414 
Illustrations of Irish Farming. 
has reached when it is pulled ; the length of time it remains in 
the " steep-hole," the temperature, and colour or nature of the 
water, &c. ; and ignorance of, or inattention to any material 
point, will result in the price of the scutched flax being reduced 
by Is. to 2s. per stone, which is a serious matter when the 
acreable produce is considered. Farmers in the district about 
<jilasslough are not growing so much flax now as they used to 
<lo, which arises partly from a feeling that the land has been 
overflaxed, and partly owing to the harsh, dry weather which has 
prevailed for some years past in spring and the early part of 
summer. This is supposed, and with justice, to encourage the 
development of the " flax-fly," an insect of much the same kind 
as the turnip-fly, which has proved very destructive, in some 
years, to the flax crop in Ulster. 
Mr. Patton drills all his wheat 10 to 12 inches apart, which 
practice gives him a heavy sound crop, the land being clean and 
in high condition. Seed oats are also drilled, except when sown 
on lea. The produce of the wheat crop is usually 40 cwt. 
per Irish acre, the general average of the district being from 
25 cwt. to 30 cwt. Mr. Patton has had 50 cwt. of oats off the 
Irish acre, the current yield of the district being from 30 cwt. 
to 35 cwt. Mr. Patton has grown the winter dun oat, a variety 
much cultivated in some of the south-eastern counties of Ireland ; 
but although it yielded fairly, he has given it up, as the crop 
•was very apt to be destroyed by wood-pigeons. Swedes and 
other turnips, also mangolds, are grown in drills (ridges) 
30 inches apart and wide thinned. These crops are manured 
■with farmyard dung at the rate of 20 to 25 tons, per imperial acre, 
■assisted with bone manure and guano, say 3 cwt. per imperial 
acre. The weight of swedes has reached 64 tons per Irish 
acre, say 40 tons per imperial acre. All roots are taken up 
during November and the early part of December and stored in 
heaps, which are thatched with straw. The heaps are made in 
the rickyard, to be convenient to the houses. 
About 16 imperial acres of run-out bog, that is, bog-land 
from which most of the peat has been cut away for fuel, have 
been added to the farm. It is usual that land of this description 
is given rent-free for some years, in order to be reclaimed. 
Mr. Patton has been growing potatoes and long red mangolds on 
part of the bog, and has a portion of it in grass, while the 
remainder, the last added, has been levelled and prepared for 
cultivation. 
It has been intimated that Mr. Patton exhibited flax on many 
occasions with success ; he has also been a regular and successful 
■exhibitor of Ayrshire cattle, and of ljutter, and in fact has got 
more prizes than he can enumerate from recollection. Among 
