776 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



deU 

 in the 



year aftei ear upon the same Held,' as Wheat : the 

 fact I ing that the 'field' is equally <1 ' . ided (in 



though not in moiety) between the two. 

 ty fi equally' with perfect accuracy, because 

 m ui* iouble-digging, the approach of the spade to 

 he side-rows is nece arily tended two or three 

 inches from the growing plant on both sides, leaving 

 the width actually worked 30 inches, and the width 

 occupied by the crop the same. Peace therefore to 

 the tender "feelings bucolic, that have been shocked 

 from their complacency by an announcement awful 

 to the ears of landlords and agents ! It is, indeed, 

 " Wheat year after year upon the same field " — but 

 net upon the same part of it — in the same garden, 

 but not upon the same beds. 



It might, in fact, be most accurately described as 

 the ' gpade-fallow system' of Wheat growing ; nor 

 do we know any name that would more wisely or 



The attempt to coax 



and inattention.) These rows at harvest appear to 



cover the lohole field, concealing and shading the 



fallow prepared for the next crop, and producing 

 -*•-'•* .... But . .- 



indeed, 

 said about 



%s it, 



34 bushels per acre, without manure. 



without manure ? There was something 

 i ammonia,' and showers, and nightly 

 dews : ample subiect for a chanter to itself. H. 



appropriately distinguish it. m , 



clay soils into a Wort of dream-land of Turnip-hus- 



to treat them, metaphorically as it were, 



as if the drain- 



ban dry 



upon a nearly four-course system _ 



tile had performed the miracle it never promised, of 

 metamorphosing clay into sand, has been one of the 

 hasty r ~ A L ' ~ ~— -'- \ 1 r ' r i -^ 



Clay, though drained, is 



texture, 



are beginning to find out. 



still clay, greatly improved indeed ___ , 



character, and capability; but its distinctive fea- 

 tures must still be borne in view, and treated 

 accordingly ; and those whose ambition for the 

 practice of a 'gentlemanly soil' persists in thus 

 mistaking on for Valentine, will find that in 

 snapping at the shadow of light-soil practice they 

 are sacrificing the substance — the genius of the clay, 

 which light soils possess not, nor (with improved 

 mechanical treatment of the clays) anything which 

 ift fully its equivalent. 



The chemical superiority of the aluminous over 

 the silicious soils, the whole evidence of the Labora- 

 tory has incontestibly proved. The drawback to its 

 attestation in the field is simply a mechanical one. 

 The drain-tile has done much: that clever little 

 red-jacketed brigade of " tappers and miners," 

 working under ground, has opened the passage : but 

 the main body of that force that shall complete the 

 conquest of the clays is not yet come up, the cam- 

 paign scarcely opened. That at 



U'heat— their staple produce— the plough 

 pay upon the clays, is the common complaint of 

 the time. Such is the figurative language used ; is 

 it not significant ? Let us look at the proposition 

 again. ' On clay soils, at low prices, the plough does 

 not pay.' Admitted, that chemically they are by far 

 the richest,— that their power to absorb and retain 

 volatile organic manures, the ammonia of the atmo- 

 sphere, for instance, is incomparably greater, and 

 that they are by far the richest storehouse of the 

 mineral elements of fertility; yet, in spite of all this, 

 at low prices, the clay soils, par excellence, do not 

 pay under the plough. What is the conclusion ? 



ill known yet 

 own importance, to keep the 



No implement does this 



P 



sent prices of 



does not 



In farming light soils, it is 



land as solid as possible. _, ■■„-„„ ** uco Wli5 



better than the plough; by f£T?evjr ."nlta^.S 

 necessity of its action, it presses down the under- 

 soil with exactly the stress by which it lifts and 

 turns the upper. The spade does just the reverse ; 

 it lightens everything it touches. Even in double- 

 digging, it throws the subsoil so lightly over the soil 

 that -the atmospheric influences of every season are 

 freely admitted. The Autumn rains, the frosts and 

 thaws of ^ Winter binding and loosening alternately, 

 the powdering winds of March, the nieltinr - 1 — — 

 ot April, the genial warmth of Summer, 



" THE IRISH EXODUS;' 



I have read with some interest, considerable surprise, 

 and deep regret, your various articles approving of, nay 

 urging on emigration, as the principal if not the only 

 panacea for Irish distress. With surprise that you 

 should be so far in the dark, not only as regards the 

 interests of Ireland, but the sovereignty of Great 

 Britain ; and with regret that you should persevere in 

 promulgating such views, with so many facts negativing 

 all your assertions — facts patent to all sensible men but 

 yourself. As my friend Mr. Goodiff appears, according 

 to your notice, to have failed to convince you of the 

 erroneousness of your views in this respect, I shall not 

 trench on his mode of handling the subject ; but I will, 

 with your permission, give you a few r facts, as rather 

 irreconcileable with your oft-repeated views on Irish 

 emigration. 



It is a fact that Ireland, from time immemorial, has 

 been not only the nursery but the draw-farm of Eng- 

 land, in filling the ranks of her armies and manning 

 her fleets, without which she never could have become 

 what she is said to be, the mistress of the world. Is 

 she now independent of Ireland in these respects ? I 

 rather think not. It is a fact that Irishmen, and Irish- 

 women too, have, in all their poverty, added consider- 

 ably to the revenue of England. Can the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, with all his boastings, afford to dispense 

 with such trifling aids ? I fear not ; and if he can, he 

 can very well afford to lighten the burdens of which 

 England now so loudly and so justly complains. It is 

 a fact that Irishmen and Irishwomen have, in all their 

 poverty, been pretty good customers to your English 

 manufacturers. Are these manufacturers now so well 

 supplied with markets and consumers elsewhere as to be 

 regardless of their Irish customers i The commercial 

 travellers will, I think, say no. And if such facts be 

 admitted, and no sane man in Ireland, nor many in 

 England doubt them; and that emigration continues so as 

 that her lands may be all employed in the feeding of 

 stock suited to them, but on which now there are^ in 

 many places, none. 



Will the short -horns of Kildare, the long-horns of 

 Limerick,the Leicester sheep of Roscommon, the cheviots 

 on the varior s high pastures, the mountain cows in Kerry, 

 the ponies in Cashindal or Connemara, or the goats in 

 Donegal, fill the ranks in jour army, man your fleets, 

 and consume excisable and manufactured articles ? If 

 they do, by ail means have them, and let Irishmen and 

 Irishwomen go to the Americans, who want them, and 

 who will, sooner or later, use them perhaps in the 

 very overthrow of England, whose greatness you would 

 uphold by Irish emigration. 



You have been rather unfortunate— and you will, I 

 hope excuse my saying so-in introducing the name of 

 Sir Robert Kane in furtherance of your emi^ation 

 scheme, as his life and writings are, of all others, the 

 most opposed to such systems, or the consolidation of 

 farms. If you or any of your readers doubt this, please 

 turn to chapter viii., pp. 309— 11, in a word, read the 

 whole work, second edition, " Industrial Resources of 

 Ireland, ' and in it will be found the root of Irish mis- 

 fortunes. At pp. 40G and 407 he says, « So far from ! 



nearly 100,0 OWe^theT^o^^ 

 resident in England. For twoVe " £f^P^ 

 down here I had been employed on Sat ££ * ' 

 mg lands between landlord and tent ^^7 

 tending improvements in the same • and T? ****** 

 you that there is not in all Ireland, nor piw?° W *" 

 parts of England or Scotland either Zh 1 * ^J 

 rents than on it. There is not on it wer lo? pai( H> 

 could average 50 acres each, and the only Z^ M 

 tenanted were some two or three of the«P 41 8 * 

 best lands on the property, and would be 1p ? ?h 

 rent, if suitable tenants could be got for th * 

 is not on the entire property 12 ploughs i«m 

 12 carts ; no nor 12 horses worthy f the na **> 



bv the encouragement of prmo™*;^ A . • ame - Is k 



the 

 fair 



T 



s 



the 



of 



is oy a course the very opposite to this It is h i " 

 the people on the land, through a pretty fair in f P " 

 of justice, and by whom is this instalment "ofT?" 011 

 landlord and tenant doled out ? Directly 1 to 



man, the principal agent, and indirectly bv LV 01 "* 

 both Englishmen, but long enough in IrelJf, T 

 it and its wants, with the means rfw JSl? D ° W 

 to a great extent by its own people, t&mghtoZT* 

 -ources ; and still better could they sunnlv tiJ T J* 

 he bad laws of which Mr. Goodiff Xly\" *.*» 

 and which you seem so much to admire. u P Jam $> 



Come back with me now from the miserable cctmtv 

 Mayo where rents are so well paid by the pS 

 kept on the land, and on passing through the rich l£ 

 of Roscommon, you will find the large lirrms from which 

 the people were driven, or on which they were stmed 

 out, and what shall we find ? Deserts on the finest land 

 in Great Britain, the late haunts of the " Terrv Vlt " 

 and the "Molly McCuire," with an odd English & w 

 to the east having got that encouragement so Ion" denied 

 poor Paddy, by having good homesteads prepared for 

 them, as in duty bound, by their landlords, and their rents 

 lowered to a tolerably fair standard, by good agents ap- 

 pointed also too late. D 



Will those Englishmen continue to pay their n = ! 

 I fear not, whilst the Poor-law bastilles of Castlerea and 

 Roscommon are filled to over-flowing by idle, able-bodied 

 paupers, who should, could, and would support them- 

 selves, as I have so often shown, and as Mr. Goodiff has 

 shown too, if the Government of which he complains 

 would only permit them to do so. 



Come on into the county of Longford, where you will 

 find Mr. Goodiff himself, not " one of those querulous 

 Irishmen who carp at everything, and think a Govern- 

 ment is fully equal to the task of warding off those evils 

 which are the consequences of their own misdeeds, or 

 negligence, or selfishness," but a mild, unassuming, per- 

 severing, industrious, upright Englishmen ; showing by 

 his example, as far as permitted, what all eould do *if 

 their rulers would let them." Come on again through 

 the county of Westmeath, or King's county, where you 

 will meet long-established and industrious Scotch 

 farmers, and ask them is emigration the panacea of Ire- 

 land, which they would honestly advise ? And I rather 

 suspect they'll answer in the negative. Come on still 

 through Kildare, now said to be "in a transition state," 

 between out-going Irish, and in-coming Scotch tenant?. 

 Enquire if the latter, in the well-arranged homesteads, 

 at the landlord's expense (a thing always denied Paddy) 

 are paying as high rents as some Paddies are paying be- 

 side them. If I am not much mistaken, you'll find that 

 some of them have, Ij t Hibern os Ilibcmiores, gone "and 

 left the key under the door." And now that I have got you 

 so near me, may I ask you to come down and * take 

 potluck" with me here, and I will show you, even in this 



attack 



-each in 

 n irresistibly 

 With the aid 



persuasive succession, on the clays. 



caked W J^ ht S ° Uffl i ngS in the S *™S> t0 6hatte «- ^e 



Softer ea rth e % an i le -° pen the thirst y P° re * of 



2 Trd 'ftp t a " m ° nia that falj * in e ™7 

 it X e h? Juh lm P° rtail t *% portion of 



miotic S \J I T Ty rr* 8 ' 8 dew (sagely 

 ft^frn^ fallo * ln g as tins, who that knows anv- 



SitntL of^ f d in , telli S ent ex P erie * ce of the 



?a2 Jf ^ SUbS0i1 ' Wil1 refase t0 tr«st it 

 as a seea-bect tor next vonr' t . Wk™.*. ^ ,, 



rich tonsnil l,,rV?n^. ar .^ TUe ? tc £°P; wlth the 



success ; and hence their wish now to emigrate, because 

 the British Government will not enact eucli laws as will 

 protect them, not against foreign competition, buta/rainst 

 those idle vagabonds to whom you allude, but made so 

 by bad laws, which you, Sir Robert Kane, and all 

 honest men, exclaim against— the very graziers to 

 which, inconsistently enough, you would assign the 

 ands, by extirpating the legitimate occupants. Hut 

 hear Sir Robert Kane a little further. « We were reck- 

 less, ignorant, improvident, drunken, idle. We were 

 idle for we had nothing to do j we were reckless, for 

 we had no hope ; we were ignorant, for learning was 

 denied us ; we were improvident, for we had no future • 

 we were drunken, for we sought to forget our misery! 

 That time has passed for ever." So it has, and Irishmen 

 will pass away, too, if you write a line to urge the 



an uwt , ****~ — 



small farmers still struggle, where ^J 1 



mitted to stay, paving from 10s. to 155. an acre. W«tt 

 these facts staring you in the face, and " a tliousana 

 and one " others which I can adduce, will you persevere 

 in recommending that as a benefit w&ieh e\ery 

 other wise and impartial man must now cry <£* 

 as a curse to the country generally, though it may ' «* 

 a benefit to the individuals who may be fortnnate eno«^ 

 to escape from a country so badly governed as a ^ ^ 

 of all parties and all creeds now proclaim tins • 



If you do, then it will be said, and I *ou ld re ^ t 

 hear it said, you will stand solus at the press ^iJJJd. 

 those who value the stability of the throne ot i^S 

 Edward Carroll, Ben Erin, Castlebridge, WeW a - 



of sustenance ? ^ re most m need 



„ & ......j 1J.UJJ1 una Juily 



great bark, leaving the boat 



the 



Who that has thus made trial o 

 enters his verdict against it 1 



facally tried for six years 



between I! SSlE? tt ^ aS deSCribed 



bear the growing corn. 



repetition ~* 



'/ 'the nasty stuff,' 



It has bet,, systema- 



wtn umaryinQ success. 



the 

 (To call this 



rows which 



EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS *M*™c 



THE CULTIVATION OF POTATObb. 

 Although I do not pretend to be a prufiewn. t ^ 

 art of fanning, and understand but ^F^^nre 

 science of agricultural chemistry ; yet takul °, a ( L'from 

 in testing, upon a small scale, the effects V I0 f^ ^ 

 the application of sundry of the various substa ^ 

 have of late vears been introduced to public no j 



the 



who 



«„u T " c " u °uwe-dug, and s 

 8X11,8011 mo * than any man, is mer 



ignorance 



.„.-, to s 'nk and the bark in 



uaugw oi following her. I think I hear you, whilst 

 reading tins, exclaim, « Oh, these unhappy Irish have 

 now the fountains of education open to them, but they 



^but'^^iS^f* JS e , ?* ' V0U ' if ? on »7 I creasing the return oi our usuan, - ^ 



^Si^^^JS^J^^r^^^^ 00 * *™t*»tl ™y not be considered over-presun.^^ 

 ^dZomhl^J^rt*^^-l n0i ^^^i in submitting, through your excellent « 

 ^^6f£fcS^*1h5S' ?£.£?* taste of J°« rnal > ^«l' 1 7W deem it sufficiently *-,- 



you or ,£ to ^ ouch x-on A 1 hC , k,,Sh f ° r either ! F*H* *» therein, the results I have acqu.n 



f I0 tou c» upon. All your readers mnqt Uvo ' * • — - - ■ ■•- - Al ^ * AI,ta 



Z S? ° f *" Wl > ^ having J pIaC ed tfore the m «" 

 dark sxde of the picture of the West of Ireland without 

 ever gett ing as much „, a tnie sketch ^ J « 



durin^ 



researches. 



Having measured off an acre and a 



teresting » 



ed in & 



course of *1 



i 



going to prove. 



I am now 



of a si \ acre 



_ __ half in the centre 



ferrtf 



garW 



soil, very much out of condition, with •£**£ ve iloW 



• - - — — J white ana j { 



ginous clay, soft red sandstone, and 



unde 



which was 



cro 



PP^ 



















