may 

 describe a few as typical of farming in general. We leave out 

 of account the purely grass farms, about which little can be said, 

 and also the smaller farms on which it is impossible to make 

 a living by ordinary farming. 



A Small Farm 



We visited a small farm extending to 25 acres. There was 

 7 acres of permanent pasture and 18 acres under tillage. The 

 rotation, which varies greatly in Ireland, was, roots (potatoes, 

 turnips, or mangels), oats or wheat, and then another grain crop 

 sown out with seeds. Seven cows were kept and their calves 

 reared. Each calf got new milk for a month. Then the milk 

 was mixed with linseed meal, and finally, the feed was skimmed 

 milk and linseed meal. The stirks were fed in winter in open 

 sheds on turnips and hay. Sometimes, Indian meal was added. 

 They were sold when one year old at from £5 to £7, 10s. The 

 milk not required for rearing calves was sent to a co-operative 



