In the county of Cork, it forms a very valuable object of industry to the farmers, and "a prodigious quantity of it is annually cut from the rocks, or gathered in the coves or harbours. This constitutes the main stock of manure for their potatoe crop, the quantity of dung made by the farmers being comparatively inconsiderable. During the winter months, they collect with unceasing diligence, in all accessible places, the weeds which are torn from the rocks by the violence of the southern gales: when the storm subsides, the dissevered weeds float into the coves and strands, some of which are so abundantly provided as to afford a very considerable profit to the proprietors of the ground. A small strand at Donoughmore, between Courtmacshery Bay and Cloghnakilty, lets for £60. per annum, besides supplying the farm. The weeds thus gathered are laid out upon the ground intended for potatoes; and so volatile is their nature, that they soon disappear, leaving for awhile a sort of slime on the surface; when the supply is very copious, the ground sometimes receives a second covering; a proper dressing of these winter weeds is reckoned the best preparation for a potatoe crop. In addition to this supply, a great number of small boats are employed during spring, and the beginning of summer, in procuring the growing weeds; each boat's crew consists of six men, provided with long light poles, furnished at one end with a sharp iron bent into the form of a hook; with these they cut the weeds from the rocks as low as they can reach, and gather them into the boat until it is completely loaded; this kind is called riband, or red weed, of which in other places kelp is made; all kinds are reckoned good, but the potatoes produced from those laid out in early season, are the best for the table. The price of a boat load varies from fourteen to twenty-four shillings, which are its usual limits; four loads are the complement for an acre; the men are paid either by a share of the weeds, or by a stipulated hire, generally one shilling and six-pence per head. The boats are often held in partnership, the proprietors forming part of the crew: the labour of this service is often very severe; they frequently row from Timoleague to the Old Head of Kinsale, a distance of seven or eight miles; spend two or three hours in cutting and gathering the weeds, a fatiguing work, in which they are necessarily wet from head to foot, and return the same length of way without rest or refreshment; the tide, however, materially assists the process, for low water being the time for collecting, they go with the ebb and return with the flood: it also frequently happens, that after arriving at the place of destination, a sudden change of wind disappoints the hopes of the day, for weeds can be procured only in smooth and clear water. This is, notwithstanding, a very favourite as well as neces

large quantities are used for potatoes, followed by a crop of barley or wheat: it is frequently brought up the Fergus by boats to Ennis, and carried into the country upwards of four miles: it costs about four guineas per acre. The potatoes are usually planted first, and get this first covering; and by degrees, as the weed can be drawn, it is spread over this, and covered by a second spitting and shovelling; when they have the weed in time, they plant the potatoes on it at once."

sary employment, and engages a great number of hands from the first fair weather in spring, to the beginning or even the middle of July. The usual mode of putting out those spring weeds is after the seed has been put in, and before the young plants appear, but it is by no means uncommon to spread them on the beds after the plants have appeared above the first earthing; another part of the practice, the propriety of which is at least doubtful, is suffering the weeds to remain for a long time uncovered ; common sense should rather seem to warrant a contrary practice, in the hope of se curing all the efficacy of a manure so extremely volatile, but when they happen to disagree, custom is generally an over-match for common sense. I have heard it said by farmers, that when weeds are covered too soon, that is, before they appear quite exhausted, they swell in such a manner as to throw a great part of the earth off + the beds into the trenches. I should conceive such an effect to be salutary instead of objectionable, and amply sufficient to repay, by so mellowing a process, the labour of replacing the disturbed earth; in one or two instances of departure from the common mode, I know the result to have been what unbiassed judgment would infer. The old practice, however, is generally followed."*

I have no doubt that the weeds ought to be slightly covered, to prevent the escape of the valuable alkali;+ but it seems extraordinary, that a manure so efficacious for potatoes, should not be serviceable for corn. It is used in Donegal,§ and on the coast of Wexford, it serves as a preparative for beans || and potatoes, ¶ but it is not considered so good a manure as dung.

"Wreck is much used along the coast of Down; it is employed for potatoes and in some cases for grain ;"** it is collected also in the county of Dublin, at Hoath.++ The Rev. Mr. Dubourdieu makes the same remark‡‡ as Mr. Townsend, that it forms "manure of short duration :" this quickness of dissolution is the reason of its lasting rarely more than one crop. The Rev. Mr. Sampson remarks, that land in Derry, fertilized by this manure, produced "potatoes which were watery and of no great increase ;"' but, by this account, it would appear that sea-weeds there have a different

* Survey of Cork, p. 238.

+ Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxiii. p. 620.

"The advantage that corn might receive from sea-weed is yet to be discovered; I know no instance of its being tried as a top dressing for any kind of grain: it is always used for the potatoe crop, and I have reason to think, extends little or no influence beyond it; I have found it to produce one good cutting of hay." Sur vey of Cork, p. 241.

§ Survey of Donegal, p. 60.

|| Frazer's Survey of Wexford, p. 94.

¶ Ibid. p. 97.

** Survey of Down, p. 184.

+ Dutton's Observations on the Statistical Survey of the County of Dublin, p. 96.

Survey of Down, p. 184.

Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxiii. p. 620.

Survey of Derry, p. 188.

497

effect from those found in the southern and western parts of the island.* After these accounts, it is surprising that the idea of a vegetable manure should be repugnant to general notions;+ but these general notions are much confined to Ireland, in England the contrary has certainly been the received opinion since the days of Bacon. +

Bog and lime-stone gravel mixed.-In the King's County, Galway, and part of Tipperary, I found great heaps of this compost mixed with stable dung, the common manure of the country; but it was confined to that district. Sir Charles Coote speaks of it in his Survey of Armagh, where, when used as " a surface dressing to meadows of a very light soil, it ensures a very early verdure."§

Fossil Shells-Fossil shells are found in the barony of Muskery, in the county of Cork, and perhaps in many other parts of Ireland. It is a curious circumstance, that all fossil shells differ from marine shells, by having their valve on the contrary side. In England, this may be particularly observed, in the county of Suffolk, where strata of fossil shells may be seen in various places. I have frequently compared them with those on the coast, and invariably found this distinction.

Bog Manure.-Lord Bacon observes, that "the inducing and accelerating of putrefaction, is a subject of very general inquiry, for corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as natures two terms or boundaries, and the guides to life and death." It is, indeed, a fact too well known to require elucidation, that vegetable substances in a state of putrefaction make the best manure. There can be no doubt that the bogs of Ireland are immense masses of vegetable matter, in a partial state of decay; but the putrefaction is retarded by the insoluble and antiseptic qualities which they possess. The wisdom of the Almighty has given them these qualities for the benefit of mankind; otherwise the putrid effluvia arising from them would destroy animal life, as far as their influence extended. These qualities may be compared to the saline nature of the ocean, which prevents that immense body of water from acquiring putridity; were that the case, the earth might become a desert. Free that water from its salt, and it will be useful to man; free the bogs from their antiseptic qualities, and they will in an incalculable degree increase the manure of the country. But these operations can be beneficial only when done to a certain extent; the attainment of which is a matter of no small importance, and, therefore, every effort should be made to discover the means proper for effecting it.

Bog manure is employed in particular on clayey soil, the cohesiveness of which renders it unproductive, a defect which a mixture with bog overcomes.*

* See Survey of Derry, p. 136.

+ Survey of Cork, p. 280.

Bacon's Works, vol. i. p. 213.

Survey of Armagh, p. 238 and 243. VOL. I.

.** In the

1 Smith's Survey of Cork, vol. ii. p. 380.

¶ Bacon's Works, vol. i. p. 472.

** Aiton on Bogs, p. 79.

3 S

county of Down, Mr. Dubourdieu, speaking of it, says, "This substance is useful in the above quality, both in itself, and when compounded with other materials; upon this and sharp soils, mixed with lime or dung, it is excellent, not only as a manure, but as adding to the depth of the land; for this purpose, however, it should not be taken at random, but as some mixture of clay should appear along with it, the effect upon the above-mentioned soil will be greater. Upon clay, a quantity of a lighter and more friable nature will be found to answer, in opening and rendering it more tractable in the operations of husbandry. There are two favourite modes of applying this substance; the first, by drawing it on grass-land in summer, and when nearly dry, setting it on fire, and spreading it half burned and hot upon the ground, where it remains until the season for ploughing arrives. Oats are sown on ground thus prepared; the crops clean and luxuriant; a hundred or a hundred and fifty cart loads are laid on an acre, according to the quality of the soil: heavy land requires the greater quantity. The second method is to lay it on grass-ground, before or in winter, to spread it as soon as convenient; and in spring, to add a small tion of dung, on which potatoes are set in the lazy-bed way; and if a modern farmer can excuse the lazy-bed way, he may pardon it in this instance, both on account of the greatness of the crop and quality of the root, as well as the mellow state in which it leaves the ground, and its consequent fitness for production. Therefore, whether we consider turf-bog as an improver itself, as mixed with other enriching substances to extend their effects, or when reduced to ashes, we shall find it an article of considerable magnitude in the scale of manures; nor need we fear the use of it as likely to encroach on the fuel of the country, for that species which is good for manure is useless as fuel, no operation being able to give it the necessary adhesion."* Lord Dundonald, in his work upon chemistry; Lord Meadowbank, in the Prize Essays of the Highland Society, p. 143, 144, and 145; and Mr. Aiton, in his treatise on moss-earth, have all elaborately dwelt upon the use of bog as a manure. These works should be consulted, particularly the last, which I consider as a valuable and mportant publication.

por

Flax-water. The water in which flax has been immersed, is entirely neglected; but Mr. Billingsby+ mentions it as an excellent manure, and no country in the world, perhaps, affords better opportunities of employing it than Ireland. I made frequent inquiries respecting it, but could never hear of a single instance of its being used. The author of the Survey of Somersetshire says, "It is observable, that land on which rated flax is spread, to prepare it for housing, is greatly improved thereby; and if it be spread on a coarse sour pasture, the herbage will be totally changed, and the best sorts of grasses will make their appearance. Having myself cultivated flax on a large scale, and observing the almost instantaneous effect produced by the

* Survey of Down, p. 184.

+ Survey of Somersetshire, by Billingsby, p. 215.

water in which the flax was immersed, I was induced some years ago to apply it to some pasture land, by means of watering carts, similar to those used near London in watering the roads. The effect was astonishing, and advanced the land in value ten shillings per acre.'

Mr. Aiton says, flax-water will putrefy bog-earth,+ which I consider as most important information for Ireland.

Dung and straw manure is universally employed for the purpose of increasing the next potatoe crop. This certainly is a proper application of it, as the land is thus manured when clean, at the commencement of a course. In England, manure is applied to fallows, which is the same thing; or if from any accident it cannot be laid upon heavy ground, because the fallows are not finished till the wet season sets in, it is spread over the young clovers after one crop of corn; it is also put upon land in the commencement of the course; and as the seed of all the weeds which may be left in the ground germinates at this time, the weeds are removed by means of the scythe. Hence arises a double benefit, namely, that of forcing their growth, and taking them away with the clover before they have time to come again to seed. Mr. Tighe finds great fault with the manner in which dunghills are managed in Ireland ;|| but his observations are applicable also to England; and as a remark made on this subject by my friend Captain Philip Beaver, of the Royal Navy, may be useful, I shall offer no apology for inserting it. To those who know that gentleman, it is needless to say any thing in his praise; but to those unacquainted with him, I shall beg leave to state, that in point of talents, information, and useful acquirements, though he may have equals, he has, in my opinion, very few superiors. I recollect his expressing astonishment at the neglect of some farmers in Essex, where he saw heaps of compost left exposed without any shelter in the hundreds of that county. "In the West Indies," said he, "the planters thatch them with as much care as you do your corn-ricks." Mr. Young mentions a similar practice¶ in France, and has recommended it warmly** in his writings; but whether it be owing to the ease with which fossil manures are obtained, or to the smallness of the quantity which can be made by a petty farmer, this article, so exceedingly useful, is greatly wasted

* Survey of Somersetshire, 3d edit. p. 215.

+ Aiton's Treatise on Moss-earth, p. 93.

Survey of Down, p. 177.

Vide Mr. Young's Remarks confirming this. Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxix. p. 289.

Survey of Kilkenny, p. 437.

¶ "The dunghills are the neatest spectacles I have ever any where seen; the walls of them are twisted bands of straw, close and regular as a beehive, and some are covered at top with leaves and branches of trees, to exclude the sun. Admirable deserving universal imitation." Young's Tour in France, vol. ii. p. 138. ** Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxiii. p. 593. Vide also Sir Hugh Platt's "Jewel House of Art and Nature," p. 33.