No. 11. 



hyiprovcynenis in Irish Jlgriciillure. 



337 



better the fruits which the soil is capable of 

 yielding, the kitchen-garden comes in for a 

 good share of attention, and he feels his in- 

 dependence as much as at any other time, 

 when the jjood housewife has spread upon 

 his table the choicest vegetables, in every 

 variety, w^hich have been furnished from his 

 own garden. I need not speak of the profit 

 of a good garden, especiall}'^ to a firmer, 

 either for his own consumption or for the 

 market. But his garden should be one — not 

 a thing with thaf name, without sufficient 

 enclosure to protect it against depredators of 

 every description, and without a soil fertile 

 enough to produce the best vegetables in 

 great abundance. 



The farmer has much to encourage him 

 in his laudable business, so necessary to hu- 

 man existence and rational enjoyment, — one 

 which man in his innocence followed, — one 

 the most healthful which a man can pursue. 

 A business, too, we might venture to say, as 

 fruitful in suggesting to the mind of man 

 the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of 

 the Creator, as any other. He sees the 

 wonderful skill of the Deity in adapting the 

 soil to the production of plants. He sees 

 every day the goodness of his Heavenly Fa^ 

 ther, in furnishing for man and beast their 

 necessary food. Such manifestations of de- 

 sign cannot be lost upon the observing farmer. 

 He lives amid the works of the Almighty, and 

 the laws of nature which he established when 

 he made the heavens and the earth. Then 

 he marked out the laws which regulate the 

 raising of plants; the seed time and harvest 

 as then, so are they now. 



These extracts contain many home and substantial 

 truths, and we trust they will not be lost on our friends 

 of Cape May, or indeed we might add, on our friends 

 generally. Ver)' frequently it happens that a remark 

 may not exactly apply to ourselves, yet if we make the 

 most of it, a hint, a suggestion may be derived from it 

 of great practical usefulness.— Ed. 



Improvements in Irish Agriculture. 



By Henry ?, Randall. 



A GREAT improvement is taking place in 

 the agriculture of some districts in the north 

 of Ireland, by a system of means novel, and 

 not without interest to American farmers. 

 The incentive or impulse to these changes 

 is given by the proprietors to the tillers of 

 the soil, partially by a judicious distribution 

 of bounties, calculated — and this is most 

 wisely done — as much to appeal to the pride 

 — the esjnit du corps — as to the pocket of 

 the recipient : and the spirit thus awakened 

 is furthered and sustained as well as guided 

 in proper channels, by the employment of 



agriculturists of science and experience to 

 counsel and encourage the tenants, to see 

 that eacli is properly noticed and rewarded 

 for his improvements, — in short, to exercise 

 all tlie supervision which the tenants will 

 voluntarily submit to. This is far prefer- 

 able to coercion through leasehold stipula- 

 tions. 



Foremost among the landlords who thus 

 wisely study their own and their tenants' 

 interests, is the Earl of Gosford, whose large 

 estates lie in the county of Armagh. And 

 how favourably does this nobleman's con- 

 duct, in this particular, contrast with that of 

 the scores of titled absentees, who treat the 

 land that bore them as a conquered province, 

 to be drained of its entire income to support 

 the dissipations of the English and conti- 

 nental capitals and watering places ! 



Among the scientific agriculturists, who, 

 as the employees of the landholders, have 

 done most to improve the husbandry of the 

 north of Ireland, first, probably, stands Wil- 

 liam Blaker, Esq., the "agriculturist" of the 

 Gosford and some other estates. This gen- 

 tleman, without claiming to have been the 

 originator of each detail of the system of 

 husbandry advocated by him, probably de- 

 serves the credit of uniting the several parts 

 — practices drawn from various local sys- 

 tems — into one homogeneous whole, adapted 

 to the exigencies of the section of country 

 which his labours are designed to benefit. 

 And here let it be remarked, in passing, that 

 the skill of the adapter is scarcely second to 

 that of the discoverer or inventor. The 

 same system, it is but a truism to say, will 

 not work equally well under all circum- 

 stances. Skilfully to seize upon and con- 

 nect, from the great store-house of mind, or 

 of physics, the precise materials adapted to 

 our own wants, is the wisdom of the wise 

 man — the talent of the able one. 



An occasional correspondence with Mr. 

 Blaker for several years, has kept me in 

 some measure advised of the results of his 

 labours. These are shown in the proceed- 

 ings of the annual Market Hill agricultural 

 meeting. But before proceeding to discuss 

 the relative merits of the nero and old hus- 

 bandry, let us glance at the organization of 

 this Agricultural Association, and some of 

 its methods of doing business. Hints, not 

 without value to us, may, peradventure, be 

 gleaned from them. 



I presume from all that has met my eye, 

 that there is no initiation fee to the associa- 

 tion — its limits being entirely territorial 

 ones — the Earl of Gosford and another land- 

 holder, a brother of Mr. Blakcr's, paying all 

 the premiums. These are mainly of a cha- 

 racter which makes the bounty to a great 



