12C0 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



dairymen, which is common in Munster, is but little known in 

 Kilkenny, the cows belonging to the dairymen themselves, 

 who, in some situations, breed them on their own farms, and 

 in others prefer buying them at a proper age. Too little atten- 

 tion is paid to cleanliness in their dairies, especially in the 

 northern district ; and for this reason, according to VVaicefield, 

 though Irish butter, when fresh, is preferable to any in Europe, 

 yet it " is in the lowest estimation in the London market, as it 

 IS almost always heavily salted, and very frequently tastes 

 smoky, fishy, and tallowy." The cattle of this county are a 

 mixed tace from the native breed and the English long-homed, 

 and th'.ir sheep have been, in some parts, improved by the 

 IjCicesters. The Merinos have been introduced within these 

 few years by Messrs Nowlan, the proprietors of a woollen 



factory, who have now 600 of the pure race ; and they find that 

 both the quality and the weight of the fleece have improved 

 since the sheep were imported. The usual com crops are 

 raised here, but clover and other green crops not in a suitable 

 proportion. It is the custom to work oxen intermixed wi h 

 noi-ses, in teams of six, or three pair deep, the oxen placed fore- 

 most. Yet the fallows are better managed here than in any 

 other part of Ireland. Irrigation has been practised for many 

 years, but not extensively. {Sup. Encyc. Brit. Kilkenny.) 



Salmon are caught in the rivers, aiid sent to Dublin packed 

 in boxes of ice. woollen is the chief manufacture. Alessrs. 

 Nowlan and Shaw produce excellent sui)ertine clotlis, from an 

 establishment as celebrated in Ireland as that of Owen at 

 Lanark is in Scotland. 



78(18. KILD.ARE. 392,397 acres, four fifths arable, meadow, and pasture, and the rest bog. {Rawson's 

 Survey of Ki! dare, 1807. Sap. Encyc. Brit.) 



Part of the Bog of Allen and other similar tracts occupy a 

 large portion of the western side of this county. The surface is 

 varied by a number of small hills and gentle declivities ; liut for 

 the most part it is flat and nearly level ; and when viewed from 

 a commanding station, presents a rich, and, on the banks of 

 its rivers, a beautiful landscape. The Curragh of KiUlare, ex- 

 tending to about 5000 acres, has been long celebrated for the 

 softness of its turf and the fineness of its pastures. But the cli- 

 mate of Kildare is said to l)e more moist than that of any other 

 part of Ireland, which, if the statement be correct, is a very 

 unfavourable circumstance, as a clay soil prevails very gene- 

 xallv, and much of it is (xceedingly tenacious of moisture. 



There are a few large etates in Kildare, particularly the 

 Duke of Leinster's, which extends over a third of the county ; 

 and several proprietors, according to VVakefie'd, have from 

 6000/. to 7000/. a year ; yet many are less considerable, and 

 property seems to be more divided here than in most of the 

 other districu in Ireland. 



The common size of farms is from ten Irish acres to 200 ; and 

 these farms are frequently held in partnership. Large firms, 

 however, are less rare here than in the arable tracts of the other 

 counties. The leases were formerly for thirty-one years, but 

 are now mostly for twenty-one years and one life. All parish 

 and county taxes are paid by the" tenant. M'ith few exceptions, 

 the course of cropping is the same as it has been for a century, 

 viz., fallow, wheat, oati. Potatoes are universally cultivated. 

 Oxen are employed in ploughing, and horses for carriages ; 

 but in many instances oxen and horses are mixed together in 

 the plough team, which sometimes consists of six, and never 

 less than four animals. A number of mules are also kept on the 

 farms. 



There are several streams and two canals. A woollen manu- 

 factory at Celbridge; and a catholic seminary at Mayuooth for 

 above 200 students. 



78(19. KING'S COUNTY. 457,000 acres, half of it bog, mountain, and waste; and the remainder 

 arable, meadow, and pasture, of a medium quality. {Coote's Agricultural Survey, 1801. Sup. Encyc. Brit.) 



been erected by some of the proprietors, were for some time 

 allowed to stand unoccupied. 



1138 



The Bog of Allen occupies a considerable tract on the north- 

 east coast, and the mountains are on the side of Queen's 

 County. The soil of the arable land is either moorish or gra- 

 velly ; the former productive in dry, and the latter in moist 

 seasons, but neither of them naturally fertile. Limestone and 

 limestone gravel, the means of their improvement, abound 

 every where. The pastures, though in many parts fine, are 

 not luxuriant ; better adapted for sheep than cattle, and very 

 favourable to the growth of fine wool. Much of the mountain 

 district h.as an argillaceous soil, thickly interspersed with roclcs 

 of sandstone, and a deep irreclaimable bog often occurs at its 

 base ; but towards the centre of this range, where limestone 

 prevails, there is much good pasturf ; and here the base of the 

 hills, which is composed of a stiff clay, produces abundant crops 

 of com. 



Lamled property is in large estates, and many of their owners 

 do not reside ; but much of the land is held on leases in perpe- 

 tuity, and the holders of these form a respectable class. The 

 priricipal proprietors are Lords Digby, Rosse, and Charleville. 

 Farms were formerly very large, not unfrequently of the extent 

 of 2000 acres ; but their size has been diminished, and such 

 as are considered large do not now exceed, on an average, 400 

 English acres. Many are as small as twenty acres, though the 

 medium size of the smaller class may be double this. Most of 

 the arable land is tolerably enclosed ; chiefly with hedges of 

 whitethorn, which grows here to a great size. Partnership 

 leases and sub-tenantcy are less common than in some other 

 parts of Ireland ; yet the condition of the tenantry and the 

 peasantry does not seem to be materially more improved. The 

 farm-buildings of every description are generally very bad ; the 

 cottages in particular ; and yet those who have been long ac- 

 customed to these miserable "cabins are said to prefer them to 

 more comfortable dwellings {Jig. 1138.), which, after having 



Wheat, oats, barley, 

 and potatoes are the 

 most common crops. 

 The average produce 

 of wheit is no more 

 than sixteen bushels ; 

 of barley and oats it is 

 about thirty-two bush- 

 els ; and of pota'oes 

 only four tons per acre. 

 Both oxen and hur>es 

 are employed in . la- 

 bour ; the plough is 

 sometimes drawn by 

 only two of either ; in 

 a few instances by two 

 heifers ; yet this and 

 their other implements 

 are not generally of a 

 good construction. The threshing-machine has been in use in 

 this district for about twenty veairs. 



The le/tsei were formerly for thirty-one years, or three lives ; 

 but the more common period of late is twenty -one years, to 

 which the life of the tenant in possession at the end of it is fre- 

 quently added. Some tenants hold for lives renewable for ever, 

 paj ing a renewal fine equal to half a year's vent, or more, on the 

 fall of every life. Modern leases often contain a prohibition 

 against alienating. Nothing is so much complained of among 

 the tenantry as the mode in which tithes are collected. 



There are no considerable manuJUctures, no fisheries, and no 

 minerals worked. 



7870. QUEEN'S COUNTY. 384,000 acres, generally of a level surface, three fourths of which is of a 

 productive soil cultivated, and the rest bog and waste. {Coote^s Agricultural Survey^ 1801. Sup. Encyc. 

 Brit.) 



best farming in Ireland, with much more attention to a s>s- 

 tematic course of cropping, and to keeping the land m good 

 heart. Oxen and horses are used for the plough, the farmer 

 generally preceding the latter. A good deal of cheese is made 

 here for the Dublin market. In other respects the rural eco- 

 nomy of this district does not differ materially from that of the 

 Irish counties already described. 



The manufacturei are linen and coarse woollens, but to no 

 great extent. 



Coal of the Kilkenny kind (7867.) is the only mineral worked; 

 but there is iron ore, freestone, marble, &c. in different parts. 

 The Barrow and Nore are navigable rivers. 



Estates are from 5000Z. to 15,000/. a year, and upwards. 

 Some of the most valuable, having been let on perpetusd leases, 

 afford a large income to the lessees. It is these lessees who 

 form the middle class of gentry, with clear incomes of from 

 100/. to 800/. per annum, obtained from tenants to whom their 

 lands are sublet at rack-rent, and commonly in very small farms. 

 Here, and in King's County, Wakefield observed some of the 



7871. C ARLOW. 220,098 acres, of undulating surface, with some hills and mountains ; the lowlands 

 a fertile loam, and the uplands a light gravel ; one tenth in mountains and bogs. ( Wak^lcfs Statistical 

 Account, 8(c. Young's Tour, S(C. Sup. Encyc. Brit.) 



The minerals are various, but little known. 



There are no large estates in this county; and very little 

 minute description of property. The hiring tenant is generally 

 the occupier, except of small pieces. There are some excellent 

 flocks of long-woolled sheep. Four sheep of the Irish breed 

 and five of the English are called a " collop," and three collops 

 are allotted to two acres of the best land. For its dairies. Car- 

 low is not excelled by any county in Ireland. The farmers 

 spare no trouble or expense to procure good cows. From 

 twenty to fifty are generally kept ; and during the season each 

 f ^ PI'1"'^^> o" *" average, about one hundred weight and a 

 half of butter. The dairy system pursued in Devonshire, Dor- 

 seuhire, and some of the northern counties of Ireland, of letting 

 cows to dairymen, is followed here ; but this custom was more 

 prevalent when the Catholics could not h gaily purchase land, 

 as they then employed their capital in hiring cows. The butter 

 made in Carlow is divided into three sorts, according to its 

 quality. The first in point of quality is sent to Dublin and 

 fcngland, and thence exported to the East and West Indies. 



It is highly esteemed in the London market, where it is often 

 sold as Cambridge butter. That of the second quality = 

 ported to Spain, and the worst to Portugal. 



r . It is all packed in 



Targe casks,Veighing upwjurds of three hundred weight. 



U'here is not much wheat grown, and it is not of a bright 

 colour or very good quality : but the barley of Carlow is excel- 

 lent ; according to Young, the best in Ireland. At the time of 

 his tour it was the only interior county which produced it ; and 

 at present more is grown here than in any other part of the 

 kingdom. It is principally consumed by the illicit distilleries 

 in the north of Ireland, by the breweries at Cork, or by the 

 malting houses at Wexford. The potatoes grown in Carlow 

 are excellent. There is little or no flax. The county is toler- 

 ably wooded. In the vicinity of Carlow a great many onions are 

 grown, which are sold all over Ireland. 



In Carlow, coarse cloth, reaping hooks, scythes, shears, &c. 

 are made. At Leighlinbridge is one of the largest com mills 

 in Ireland, capable of grinding more than 15,000 barrels a 

 year. 



