Liijlit-Lai.d Farming. 
95 
get foul or the jjrass becomes tliin, and it is only retained under 
the plough until it has been sufhciently cleaned and enriched by 
turnip husbandry to be fit for producing good pasture. 
Many of the light soils of Ireland are similar to those of 
England and Scotland, but there are in that country some more 
extensive developments of limestcme gravel and peat moss. 
The light land of the mountain limestone is naturally fertile and 
highly productive of grass roots and turnips. The whole of the 
central part of Ireland is situated on this formation ; and although 
much of the soil is strong and retentive, there is a considerable 
proportion of light land well adapted for turnips. The aspect 
of the formation is mostly level or gently undulating. The 
lighter portions are composed of a brownish earth mixed with 
small stones which are solid carbonate of lime, which however 
do not readily moulder away ; and hence an application of hot 
or burnt lime is necessary in order to bring out the fertility of 
the soil. The light land on the limestone rock is not nearly so 
easily injured by drouglit as that on the traps or sandstones : it is 
therefore easily improved by pasturage after having been limed 
and drained where necessary. 
The only other light soil that remains to be noticed, without 
carrying these remarks to an inconvenient length, is one very 
extensively prevalent in Ireland, viz., that composed of bog- 
earth. Similar soils are to be found in Scotland and England, 
but not to the same extent as in the sister country. The fens of 
Lincoln and several other counties, although originally of a peaty 
nature, have been so much altered in their texture and agricul- 
tural character by repeated doses of clay marl, that they have 
not been considered as coming within the scope of an essay 
specially devoted to light-land farming. 
The peaty soils of Ireland vary in texture from the merest 
congeries of vegetable fibre up through different stages of decom- 
position and intermixture with other substances, to a soft black 
mould, in which the decomposition is so complete as to have 
caused the fibre to disappear and become blended with the soil. 
The first step in the process of converting the former into the 
latter is to remove all stagnant water ; the second is to get rid of 
the surface-growth by paring and burning, or by taking a crop of 
spade-cultivated potatoes ; the third is to apply a dose of lime; 
and the fourth is to mix the surface-soil with clay or sand to 
give it a proper consistency. There are few farms altogether 
composed of peat, and if the other portions contain limestone, 
gravel, or clay of any description, the improvement of the former 
can be the more easily effected. 
In contrasting and comparing the different soils brought under 
review, there are certain points in which a strong resemblance, 
