442 Past and Prcsoit State of AgricuUnre in Ireland. 
poverty mitrlit be the {greater need tliey had of some means to 
l)etter tlicir circumstances, it was found impossible to extract 
from them any other r(>ply. As my readers may have some curi- 
osity to form an opinion of their own upon the pamphlet here 
alluded to. I venture to make the following extract upon the 
subject of manure for their perusal : — 
Extract from an E^my on the Improvement, to he made in the Cultiva- 
tion of Small Farm-, addressed to the Tenants on the Estates of the 
Earl of Gosford and Colonel Close, in the Count// of Armagh. By 
William Blackeu, Esq.* 
" Tlie only way, in my mind, to accomplish this, Is, by introducing such 
a system of agriculture as would bring the entire of the small farmers' 
holdings into a productive state, in place of allowing- nearly half their 
farms to remain nominally in grazing, but in reality producing nothing ; 
and as this cannot be done witlioiu manure, and manure cannot be had 
without stock, the consideration naturallv arises, How can the greatest 
fjuantity of stock be most economically maintained, and imder what 
management can the largest quantity of manure be derived there- 
Irom ? 
" Now, by referring to tlie experience of all good farmers, in all 
countries, and under all circumstances, it is ascertained beyond dispute 
that by the practice of sowing green crops, such as clover and rye- 
grass, winter aiid spring vetches, turnijjs, mangel-wurzel, &c., tlie 
same ground which in ])oor pasture would scarcely feed one cow in 
summer would, under the crops mentioned, feed three or perhaps four 
the whole year round, by keeping the cattle in the house, and bringing 
the food there to them ; anil the manure produced by one of these cows 
so fed and well bedded, with the straw saved by the supply of better 
food, would be more than ecpial to that produced by three cows pa^turcrl 
in summer and fed in winter upon dry straw or hay, and badly littered. 
Here then are two assertions well wortiiy your serious attention — first, 
that three cows may be provided with food in the house all the year 
from the same quantity of ground whicli will scarcely feed one under 
jiasture for the summer; and secondly, that one cow so fed in the house 
wdl give as much manure as three fed in the field. I call these im- 
portant assertions ; for if tjiey are really founded in fact, then any of you 
who may now be only able to keep one cow would, by changing his plan, be 
able to keep three, and each one of these producing as much manure as 
tiirce fed in the way you have hitherto been accustomed to adojjt, the 
result would be that you would have nine times as mucli manure by 
the new method as you have hitherto had by the old. Now, as I do not 
think there can be a single individual among you so blind as not to see 
at once the great advantage it would be to have such an immense addi- 
tion to his manure-heaj), it appears to me that the best tiling I can do is, 
in the first instance, to endeavour to impress firmly upon your minds 
tlie conviction that this fact, so much entitled to your attention, and 
yet so little attended to, is in reality a truth that may be relied on, and 
* Groombridge, Panyer-alley, Paternoster-row. 
