THE CLIMA TE OF IRELAND. 259 



equally bad tillage farming that the same farmer 

 would practise on the same farm. The views in 

 favour of breaking up inferior grass so often urged 

 in drier climates have very little place in our wet 

 climate. There is very little land so bad that if it 

 is once in good condition will not grow grass well in 

 this climate. When the land needs breaking up it 

 is almost always only as the best means of adding 

 condition in order again to put it in grass. 



Of course what I have said in no way affects the 

 correctness of Mr. Pringie's complaints of bad grass- 

 farming. No doubt, too, there is some land that 

 cannot profitably be kept in grass beyond a few 

 years. I believe, also, there is a tract of country in 

 the East and North -East of Ireland, from Wexford 

 to Down inclusive, where the climate is more 

 favourable to tillage than elsewhere. When land is 

 foul with weeds, and much worn out, cultivation 

 with heavy manuring of green crops, is the most 

 economical, if not the only way of getting it into 

 condition ; and without some roots and straw for 

 winter it is not easy on middling land to manage a 

 hea\'y stock to the best advantage ; but I think the 

 problem of profitable farming in these times in Ire- 

 land is (or at least is fast becoming) with how little 

 cultivation a farm in grass can be successfully man- 

 aged. There is a great change since the time when 

 Mr. Algernon Clarke, whom Mr. Pringle quotes as 

 his authority, wrote of Irish farming. The price of 



