72 Exuberant Fertility of Ireland. 



and Ireland would be the delight of all be- 

 holders. 



For two or three miles before we reached the 

 Royal Oak, we had on our right a great range 

 of meadows extending to the river. We were 

 surprised to see the grass on some of them un- 

 cut the want of fodder had compelled the oc- 

 cupiers to depasture the meadows so late that 

 they had not yet been able to mow. If an 

 argument in favour of cultivating green crops 

 could by possibility be wanting, this fact would 

 furnish one that must be admitted as conclusive. 

 To succeed in the growth of green crops, the 

 farmer here must be able to create a supply of 

 manure beyond what is required for his po- 

 tatoes. The knowledge, that, by the ashes ob- 

 tained from burning the surface, turnips may be 

 produced, does not appear to have reached this 

 quarter ; or if it be arrived, it is unpractised. 

 The exuberant fertility of the soil in Ireland 

 enables the husbandman to proceed in a man- 

 ner, which, if pursued in England, would long 

 ago have made that garden a desert. A cen- 

 tury ago Swift complained of the ruinous cus- 

 tom of over cropping ; in later times, it has 

 been carried to an extent far exceeding the 

 practice of his days ; and, though still persisted 

 in, there is no deficiency of produce. 



