throughout the whole of Ireland.* It is not improbable that this defect is to be ascribed to the starved state of the animals on the small tillage occupations, which do not produce a quantity sufficient to deserve care or attention. Besides, it is well known, that dung from animals of this kind is of small value ;+ such stable muck can be little better than straw and water, and therefore it is treated with so much neglect. In some parts of the country I have seen it flung into the rivers, or the straw burnt ;* nothing can more strongly exhibit ignorance of farming. For an excellent farmyard system, it would be well to consult Wight's Present State of Husbandry, vol. vi. p. 435, and Mem. de L'Acad. des Sciences de Bruxelles. tom. iii. p. 72. Turf ashes, which have been found useful in Picardy,§ and which in the neighbour. hood of bogs may be easily obtained, form an excellent manure, and in Ireland are frequently employed for the potatoe crop. Mr. M'Evoy says, that they last only one season ; but it ought to be observed, that when the ashes have a white colour they are entirely useless. Having concluded my observations on the manures chiefly used in Ireland, I shall offer one remark, which is of considerable importance, and which I believe is not generally known, even to professed agriculturists. Manure derived from fossil substances, when applied to land, always sinks down; but that obtained from animal matters, on the contrary, ascends. This difference has been shewn and fully explained in Mr. Young's lecture on the practice of three celebrated farmers; and as it exposes the folly of putting together into one compost, substances which mix with the earth in two different ways, and shews the waste thus needlessly occasioned, it is certainly deserving of general attention. Fossil manure, to be of any benefit, should always be used at the surface, as it gradually sinks down through the crust, which is cultivated, and which will thus receive the whole benefit of its fertilizing properties. But if the same manure be buried in the earth, the soil above derives no benefit; for as it descends, it soon sinks to such a depth that the plough cannot reach it. On the other hand, if animal manure be laid at the top, it quickly evaporates, and no part of it mixes with the soil; * A Danish writer, in a Prize Essay on agriculture, recommends covering a dunghill with earth, to prevent it from being wasted by the sun and the wind. See Anvisnig til et velindretted Jordbrug af H.J. C. Hoch. Kiobenhavn, 1797. 8vo. p. 366. See also Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxiii. p. 579. Ellis's Husbandry abridged and methodized, vol. i. p. 35. +Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxxiii. p. 592. I "What husbandry can there be in Friuli, where they depend on the stalks, &c. of the Turkey wheat for fuel?" Zanoni dell Agricoltura. tom. i. p. 250. Recherches sur le Houille d'Engrais, par M. de Laillevault, tom. i. p. 105. Sir Charles Coote's Survey of Armagh, p. 238. M'Evoy's Survey of Tyrone, p. 112. but if it be placed at as great a depth as possible, it will rise up slowly, and being retained a long time in the earth, will exercise a more beneficial influence over it. LIME KILNS are a kind of buildings on which much has been written, and various forms of construction have been recommended. At the seat of Mr. Rochfort, at Clogrennan, near Carlow, who burns large quantities of lime for sale, I saw employed the patent head which resembles Count Rumford's digester. It had been just erected, and the accounts I received respecting the effects of it were so various, that no certain result could be drawn from them. To describe the different kinds of lime kilns which I had an opportunity of observing, would be of little use; none of them exhibited any novelty, and, therefore, any thing I could say on this subject would be merely a repetition of what has been already detailed in every county survey. IMPLEMENTS. The Irish Plough is made chiefly of wood, and has a very long beam, without catshead or swillyard. The breast, which is of wood, has seldom any ground, and where there is one, it is not shod. The shock, or share, has hardly any wing, so that the furrow is forced up by the breast of the plough. I saw no difference in the construction of this implement, but in the county of Wexford, where the beam was much shorter. The sock in general is of cast iron. The Scotch plough has been introduced of late years; it is a small swing plough, and a most excellent thing of its kind. The many varieties of English ploughs, the wheels, the turn wrest, the double furrow, &c. &c. are all unknown; and nothing can be a stronger proof of the backward state of husbandry in Ireland, as it is impossible that the same plough can be fit for every kind of land; and it is well known that the different varieties of the English plough were not brought into use by fashion, but were invented through necessity, and adapted to each particular soil in which they are used. Who can suppose that the long Hertfordshire plough, which turns up the flints of that county, could be used in the sands of Norfolk, or that the plough suited to the latter could be employed in the former. But lest it should be imagined that I have here given an incorrect account of ploughing in Ireland, and of the Irish plough, I shall lay before the reader the following description of them by Mr. Tighe: "The defects of the common plough of this country, and of the mode of using it, are very great. 1st, The chirp, or sole, has too long a heel, which makes it awkward in working or turning. 2d, The cross is mortised into the chirp, which renders the machine weak; the cross often parts from the beam or from the sole, or both, when it meets a stone or a root. 3d, The cross, forming almost a right angle with the sole, collects the earth and sods, and impedes the progress, and adds greatly to the weight of the draft. 4th, For want of a side-plate, to prevent its gathering earth, it becomes constantly clogged, the mould often filling the plough at every step, and even passing through it. 5th, The mould-board being straight, cannot cast off the earth as it ought, nor lay the sod; on the contrary, by its narrowness and position it often throws it on both sides, and the clay which adheres to it must be perpetually scraped off. 6th, The coulter is blunt before, and has not a feather edge to make it act clean. 7th, The consequent increase of labour it requires in the cattle and the ploughman: the latter is necessitated to use all his force to remove the obstructions; for this pur. pose, he leans sideways, and turns the share upon its edge, by which not above half the soil is fairly turned, the surface of the field being left in this form beneath the sole of the plough, 8th, The weight of the ploughman at one end, combining with the draft from the point of the beam, which is always very low at the other, draws the share continually out of the ground; to prevent this, one man with a great stake, and sometimes two, one at each side, are obliged to keep the plough constantly in the earth. "It is evident that such a machine can never make a clean furrow, nor of equal depth, that is calculated for drilling, sowing lea oats, or ploughing balk, or any sort of neat husbandry; that corn sown by it must be unequally buried, and vegetate at different times, and that the loss of the labour in its management is very great. Add to this, that in the manner it is conducted, by a man always leading the cattle, it is almost impossible for it to plough in a direct line; the man who leads can never go exactly in the sense of the plough, and draws the horses from the straight line, who, on their part, are not directed by having a clean furrow on one side; whereas, if the ploughman guided the cattle, they would be compelled to take a straight direction from him, who is the only person that can be so placed as to be able to guide the plough properly; but as the machine is impelled by two forces which rarely coincide in direction, the furrow is almost always made in a curved line; sometimes the first curvature was made to answer the winding ditch; but more frequently it will be seen to take a bend not cor responding to any fence, and the very fences appear rather to have been formed to suit the tillage; the original ones having been slight and temporary, when they were renewed, they followed the ridges. Often a second curve is formed in a contrary direction in the same ridge, and even a third in a large field; for when the ploughman finds his first error, he endeavours to correct it by a second; and sometimes, when he sees that the ridges have become too much bent, he leaves off in the middle of a ridge, ending with an angle, and begins in a new one in a better direction. By these means, not only much land is lost, but the furrows, from their crooked shape, no longer answer the purpose of carrying off superficial water, where it is necessary, nor of ventilating the corn by straight alleys. These curved and waved ridges may be seen in every part of the county: they are particularly conspicuous in the hills of Idagh, and parish of Rosbercon; there are, however, some fields well and straightly ploughed in the wheat district."* Mr. Townsend says, "the common plough of this country is rude in its form, and defective in its execution. The handles are short and thick, the beam low, and bending a little to the right hand. Instead of standing upright, and making a fair and handsome furrow, the coulter and sock are placed so obliquely as to oblige the ploughman to turn it to the left side, in such a manner as to keep the mould-board entirely out of the ground. The office of turning over the sod is, therefore, performed partly by the heel of the plough, and partly by the foot of the man, who is obliged to assist the operation by frequent kicks. Though they remove but a little earth at a time, no part but the sock entering the soil, the draught is rendered difficult by the length of the chain. In ploughing old ground, an additional man is often required to keep the plough in the ground, by leaning on the beam + I have seen ploughs in Ireland made of oak, ash, and even alder; and after Mr. Tighe's description, it is needless to say any thing further respecting an Irish plough. Flail. This implement is in a ruder state, if possible, than even the plough; it is seldom heavier than a school-boy's whip, and is made of any kind of wood that can be procured with most ease. The swingle, however, as is well known to every farmer, ought to be of blackthorn, and to weigh at least seven pounds. Spade. The handle of the Irish spade is generally five feet long, but it is much narrower than the same implement in England. According to the account given by Mr. Tighe, of that used in Kilkenny, there seem to be various kinds; for the one he describes is different from any I ever observed. "The spade," says he, "is three feet eight or ten inches in length; the handle is curved about three or four inches out of the direct line: it is connected with the iron part by a piece of wood, forming step on the right side, with an upright part spliced to the handle, and fastened by two iron hoops; below it fits into the iron, which is at the top almost closed round it. The iron is about fifteen inches long, and bent in a direction contrary to the handle; it is narrower towards the upper part, about five and a half inches; the iron sometimes differs, in being a few inches longer: it is not a bad instrument for digging up stony ground." the Shovel. The shovel has a handle of greater length than the spade, and in • Survey of Kilkenny, p. 293. Survey of Kilkenny, p. 302. + Survey of Cork, p. 191. square at its form resembles those used in Normandy. It bears no similitude to the English shovel, as will be seen by the following description:* "The shovel is usually rounded, but varies, in having a point rather sharp; and it is often made the end, especially in the northern part of the county; the square shovel is often used for earthing potatoes and trenching corn, for which it is particularly well adapted. The weight of iron in a spade is four and a half pounds, and onefourth of steel; in a shovel, about four pounds. This round shovel is, I believe, of the same kind as that sent from Bristol to the West Indies. Loy. This is an implement very much resembling a tool employed by the landdrainers in England. It is a long narrow spade, which projects entirely on the right side of the handle, and is just as wide as the breadth of the foot. The handle is of the same length as that affixed to the spade. Dr. M' Parlan, in his Survey of Leitrim,+ says, "the loy is a sort of spade of uncommon shape, having room only for the right foot to work on, about four inches broad at the lower end, tapering to a breadth of five or six inches, to where the foot commences, which is a distance of about eighteen inches from the lower extremity, with a handle about five feet long. The part of it called the handle or haft, is fashioned from solid wood, which slips into an iron socket, edged and fitted to the timber, in a strong and permanent, though simple manner." Some persons, who have more strength in the left than the right leg, cause the rest to be made on the left side of the loy, and an implement of this kind is called "a left-handed loy." The Harrow is common in most parts of the country, and is made in all forms and shapes. A large heavy harrow, such as that called in England a crab-harrow, I never saw in Ireland, though it would be exceedingly useful in working the fallows. Grape, is a name given to a three-pronged fork, but the handle is made after the Norman, and not the English manner: it is at least five feet in length. Implements of the same kind I have seen in Devonshire. space A Pitchfork, for the most part, consists of two spikes stuck into a handle. between The fork is not so large as in England, and on account of the small the tines, is incapable of raising up many pounds weight of hay at a time. I had no idea that a worse fork could be constructed, till I read Mr. Tighe's account of Kilkenny, where I learned that the prongs are made sometimes of wood. Slane, is a sort of double loy generally used in cutting turf. Steveen, is a dibble shod with iron, and of a large size, the handle being four feet long. The stem, which is three inches in diameter, is shod to the length of eighteen inches: and a piece of iron like a step, projecting at one side, serves as a rest for the foot, by which means it is forced into the ground in order to form holes for planting potatoes.§ * Tighe's Survey of Kilkenny, p. 302. + Page 39. Survey of Kilkenny, p. 305. |