Illustrations of Irish Farming. 
403 
grass seeds are sown. This is a short rotation, but it puts the 
land into great heart. In other cases the rotation is oats after 
lea, turnips, &c., barley or oats followed by two or three years 
pasture. That part of the turnip crop reserved for cattle is stored 
during December, in large triangular heaps covered with straw 
at the farmsteads. In 1871, Mr. Simson grew some sugar beet 
with the intention of trying its value as food for fattening 
cattle. The crop was very satisfactory as to weight, and the 
roots were evidently full of saccharine matter. They kept re- 
markably well into spring, and were found to answer well for 
fattening. 
The variety of wheat grown at Cloona Castle is Grace's 
Champion. The average yield is 1 ton, or say 36 bushels per 
statute acre, the weight per bushel being usually from 62 lbs. to 
64 lbs. Mr. Simson's wheat is much liked by the millers who 
have been in the habit of getting it, and invariably commands 
the highest price going at the time, the quality being very fine. 
Oats and barley also generally yield each about a ton per acre. 
Black or speckled oats succeed better than the white varieties. 
The oats weigh 42 lbs., and the barley 56 to 58 lbs. per bushel. 
The cereal produce is, therefore, somewhat under that of high- 
farmed land in Scotland or England, and this may be owing 
partly to a want of sunshine, but a hot bright sun is injurious 
to grain grown on limestone soils, as the crops ripen too rapidly 
under such circumstances. On the other hand, the turnip crop 
benefits by the want of bright sunshine, and more than com- 
^^ensates for the comparative inferiority of yield in the cereals ; 
lor the produce of an acre of turnips in Ireland, when properly 
cultivated, is heavier than in Great Britain, the turnip crop on 
Mr. Simson's farm being generally from 35 to 40 tons an acre. 
I may mention, in connection Avith this point, that Mr. Simson 
has won two cups in " All Ireland Competitions " for the best 
turnips; one being a 50/. cup or first prize, and the other -a 
40Z. cup, representing second prize for the best 10 acres of 
swedes. Mr. Simson considers that to grow a heavy crop of 
turnips on such land as he occupies, the crop should not come 
oftener than once in six or seven years. 
The grass seeds used by Mr. Simson are, per statute acre, 3 lbs. 
Alsike clover, 2 lbs. red clover, 2 lbs. yellow clover, 2 lbs. white 
clover, 1 lb. of cow-grass, 4 lbs. timothy, 4 lbs. cocksfoot, with 
sufficient quantities of perennial and Italian rye-grass. 
The farm presents a complete illustration of that system of 
combined tillage farming with stock rearing and feeding, which 
it is so desirable should be extended in Ireland. The inter- 
mixture of corn, cattle, and sheep makes the yearly returns very 
VOL. IX. — S. S. 2 E 
