30 
Irish Agriculture. 
are quite content to pay high prices for the same, although thev 
might easily have them on their own farms. 
It will be observed that bare fallow occupies a small per- 
centage of the land in cultivation as given in Table V. (p. 22). 
It seems strange to sav at the present dav, that the bare fallows 
which enter into the Registrar-General's annual returns are 
caused chiefly by the want of manure on the farms where this 
sy stem is practised. Few turnips, or rather none, are grown on 
such farms, although their consumption by cattle would produce 
dung ; the straw as well as the grain is sold ; no town manure 
can be obtained ; and there is literally nothing whatever to assist 
the soil, exhausted bv previous over-cropping, except the ameli- 
orating influences of the atmosphere upon the bare surface during 
the fallow year. Fallow, wheat, and oats for a series of years, 
appears to be the course of cropping in such cases ; and when 
manure is applied to the fallow — which is not alwavs the rule — 
it usually consists of some earth from the headlands, mixed with 
a little lime. Even the summer working of the fallows, upon 
which the effects of that operation so much depend, is not usually 
carried on as it should be done. It is frequently the end of June 
before a plough is put into the land to give it a second furrow, 
and sometimes it looks at that time of the year as if it had not 
been ploughed before or during winter. It is a poor system 
altogether ; and the fact that tolerable crops are produced after 
it speaks more for the natural fertility of the soil than the judi- 
ciousness of the mode of cultivation w hich is followed. 
In certain wheat-growing districts in County Kilkenny, a 
practice of growing wheat for several years in succession has 
prevailed for a long time, the land being limed at least every 
alternate year, and in many instances every year. Sometimes 
a crop of potatoes intervenes, but this is not the rule in all cases. 
Fields w hich have undergone a long course of this treatment do 
not turn out satisfactorily when laid down to grass, having usually 
as pasture a burnt-up and barren appearance. At the same time, 
the luxuriant growth of natural grasses which may be observed 
in corners, or other spots which have not been cultivated, shows 
plainly that the land would have produced good pasture if it had 
been properly treated. The soil in the district referred to is 
naturally a limestone soil. 
Neglect of weeding has also been mentioned as one of " the 
most glaring defects " in ordinary cultivation, as pursued in 
Ireland. This fact strikes every stranger who looks at matters 
with the eye of a trained agriculturist. The late Mr. Edward 
Carroll, an Irish writer on agricultural subjects of long experience, 
published a statement a few years ago, to the effect that he had 
had t!ie curiosity to weigh l)oth tl)e weeds and potatoes produced 
