68 On the Formation 



his orchard and kitchen-garden in proportion to his farm. As 

 to flowers and shrubs, it is not to be expected that he can spare 

 much ground or time for them. The only way that I see this 

 class is to be improved is, that a few noblemen and gentlemen 

 should take each of them, suppose, three farms (one large, one 

 middle-sized, and one small), and lay them out with convenient 

 buildings, garden, and orchard, as patterns for others. The 

 portion intended for the kitchen-garden should not be planted 

 with orchard trees, but rather with bush fruit. What vegetables 

 the farmer did not want for his family would pay him well for 

 his pigs and cattle. The fields should be laid out in proportion 

 to the farm ; and the fences arranged and planted in a proper 

 manner. The best of all fences for the farmer, in my opinion, 

 is crab : it grows fast, and is a good shelter, and a few let run 

 up, say at every 9 ft., might give as much cider as would do for 

 common use. Such hedgerows, it is true, while rare in the 

 country, might require to be watched, in the fruit season, against 

 pilferers ; but, when general, this expense would cease. All be- 

 tween the 9 ft. I would keep cut down and shorn, as a thick 

 fence. Ploughing matches, and premiums to farmers, would also 

 be of use. I am sorry to say that these encouragements are 

 falling off much from what they were twelve or twenty years 

 ao-o. I would also recommend all the waste grounds of a farm 

 to be planted; such as old quarries, very steep banks, rocky 

 places, &c., but no land that would do for tillage, as there is 

 plenty of waste land in Ireland ; and to plant any other, except 

 for ornament or shelter, is, as I conceive, a loss to the com- 

 munity at large. Draining is very much neglected in Ireland : 

 much might be done in this respect. 



The fourth and last class is the cottager. The spot where 

 his potatoes grow is called his garden ; which he, in general, rents 

 of the farmer for the season. Many of the cottagers and small 

 farmers have some portions of ground besides, near their cottage, 

 which might be made to look well, and be of considerable use ; 

 but they are, in general, filled in summer with a few early pota- 

 toes, and late cabbage, which are all cut off by Christmas. From 

 that time the gap, or gateway, is open, and the pigs, the sheep, 

 and goats run over the whole, until about the 1st of March, or, 

 perhaps, till Patrick's Day, at which time the gaps are made up, 

 and the garden planted as before. 



Mitchelstoum^ Nov. 15. 1837. 



Art. II. On the Formation of a Public Botanic Garden. By C. C. 



It is well known to every one who has travelled on the Conti- 

 nent, or who has availed himself of the information of others, 



