No. 11. 



Improvement in Irish Agriculture. 



339 



One-half of the above land is under flax 

 or grain crops. 



Would a single farmer with his family, 

 in our own country, make a living off the 

 whole 93 acres, after paying a rent of £121 

 12? 2d — $.333 90? Unquestionably not, un- 

 der anything like ordinary circumstances. 

 Neither could an equal amount of stock be 

 kept on anything like the same amount of 

 even our best lands. It will be observed 

 that one-half of the 98 acres is under crops, 

 very little of which reaches the stock, be- 

 sides the stravv. Should we let the keep of 

 the horses, heifers, sheep, pigs, and two of 

 the cows offset against the straw, then we 

 should have 30 cows kept on 49 acres of 

 land, — a cow to an acre and a fraction less 

 than two-thirds of an acre ! 



Whence this difference in tlie acreable 

 products of the United States and Ireland l 

 Is it in the quality of the soil ] The better 

 class of New York lands are decidedly supe- 

 rior to the 98 acres above particularized, if 

 we may credit Mr. Blaker, — that is, before 

 the latter were recently made over, so to 

 speak, by the present system of culture. 

 How then sixty human beings can obtain 

 subsistence, where in this country a single 

 family could not — over and above rent — is 

 indeed surprising. True, things which the 

 American farmer would consider necessaries 

 — things of course — would be unapproach- 

 able luxuries to tiie small Irish tenant, even 

 under the ameliorating influences of a Gos- 

 ford and a Blaker.* An American farmer 

 can eat of meat, wheaten bread, milk andj 

 butter, and as many varieties of vegetables 

 as he chooses, three times a day, and have a 

 " chicken in his pot" not only " on Sunday," 

 but on any other day in the week ! More 

 than this. He can send his children to 

 school five or six months in the year, until 

 they are 16 or 17 years old, and can, and 

 often does, educate them to the Jearned pro- 

 fessions. Great as the difference is, how- 

 ever, between the expenditures — the " out- 

 goes" — of the American and Irish farmer, 



* Justice all round requires that I should copy the 

 following statement of Mr. Blaker, in relation to the 

 holders of the ten farms given in the table. He says. 

 " the stock that these small farmers are possessed of 

 shows that they are by no means in penury. I have 

 chosen those who are living along the roail side, and 

 if any one has the curiosity to visit them to morrow, 

 I shall have a jaunting car ready at Mr. Ringland's, 

 at Gosford gate, to take Ihem to their houses. No one, 

 I expect, will conceive he is to meet with any great 

 appearance of wealth— it is up-hill work to amass 

 riches from a few acres of land, paying a fair rent, and 

 rearing a young family— but I believe every one of 

 them will be found in a thriving condition." 



it by no means explains the monstrous dis- 

 crepancy between a given amount of land 

 supporting sixty persons or only si.v. Nor 

 do the highest market prices at which pro- 

 ducts are sold in Ireland, explain it. Say- 

 ing nothing about the people, tiie amount of 

 stock kept on the land shows conclusively, 

 as I have before stated, that such farmers as 

 those whose farms and stock are enumerated 

 in the foregoing table, actually obtain a n)uch 

 larger product per acre, tlian the proprietors 

 of the best American lands. The question 

 again arises, whence is it? This is best an- 

 swered by considering the system of hus- 

 bandry under which they obtain these re- 

 sults, the new system, as it is called, intro- 

 duced by Mr. Blaker. 



Mr. B. found these small farms imperfectly 

 drained, notwithstanding they were cut up 

 into various small plats or fields by nume- 

 rous ditches. Mr. B. introduced furrow- 

 draining, and urged the levelling of all the 

 surface ditches. This resulted in a conside- 

 rable saving of the land, — and the whole 

 farm, with the exception of the enclosure 

 about the barns, &c., is thrown into one 

 field. The crops are then put in in "strips" 

 across the entire farm. This of course is 

 followed by the practice of soiling the whole 

 stock. Mr. B. contends that two cows can 

 be thus summered from the same land one 

 would require if pastured. He also recom- 

 mends a larger proportion of roots and other 

 crops to be fed green, than we know any- 

 thing about in this country. This is neces- 

 sary wiiere the soiling system is pursued, 

 and it leads to an indefinite increase of ma- 

 nures. These manures, increased by com- 

 posts, and protected from the weather, are 

 sufficient in many instances to give a dress- 

 ing to one-third of the whole farm ! 



Such is a bare outline of the system. 

 How much of it would be applicable here, 

 the good sense of each one must determine. 

 That it has wrought a great and ameliorat- 

 ing change in a portion of Ireland, under the 

 auspices of Lord Gosford and Mr. Blaker, 

 there can be no doubt. It is rapidly e.xtend- 

 ing in that country. Agriculturists — some 

 of them tenants — tutored under the eye of 

 Mr. Blaker, are constantly going out to take 

 charge of other estates, thus spreading the 

 system far and wide. Success to them! 

 Success to the pioneers in this philanthropic 

 work ! Across the wide Atlantic, we tender 

 them the meed of American sympathy, and 

 American praise. — Journal of Agriculture 

 and Science. 



Salt, or brine, is good for the Plum Tree, 

 Asparagus, and Onions, 



