FARMERS' REGISTER— GREEN CROPPING. 



675 



mangel wurtzel, potatoes, &c. are referred to,^ 

 Avhich is precisely tiie state it ought to be in ; and 

 were this to take place in Ireland, it would be very 

 easy to show, that the rental of the country might 

 be doubled in a very few years, and employment 

 afforded to many thousands of the now destitute, 

 because unemployed population. It was said some 

 time ago with regard to the cultivation of tobacco 

 in the county of Wexford, that it was a pity it 

 should be interfered with or impeded by any legis- 

 lative enactment, because the culture of it was 

 found to afford employment to such a nmiiber of 

 the peasantry ; now this was just because it was a 

 green crop, aiid the necessary prej)aration of the 

 ground for it, and the subsequent hoeing, weeding 

 and picking, &c. required the labor of an addition- 

 al number of hands, which would be precisely the 

 case witli regard to other green crops. The High- 

 land Society of Scotland have done much good by 

 their practice of offering premiums for the best 

 number of acres, according to the size of the farm, 

 of potatoes, beans, mangel wurtzel, turnips, &c. 

 in drills J and this is just what the North-East 

 Society of Ireland require to do to make their ar- 

 rangements complete, because in the other two 

 great branches which have been mentioned, the 

 society do already offer premiums. 



" Should the society think proper to adopt this 

 plan, there can be little doubt it would prove of 

 essential service to the country. It would, in the 

 first place, have the effect of checking the prevail- 

 ing practice of taking white crops in succession off 

 the same ground, which, I repeat, is one of the 

 worst features of Irish farming, and the rock on 

 which all is overset.* And this evil induces ano- 

 ther and a serious one, which the adoption of the 

 above plan would also tend to put a stop to, namely, 

 the practice of selling the greater part of the straw, 

 and sending it off the farm. This the farmer does 

 at present, and, by doing so, becomes the robber 

 of his own fields, and ultimately of his own pocket, 

 of course ; but unfortunately he has, at present, no 

 alternative. Two circumstances combine to ren- 

 der this false step imperative on him — one is, the 

 want of green crops for feeding cattle, by which 

 means only straw can be conveniently and advan- 

 tageously converted into dung: the second is, that 

 the article is in great request for another purpose ; 

 thatch. The former circumstance I have already 

 noticed, and shall conclude with a few remarks re- 

 specting the latter. 



" Through the north-east district, and over the 

 north of Ireland generally, many of the houses 

 composing the villages, and the greater part of 

 those in the surrounding country, cottages, fiirm 

 offices, &c. have roofs of this nature, and a vast 

 quantity of straw, therefore, is annually consumed 

 in making new roofs and repairing old ones ; and 

 although it may appear at first view, that taking 



* "The only case in which this practice can be re- 

 sorted to with propriety, is when old grass land is broken 

 up with the intcution that it should undergo a course of 

 copping. Here it becomes necessary to Lake, at least, 

 two white crops in sviccession, (oats and wheat, oats and 

 barley, or oats and oats, according to circumstances,) in 

 order to rot the sward sufficiently ; and the accumula- 

 tion of manure caused by the decomposition of vegeta- 

 ble matter during the first year, renders this always 

 a justifiable measure, and is in strict accordance wiiU 

 the rules of good husbandry — indispensable, in fact, to 

 the effectual rotting of the old sward. 



white crops in succession would have the effect of 

 raising a great abundance of straw in the country, 

 yet this is the very thing which causes a compara- 

 tive scarcity, for the straw of an oat crop is not 

 much more than half the bulk it would be, if, in- 

 stead of succeeding wheat, it had succeeded pota- 

 toes, turnips, beans, mangel wurtzel, or grass — 

 the latter is what in a regular rotation it generally 

 does succeed — of the second crop of oats, the 

 straw is perhaps not one-fourth the weight it 

 would have been, had a green crop intervened ; and 

 as to a third crop, it is not worth comparing — even 

 the straw of the wheat crop is not always equal to 

 what it might be, for though it does succeed pota- 

 toes, yet it must of necessity be more or less affected 

 by the scourging nature of the practice referred to, 

 and to which the ground has probably been sub- 

 jected for many years. The supply of straw, 

 therefore, it will be seen, cannot fail to be very 

 limited ; certainly over the north of Ireland, not 

 one half of what it would be, were an alternate 

 system of cropping understood and acted on ; and 

 this circumstance, coupled with the constant run 

 upon the article for thatch, causes it to rise in 

 price sometimes beyond that of hay ; and the poor 

 farmer cannot resist the temptation, — indeed it is 

 scarcely to be expected that he could — of selling 

 " all he can spare," as he says — meaning all above 

 what will be required as fodder for his few cows, 

 but as for sparing, he could not spare an ounce — 

 no farmer could spare the least portion of any sub- 

 stance convertible into the indispensable and all- 

 important article of manure, except, indeed, in the 

 neighborhood of large towns, where straw may 

 often be advantageously sold, because you some- 

 times can, for the price of the straw, purchase a 

 greater bulk of dung than the rotting of it would 

 make ; but where no such advantageous exchange 

 can be made, it is a ruinous practice for the farmer 

 to sell his straw, the material of which dung is 

 composed. An effort, tlierefore, made to cut off 

 this great demand for straw — this premium held 

 out to farmers to become accessory to their own 

 ruin — would certainly be a laudable one; and I 

 think it might be made, with success, by endea- 

 vouring to introduce some article for roofing, 

 which should combine cheapness with durability, 

 and which might be expected to supersede the 

 use of straw altogether. Slates are too expensive, 

 and not to be thought of as roofing for cottages or 

 houses in the situations I have mentioned. We 

 want a roof as cheap as straw in the first instance, 

 and one which would, from it's durability, be even- 

 tually much cheaper — one which would not I'equire 

 to be repaired or renewed every four or five years, 

 a circumstance, by the by, which renders thatch 

 a very dear roof in the end. Eut, there is an ar- 

 ticle used for roofing in various parts of Britain, 

 and which has had a long and satisfactory trial 

 there, and Avhich I feel confident could be intro- 

 duced here with great advantage, possessing, as it 

 appears to do, the very requisites we are in search 

 of; I mean the roofing tile, known by the name 

 of pan-tiles. These tiles are made about a foot 

 broad, and about 15 inches long, and the price in 

 Scotland is from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per 100. For a 

 good substantial roof the rafters are put on 18 

 inches a})art, and the laths 1-| inch square, are 

 nailed on the raftei's at such distances as will allow 

 a sufficient overlap for the tiles. This roof will, 

 1 in the first instance, be found as cheap, if not 



