1204 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Tart IV. 



7888. SLIGO. f97,0r0 acres, a third part bogs, mountains, and waters, and the remainder fit for tillage 

 or grazing. {M' Parian's Survet/ (^ Sli^o, 1802. Wakefield. Sup. Encyc. Brit. Edin. Gax. W21.) 



The soil is generally of a light, sandy, pravelly loam, or 

 moory ; in some parts the lands are rich and fertile, but the 

 ul>soil of a considerable tract is a grey flag, provincially leaclea, 

 unfavourable to vegetation. Numerous streams and lakes ; the 

 wooded islands and scenery around Loush Gill very striking. 

 On the Slieoand Moy, considerable salmon fisheries; trouts 

 abound, and v.hite Hsh on the shorts. 



Estatta of almost every size- A few are worth from 500/. 

 to 9000/. a year ; yet a considerable proportion of the county is 

 divided into small properties. The principal proprietors are 

 absentees. Farms vary in size, from three Irish acres to 500 ; 

 the larger farms, however, are not held by individual tenants, 

 but in partnership. The leases are for thirty-one years and 

 three lives, and, in some instances, for sixty -one years and 

 three lives ; beini;, in general, longer here than in other parts of 

 Ireland. Tillage-farming is still in a very backward state. 

 The plough is worked by three or four horses yoked abreast, 



7887. C AV AN. 499,957 acres, almost entirely covered with hills ; the surface, soil, and climate, being 

 alike bleak and uncomfortable. There are no fewer than 91 bogs, occupying 17,000 acres. {Coote's Sta- 

 tistical Account. Wakefield. Sup. Encyc. Brit. Edin. Gax. 1827.) 



directed by a man who walks backward before them. Oats, 

 barley, and potatoes are the principal crops. Of the two former, 

 a great proportion is consumed in illicit distillation, which, 

 within these few years, was carried on in almost every part 

 of the county. It was to the sale of these spirits that many of 

 the small tenants looked as the means of paying their rents. In 

 some parts, both cattle and sheep are kept in considerable 

 numbers, and a great deal of butter is exported from the town 

 of Sllgo ; but the land occupied in this way bears but a small 

 proportion to the whole ; to grow corn, being the principal 

 object. Limestone and limestone-gravel, which are in abund- 

 ance in most places, are in generaluse as manures ; also marl, 

 and, on the coast, sea-weeds. Among the hills are several 

 large Ukes, and abundance of rivers. 



The manvjiicturet for export are linen, salt, and kelp. 



The cabins, food, fuel, and clothing of the lower classes, seem 

 to be as uncomfortable as in any of the Irish counties. 



Near Famham, the appearance of the country is favourable ; 

 the lakes there are picturesque, and communicate with each 

 other by a river. The fossils are vaiious, but neglected. 



Two estates are of 30,000 and 26,000 acres ; besides these 

 there are none of very great extent. Nearly the whole of the 

 land is under tillage, but the agriculture in every respect is 

 very bad. The size of the farms is from 50 to 100 acres ; but 

 the are generally subdivided into farms of from two to twenty 

 acres, which are re-let to the manufacturers or " cottars," who 

 pay a high rent for them, by means of their other employments. 

 Their principal object is to raise a sufficient quantity of oats 

 and potatoes to feed their femilies, and of flax to give employ- 

 ment to the women and children. Most of the land is dug 

 with the spade, and trenched : where the plough is used, they 

 put three or four horses to it ; and when Young visited the 

 county, he found that all over it the horses were yoked to the 

 ploughs and harrows by the tail ; that practice, however, is 

 now disused. Almost the only grain sown is oats, which are 

 reckoned to be in the proportion of seventy to one, to all other 

 grain ; there is scarcely any wheat. In 1809, there were 4.'500 

 acres of flax, from which 6500 bushels of seed were saved. 



Though the very tops of the hills are tilled, yet it does not ap- 

 pear that this county produces more grain than is necessary for 

 its home consumption ; nor has the bounty on the inland car- 

 riage of com to Dublin, increased the very trifling quantity 

 brought to that market. From the coldness and moisture of 

 the climate, all the com of Cavan is obliged to be kiln-dried. 



The stock-farms generally consist of about 100 or 150 acres, 

 the farmers buy young cattle, and sell them again without fat- 

 tening ; a few, however, fatten bullocks or sheep, but the latter 

 are very poor. There are very few dairy farms, though from 

 these, as they are in the richest parts of the county, a good 

 deal of butter is sent. Many pigs are kept by the cottars ; and 

 near all the cabins are to be seen goats tethered to the tops of 

 the banks, or " ditches," as they are here called, which divide 

 the fields. 



Cavan was formerly celebrated for its extensive woods, and 

 trees of an immense size ; but at present it is, in general, hare 

 of timber, except near Kilmore, Famham, and a few other 

 places. Wakefield remarks, that the ash is confined to parts 

 of the county, and to Tyrone and Fermanagh. 



The linen manufacture Is the staple. . 



7888. FERMANAGH. 450,000 acres, in great 

 surface rugged and mountainous, but better wooded 

 eye. Brit. Edin. Gax. 1827.) 



The ash grows in the hedge-rows ; beeches come to a large 

 size, and also the yew, near Lough Erne ; and fir, oak, and 

 yew are found in the bogs. Thejjrand feature in the natural 

 scenery of this county is Lough Eirne, which occupies about 

 one eighth of the surface, anil contains more than three hun- 

 dred islands. It contains most of the fish that are found in 

 other fresh water lakes, and is noted for its sahnon and eels, 

 particularly the latter. Four of the eel weirs near the falls of 

 Beeleck afford a rent of 100/. each. 



Estates are large; three proprietors mentioned bv Wakefield 

 have 13,000/. a year each, and other three from 6000/. to 7000/. 

 The leases are most commonly for twenty-one years and a life. 

 In the northern part of the county, the farms are larger and 



part covered by water, and much of the rest of the 

 than other parts of Ireland. ( Wakefield. Sup. En- 



more productive than in most other parts of Ulster. Oats, bar- 

 ley, potatoes, and flax are the principal crops : very little wheat, 

 clover, or turnips being cultivated, except in small patches 

 near the towns. The high grounds are chiefly occupied in 

 rearing cattle, and much of the better pastures with dairy 

 stock. There are no large flocks of sheep, and their breed of this 

 animal is of a very inferior description. Agriculture is in a very 

 backward state, and as lately as the year 1808 the peasantry 

 were accustomed to fasten their ploughs to the horses' tails. 



Linen, seven eighths wide, manufectured to some extent ; 

 and there are several bleach-fields, which finish for sale the 

 linens sent to England. Illicit distillation is said to be very 

 general. 



7889. MONAGHAN. 288,500 acres of low grounds, with detached hills, and a considerable space 

 occupied by bogs and small lakes, {Coote's Survey qf Monaghan, 1801. Wakefield. Sup. Encyc. Brit. 

 Edin. Gaz. 1827. 



There are a/fw large estaies,.\m\. the greater part small ones, 

 many of which do not even yield a free incoiiie equal to the or- 

 dinary wagas of labour. A few years ago, there were only 172 

 freeholders of 50/. and upwards, out of nearly 6000 ; most of 

 the considerable proprietors are absentees; and very little of the 

 landed property is in the hands of Catholics. 



Farms were so small a few years ago, as not to average ten 

 Irish acres over' the whole county ; and the management, as 

 might be expected, was exceedingly unskilful and unproduc- 

 tive. The spade was used much more than the plough : the 

 latter being an implement which, with the team required to 

 work it, and the party to attend and direct it, could be brought 

 into action only by the imited eflbrts of several tenants. The 



general term of leases is twenty -one years and a life, or some- 

 times three lives. The principal crops are oats, potatoes, and 

 flax, with wheat and barley in a small proportion ; these last, 

 however, extend over a much greater tract now than they did 

 a few years ago. They make a good deal of butter, but there 

 are no large dairies. Goats are in greater numbers than sheep, 

 which is of itself a sufficient proof of the low state of its agri- 

 culture. 



The linen manufacture is said to have averaged, twenty years 

 ago, about 200,000/. a year. It is carried on by the greater 

 portiomof the inhabitants of both sexes, all tlie small farmers 

 being also weavers. 



7890. TYRONE. 813,440 acres in great part mountainous, and containing, among other mountains, 

 Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, celebrated in song. The territorial value of this inland and northern district 

 is much inferior to that of most others. {M'Evoy's Survey of Tyrone, 1802. Sup. Encyc. Brit.) 



Various valuable/o*ji/j fbund, but not worked : the best pot- 

 tery in Ireland, near Dungannon. Lough Neagh, the largest 

 lake in Ireland, covers 110,000 acres, but is not celebrated for 

 its scenery. 



K slates are of very great extent, many of them worth from 

 5000/. to 7000/. a year, and the productive or arable \ax\d di- 

 vided into very small farms, not often exceeding twenty Irish 

 acres. The chief proprietors are the Marquess of Abercom, 

 Lords Belmore, Northland, and Mountjoy. The leases are for 

 various periods, thirty-one .years and three lives, three lives, 

 and twenty-one years and a life. On some estates the land 

 passes through the hands of middlemen, in portions of various 

 sizes, till it reaches the actual cultivator, for the most part, in 

 very minute subdivisions. It is customary for several persons 

 to be concerned in one townland, which is held in what is 

 called rundale ; the cultivated land being dividetl into shares, 

 which are changed every year, and the cattle pasturing in 

 common a system utterly inconsistent with profitable occupa- 

 tion, or the amelioration of the soil and live stock. The cattle 



7891. DONEGAL. 1,100,000 acres of ragged, boggy, and mountainous surface, with a cold, wet 

 climate, and neither woods nor plantations to shelter from the blast (M'Parlatt's Survey of Donegal, 1802, 

 Wakefield. Sup. Enci/r. Biit) 



and sheep are accordingly of a very inferior description ; and 

 the latter, v\hich are not numerous, may frequently be seen 

 tethered upon the small patches of herbage which are inter- 

 spersed among the shares of these partnerSiip concerns. The 

 tillage land, too, is more frequently stirred with the spade than 

 the plough ; and where a plough is used, the team, con.sisting 

 of horses, bullocks, and even milch cows, must be supplied by 

 the contributions of three or four neighbours, who unite their 

 means for the purpose, each attending the operation, lest his 

 poor animal should have more than his proper share of the la- 

 bour. Potatoes, oats, and flax are the principal crops. 



The linen manufacture is carried on to a great extent, and the 

 potteries and collieries employ a considerable number of 

 hands ; to which we may add illicit distillation, which prevails 

 throughout the north-western counties of Ireland. The food 

 of the lower classes is oatmeal and potatoes ; wheaten bread 

 and butcher -meat never being used but on extraordinary 

 occasions. 



