Another thing to be considered is exposure. The face of a hill or mountain looking towards the south, will certainly enjoy a greater degree of warmth, and be more favourable to vegetation than one which looks directly north, and which, of course, must receive less benefit from the vivifying influence of the solar rays. The sides of a mountain, also, which is turned from the prevailing winds of the country, will, in some measure be different from one, the aspect of which is in a contrary direction. The third and last thing is the steepness or declivity of the hill,* which, according to its angle of elevation, will require more or less labour to be brought into a state of cultivation.

I trust I shall be forgiven the intrusion of these general remarks upon a subject so intimately connected with national improvement; for there is no part of rural economy which has a stronger claim to the serious consideration of the proprietors of estates in Ireland. In that country there are many thousand acres of mountain land, which are left nearly in a state of waste, maintaining a few wretched halfstarved cattle;+ but it is necessary to observe, that in regard to their improvement, much must depend there, as in other countries, upon the nature of the mountain, as to climate, soil, and situation. Under the term soil, I include sub-soil as well as the upper stratum; and by situation, I mean contiguity to water and fuel. I cannot believe that improvement will be effected in all mountain estates by adhering to the same principles, or pursuing one uniform plan of operations. In the north and north-west, I could scarcely discover traces of any attempt being made to produce a change in the state or appearance of the Irish mountains; but on proceeding to the south I was agreeably surprised to find that this system was pursued upon a grand scale by Mr. French, of French Park, in the county of Roscommon, and I found that the improvements made were in part the effect of superior population. SEPT. 19th, 1809. FRENCH-PARK. ROSCOMMON.-Rode this day to see some experiments lately made in the mountains. Mr. French lets his land rent free for the first seven years, and allows the tenants timber to build cabins. If his land in the course of that period have been brought to a state of cultivation, he grants a lease for the life of the improver, at the rate of fifteen shillings per acre. This land, though called mountain, is not so in height; it is covered with a stratum of bog soil of various thickness, which produces a most luxuriant heath. Where the bog is deep it is cut out for fuel, and the same process is then pursued as on the rest of the land.

* Mr. Kirwan says, that the direction of most mountains is from east to west; and that the south and south-east are the steepest. Irish Transact. vol. viii. p. 37.

Mr. Bergman says, that the western flank is the steepest, and the eastern the gentlest, in those mountains which extend from north to south. Bergm. Erdeklotet, vol. ii. p. 187. Buffon states the same thing of the Cordilleras, vol. i. p. 181.

+ Mr. Townsend's account of the "hirelings," in the southern mountains, is not much better, Survey of Cork, p. 312.

gra

Where it is not more than twelve inches deep, the immediate sub-soil is a hard clay, called by the Irish lack-lea; but the poor, I believe, give it the name of flag; like all other kinds of clay it is not permeable to water; and this, perhaps, will account for the bog which is above it. The bog and lack-lea are dug up into ridges; the latter extends to the depth of about six inches, and its substratum is limestone vel, which is ultimately thrown up and spread out over the land. All this is done in the course of one summer, and the following spring the ridges are inverted, and the land for two successive years is planted with potatoes. It is then sown with oats, and laid down with grass-seeds. I saw some patches, which had been subjected to this course, clothed with a very good sward. Mr. French proceeds in this way on a very extensive scale. Some of the land he is improving on his own. account, in order that he may plant it with trees, and according to the calcula tion he has made, it will cost him four pounds per acre. I forgot to mention, that the heath-bog, and lack-lea, in digging, are both turned in together. The sight of these labours were to me highly gratifying, as they afforded a proof how much might be effected on the thousands of acres I had seen of the same kind of land during the course of a few months before.

The most important operation in this improvement is the digging, which is carried to the depth of eighteen inches; twelve of these consist of soil so impregnated with water, that it produces nothing but bog, and therefore it offers little resistance to any force applied to it. The other six inches are of a very different nature; the stratum they form prevents the water from sinking into its natural bed; and by these means the soil at the surface is completely spoiled. The soil, however, below these affords on the spot most excellent matter for the general amelioration of the whole. In such land, improvement may be effected at a very trifling expense, if the bog or top soil were ploughed by a common two-horse plough, furnished with a share remarkably sharp to cut the roots of the heath, the horses being shod with wooden shoes, as is common in Cambridgeshire, or with pattens, as used at Chat Moss in Lancashire; these animals would easily walk over bog-land of so little depth as that to which I allude. After this I would use another plough drawn by horses lengthways, in the same manner as when land in Suffolk is ploughed for carrots, which is called double furrowing; the horses in the second plough might be shod in the com mon manner. By this process the lack-lea would be turned up with great ease and expedition; but unless I saw it tried, I cannot determine whether it would require the chisel-pointed sock, so frequently applied to the turn-wrest plough in Kent, or the long pointed share which is found so useful in getting up the flints in Hertfordshire. By two ploughs employed in this manner, the land might with great ease be thrown into high ridges, which would allow the whole to drain. Much attention, however, would be required in laying out water-furrows to carry off the water at the surface, and in digging ditches to convey it finally from the estate. Ac

cording to the present system, this land is brought into cultivation by the hand of man in a very slow manner; whereas, if horses were applied under judicious management, more might be effected in a week, than is done in a whole summer. The expense, also, including the keep of these animals for a year, with the cost of ploughs, and proper buildings to put them under, would in the end be less. I never saw a spot so totally useless, yet so capable of producing a large rent, as the land I examined at this place. I do not, indeed, consider it as very different from a quarter, at least, of that which I observed in Connaught; but having had an opportunity of exploring the depth of the various strata, I have accurately ascertained, that by a proper application of the common knowledge of agriculture, astonishing improvements might be made throughout the whole country.

But least I should have said in this account too much in favour of mountain population, I request the reader to attend to the following, which I copy from Dr. M'Parlan's Survey of Leitrim, and of the truth of which I entertain no doubt: "drive swarms of unfortunate beings to barren skirts, and into the black bogs and mountains, where eventually they must reclaim them or die-it does, no doubt;-but under what circumstances? In these bogs they reluctantly throw up a kraal-like hovel, and spiritless and comfortless, unexperienced and untaught, they dig, and work out a halfstarved existence, while the wet and filth of the half-open, half-thatched hovel, produce colds, rheumatisms, fevers, &c. Two-thirds of the family obtain the wishedfor grave, and the remaining third, squalid, emaciated, and disabled by consumptions and rheumatisms, wander out the remainder of existence in beggary and pain. I speak from facts to which I have been too often a witness."* This is the account given by an Irishman; and can any increase of rent obtained by a landlord be set against such an accumulation of human misery? Irish landlords, read it; and consider it well, before you call colonies of mountain beggars, mountain improvement. No: if mountains can be improved, if rent is to be increased, without contemning the happiness of our species; to effect the one without the other, is ungenerous; but to accomplish both at the same time you must know something of the means, and of those enlightened principles which create them.

In Kerry and Cork, it is evident that climate has a very powerful effect, as a great deal of butter is produced in the mountains; but in Waterford, it occurred to me, that the amelioration of such land is not to be effected by a very great population; and I was confirmed in this opinion when I visited Mr. R. St. George, the great improver in the county of Kilkenny. This gentleman has found that the only means of making this land productive, is to get rid of the people. As his principle was curious, I wrote down the heads of his system; but having found, since my return to England, that an account of his improvements has been given by Mr. Tighe.+ + Survey of Kilkenny, p. 283.

→ M'Parlan's Survey of Leitrim, p. 83.

I shall transcribe what he has said, being convinced that I can neither add to it, nor render it better by any alteration I could make. "When old worn-out cosheers come into the hands of a good farmer, he will be obliged to fallow in general, to destroy weeds. For the following hints on the mode of reclaiming such grounds, I am indebted to Mr. Robert St. George. "If manure is to be bought in town at a convenient distance, the improvement may be easy and cheap, by ploughing and turning out a sufficient quantity for drill-potatoes, turnips and rape, in broadcast and drill, supposing the land to have been in poor stubbles: other parts in worn-out cosheers may be fallowed regularly, and the same course as the former followed in the next year; liming with a hundred barrels, and laying all down with wheat and barley; the potatoe land answering well for wheat, the turnip and rape ground for barley and grass seeds, harrowed in with a light harrow and rolled."

"If a worn-out cold clay on a slate, or over strong loamy gravel, is the subject, I would fallow for a year, and destroy all weeds; then lay on from one hundred to two hundred barrels of roach-lime to the acre; plough it in lightly in a month or two after; mix it with the soil with a scuffler, or a harrow, sowing such a crop, of barley, or oats, as the situation of the land points out; or, as the object is to improve and not to exhaust, sow rape with grass seeds and a few pounds of white clover to the acre, feeding sheep on the rape as soon as the grass begins to cover the ground. I would put a layer of putrefied dung on all exhausted land, if possible to be got; as lime will, with its assistance, serve the land much more than without it, particularly on light gravelly soil. If old ditches are to be had, turn them with the spade, and shovel into such form as the plough can fallow them, for a year at least, mixing them with roach-lime and dung (without the latter the old ditches may in general have better stood for shelter); laying out this compost on the new laid down ground, after mowing the first crop, will serve the land much. Much manure may be made on all farms, particularly where the enclosures are small, by cleaning, dykes, and by ploughing the head-lands adjoining the walls and ditches, about twelve feet wide, ploughing the roach-lime thick; and, if convenient, dunging them in some time after, when the lime has been slacked by the clay: in meadows, or corn fields, these may be planted with potatoes, with a line in rows, hoeing them into drills at three feet and a half distance; an easy and profitable mode of fertilizing and mixing the head-lands: in other cases they may be fallowed, and the sheep will like to lie on them; the clay and the lime will assist in keeping their feet from lameness. Cast this out in winter, and slope the head-land to the ditch; the shelter will attract the stock to the head-land, and the plough will carry in more clay, which in time will enrich it again, and the same course may be pursued.

“The following is the system which Mr. St. George has pursued in his farm of Belief. Having taken this land into his hands mostly in a worn-out condition,

except a small part in old ley, his practice has been fallowing a part (not having any manure on entering on the farm, and the land being over-run with couch grass) and laying it down with one crop of corn, barley, and oats, two bushels of rye graas, and ten pounds of red clover to the acre. Other parts in rather better condition, though still very poor cosheers, have been ploughed up evenly, and let out with rye-grass seeds, on one ploughing and harrowing, and are to remain so till it is convenient to put them into a regular course of tillage. This practice pays well for the expense of ploughing and seeds, by feeding a few stock, where before there had been but about one-fourth in quantity, of the worst kind of food: a part of the poorest and dirtiest was limed on the surface, then trench-ploughed, to prevent the air from coming at the weeds, the lime putrefying them and converting into manure; then let out with rape and grass seeds to feed sheep. Some head-lands have been limed and dunged, and potatoes planted in drills, the dykes scoured, and the banks of the ditches thrown in, which, when sufficiently rotted, will be turned out on the surface to assist the rye-grass. Some of the old ley ground has been ploughed lightly, or floated, burned, the ashes spread, ploughed and harrowed in for turnips and rape, which, as they are drawn off and eaten, is ploughed deep into ridges of four feet, to remain so for the winter: in March it is scuffled across, and then ploughed into drills of three feet, dunged in the intervals; the drills reversed or split with the horsehoe, or double mould-board plough; a light roller run over the top lengthways, flattening the tops of the drills, to prepare it for dibbling the cabbage plants: when the plants have taken root, a narrow mould-board plough takes off some clay at each side of the drills, going as near the plants as possible without hurting them: in some time after, as the weeds appear, or the more forward state of the plants require it, the horse-hoe should again be applied to mould them. This practice is pursued four times, or as often as the state of the ground, or appearance of weeds, may demand during the summer. In other parts of the same land borecole, or Scotch kale, have been planted, with the double furrow plough, at two feet and a half between the rows: the furrow being first opened, boys and girls are placed at regular distances to lay down the plants in the furrow, at two feet asunder, which are covered by the plough with the next sod, the boys and girls still proceeding to lay down the plants immediately after the plough; one attending the seed-bed in the same field, to take up the plants, another person conveying them in bundles. This crop has succeeded well, without any manure, hoeing it once, by running the horse-hoe up the centre, to mould each side, being in August. Other parts of the same land have had drilled potatoes, being hoed four times; but he prefers praparing any poor stubble, by ploughing it in the winter, and dunging the drills for potatoes. After these, three crops of turnips, cabbage, and potatoes, the ground is laid down with barley, rye-grass, and clover."

Mr. St. George at first proposed to adopt this course, which would an