Irish A(]riculture . 
61 
majority of the districts to which these remarks have reference, 
little or no land is cultivated, except an acre or two for potatoes 
and wheat, or oats. Not an individual is to be seen employed 
in the fields, and the face of the country presents a succession 
of small grass fields, separated from each other by tangled and 
straggling hedgerows. An abundance of rushes shows that the 
thorough drain and its ameliorating influences are unknown ; 
while the thistle and other weeds flourish luxuriantly. Draining, 
in fact, is considered injurious to the land, by taking what 
is called "the sap " out of it ; and the entire system of manage- 
ment is such, that it is probably much the same as that which 
existed in the days when Brian Borou drove the Danes out of 
Ireland. 
The ordinary grass-land is, in most cases, preserved for 
yielding a crop of hay ; but on the banks of the Shannon, and 
other parts of the countv of Limerick, there are extensive tracts 
of rich alluvial soil, locally known as " Corcass " land, which are 
reserved as hay meadows, and mown every year. When a 
farmer who holds "Corcass" land has more than he requires, 
he lets or sells the crop of grass in lots of a rood (Irish) in each 
lot, the purchaser mowing and making the hay, and paying from 
40^. to 50.?., and upwards, per rood for the grass. Until recently, 
those who took these rood lots were frequently persons who did 
not possess a single head of live stock, except, perhaps, a pig. 
Their object in purchasing was to rot the hay, and thus to raise 
a quantity of manure. The hay was put into a hole convenient 
to the " cabin," and all kinds of house slops and refuse were 
thrown over it. In consideration of the manure obtained in this 
manner, farmers in the neighbourhood who cultivated their 
land allowed the possessors to plant potatoes without charging 
for the ground so occupied, or, at least, only a moderate sum. 
This mode of manure - making has, however, become less 
prevalent of late years, owing in a great measure to so many of 
the small and medium class of fanners putting their land into 
grass ; but for the same reason the value of the " Corcass " grass 
lots has been fully maintained, and even enhanced, as those 
farmers have no land fit to produce hay ; and being without 
straw or turnips to fall back upon, they are obliged to depend 
upon a supply of hay from the rich " Corcass " land as winter 
tbod for their cattle. If they grow potatoes, the produce is 
consumed by their families, and any wheat they may have is 
grown for the purpose of turning in a few pounds of ready 
money. 
With respect to the number of stock kept on these dairy farms, 
I find that on one situated near the Shannon, and having a 
portion of "Corcass" land for the production of hay, 38 cows 
