SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 AN E S1A.Y.. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT TO BE MADE IN THE CULTIVATION 
 
 smallTfarms 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF GREEN CROPS, AND HOUSE-FEEDING 
 THE STOCK THEREON: 
 
 ORI0ISALI.V PUBLISHED IN AN ADDRESS TO THE SMALL PAKMCBS 
 
 EARL OE GOSFORD AND COLONEL CLOSE, 
 
 IN THE OODNir OF ARMAGH, 
 
 WITH A PREFACE, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO LANDLORDS, GmNG FULL INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO 
 , JIAT BE INCLINED TO ADOPT THE PLAN RECOMMENDED, AS TO THE 
 BEST MODE OF INTRODUCING H, AND THE RESULTS ATTENDING ITS 
 INTRODUCTION, TOGETHER WITH THE EXPENSES LIKELY TO BE 
 INCURRED THEREBY. 
 
 BY WILLIAM BLACKER, ESC. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. SAOKYILLE-STREET. 
 LONDON; R. GROOMBRIDGE, PANYER-ALLEY, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 ' EDINBURGH: BLACKWOOD AND SONS. 
 
 1845. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 The state of tbe small farmers, and cotters occupying minute 
 portions of land in Ireland, lias long been a subject of tbe greatest 
 solicitude to all those who have hearts to feel for the distresses of 
 others, and the mill to take part in any plan to remove them. In 
 proportion to the existence of this feeling has been the anxiety to 
 devise some practical method to accomplish the object in view,— 
 namely, to raise these poor people in the scale of society, and 
 relieve them from those sufferings and privations they are now- 
 obliged to submit to, and which they do siibmil to with apatienee 
 and resignation which give them additional claims to the active 
 interference, in their lehalf, of all those whom Providence has 
 placed in such situations as to afford a hope that their interfe¬ 
 rence might prove in.any degree effective. The success attendant 
 on the earnest endeavours of individuals in the accomplishment 
 of their wishes, has been so general as to have grown into a 
 proverb, and has given rise to the saying, “ TFhere there is a 
 will there is a may,-” and it is to be hoped that the zealous 
 attempts of those interested in the successful accomplishment of 
 the object here alluded to shall not prove an exception to the 
 truth of the saying just referred to, and that however numerous 
 may have been the failures, new efforts shall be made, until 
 the wished for success is finally attained. In considering this 
 matter, it has most forcibly occurred to me, that every attempt 
 to ameliorate the condition of the working classes must prove 
 vain and inefficient, unless where these classes themselves are 
 made the active instruments of their own regeneration and im¬ 
 provement. Accordingly, the plan proposed for adoption in 
 
the following pages is based upon this fundamental principle; and 
 the public having manifested a deep interest in its success by the 
 rapid sale which five large editions have met with, I am now in¬ 
 duced to prepare a Sixth, which I have endeavoured to render 
 more worthy of perusal by the introduction of some additional 
 matter, likely, as far as I may be allowed to judge, to prove inte- 
 resting both to the landlord and the tenant reader. 
 
 Having in the Preface to the Fourth Edition, which 1 again 
 annex, stated everything which then occurred tome as interesting 
 to those landlords who might feel inclined to adopt the plan 
 therein recommended, it merely now remains for me, in coming 
 again before the public, to add such further particulars as my 
 after experience may have enabled me to supply deserving their 
 attention. 
 
 In this respect I now pursue the same plan as then adopted, 
 viz., to communicate such information as may appear applicable 
 to them, in the Preface to that part of the impression designed for 
 their use; so that what more particularly applies to the tenant 
 may be given in a cheap form for his perusal, free from observa¬ 
 tions which might be considered foreign to his situation and 
 circumstances. Acting on this principle, to prevent too sanguine 
 expectations being entertained, it appears necessary for me now 
 particularly to notice the great amount of debt in which I found 
 the poorer tenants involved, which has turned out to be vastly 
 beyond anything I then supposed it possible for them to have 
 incurred. 
 
 This, however, ceases to be any cause of astonishment when 
 the nature of their transactions are detailed. For example, nu¬ 
 merous cases have since become known to me, where a poor man, 
 from a miss-crop, loss of cattle, health, or any other cause, has 
 been obliged to buy on trust, as they term it. He is then charged 
 from thirty to forty per cent, more for the article he wants than 
 the market price. When this payment becomes due, it most com¬ 
 monly happens the debtor has no means of paying. To remedy 
 this a new transaction takes place; and he is obliged to buy a cow, 
 or a pig, meal, potatoes, or anything the usurer has to dispose 
 of, thirty or forty per cent, above the market price a second 
 time; and this he sells for the most he can get, bringing back the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 produce of the sale to pay his first engagement. And so it goes 
 on, the usurer getting his victim deeper and deeper in debt, 
 whilst by occasional payments on account, labour-work, and often 
 getting a portion of his land to crop, he has been himself paid 
 twice over the real value of anything he had sold.* 
 
 This statement wifi, be quite sufficient to show how tardily any 
 symptoms of returning prosperity or comfort can be expected to 
 appear; for these debts must be got rid of before the poor man 
 can call anything his own, and every penny he earns is pounced 
 upon the moment he receives it. Nor can I, with truth, say that 
 this tardy appearance of comfort mmriaUy arises from the con¬ 
 tinued oppression of creditors. I have met many who, unaccus¬ 
 tomed to have money in their possession, no sooner find they have 
 a little at command, and their resources improved, than they 
 commence to portion off their children, or brothers, or sisters, 
 leaving themselves without a farthing, and even part with their 
 stock for these purposes with the most entire disregard of the 
 ruinous consequences to which they must thereby become liable 
 themselves. I am obliged, therefore, to confess that the progress 
 to independence and comfort is considerably slower than I at first 
 expected, subject as it always must be to further delays by the 
 losses and casualties to which all farming operations are exposed. 
 
 The truth of this latter remark has been forcibly illustrated by 
 the failure of our crops for several years past, which, from the 
 coldness of our soil and our northern latitude, have been exceed¬ 
 ingly deficient; and this fatality being at the same time accompa¬ 
 nied by the greatest depression in every branch of manufacture, 
 the efiect has been such, that I do not recollect any period, since 
 1817, when the working classes in this part of Ireland have been 
 more reduced in their circumstances than about the commence¬ 
 ment of the year 1843. Since then, a favourable change has 
 taken place in both respects, and more cheering prospects begin 
 
 * It may Ije snpposed tliat the introduction of Loan Funds would be likely to 
 remedy this, and in some instances they have been had recourse to with advan¬ 
 tage. This is not a place to discuss the merits or demerits of the Loan Fund 
 system; but it appears to me the encouragement it gives to borrowing, and the 
 extent to which it involves people in securities for each other, produces as ruinous 
 effects as the system just detailed. 
 
viir. 
 
 pbei'Ace. 
 
 to arise. It is encouraging, however, to observe, that, during this 
 trying period, those who had distinguished themselves by their 
 agricultural improvements, in accordance with the system herein 
 recommended, have been gradually getting into better circum¬ 
 stances, as may be seen by AppendLv; whilst many of those who 
 adhered to their old customs have unfortunately been under the 
 necessity of getting into debt. 
 
 It is also satisfactory to be able £o state, that during this same 
 period the cultivation of green crops has continued to gain ground, 
 although prevented myself from giving it any support by long 
 continued illness, and from being twice obliged to change the Ag¬ 
 riculturist, the influence of that department was also of but little 
 avail. From this experience, therefore, I feel convinced the prac¬ 
 tice of house-feeding, and the cultivation of green crops, would 
 now annually increase, without any other inducement than the 
 advantage to be derived from it; and this conviction is fully con¬ 
 firmed by the extent to which it is spreading, at present, in the 
 neighbouring estates, where no particular pains have been taken 
 to introduce it. The increase in the quantity of turnips sown this 
 year greatly exceeds that of any former season, and there is no 
 crop which seems better adapted to the soil and climate of Ire¬ 
 land than it appears to be. 
 
 Whilst thus stating, however, the favourable prospects of ag- 
 ricultural improvement, of which I consider the practice of house¬ 
 feeding and the cultivation of green crops to afford the most 
 satisfactory evidence, I feel it incumbent on me! to warn the 
 public now, as I have already done before, against indulging in 
 those expectations of general and perfect improvement in the 
 ■cultivation of the soil, or in the circumstances of the tenantry 
 on the Gosford estates, which the individual cases brought under 
 notice by the distribution of the premiums at the Markethill agri¬ 
 cultural meetings may have excited. All that can be fairly said 
 upon the subject is, that a decided improvement has commenced, 
 and that, in emerging from a most inferior state of agriculture, 
 there are many particular instances of superior cultivation ob¬ 
 servable, which would not do discredit to any country whatever; 
 but to say that, in a general point of view, we can by any means 
 compete with the improved appearance of many districts in Down 
 
PBEFACE. IX. 
 
 and Antrim, which are fully a century before us in wealth and 
 intelligence, is what neither ought to be expected, nor can be 
 pretended to. Nor does the appearance of the Gosford property, 
 at first sight, indicate even the real extent of the improvement 
 which a more minute inspection will shew to have actually taken 
 place; for although each field, on examination, may prove to 
 have been cultivated on a regular rotation, yet whilst such small 
 enclosures remain (which is still too much the case), no regular 
 rotation can be introduced over the entire /am,—and until this is 
 done, very little improvement in the general appearanee of any 
 district will be visible; nevertheless, a practical observer will at 
 once perceive by the size of the manure heaps, and the absence 
 of pasture, that a most important improvement on the old system 
 of management has taken place. 
 
 Being aw'are that many people are prejudiced against using any 
 exertions to introduce the system herein advocated, from an idea 
 that it will tend to a still greater subdivision of farms, it cannot 
 be thought irrevelant to say a few w’ords as to the justice of this 
 opinion; and afterwards, I may perhaps be allowed to consider as 
 concisely as in my power the effects of the large farms in Eng. 
 land, and the small farms in Ireland, upon the well-being and 
 happiness of the working agricultural population in the two 
 countries. 
 
 In entering upon this discussion, I must beg to premise that 
 there is no principle in political economy more universally ad- 
 mitted than this, namely,—That capital w’ill always find means 
 for its profitable occupation, as far as it is possible to accomplish it. 
 Now, the small farmer, being a man of limited education, has 
 generally no other means of employing any savings he may accu¬ 
 mulate, except by laying it out in the increase of his farm; and 
 in conformity with this, it is notorious that, as his circumstances 
 improve, every opportunity to enlarge his farm is attentively 
 watched and laid hold of with avidity. If a landlord therefore 
 wishes to have large farms, let him endeavour to better the cir¬ 
 cumstances of his tenants, and, as their capital increases, the 
 enlargement will proceed therewith pari passu without his adopt¬ 
 ing any violent measures to effect the change. 
 
 The question then comes to this~How can a tenantry that is 
 
PBEFACJi, 
 
 poor be most readily made rich? The hue answer to which 
 most plainly and undeniably is, by stimulating'their industry, and 
 teaching them to make that industry productive to the greatest 
 possible extent. And how can this be more reasonably and prac. 
 tically set about than by teaching them how to cultivate their 
 farms, and lending them a little assistance when wanted ? If by 
 so doing the possessor of a small farm can obtain treble the pro¬ 
 duce without increasing his rent, the road to advancement is 
 opened to his view, and his exertions increase with the increase 
 of his crop.—And what is the final result? It is this:—When 
 his capital has in this way been augmented, the small farmer, find¬ 
 ing himself possessed of the means of purchasing and occupying 
 more land (being the only method he is acquainted with of turn¬ 
 ing his accumulations to profitable account), he immediately 
 endeavours to enlarge his farm; and if he cannot do this where 
 he is, he removes to where he can ; and thus in accomplishing his 
 own wishes he afibrds an opportunity for the neighbour he leaves 
 behind to accomplish his wishes also, by annexing to his own the 
 farm quitted, which is thus brought into the market by the 
 plan herein recommended, which would perhaps never have been 
 the case without its adoption, and the work of consolidation pro¬ 
 ceeds from natural causes, without violence, ill-will, or incon¬ 
 venience to any party concerned. And when his native land 
 becomes so occupied that it can no longer afford scope for the 
 profitable outlay of the capital which may thus have been accu¬ 
 mulated, other countries will be resorted to, and emigration will 
 take place from the private resources of the parties,—the same as 
 may now be seen going onpretnaturely, owing to the insecurity of 
 •person and property. This it is that disturbs the natural course 
 of things, and induces people to seek for that peace and tran¬ 
 quillity abroad, which they cannot count upon in the cultivation 
 of the waste lands of their ow7i counti'y, and w'hich would other¬ 
 wise be preferred. 
 
 That the practical effect of improving the agriculture of small 
 farms is to increase their size instead of diminishing them, is 
 further proved by the fact of so many of the small tenants on the 
 Gfosford estate, who have distinguished themselves as Premium 
 men, having enlarged Jheir holdings, and in some instances 
 
PMFACE. 
 
 XI. 
 
 doubled and trebled them, by no other means than what their 
 superior cultivation of their land procured for them. The charge 
 brought against improved cultivation, of having a tendency to 
 produce subdivision of farms, seems to me therefore most de¬ 
 cidedly 6Ssproved both by argument and facts,—and the tendency 
 is shown to be most decidedly in the opposite direction. This 
 part of what I proposed to consider having been disposed of, -I 
 shall now proceed to make a few observations on the management 
 of landed property in England, in regard to the comparative 
 eligibility of large or small farms. This I am tempted to do from 
 the great circulation this treatise has lately obtained there, and 
 the great interest at present excited by the privations which the 
 agricultural labouring population is forced to submit to in both 
 countries, though so differently circumstanced in other respects, 
 being, in many extensive districts of England, perhaps little infe¬ 
 rior in point of fact, and still less in point of feeling, compared to 
 those which our poor Irish are obliged to undergo. 
 
 In considering this, I cannot help expressing my opinion, that 
 no country can be considered in a healthy state where the popu¬ 
 lation is inadequate to gather in the harvest, and labourers must 
 be brought hundreds of miles to afford the necessary assistance; 
 and also, that no country can be considered in a healthy state, 
 when the agricultural population is so decidedly divided into rich 
 and poor, and such a gulph interposed between the large farmer 
 and the labourer, that all hope of rising in his own line of life is 
 cut off from the latter. This state of things seems to have appa¬ 
 rently originated in the practice, so much cried up, of English 
 landlords providing the housing and farm buildings of their tenants, 
 and moreover keeping them in repair, thus making it the p-lma 
 facie interest of the landlord to have as few of such establishments 
 to keep up as possible, and of course to have only large farms: but 
 let the farms be large or small, as a mere matter of money, can 
 this be said to be a wise practice ? The landlord, in all that he 
 does, must act through others, and .the farmer acting for himself 
 could always accomplish the same work on cheaper terms; there¬ 
 fore the outlay hereby entailed on the landlord must always be 
 greater than the saung to the tenant, and is therefore an actual 
 waste of money. If the landlord is paid for this outlay, the tenant 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 suffers; and if he is not, he suffers himself. Nor should it 
 be overlooked that this practice gives a decided monopoly of 
 the land to the large farmer, to the exclusion of his more humble 
 competitor, who would be willing and able to occupy it in smaller 
 divisions, and pay more for it.® But questions of profit and loss 
 sink greatly in importance when the moral effects of the practice 
 come to he considered. The large farmer, from his superior 
 ■wealth and better education, belongs more to the class of the 
 country gentleman than to that of the mere farmer; and the hum¬ 
 ble labourer, who in olden times, if unmarried, rvas accustomed to 
 be an inmate of the dwelling and a partner at the hoard of the 
 latter, is now turned out of doors as unfitted for the society 
 (which is no doubt the case) of the fiunily of his employer, and 
 therefore turned adrift to fall a prey to all the evils of the bothio 
 and the gang system; whilst those mho are unmarried and have 
 families are rarely enabled to look beyond their daily subsistence, 
 or entertain even the idea of future provision for age or 
 infirmity f 
 
 It may be urged by the advocates of the large farm system, 
 that if this practice of building and keeping in repair of farm 
 houses, &c., which I chiefly blame for bringing about the state 
 of things just referred to, had never been adopted, the farming 
 establishments in England would now perhaps exhibit the same 
 disgraceful appearance which is but too generally observable 
 throughout Ireland. 
 
 To which I reply,—The miserable dwellings alluded to do not 
 result from the Irish system of leaving these concerns to the occu¬ 
 pying tenant, but results from the poverty of the population; for 
 
 * In Ml-. Gilbert's allotments in Sussex, 453 small holders pay i£470 Ms. rent 
 for 183 acres, which I understand no large farmer would pay £100 for. 
 
 f It is painful to read the distressing account of the state of the labouring 
 portion of the agricultural population, as given by a most intelligent foreigner, 
 who has lately visited Great Britain from the United States of America, which 
 certainly appears in a very great degree traceable to the circumstances just 
 stated.—See “ European Agriculture and Rural Economy,” by Henry Colman, 
 vol. i., part 1: under the head of Agricultural Population, to which I beg to 
 refer for a clear .statement of the moral as well as the pliysical evils I have 
 alluded to. 
 
PKEPACE. 
 
 xiir. 
 
 if llic landlords were to build tenants’ houses to-morrow, to vie 
 with the very host English specimens, they w'ould in most places 
 soon lose their character and appearance, and very shortly exhibit 
 a still more striking example of the poverty of the people, by their 
 dilapidated condition, than any the country at present affords. 
 But let the propriety of the tw'o systems be judged of by the state 
 of things in those parts of Ireland better able to bear a compari¬ 
 son with England in the circumstances of the occupiers of the soil, 
 and it will be seen that the Irish plan, of making the tenant pro¬ 
 vide his own house, &c., is not justly chargeable with the exist¬ 
 ence of the miserable dwellings elsewhere to be seen, and the 
 farmers wall be found comfortably lodged, and their farm offices 
 respectable, and well suited to the farms which they occupy. Nor 
 must it be forgotten, that it is owing to the prevalence of this 
 custom that farms in Ireland are to be found, suited to occupiers 
 of every class, from the mere cotter with his small garden up to 
 the wealthy farmer or rich grazier, but little, if anything, inferior 
 to the best examples which Great Britain can produce. Hundreds 
 of instances might be given of industrious individuals in Ireland, 
 who, by the opportunity thus afforded of gradual advancement, 
 have raised themselves from the very humblest circumstances to 
 a most respectable rank in society; and that the same thing would 
 often take place in England, were the same opportunities afforded, 
 the case recorded of the successful industry of Edmond Chancy, 
 page 587 of the fourth volume of the Journals of the Agricultural 
 Society of England, may be taken as a proof, who, from being a 
 pauper receiving parish assistance, by being enabled to rent four 
 acres of land from the Poor Law Guardians, became finally pos¬ 
 sessed of 93 acres, after bringing up a family of fourteen children 
 in comfort and respectability. 
 
 The opportunity of advancement which the existence of small 
 farms thus offers to ,the agricultural labourer, merely places him 
 on the same footing as other classes of society. The pedlar, the 
 petty shopkeeper, the tradesman and artizau, however humble 
 their origin may be, with care and industry may advance step 
 by step to wealth and independence;—the agricultural labourer, 
 alone cut off from all hope of bettering his situation, is left from 
 time to time a prey to hopeless suffering, and open to every evil 
 
XIV. 
 
 suggestion, the bad effects of which have been made of late but 
 too apparent in the state of many parts of England. 
 
 Weighing well, therefore, all the circumstances, it will, I think, 
 be confessed that the predilection for large farms iii England has 
 been carried to a very injurious extent, not only diminishing the 
 emidoyment which the land would otherwise afford, but also 
 widening the space between the different classes of the agricultu¬ 
 ral population, and preventing the gradual advancement of the 
 industrious labourer, who thus appears doomed, if born in that 
 rank of life, to live and die in the same, and bequeath no better 
 prospect to his children after him. If such be the results of the 
 large farms system in England, the benefit of its continuance oven 
 there seems questionable. But although it might be inexpedient 
 to disturb the existing relations of landlord and tenant there, by 
 abolishing a custom now so long established, there can, I think, 
 be no doubt whatever that it would be both unwise and impolitic 
 to use compulsory measures to introduce the large farm system 
 into Ireland, more especially at a time when public opinion in 
 England seems to be taking an opposite direction, as appears by 
 the patronage now everywhere given to small allotments, which 
 though at first generally confined to small grants of half roods and 
 half acres, are now increased in many places to an extent differing 
 but little from the size of our Irish small farm,—which, however 
 small it may be, is generally sufficient to afford to the occupier,— 
 who may have learned to cultivate it as it ought to be,—a fair day’s 
 wages for a fair day’s workand as a discontented population 
 will always prove dangerous to the peace of any country, if the 
 agricultural labourer cannot otherwise get employment, he must 
 get land.* But however generally this reasoning may be ad- 
 
 * Those are not opinions hastily adopted in consequence of the present state 
 of things. Twelve or fourteen years since, in “ the Prize Essay on the Manage¬ 
 ment of Landed Property in Ireland,” in discouraging the introduction of large 
 fai'ms into Ireland, I stated in reference to the small allotments llieu commencing 
 in England (page 10), what is now taking place. “ By the laws of England no 
 “ one can he allowed to starve. How then are the poor to ho supported as cheaply 
 “ as enabling them to support themselves by letting them have a small portion of 
 
MEPACE. 
 
 XV. 
 
 mitted’* still tlie question naturally arises,—How does it happen 
 that both the large farms of England and the small farms of 
 Ireland are cotemporary with an almost equal state of destitution 
 in the working agricultural population of each country?—And 
 why is it, that whilst in England a greater subdivision of the land 
 is resorted to as a remedy, in Ireland this very subdivision is 
 denounced as the immediate cause of increasing that wretchedness 
 and promoting that pauperism, the prevalence of which in each 
 country is so much to be deplored ? 
 
 It seems to me absolutely impossible to account satisfactorily 
 for the contemporaneous existence of the same privations in two 
 countries, which, however nearly allied as portions of the same 
 empire, are nevertheless placed under such opposite circumstan¬ 
 ces, without supposing there is some source of evil common to 
 each, by which the distress just alluded to may be accounted for 
 on grounds which neither large nor small farms have any power 
 to counteract or remove. One such common source of evil, 
 which from time to time comes into operation, seems to me to 
 have long existed, and whether now likely to be remedied by late 
 legislation has not yet been ascertained from experience. 
 
 I allude to the much agitated question of our cinreucy laws, 
 which, as it appears to me, by compelling a denial of discount 
 whenever from any cause a demand for gold is felt by the Bank 
 of England Directors, paralyses every branch of commerce and 
 
 “ numliei's are so far limited tliat partial employment can be found elsowhnre, a 
 “ small allotment will answer; but when the population exceeds this point, then 
 “ more land will become necessary, or the evil now felt will again recur, and tlio 
 “ small allotment by degrees will become the small farm, and things will revert to 
 “ that sub- division of the land which the wants of the population may require, and 
 “ this is a result not depending on choice, hut must come of necessity. A pauper 
 “population must be mploijed, or it becomes dangcrotts, and where they cannot 
 “ get wort, they must 'get land. Sooner or later it will come to this, for there is 
 “no other system by which they can ho so cheaply and profitably employed as 
 “ working for themselves.” 
 
 * I hope in arguing for a greater subdivision of land in England, I shall not 
 bo thought to advocate the propriety of those high rents which seem to be in'"* 
 most places charged to the poor labourer for the smalt .allotment he is allowed 
 to hold, I can see no reason for this whatever cither in justice or humanity. 
 
XVI. 
 
 P1!£FACE, 
 
 manufacture, thereby lowering prices' of agricultural produce by 
 decreased consumption, whilst at the same time it overstocks the 
 labour market, and depresses wages to a rate below what can 
 afford even the bare necessaries of life. 
 
 Little explanation is required to show the truth of these asser¬ 
 tions'; for the denial of discount is synonymous with the stoppage 
 of outlay, and the stoppage of outlay is tantamount to the cessa¬ 
 tion of employment, whether it be in manufacture, agriculture, or 
 commercebut this difference is observable, as regards the 
 operatives employed in each of these branches of industry,— 
 namely, the return of good times quickly enables those classes of 
 operatives engaged in commerce and manufacture, who, from 
 local circumstances, can act in concert, to demand and obtain an 
 advance of wages; and accordingly all those classes arc now 
 living in comparative comfort, and in the enjoyment of a fair re- 
 muneratiou for their labour, in their different departments; whilst 
 the agricultural labourer, isolated in his dwelling and helpless in 
 •his isolation, his wages having been once reduced, must await 
 the slow advance of universal prosperity before any gradual im- 
 provement in his circumstances can take place, which seems to 
 me reasonably to explain why, at lorescnt, the agricidlural labourer 
 in both countries still remains unrelieved from the depression 
 which the operatives of other classes have been, fortunately for 
 themselves, enabled to escape from,—without, however, meaning 
 to deny the effect which other causes may, from time to time, 
 have on his peculiar circumstances. 
 
 This is not a fit place to enter further upon the merits of a 
 question which I have elsewhere endeavoured to elucidate,* 
 whether successfully or not remains to be proved; and I therefore 
 do not pursue the subjectbut I hope, in a preface avowedly 
 addressed to the Landlords of England as well as Ireland, I may 
 be pardoned for entering thus far into discussions which would 
 certainly be out of place in a merely agricultural pamphlet, and 
 which are therefore omitted in the Tenant’s edition. In conclu¬ 
 sion, I beg to express my most decided conviction, after twelve 
 
 * See pamphlet entitled, “ Evils lusepai'ahlo from a Mixed Currency.” Pub¬ 
 lished by Pelham Bichardson, Cornhill. 
 
years’ experience of its effects, that the plan of aflfording moral 
 instruction by the appointment of Agriculturists,as herein re¬ 
 commended, is the most speedy and effectual means of communi¬ 
 cating information in practical agriculture to the tenants who may 
 be in want of it, on any estate in any part of the United Kingdom. 
 The instructions of the Agriculturist, daily repeated, are like 
 drops of water constantly falling, which in the end are sure to 
 make an impression even on stone; and as the value of an agricul¬ 
 tural education seems now admitted to be a matter of national 
 importance, and to be a fit object for the outlay of national funds, 
 I cannot see the objection to a grant of public money to the extent 
 of one half the wages of an Agriculturist, in every Poor Law Union 
 wherein local subscriptions could be raised to .furnish the re¬ 
 mainder. The cost of such instruction would be in the proportion 
 of one hundred to one less than the same instruction could be given 
 for in any other way; and as the improvement of the soil must 
 always have a direct tendency to the improvement of the revenue 
 by the increase of income and expenditure which it produces, 
 there would be this additional recommendation to the plan,—that 
 the advance on the part of Government can only be considered as an 
 profitable investment for the public advantage, in which light it 
 could not le reclconed to cost the country anything; and in this 
 view of the question I am fully supported by the opinion of the ta- 
 lented author of “ The IndustrialKesources of Ireland,” who holds 
 precisely similar doctrine.f The practical good results arising from 
 the appointment of Agriculturists seems now to be placed beyond 
 all controversy, in this part of the United Kingdom, by the num¬ 
 bers who have been located on different estates and in different 
 Agricultural Union Societies, from private funds; and there are 
 not wanting instances, where similar appointments in England and 
 
 » “ Agi'iciilturist” is llie name given to tho agricultural teacher appointed to 
 instruct the tenants upon any particular estate,'or in any Agricultural Union 
 Societyhis business is to go round the tenants in rotation, day after day, and 
 point out what is wrong in their practice, and shew them what is right, and to 
 recommend for some assistance (if necessary) such tenants as arc following his 
 instructions—agrantof which soon gives him the necessary powers of persuasion. 
 fDr. Kane, 
 
XVIII. 
 
 PKEPACE. 
 
 Scotland have been attended with the most decided advantages. 
 I therefore consider it unnecessary to add anything to the already 
 too great length of this Preface, by urging further arguments in 
 their favour,—and have merely now most respectfully to solicit a 
 continuation of that public patronage to the present Edition, 
 which has been so liberally afforded to those which have been 
 already laid before the public. 
 
 William Blackee. 
 
 Aemagh, March, 1845, 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 It is now about three years since the Address of which the fol- 
 lowing is an improved edition was printed, being merely intended 
 for circulation among the tenants upon the estates of the Earl of 
 Gosford and Colonel Close; but the manuscript having been seen 
 by one or two friends, the subject became talked of, and several 
 landed proprietors having expressed a desire to obtain copies for 
 distribution among their tenantry, the idea occurred of printing 
 off an extensive second edition, and trying to gain something by 
 the sale for charitable purposes. Accordingly, 2,000 additional 
 copies were printed, which, in a few weeks, were all sold. This 
 favourable reception by the public, together with a continued in¬ 
 quiry for further copies, would have sooner induced me to bring 
 forward another edition, had I not considered it better to defer 
 such a proceeding, until sufficient time had elapsed to prove whe¬ 
 ther the plan laid down might appear to he attended with such 
 results as would be likely to recommend it for general adoption. 
 That such results have taken place, will, I think, be very apparent 
 to all those who have been in any degree acquainted with the 
 estates in which the experiment has been tried, upon even a very 
 cursory inspection of the different farms. On examination, it will 
 be seen that the minous practice of successive corn crops has 
 been, I may say, entirely superseded by the introduction of clover 
 and grass seed, and vetches; and that turnips are become very 
 generally, in use for the winter feeding of stock, and, in many 
 instances, to the extent of stall-feeding beef cattle, for the home or 
 the Liverpool market; and the tenantry in general, upon both 
 estates, will be found exerting themselves to the utmost to in- 
 
I’EEFACB. 
 
 XX.' 
 
 crease their stock to the extent which, iliey now perceive, the 
 crops mentioned will enable them to support, and a spirit of 
 industry and activity is set on foot, that cannot but be attended 
 with the very best effects. Even the passing observer will, I 
 think, find his attention attracted by the rich appearance which 
 the luxuriant clover crops give to the country, where the poorest 
 pasture was formerly alone to be seen, and will be struck by the 
 frequent recurrence of the small patches of turnips adjoining the 
 cottages, so rarely to be met with elsewhere. 
 
 The great difficulty at present felt by the tenant is, in procuring 
 cattle to consume the increased quantity of food which they noiv 
 find themselves possessed of; for, notwithstanding every thing 
 that could be said upon the subject, they could not be persuaded 
 of the great additional stock w’hich the same ground w'ould enable 
 them to maintain, under the system recommended, compared 
 with what they were formerly able to keep; and this difficulty 
 has been much increased by the unusual high price of cattle this 
 last season, which has prevented the poorer class from being able 
 to purchase. There are, nevertheless, many satisfactory instances 
 of the increase of stock, some of which will be found particularly 
 referred to in the Appendix. 
 
 In alluding to these instances, I assume the increase of the 
 stock kept to be a sufiicient proof of the increase of the growth of 
 green crops; and, in like maimer, the increase of green crops to 
 be a sufficient proof of imjiroved cidtimtion, and, of course, of 
 the success of the plan recommended, which, from the experience 
 I have now had of it in several counties, I feel no hesitation in 
 saying, niay be successfully introduced into any part of Ireland. 
 
 Being encouraged, therefore, to think that the plan I was pur¬ 
 suing might be of public advantage, if more generally known, I 
 lately prepared a third edition, in which were introduced such al¬ 
 terations and observations as experience suggested to be likely to 
 increase the utility of the w'ork; and this edition having been all 
 engaged before it could be got from the bookbinder, I am induced 
 now to bring forward a fourth, of a much larger number of copies, 
 and considerably improved, by a better arrangement of the sub¬ 
 ject and by the introduction of additional and important matter. 
 The great interest which has been excited in the public mind by 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XX r. 
 
 the report of a successful experiment having been made for 
 bettering the condition of the small farmer, and the numberless 
 applications I have received in consequence, for further informa¬ 
 tion as to the best means to be pursued in carrying the plan into 
 execution, and enquiring the cost that would be incurred thereby, 
 with many other queries, induce me to think it will not be 
 unacceptable to the public that I should give some account of 
 the origin and progress of the plan I have pursued,—in doing 
 which, I hope I shall be excused for introducing such particulars 
 as may appear likely to encourage and excite others to adopt that 
 which I myself have experienced to be so advantageous, and so 
 calculated to promote the interests of both landlord and tenant,— 
 interests which no friend to either can ever wish to see 
 disunited, and upon the union of which being maintained must 
 always so greatly depend the happiness and well-being of society. 
 
 For several years 1 had been turning my attention to the 
 improvement of the tenantry on the estates alluded to, and had 
 made several unsuccessful attempts to introduce a better system 
 of agriculture, by circulating the different works published on 
 that subject, and offering premiums for those who would adopt 
 the imijrovements recommended; but I had the mortification to 
 find there were no claimants for the prizes proposed, and that 
 every attempt I made was a complete failure. At length it 
 occurred to me, that by writing a short address to the tenants 
 their attention might be drawn to the effects of the present 
 system,—by following it up with the appointment of an Agri¬ 
 culturist, for the special purpose of instructing them,—and, 
 moreover, by permitting him to grant a loan-' of lime to such as 
 
 * When I first began to lend out lime, almost every person told me I should 
 never get payment of it; but the result has justified my confidence in the 
 tenantry, who are now bringing in the amount as it becomes due, witliout my 
 having been obliged, in any one instance, to have recourse to any compulsory 
 process.f 
 
 f It may be satisfactory to state, that the favourable expectation here held 
 out has been singe realized: this last year- I have received of payments from 
 the different estates under my man.-igemeut, the large sum of 2423/. fis. out of 
 which the value of cloversecd alone .-rmouuted to 91.3/. 9s. .Sil. The plan I 
 
XXII. 
 
 PBEPACX. 
 
 followed his instfuclioiis, for flie purpose of replacing ihe manure 
 which he might require for the cultivation of green crops, and 
 adding my own personal influence, I might, perhaps, have better 
 success. Accordingly, an Address, of which, as I have said, the 
 following is an improved edition, was printed, and circulated with 
 an effect far exceeding my most sanguine expectations : and it 
 appears to me this plan of bringing about the consideration of 
 the matter, has greatly the advantage of a personal discussion. 
 People do not like to see what they have considered to be right 
 from their infancy—the propriety of which they never have had 
 a thought of doubting—cried down as erroneous; nor do they 
 like to find themselves worsted in the arguments they advance in 
 the support of their opinions; so that a kind of obstinacy is 
 awakened, sometimes, by a personal communication, which the 
 silent attacks of a writer, in print, are not liable to create. Besides, 
 the circulation of a number of pamphlets by the landlord is sure 
 to make their contents a matter of general conversation among 
 the tenantry, which, in itself, is a great point gained—as in the 
 discussion, even among themselves, some light is sure to be 
 thrown upon the subject. I therefore decided upon giving a 
 copy to every tenant, both as being the best mode of attaining 
 my object, and also being by much the most economical method 
 of bringing the subject fairly before them. If the Agriculturist is 
 to be detained explaining and arguing with every individual, he 
 will be kept talking when he ought to be acting, and he will not 
 get as much done in three years as he might have accomplished 
 in one, had the minds of the tenantry been prepared for his 
 instructions. Be that as it may, I found the address fully to 
 answer the purpose intended, and it was generally admitted to 
 contain what was beneficial and right, and that if it could only be 
 carried into execution, a great advantage would certainly be 
 gained. 
 
 The great fear of lessening their potato crop being removed by 
 
 adopt, is to insist that all adTances shall be settled before receiving tbe rent; 
 and if there is not enough produced to pay both, I mate it an invariable rule to 
 have the former paid off, in the first place, and allow some little further time 
 formating up the latter; and, when this becomes fully understood, there is no 
 attempt made to evade it. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 the loan of lime,*- which more than replaced all the manure that 
 was demanded, and my own influence being exerted to the ut¬ 
 most, above three hundred small farmers in -each estate were 
 induced to make the trial the very first year, and the season 
 proving favourable for the turnip crop, it was most abundant, 
 and was completely established in the opinion of the country; and 
 the extent since sown has been each season increasing, so that 
 I expect in another year the quantity grown will be equal to the 
 support of the proper stock which I calculate a farm in all cases 
 requires,—that is, one cow at least for every three acres of arable 
 land. But the improvement in the agricultural system has not 
 been confined to the growth of turnips. Mangel wurtzel, vetches, 
 and clover, have been also introduced, and the tenants have been 
 shown that the latter, which they very generally believed would 
 not grow, had been heretofore only prevented by being sown on 
 land exhausted by corn crops; and now, being found to thrive 
 when sowed with first grain crop after their potatoes, it has, as I 
 have stated, almost entirely banished the custom of taking two 
 crops of grain in succession, which is a change of the most imr 
 portant uature.f 
 
 In order to assist the undertaking, both the Earl of Gosford 
 and Colonel Close offered premiums for house-feeding the cattle. 
 At the commencement, there were but two tenants on the estate 
 of the former, and none on the latter, who were able to enter 
 into the competition. The second year there were about fifty 
 competitors. In the third, I should think, there could not have 
 been less than three or four hundred, who fed their cattle either 
 
 » By the late introduction of guano the fear here alluded to is completely 
 set, aside. 
 
 f In order to expedite this result, I adopted the plan of lending out clover 
 and vetch-seed, upon a credit of six months, on condition that the former was 
 sowed with fibst grain crop on the manured land, and that the latter should 
 be substituted in place of a second grain crop, where the sowing of clover with 
 the first crop had been neglected. This plan has been found very efficacious, 
 and by opening an account with a London seedsman, I got the desired credit 
 from him, so that I was nothing out of pocliet. The value of this accommo¬ 
 dation to the tenantry may be estimated by the amount lent out, as appears in 
 note page 13. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 entirely or for the most part in the house; and this year, from 
 the great quantity of cloverseed sown last spring, I think there will 
 scarcely be a tenant on either estate who will not feed his stock 
 upon that plan. 
 
 I consider it quite unnecessary to say anything in proof of the 
 great advantage of having such a system introduced, and shall 
 only add that, if the Agent is a person of good feeling, he will be 
 amply repaid for the great personal attention he must first bestow 
 in its introduction, by observing the growing prosperity of those 
 placed under his care, by its operation. But this is not the only 
 incitement, dt is well known what difficulty and vexation attend 
 the collection of rent from a poor tenantry; and what painful 
 feelings the agent is often obliged to undergo in enforcing pay. 
 ment from many who are ill able to afford it, and, perhaps, 
 being obliged to dispossess others, from their inability to pay any¬ 
 thing, and thus leaving whole families exposed, houseless and 
 friendless, to want and misery. From all such harrowing sensa¬ 
 tions he will soon be relieved by the operation of the system I 
 recommend. As an example, I might mention its effects in Lord 
 Gosford’s Cavan estate, consisting of about eight thousand acres. 
 This estate being greatly in arrear, I had tried every means short 
 of those violent measures above alluded to, in order to obtain 
 punctual and regular payments, but without effect; and, notwith¬ 
 standing the estate was moderately let, the arrear was rather in¬ 
 creasing than diminishing. But the year before last being the 
 second since commencing there the system I have described, the 
 entire year’s rent, and part of the arrear, were paid without 
 difficnlty; and this last year, the same thing has taken place, and 
 the amount has been paid cheerfully, and with good will. And 
 upon his Lordship’s hereditary estates in the County of Armagh, 
 a similar good effect has been produced. 
 
 The result on Colonel Close’s estates has been equally gratify¬ 
 ing ; and on either estate the number in arrear is not greater than 
 what the usual casualties of sickness and death of cattle, &c. will 
 account for,—so that I may say there is no permanent arrear 
 rvhaiever. Thus it appears that, in addition to those of a higher 
 order, personal motives are not wanting to incline both landlord 
 and agent to fairly try the plan proposed. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 I am quite aware of the degree of incredulity which prevails iu 
 the public mind as to the practicability of introducing any bene¬ 
 ficial change either in the habits or circumstances of the lower 
 classes in this country: and this is the reason which has induced 
 me in the Appendix to mention the names of some of those who 
 tvere evidently bettering their condition under the system I have 
 been acting on, in order that the public might feel assured of the 
 truth of the facts stated. And with the same view I also mention 
 the names of a few of those who were in the greatest arrear at the 
 time referred to, and who now have paid up every shilling of what 
 they owed; for I make it a standing rule never to forgive any 
 arrears whatever, which would be bad encouragement to those 
 who had regularly paid their rent as it became due. 
 
 It is true, that upon being appointed Agent to Lord Gosfo'rd, 
 finding the war rents had been continued long after the fall in the 
 prices in agvicnltural produce had made a reduction in rent neces¬ 
 sary, I recommended to his Lordship to give the tenantry credit 
 for the abatement they were entitled to from that cause; cal¬ 
 culating it from the date when it ought to have been made, 
 which of course w’ould lessen the amount due; but I do not 
 reckon this as forgiving any real arrear, as the same reduction, 
 and calculated from the same time, was allowed to those tenants 
 who were in no arrear, just the same as those who were—being 
 merely an act of jnstice to which all were equally entitled.* The 
 
 » I shall never forget a scene which took place upon one occasion, when the 
 extent of the reduction to he made was under consideration; and his Lordship 
 
 went with me himself personally to examine into the state of things, the sur¬ 
 
 veyor accompanying us; and being, upon a farm held at will, near Baleek, 
 which had been greatly improved, and was not in any arrear whatever, the 
 owner, the late Bernard O’Hear, came up to us, under evident alarm and agi¬ 
 tation, fully impressed with the belief that the consultation he saw going on 
 could be for no other jlurpose than to decide upon what advance he should be 
 
 charged, and began in the most desponding manner to represent all that he had 
 
 done to improve the ground, and pointed out the adjoining fields remaining 
 in the same' unreclaimed state from which he had rescued his portion, conclud¬ 
 ing by throwing himself entirely upon his Lordship’s generosity; and was 
 about to retire, when his Lordship called him, and said, he had entirely mis¬ 
 taken the object of his visit,'which was to reduce his rout, and not to raise it; 
 and that the reduction should be allowed for the two years preceding; for which 
 
XXVI. 
 
 PBEFACE. 
 
 names of the tenants I was about to mention are, Edward Corr of 
 Ballandarragh, two years in arrear; Matthew Watson, of Corro- 
 manen, three and a-half years; George Eobb, of Baleek, three 
 and a-half years; John Clinton, of Argronsell, two years ; Owen 
 Trainor, of Drumhoney, two years. I might go on with the names 
 of a number of others, but consider it unnecessary, who, as well 
 as those mentioned, are every one now entirely clear, and their 
 arrears paid up. And what makes the proof drawn from the re¬ 
 duction of the arrear more satisfactory is, that it is not occasioned 
 by means of increased coercion or severity in the collection of 
 rents, for the number of ejectment processes which it was formerly 
 found necessary to serve, for the purpose of enforcing payment, 
 have been every year decreasing, so that in the last year not a 
 single ejectment process has been served on either estate. As to 
 selling any distress, it was never at any time resorted to. 
 
 In laying before the public the flattering results which have 
 been stated, I should wish to guard against raising unreasonable 
 expectations. Miracles have long ceased, and it is not to be ex¬ 
 pected that all at once, nor even in the course of three years,* 
 any system, however good, will create about the habitations of 
 the small farmers, in all cases, that look of neatness, content, and 
 comfort, which easy circumstances generally produce. It is very 
 up-hill work for a man, perhaps in heavy arrears, or what is still 
 tvorse, in debt to his neighbours, to pay all off, and arrive at 
 ease and comfort, having his rent to pay and his family to sup¬ 
 port, and his only means the possession of a few acres of exhausted 
 land. The first symptom of improvement will be the paying off 
 
 he gave orders on the spot, adding, that he saw the improvements he had 
 made, which he hoped he would ionglive to enjoy; and cordiaiiy shaliing 
 him by the hand, proceeded to another farm, leaving him overpowered with 
 feelings of gratitude and surprise, which he was wholly unable to express, and 
 the hjeslanders at a loss to decide whether the feelings of the landlord or the 
 tenant were most to he envied. 
 
 * It is only a small proportion of the tenantry who have been three years 
 acting under the system, and of those the greater part began upon a very 
 small scale; the rest of the tenantry have only been induced to begin in suc¬ 
 cession, from seeing the success of others, so that an entire change in the face 
 of the country is manifestly not as yet to be expected. 
 
PREPACE. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 his debts and arrears of rent; and if he can in the first three or 
 four years free himself from these, I think as much has been ac¬ 
 complished as can well be expected. But it is in vain to look in 
 so short a time for that change in the general appearance of any 
 estate, which will decidedly mark the existence of comfort and 
 independence, which has not, nor cannot be supposed possible to 
 be acquired in the time. I have stated, however, that even a 
 cursory examination of the farms v/ill show an evident improve¬ 
 ment, and that the passing observer will be struck with the rich 
 appearance of the clover crops, &c.; but as long as the small fields 
 and crooked fences remain, the finest crops in the world will 
 scarcely be sufficient to give such a decidedly improved appear¬ 
 ance to any estate as to show a very marlced difference between it 
 and the adjoining lands : therefore, those who from reading the 
 declarations of those tenants on the Gosford estates, who by their 
 superior exertions have gained the premiums offered by his 
 lordship, and who may expect everything in and about the estate 
 in perfect keeping therewith, I am forced to confess, will find 
 themselves most egregiously deceived in their expectations. But 
 upon examination, I think they will find quite sufficient to satisfy 
 every reasonable person, that the system acting upon is most 
 successfully advancing, and must ultimately, and in the course of 
 a no very distant period, produce a most remarkable alteration, 
 fully sufficient to justify the anticipations in which Lord Gosford 
 w'as led to indulge, from witnessing the proofs which the Market- 
 hiU Agricultural Dinner brought before him.* 
 
 But what, it will be asked, may be the expense of attempting to 
 follow a plan, which it must be admitted seems at least to have 
 
 » His Lordship then said, “ that iu consequence of the increased cultiva- 
 “ tion of the laud, there would be an increased employment, and consequent 
 “ additional comfort to the agricultural labourer, while the increased profit to the 
 “ farmer, which the statements they had heard fully supported him in count- 
 ‘‘ ing upon, would give them a property, which they were not at present, he 
 “ was sorry to say, generally possessed of. That the sure consequence of this 
 “ would be a growing respect for those laws by which property was protected, 
 “ and a feeling that the said laws were made for their advantage and protection, 
 “ in place of being considered (which was now too generally the case) as hav- 
 “ ing been framed for their coercion." 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 much to recommend it ? To this it may be answered, the expense 
 is trifling indeed, compared with the objects likely to be attained. 
 Those agriculturists I have hitherto brought over, and who have 
 all turned out to be very deserving men, have been engaged at a 
 salary of twenty-five pounds a-year, with a cabin and two acres of 
 land rent free, or in lieu thereof, a lodging, with the Scotch allow¬ 
 ance of six and half bolls of meal,* and what milk they might 
 require; all ivhich does not amount to more than about ten 
 pounds a-year in addition to their fixed salary.f Nothing can 
 be accomplished on a large scale, without having a respectable 
 man in this situation, for the ignorance of the generality of small 
 farmers is such, that they will often put out their lime on land not 
 drained, whereby the advantage of it will be lost entirely, and 
 they will sow the clover seed on exhausted land, where it will not 
 grow, and will therefore become a total loss; also they have, gene¬ 
 rally speaking, little idea of what clean land is, nor how to set 
 about making it so, and their manure therefore goes to nourish 
 weeds as much, or more perhaps, than the crop sown; for all 
 W’hich reasons I look upon this appointment as indispensable 
 where any extensive success is aimed at. The next expense to bo 
 considered is the advance of lime. In this respect my practice 
 has been to lend it almost to every one who applied, let their cir¬ 
 cumstances be what they might, making only the stipulation that 
 the instructions given should be strictly followed. I adopted this 
 line, in order to show the people that my wish was to benefit 
 every one, and that I was not actuated by the selfish motive of 
 merely assisting the very poor class, in order to lessen my own 
 trouble in getting their rents. The liberality of my employers 
 enabled me to act on this extended plan, which of course oe- 
 casioned the greater outlay. But when the landlord is restricted 
 in means, of course the loan will be confined to those who stand 
 most in need of the assistance. The advance required de. 
 ponds so much upon the size of the farms, the density of the 
 
 * The Scotch boll weighs WOlbs. 
 
 f In consequence of the increased demand for persons of this description, 
 since the publication of this essa,v, their wages have advanced, aud £4S to £50 
 is now generally given to Scotchinon of established character. 
 
PEEPAOE. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 population, and other circumstances, that it is hai'd to fix on any 
 sum per thousand acres, as sufficient for this branch of the ex¬ 
 penditure. The more people there are, the more industry is 
 capable of being brought into activity, and the more capital is of 
 course required; likewise, the greater the poverty, the greater as¬ 
 sistance will be necessary; so that the advance required must 
 evidently vary in different estates, though they may consist of the 
 same number of acres. But I would hazard the opinion, that in 
 most parts of the North of Ireland, fifty pounds per thousand acres 
 w'ould be found sufficient to supply the requisite loan of lime, and 
 provide turnip and rape seed, which I have as yet given' gratis.* 
 Every poor teHantry will be found so much in debt for their seed 
 oats, seed potatoes, and perhaps even for subsistence, and subject¬ 
 ed thereby to such usurious charges, that I have found it necessary 
 to give, in the first instance, three years’ credit, in order to get 
 them out of the power of their creditors. The repayment of the 
 sum so lent now forms a fund for carrying on the system, and I 
 do not anticipate being obliged to make further demands upon 
 my employers; but when this credit, from the pecuniary wants 
 of the landlord, cannot be given, I think the repayment might be 
 insisted on from the produce of the first green crop after the loan. 
 My lending of cloverseed was an afterthought, but is a matter of 
 primary importance ; and the cost of the supply came to so large a 
 sum, that I was obliged to limit the credit upon it to six months, 
 which brought the repayment to the time of harvest: and as I 
 obtained the same credit from the London seedsman that I gave 
 . to the tenantry, there was no advance of money in that particular, 
 and the advantage has been the greatest that could bo imagined, 
 in immediately doing away with the practice of sowing successive 
 grain crops, as already alluded to. 
 
 * The actual advance necessary to be made in money may, in many cases, be 
 much lessened by good management; for instance, where a tenant, who has a 
 horse, is in arrear, he may be employed to draw lime or limestone to those who 
 are without one. The man who gets the loan of lime will always be’ made 
 thereby a good marh for the cost, so that both tenants are relieved, the one by 
 getting employment, and the other by getting the lime, and the landlord gets 
 the iirrear well secured, at the same time that it is converted into capital em¬ 
 ployed in improving his estate. 
 
XXX. 
 
 preface. 
 
 To sum up the whole then, it would appear, that to make the 
 conviction produced by the perusal of the pamphlet operatwe, all 
 required on the pm-t of the landlord would be an annual outlay 
 of about thirty-five pounds to the agriculturist, which would 
 afford the necessary instruction, and an advance of about fifty 
 pounds a-year per one thousand acres, for three years at most,* 
 in lime, to replace the manure taken from the potato crop. This 
 is the entire expense, except the trifling cost of the pamphlets; 
 and when to this the tenant has added his industry, and the agent 
 contributed his influence, the system is complete. I do not in the 
 above calculation include the trifling sum which the landlord may 
 feel disposed to give in premiums, for the encouragement of those 
 who most distinguish themselves by their exertions; nor any oc¬ 
 casional assistance he may feel disposed to give in lending a pound 
 or two, for a few mouths, to assist a tenant in buying an additional 
 cow, when his clover was superabundant—-ihese being optional 
 matters, and not absolutely necessary. ■ 
 
 Having entered so much into detail as to the advances required 
 on the part of the landlord, it may not appear irrelevant to advert 
 to the industry required from the tenant, which is still more indis¬ 
 pensably requisite to the success of the plan, than any thing which 
 has been stated ; for with this the poorest tenant may, generally 
 speaking, get on in the world unaided by his landlord; but miihoiit 
 it, all the assistance that can be given him tvill be thrown away; 
 for no man who is not industrious can ever succeed as a small 
 farmer: and such is the reputed indolence of the Irish character, 
 that some may suppose the whole will fail through this single 
 deficiency. But in the plan proposed, such strong inducements 
 are given to stimulate the tenant to exertion, that I think very few 
 will any where be found wanting in that respect. The incitement 
 to industry arising from a loan of lime not being apparent to those 
 who have not considered the subject, it may not be amiss to state, 
 that in this neighbourhood, twenty shillings will buy at the kiln 
 twenty-six or twenty-seven barrels of lime, which is quite suffi¬ 
 cient to manure one English acre for a crop of potatoes of the, 
 kind called cups. After this the said acre will yield a crop of 
 
 • For reasons given in Preface to Fifth Etlition, I conliniied this loan to all 
 who reiiuirctl it. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 wheat, or other grain suited to the soil, to which will succeed the 
 crop of clover that has been sown with it, and after the clover 
 another grain crop; these four crops are upon an average worth 
 five pounds each, that is twenty pounds in the whole,'^ which the 
 farmer makes by his industry out of the twenty shillings worth of 
 lime lent him, and all upon one acre only of his farm, which acre 
 most probably would have been, perhaps for the entire time, lying- 
 out to rest, as it is called, nominally in useless pasture, but really 
 producing nothing. But the plan is not confined to the reclaiming 
 of one acre, nor is the occupier to stand idle whilst these crops 
 are coming round in succession. The loan of lime is stiU con¬ 
 tinued, and another and another acre is brought into cultivation, 
 opening to the view a continually increasing return, until the whole 
 farm is finally brought into its most productive state. 
 
 Now, this is the incitement which I have found, and which I 
 think will always be found to answer the end proposed. I maintain 
 there is no unwillingness in an Irishman to work where sufficient 
 remuneration is held out—but he will not work for nothing, and 
 he would be a great fool if he did. In proof of my assertion, let 
 me refer to the Irish labourer when employed at good wages in 
 London. Look at him also when employed at home upon a good 
 piece of task work, and see whether any man living can work 
 harder. Now the inducement held out in the present case is of 
 that nature that every small farmer is fully capable of compre¬ 
 hending, and their great anxiety to get the lime shows plainly that 
 they do comprehend it, and value it as they ought; and generally 
 speaking, I have no reason to complain of want of industry; on 
 the contrary, I have often had to remark almost incredible instan¬ 
 ces of successful exertion. There will, no doubt, be in all estates 
 particular instances of remissness in some of the tenants, and 
 several may perhaps be found, particularly at first, hard to con¬ 
 vince of the importance of cleaning their land of weeds, draining 
 and levelling their useless ditches, and other matters of a like 
 nature, but by degrees they will all become sensible of the 
 advantages to be derived by attention to these points—and I have 
 seen nothing ■ whatever to shake me in the firm belief, that the 
 system I have explained is of a thoroughly practical nature, and 
 must finally succeed wherever it is tried. Where lime is to be 
 
XXXII.- 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 had, the benefit of the plan will be more immediately seen and 
 felt; but in all cases there must be advantage derived, and a skilful 
 agriculturist will every where find some means, sooner or later, to 
 get the tenant into a stock of manure, which is the foundation of 
 all success in farming operations, and is always held up as such in 
 the following address.* 
 
 I do not think any unprejudiced person can deny that great 
 weight is due to the considerations which have been laid before 
 the reader; but there is still one fact which strongly bears upon 
 the case, and to which I have not yet adverted, and that is the 
 extraordinary change of character which the first ray of hope 
 produces in the mind of a man sunk in dispondency; and who, 
 having fallen into poverty and distress, has lost heart, from seeing 
 no chance of extricating himself from his unfortunate situation. 
 A man awakened from this state of torpor and depression of mind 
 becomes a new creature, when the prospect of comfort and inde¬ 
 pendence begins to appear within his reach; and the exertion 
 consequent upon the introduction of the first gleam of hope, is 
 almost beyond the belief of those who have not had the oppor¬ 
 tunity of witnessing it. I have gone myself to see a poor man, 
 the tenant of less than four acres of land, (whose name and resi¬ 
 dence I can give if required) who was threatened with an ejectment, 
 being, as well as I recollect, two and a-half years in arrear. I 
 found him sitting with his feet in the ashes of a half extinguished 
 fire, his wife and five children nearly naked; want and misery 
 surrounding him on every side—his house and farm neglected— 
 the fear of expulsion, preying upon his mind and spirits, having 
 destroyed his health, and there he was awaiting the beggary and 
 
 * When there is access to the sea-shore, tliere is almost aln-ays sea-ireed or 
 shell-sand to he had. AThen this resource fails, clay ashes may he obtained without 
 injury to the land, wherever there is bog to be had to hiudle a sufficiently large 
 fire, which being once accomplished, the clay, just as it is taken out of the face 
 of a hill, will burn. All these resources failing, still many others will present 
 themselves, such as bone dust, guano, rape cake, &c., by which excellent crops 
 of iurnips may be procured, and when this mams of house-feeding has once 
 been secured, the accumulation of manure to any extent is so much within the 
 compass of every farmer's power, that It is entirely his own fault if ever he 
 should again feel the want of that necessary article. 
 
XXXUI. 
 
 starvation impending over himself and family, in a kind of listless 
 insensibility. In short, the whole scene was one of actual despair, 
 and the man was evidently in such a state that he was incapable of 
 any exertion whatever. Having satisfied myself that he was not 
 wilfully slothful, I told him he should not be turned out, if he 
 would take courage and exert himself, and that he should be 
 assisted with lime, if he would follow the instructions given him 
 by the agriculturist. As I explained to him the plan I had in 
 view for his benefit, it was easy to see the feelings by which he 
 was agitated: with tears in his eyes, he promised to do every thing 
 I required, and I left him, to send the agriculturist to point out 
 what was first to be set about. He faithfully made good his en¬ 
 gagement, and did everything as he was directed; and when his 
 turnips were ripe, I lent him, out of the sum placed at my disposal 
 for that purpose, some money to buy a cow—the family had pre¬ 
 viously lived on potatoes and salt, and for even this he was in 
 debt. This was his commencement, and in the short space of 
 about eighteen months afterwards, I found his house clean and 
 comfortable looking, and the place about it equally so; in fact, I 
 could not put my foot upon a spot that was not either in crop, or 
 in preparation for one, and he himself with his health restored, 
 actively employed in wheeling up earth in a wheelbarrow, from 
 the bottom to the top of a hill in his land, where the soil was 
 shallow, in which his daughter, a fine stout little girl, was helping 
 him, pulling by a rope in front, and the whole was a picture of 
 activity, and successful exertion. These two years past have not 
 been favourable to the farmer, but he has contrived to pay up all 
 his arrears; and although his diet and that of his family, is, of ne¬ 
 cessity, at present confined almost exclusively to potatoes and 
 milk, they are all healthy, happy, and contented. Another year, 
 I expect, will enable him to pay off his debts, and then between the 
 produce of his loom, and the increased produce of his farm, he will 
 be able to command almost all the comforts which people in his line 
 of life are so ambitious of. His rent is £4 8s. 3d. which the butter 
 from his cow will generally pay, leaving him his pig and his crop, 
 and the produce of his loom to himself. And yet this is the same 
 man who, upon the same piece of land, and subject to the same 
 
xxxi'v. 
 
 rnisi'Acis. 
 
 rent, was so lately upon the verge of beggary and starvation.^' 
 I have already endeavoured to guard the puhlto from indulging 
 in unreasonable expectations, from the accounts which have found 
 their way into the papers and periodical publications of the day; 
 and I think it may likewise not be unnecessary to guard the agent 
 against expecting too much also, and to warn him, that by thus 
 coming into contact with ignorant and prejudiced people, much 
 may occur to try his temper and exercise his patience; but the 
 difficulties he may expect to meet with are almost always to be 
 surmounted by calmness and perseverance, and are for the most 
 part but a temporary annoyance ; whereas the success of his en¬ 
 deavours vffil be a source of lasting gratification. In my own case, 
 I must say, I have derived inexpressible pleasure from seeing 
 many deserving people restored, through my instrumentality, to a 
 prospect of comfort and independence, who had been reduced 
 from various causes to great poverty and wretchedness, and seemed 
 so far depressed by their situation, as to have neither health nor 
 hope left to animate them to further exertion. And if such feel¬ 
 ings belong to the agent, what must be the enjoyment of the 
 landlord, who resolves to look into the situation of his tenantry, 
 and by this means to lend a helping hand to their relief. The 
 practice of seeing and relieving distress, not by unproductive 
 almsgiving, but by affording the means and encouraging the spirit 
 of industry among those whom sickness or misfortune may have 
 depressed and impoverished, would soon create in the landlord 
 that interest in the welfare of his tenants, which acts of kindness 
 and beuevoler ice are always sure to excite in the breast of the 
 lenefactor towards the lienejitled: and whoever thinks that an 
 Irish tenantry (once convinced of the friendly disposition of their 
 landlord) would not repay such proofs of his regard with the 
 most sincere and ardent attachment, knows little of their nature. 
 Ties of affection would thus, ere long, draw together again those 
 
 * This poor man, from a foolish pride, ivould not send out his children to ser¬ 
 vice, as they grew up, and having in all nine of a family, lie got into debt, 
 and usurious interest ruined him. He afterwards died, and his widow being un¬ 
 able to hold the farm, has been allowed to dispose of her good-will, as it is called, 
 of the land, but retains the house, and she and her family support themselves 
 by their labour. 
 
PRErACi;. 
 
 
 classes in society which at present seem too far removed, if not 
 actually opposed to each other,—content and harmony, spread 
 around, would lend new charms to a country residence; and the 
 siJorts of the field and the pleasures of the chase would no longer 
 be the only attractions to allure the man of fortune to visit his 
 estates—though even his enjoyment of these would be heightened 
 by such an improved state of things. 
 
 The hired keeper is but a poor substitute in the preservation of 
 his game, for the watchful guardianship of an aifectionate tenantry, 
 and the kind reception and cordial welcome he would receive from 
 his tenants, in coming upon their farms, would give an additional 
 zest to the pleasures of the day. 
 
 But when those enjoyments of health give place, as sooner or 
 later they must, to the bed of sickness, and the aching head is 
 laid on the pillow of reflection, then it is that the true value of all 
 things will be made to appear, and then it will be proved, how 
 dear to the memory those pursuits will be felt, which have had 
 the good of others for their object; and, how paltry and pleasure¬ 
 less those personal gratifications and amusements will be esteemed, 
 which seem now to engross the time and so much occupy the 
 attention of landed proprietors. 
 
 From the many instances of wretchedness which so often meet 
 the eye upon Irish estates, the name of an Irish Landlord is 
 almost become a term of reproach, occasioned by a growing 
 belief, that his heartless rapacity is the cause of such misery 
 e.’cisting, whilst the perhaps involuntary absentee fares still worse, 
 and is held up to public indignation, without almost a single 
 voice being raised in his behalf. 
 
 I am not one of those disposed to join in the general outcry 
 raised against either of these classes, many of both, I am fully 
 persuaded, need not be afraid to stand in comparison with the 
 best specimens of th6 landlord, which Great Britain or any 
 other country can produce. Numbers there are of each, I have 
 no doubt, who with the best possible inclinations have heretofore 
 shrunk from making any attempt to better the situation of those 
 under them, from a firm conviction of the utter hopelessness of the 
 undertaking. All such, I trust, will peruse with satisfaction the 
 following Address, forming, as it does, the groundwork of a plan 
 
XXXVI. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 for carrying such benevolent intentions into execution—a plan 
 which has not only been proved to be successful in practice, but 
 which may be carried into effect without involving them in any 
 permanent outlay, or even putting them to any extravagant ex¬ 
 pense ; and, moreover, may be given up in a moment, if unattended 
 with success, or no longer considered necessary, and calculated 
 (as it has been clearly shown,) both to promote their own par¬ 
 ticular interests, and also to provide for the independence and 
 improvement of their tenantry. 
 
 That many may be encouraged to make the attempt, and that 
 their attempts may be attended with all the success they could 
 desire, is the sincere and ardent wish of the writer. 
 
 William Blacker. 
 
 March, 1834. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 CIIAPTEH I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY AHGUMUN’T—INCREASE OK STOCK BY IIOUSE-EEEDING 
 —INCREASE OF ilANUHE—C.ALOUEATIONS IN REGARD TO EACH- 
 CHEAPER TO FEED MILCH COAYS ON RM'E OR TURNU'S, ALLOWING 
 THEM TO BE WORTH TEN POUNDS PER ACRE, THAN TO FEED ON 
 DRY FOOD, AND CxET IT FOR NOTHING—GREAT xADV.ANTAGE IN 
 PiEGARD TO COTTERS—BENEFIT ATTENDING THE PROPER ROTATION 
 OF CROPS—NECESSITY FOR APPOINT.MEXT OF AN AGRICULTURIST, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ARGUJIENT. 
 
 You are all well aware of the disposition which at present very 
 generally exists, on the part of landlords, to diminish the number 
 of tenants on their estates, and to increase the size of their farms. 
 It is not here necessary to inquire into the reasons which influence 
 them ill this desire: it is sufficient for my present purpose to say, 
 that, if such a plan were e.xtensively acted upon, the result must 
 be the total ruin of all the small holders and cotters, who, in many 
 cases, are as industrious and deserving as any other members of 
 society. 
 
 I consider myself most fortunate that I am not obliged to act, 
 at present, upon the system above alluded to, and that my employ¬ 
 ers, however they may feel resolved not to continue on their estates 
 persons of careless and indolent habits, are nevertheless deter¬ 
 mined to assist and encourage all those of an opposite character; 
 and impressed with this kind feeling, are anxious I should make 
 trial whether anything can be done to reclaim the one and to 
 stimulate the other, and, if possible, to put both upon some better 
 plan of supporting themselves and their families than they at 
 present appear to be acquainted with. 
 
Tile only way, in my mind, to accomplisli this is, by introducing 
 such a system of agriculture as would bring the entire of the small 
 farmers’ holdings into a productive state, in place of allowing 
 nearly half their farms to remain nominally in grazincj, but in 
 reality producing nolliing; and, as this cannot be done without 
 manure, and manure cannot be had without stock, the conside¬ 
 ration naturally arises,—How can the greatest quantity of stock be 
 most economically maintained, and under what management can 
 the largest quantity of manure be derived therefrom ? 
 
 Now, by referring to the experience of all good farmers in all 
 countries, and under all circumstances, it is ascertained, beyond 
 dispute, that by the practice of sowing green crops, such as clover 
 and rye-grass, winter and spring vetches, turnips, mangel wurtzel, 
 &c., the same ground which in poor pasture would scarcely feed 
 one coiv in summer, would, under the crops mentioned, feed three, 
 or perhaps four, the whole year round,—by keeping the cattle in 
 the house and bringing the food there to them;* and the manure 
 produced by ojie of these cows so fed, and wmll bedded with the 
 slraiv saved by the supply of belter food, would be more than 
 equal to that produced by three cows pastured in summer and 
 fed in winter upon dry straw/ or hay, and badly littered. 
 
 Here, then, are two assertions well worthy your serious attention, 
 —first, that three cow's may be provided with food in the house all 
 the ijcar from the same quantity of ground, which wmuld scarcely 
 feed mze under for the ,• and, secondly, that 
 
 cow so fed in the house will give as much manure as three fed in 
 the field. I call these important assertions; for if they are really 
 founded in fact, then any of you who may now' be only able to 
 keep one cow, w'ould, by changing his plan, be able to keep three, 
 and each one of these producing as much manure as three fed in 
 
 * Tlie advantage of cuttiug the clover and bringing it to the cow lias been 
 strongly exemplified this year, in the case of JITarlane and Fecnan, of 
 Drumhoney. They held a divided farm, and had exactly the same crop of 
 clover, both in quantity and quality. JFParlane cut his, and fed iico cows 
 plentifully in the house. Fecnan (imzcd his—and it proved a short allowance 
 for o)ic. And the succeeding crop, after the clover, is always much cleaner 
 and better when it has been cut than when it has been pastured, though many 
 
39 
 
 the way you have hitherto been accustomed to adopt,—the result 
 must be, that you would have nine times as much manure by the 
 new method as you have hitherto had by the old. Now, as I do 
 not tliink there can be a single individual among you so blind as 
 not to see at once the great advantage it would be to have such 
 an immense addition to his manure heap, it appears to me that 
 the best thing I can do is, in the first instance, to endeavour to 
 impress firmly upon your minds the conviction that this fact, so 
 much entitled to your attention, and yet so little attended to, is 
 in reality a truth that may be relied' on, and may be practically 
 adopted without any fear of disappointment. It is upon this foun¬ 
 dation that the practicability of almost every improvement I mean 
 to suggest in the cropping of your land must ultimately depend, 
 and it is therefore indispensable to the success of any arguments I 
 may offer, to place it before you in the clearest point of view, and 
 remove from your minds every doubt whatever upon the subject. 
 
 To draw the necessary proof therefore from what' comes under 
 your onn observation, (I may say every day of your lives, and 
 whioli must therefore have more weight with you than any thing 
 else I could say), I refer you with confidence to the exhausted 
 misei'able pasture upon which your cattle arc now almost univer¬ 
 sally fed, two to three acres of which are often barely sufficient to 
 keep one cow alive for the summer months, hut by no means to 
 afford her a sufficiency of food. Now, c )nc acre of good clover 
 and rye-grass, one rood of vetches and three roods of turnips, 
 (making up in all two acres, which are now allotted for grazing 
 one cow in summer), taking a stolen crop of rape after the vet¬ 
 ches, Mill afford ample provision for three cows the year round. 
 For you all know that an acre of good clover will house-feed three 
 cows from the middle of May to the middle of October; and with 
 the help of a rood of vetches you will be able to save half the 
 first cutting for hay to use during the winter. Then when the 
 first frosts, about the middle of October, may have stripped the 
 clover of its leaves, the early sown rape, which ought to be put in 
 ridge by ridge as the vetches arc cut, and the land well manured, 
 (if the seed has been sotvn by the middle of July,)* will be ready 
 
 ■* If the vctclics arc too late to allow Ibo sowing of the raije to commence 
 at that lime, it ought to be raised in a seed bed, and transplaiifed, which may 
 
•10 
 
 to cut aud feed the cattle until the tuniips are ripe. Here then 
 you have plainly provision secured until towards' the middle of 
 November; and we have to calenlate what remains to feed the 
 cattle until the middle of the May following. For this purpose 
 there is a rood of turnips for each cow. Now, an acre of the 
 white Grlobe and yellow Aberdeen turnip ought to produce from 
 thirty-five to forty tons per acre; but supposing one half to bo of 
 the Swedish kind, let us calculate only on twenty-eight tons to 
 the acre, which is not more than an average produce, even if they 
 were all Swedish, and see what that calculation will yield per day 
 for one hundred and ninety days, which is rather more than the 
 six mouths. If an acre yields twenty-eight tons, a rood will yield 
 seven tons, which being brought into pounds will amount to fif¬ 
 teen thousand six hundred and eighty pounds; and this divided 
 by one hundred and ninety days, will leave eighty-lhree pounds 
 of turnips for each cow, every day, which, with a small portion of 
 the hay and straw you are possessed of, is a very sufficient allow¬ 
 ance for a common sized milch cow; and over and above all this, 
 you have the second growth of the rood of rape coming forward 
 in March and April, which tvould feed all the three cows much 
 longer than would be necessary to meet the coming clover crop, 
 even in the latest season. 
 
 Here, then, the facts of the case are brought before yon for your 
 own decision, and I fearlessly appeal to yourselves,—is it true that 
 
 bo contiuueil with advantago to llio end of August, putting the plants iu as 
 thick as possible. Jlr. tVilliam Scott, a tenant of tlio Earl of Cbailemout's, 
 who has been iuducbd to try rape, from reading the first edition of this Address, 
 asserts, that he has obtained from one siinare perch of transplanted rape the 
 amazing return of thirty-one stone five pounds, whidi would be nearly at the 
 
 rate of thirty-two tons tlie English acre, and he would liave two cuttings after¬ 
 
 wards in March and May, supposing which to be only lialf as good as the first, 
 there would he the enormous produce of sixty-four tons per acre—which seems 
 
 so astonishing, that I iiueslioned him particularly as to the fact, which he 
 positively asserted to be the case, and that the ground measured was not su¬ 
 perior to the rest of the field. If the rape, however, is too late, and therefore 
 unfit to cut in October with advantage, the globe turnip will then be fully 
 ripe, if planted in proper time, and the rood of turnips would hold out to the 
 middle of April, from which time the r.ape would yield ample food until the 
 
two to throo acres (1 make my calculation on two only) are fre¬ 
 quently allotted to graze one cow during summer ? And again— 
 is it true that an acre of clover and grass seed, a rood of vetches, 
 and three roods of turnips, with the stolen crop of rape after the 
 vetches, will fully supply food for three cows ihe year round ? I 
 defy any one of you to reply to cither of these questions in the 
 negative. The straw of the farm, in any case, belongs to the cattle; 
 but in the latter case, where turnips are provided for food, it is 
 chiefly used for bedding, and the additional quantity of grain 
 which will be raised by means of the increased quantity of ma¬ 
 nured land, will always keep pace with the increase of the stock, 
 and provide the increased quantity of bedding required. I think, 
 therefore, I am warranted in considering my first assertion proved; 
 namely, that the ground generally allotted to feed one cow, will 
 in reality supply food for three,—mi. have only now to offer some 
 calculations as to the accumulation of manure, which I hope will 
 be considered equally conclusive. 
 
 During the summer months, your cow which is only in the house 
 at milking time, (and perhaps not even then, for the practice is 
 sometimes to milk her in the field,) can afford little or no addition 
 to the manure heap, being upon the grass both day and night; 
 and even in winter and spring, wdiilst there is any open weather, 
 they are always to be seen ranging over the fields in search of 
 food, so that I think you cannot but admit (upon a calculation for 
 the entire year round,) the animal is not in the house more than 
 eight hours out of the twenty-four, and it is only the manure made 
 during this period which can be reckoned upon; therefore, upon 
 this supposition, (which I think is sufficiently correct to show the 
 strength of my argument,) if there is any truth in arithmetic, orae cow 
 fed, as I have calculated on, in the house for the entire twenty-four 
 hours, will yield as much manure as three cows that are only kept 
 in the house for eifit hours—the quality of the food being sup¬ 
 posed the same in both cases; and this would manifestly prove 
 my assertion; namely, that one cow fed within, W'ould give as 
 much manure as three fed without: and therefore when three can 
 be kept in the one way, as I have already shown, for one kept in 
 the other, it is as clear as^three times three make nine that the 
 result of the calculation will be just as I have stated—namely, that 
 
the farmer will obtain by the change of system nine times as much 
 manure in the one case as he w'ould have in the’ other. 
 
 Now, if after all that has been said, (which seems to me at least 
 quite coiiviucing,) any of you should be so astonished by the quan- 
 tity of the manure thus proved to be gained as still to have some 
 misgivings on the subject, and be inclined to think that matters 
 would not turn out so favourable in practice as I have shown in 
 theory, I would wish any such person to consider one very mate¬ 
 rial point which I have not yet touched upon—for in the foregoing, 
 the argument is founded entirely on the time the animals arc 
 kept within, viz.—it is stated that one cow kept within for 
 twenty-four hours w’ill give as much manure as three cows which 
 are only kept in for eiylil hours, the food being assumed to be the 
 same in both cases ; but it is quite evident that if the corv kept 
 within should be fed with turnips and heddecl with straw which 
 the others are fed upon, leaving them little or no bedding whatever, 
 that the calculation must turn decidedly in favour of the animal 
 which is well fed and bedded, both as regards the quantity and 
 quality of the manure—so that it appears the estimate I have 
 made is decidedly under the mark. 
 
 I may here be challenged to name any one who has really accu¬ 
 mulated nine times as much manure in the manner I have stated 
 to be practicable. My answer to this would be, that no one indi¬ 
 vidual has thought it necessary to apply all the land formerly 
 allotted to grazing his stock, to t\ia imrposc green ci-ops, 
 
 to feed them on in the house. As fast as the manure heap has 
 enabled them to do so, those who have adopted the house-feeding 
 system have been anxious to bring their useless grazing into 
 potatoes and wheat, or other grain, —enough of the old prejudice 
 still remaining to make them think they were serving themselves 
 by so doing f and they have not given the ground saved to the 
 
 * I am well .satisfied in my own mind, that cattle ernps will pay more at 
 present in luillc and hntter than any other crops whatever, except flax or wheat; 
 and if the farmers’ wives could he prevailed on to put less salt in their hiitler 
 intended for the English Jlarkct, the price would he greatly improved, and 
 the Dutcli butter would he driven out of the market. Should a farmer be 
 induced to increase bis stock, so as to makc„a firkin or half a firkin once a 
 fortnight, tlie conveyance by steam is so rapid and so certain, tiiat the butter 
 
43 
 
 raising of turnips, mangel wurtzel, &c. and of cour.sc have not kept 
 cattle to consume tliem; but I fearlessly refer any doubtful en¬ 
 quirer on the subject, to go to the houses of those men who have 
 gained the premiums offered by the Eaii of Gosford for the en¬ 
 couragement of house-feeding — Ingram of Drumhoney—John 
 Hogg of Drumgaw, or James Bradford of Drumiunis, or any of 
 the others most convenient to him,—and let him examine their 
 manure hecqis, and examine themselves, as I have no doubt they 
 have been upon many occasions, and then let him judge for him¬ 
 self whether there is any reason to doubt the truth of what I have 
 staled. But the case does not require that I should rigidly adhere 
 to the strict letter of the argument. I need only ask you to think 
 'lehat you might do in your farms, if you had but six, five, or 
 even four times as much manure as you now have; or rather' 
 lot me ask kIicU is it you might not do if you had such a 
 supply; surely you w'ould not in such a case let the land lie waste, 
 as you now do, to recover itself, when you had the means of in¬ 
 slant recovery in your own hands; nor w'ould you rely upon one 
 half of your farm to pay the rent of the whole, when you had the 
 means within yourself of making the other half equally productive. 
 
 Having therefore, I think, set this matter at rest, I now proceed 
 to state what perhaps may add much more to your surprise, namely, 
 that many people well informed in these matters assert, the allow¬ 
 ance of two acres of land which I have made is by no means re¬ 
 quired for the support of three corns, the year round, and that much 
 less rvould do ; and I confess that in making the calculation I have 
 just laid before you, I have been allowing much more than I be¬ 
 lieve to be absolutely necessary—for this simple reason, that with¬ 
 out going into the minutiiB of what may be the very most that can 
 be done upon a small piece of land, the advantage to be obtained 
 merely according to the statement I have given is quite great 
 enough to attract your attention, and put you (if any thing canj 
 upon making some alteration in your present system; and the truth, 
 
 might be safely exported to Liverpool or London, nearly iVcsli, and those 
 merchants engaged in the trade would do a public service by bespe.ilnng, 
 from the fanners of their acquaintance, butter to bo made up in this manner, 
 and to export it under a different brand, which would soon bring the matter 
 to proof.—See Appendix upon this subject. 
 
44 
 
 both ill theory and practice, of what 1 have pointed out is so ob¬ 
 vious, that all possibility of contradiction, or evasion, is completely 
 set aside, which I consider a matter of no small importance. The 
 allotment 1 have made of two acres lor the support of three cows 
 is the same as allowing two-thirds of an acre for each cow, which 
 I have no doubt you will think is a moderate allowance ; but to 
 show you the opinion of very sensible writers, who have made this 
 subject their study, I beg to mention that hlr. Allen, in hislitlle work 
 entitled “ Colonies at I-Iome," estimates the ground necessary to 
 supply food for a cow the year round at only half an acre : and 
 Mr. C'obbett, in his work entitled “ Cottage Economy,” says that 
 one rood of ground will be found amply sufficient. For the parti¬ 
 cular plans pointed out by these writers, I must refer to their own 
 writings, but will venture to remark, that to the instructions 
 given by Mr. Cobbett may bo added a recommendation to have 
 the cow carefully curried, which is necessary to the animal's 
 health when kept in a state of confinement, and will materially 
 increase the quantity of milk and her food might be given to 
 her in a small straw yard for a portion of the day, for the sake 
 of exercise; or she might be put out upon a tether to graze for 
 an hour or two, in good weather, if the farm afforded a suitable 
 place And I w'ould also strongly recommend particular care to 
 be taken in transplanting the Swedish turnip plants—to raise them 
 by putting the spade completely under them, so as to loosen the 
 earth about them, and, in putting them into the ground, to take 
 care that the roots are placed in the natural position, and not dou¬ 
 bled in, to guard against which, a small portion of the end of the tap 
 root had better bo taken off,—the transplanting to be done in 
 
 * When catllo are so tied up that they cannot lid: themselves, as is in gene¬ 
 ral the case in stall fed cattle, the itching becomes so great that they lid: 
 themselves, when they have the power of doing so, until they create a sore 
 wliich injures the ilesh. Cattle Icept in such a state of continual irritation 
 cannot, I tliink, thrive as tltey otherwise would he likely to do, and shows tlie 
 necessity of frequent currying, or being allowed the liberty of a straw-yard for 
 an hour or two in the day. In corroboration of this doctrine, I have heard that 
 the practice in Berwickshire is to have stalls calculated to hold two, opening 
 into a small yard appropriated to each stall, so that the cattle, not being tied 
 up, are left at liberty to consult their own comfort, and in tins way they are 
 
moist woatlicr in ground newly dng. Without attention to these 
 points the crop will be injured. Indeed, it is so seldom that trans¬ 
 planted Sw’edisli Inrnips produce in this countnj the crop Mr. 
 Cobhett calculates upon, that 1 should prefer your applying half 
 an acre, or even two-'liirds of an acre, to the support of your corv, 
 in order to enable you to sow your turnips in the usual way ; or 
 instead of them, mangel wurtzel, where the ground is suitable; 
 and if half an acre, or two-thirds of an acre, with the addition of 
 a trilling (piantity of stravr, will insure an ample supply of food for 
 a cow during the entire year, I thiiik none of you will consider 
 the ground misapplied. It is so hard, however, to get persons 
 unaccustomed to be directed by printed instructions, either fully 
 to understand them, or, if they do, to put them in practice, t^t 
 although I allude to the direction.s given by those writers for the in¬ 
 struction of all who may choose to adopt them, and particularly 
 for the benelit of cotters who may only have a house and garden, 
 my own opinion is, that the simple plan I have laid down, which 
 every small farmer can easily comprehend, and can as easily carry 
 into practice, without interfering in the least with the general cul¬ 
 tivation of his farm, i.s the best system to recommend to you for 
 adoption; and I think it is quite evident, from what has been said 
 on the subject, that if you take advantage of the kail and cabbage’’'' 
 which you may raise in your gardens and potato ridges, as will 
 hereafter be pointed out, together with the additional stolen crops 
 which may be raised in the rest of your farms, of rape, or stubble 
 turnips, after the crops of grain, or on the early potato and 
 vetch ground, as pointed out under the head of rotation of 
 crops, that the quantity of land, specially applied to the 
 feeding of your cattle, may be reduced to the half acre, which is 
 the quantity Mr. .411en calculates upon. It appears to me, there¬ 
 fore, quite undeniable that the foregoing can be carried into 
 practice ; and if so, 'and upon a plan which requires no particular 
 trouble or skill in the management, how shameful is it for you 
 often to let two, or perhaps three acres, of land to be wasted as I 
 have stated, to graze one animal in summer, and to have her 
 
 ♦ Mr. Jlattlicw Hilton, ugricullurist to the Jtarquis of Ormoiulc, informs 
 me tlmt Drumhead Cabbage sown in Feltruary, and the plants put out in May 
 
46 
 
 starving all the winter, upon bad hay or fusty straw ? The impor¬ 
 tance of house-feeding your cattle seems to me so great, and I 
 have therefore said so much in regard of it, you may perhaps 
 suppose the subject exhausted, and that nothing more can remain 
 to be added ; but I have still something to mention, which may 
 perhaps appear to you more surprising than any thing you have 
 yet heard : namely, that you will have more profit by your cows 
 if you feed them on green food, and pay a fair price per acre for 
 it, than if you fed them upon the hay and straw you generally 
 give them, and goi the said lunj and straw for nothing. This I 
 have no doubt will appear a very strange assertion, but it is not at 
 all more strange than true, and to prove it I refer to the case of 
 James O'Neill of Garvagh.—This man was a complete pauper 
 when Lord Gosfoud bought the Graham Estate; but, by the 
 assistance and instructions afforded to him, had got his small por¬ 
 tion of land into a good state, and last summer I lent him a cow, 
 'seeing that he would be able by proper attention to have kept her 
 in the house all the year. He had not been possessed of one for 
 years, perhaps never in his life; but his conduct did not after¬ 
 wards show him to be deserving of what had been done for him. 
 
 He would not sow his rape in proper time, as he was desired, 
 and I was at last obliged to discharge him from the work at Gos- 
 ford, before he would bo at the trouble of doing so. This neglect 
 occasioned the crop to be late coming forward in spring, and 
 having wasted his turnips, in beginning to them before they were 
 ripe, and using them extravagantly, they were all finished before 
 the rape was fit for cutting. This being the case, he turned his 
 cow into the rape to graze, by which the crop was completely 
 destroyed; and this failing, he put the cow to graze upon the 
 young clover. This being soon eat down, I found the animal 
 eating the tender shoots of the young quicks, in one of the new 
 made ditches, when, upon enquiry, all the foregoing circum¬ 
 stances came out. Being provoked at such conduct, I ordered 
 the cow to bo sold ; but, when the day of sale came, ho was able, 
 from the improved state of his farm, to get one of his neighbours ■ 
 to go security for the payment of his arrears, his rent, and the 
 price of his cow; and, also, that he would buy rape elsewhere, 
 and feed his cow in the house, as I required ; upon which I did 
 
47 
 
 not persist in my intention of selling her. He, accordingly, bought 
 a small piece of rape ground, (ten Irish perches, or seventy yards 
 long, and two yards broad,) which, with a little dry fodder, kept 
 his cow in full milk for thirty days; and, upon that feeding, 
 gave fourteen quarts daily, whereas, upon dry food, she had fallen 
 off to half the quantity. 
 
 I state these particulars to show you the folly and blindness of 
 this man to his own interest. By neglecting to sow the rape in 
 proper time, it was not ready to supply the place of his turnips, 
 and every thing went wrong by this first neglect, which appeared 
 to him of no importance. If the turnips had been properly ma¬ 
 naged they would have lasted out longer—ii the rape had been 
 properly treated it would have been ready sooner; and, if it had 
 not been trampled down, would have lasted until the clover sup¬ 
 plied its place, and every thing would have answered in its turn. 
 Now he has been obliged to bny from others, at the rate of fully 
 £10 an acre, that rape which his own land would have supplied 
 him with in abundance, and he has injured his clover so that he 
 will lose half the benefit of it. But the advantage of the rape is 
 seen particularly in this, that, notwithstanding the high price he 
 paid for it, it was better for him to buy it than to feed his cow on 
 straw, even supposing he had got the straw for nothing, which is 
 very easily demonstrated. 
 
 For the fourteen iluavts proJuceit by the rape foohiiig, at l.til.'a nuart, 
 
 comes to. 1 9 
 
 The price paid for it cost only 2d. per day, to which add half a stone 
 of straw, Id. (being at the rate of lOd. per n21hs, which is above 
 the general price of that article,) and the. expense, daily, comes to 0 3 
 Leaving a clear profit, per day, arising from feeding on rape, of. 1 6 
 
 When the cow had been fed on straw, she only gave seven 
 quarts, and very soon would have given still less, the price of 
 
 * The immense produce of rape, when wcU manured, is beyond any thing 
 almost that can he imagined, if let stand until it gets into blossom, which wa» 
 the case in this instance. Manure makes the stalk tender and juicy which 
 rvould otherwise he hard and dry, so that if cut into small pieces, not a bit will 
 he lost, and it grows to a height of six feet. I am almost afraid to say that 1 
 believe, with the addition of some straw, an acre will keep thirty head of 
 cattle in full milk for a niontli, 
 
48 
 
 which, daily, would he only lOid. ; therefore, if he got the straw 
 for nolldng, he would only have 10|d. a day by the cow ; whereas, 
 3.kex paying for the rape, ho gained 18d.; but if he had to pay 
 for the straw,—the cow would require three stone, which, at 16d. 
 a cwt., would bo 6d., and deducting this from lOJd. (the price of 
 the seven quarts of milk) —there would only be a profit by the 
 cow of 4|d. a day, in place of the 18d. a day yielded by the rape. 
 The same thing may bo proved in regard to turnip feeding in 
 winter. If a cow calves at November, and is fed on turnips, she 
 will keep up her milking: but, if fed on straw, she will fall off 
 immediately to half the quantity. .Now, allowing the acre of 
 turnips to be worth £10, which is more than any other crop gene¬ 
 rally produces, and reckoning the produce at thirty tons, (al¬ 
 though, by good cultivation, Mr. Mitchell had fifty-live tons to 
 the acre last year,)— 
 
 milch cow, would cost. ild. 
 
 Aud a slono of straw would cost, at ICd. a cwt. t> 
 
 Total cost per day for tuniips aiul straw . lUl. 
 
 M’hereas, three stone of straw, which she would require if fed on 
 .straw alone, at 16d. per cwt. comes to 6d. a day; so that, by the 
 use of turnips in winter, it appears you can feed your cow (after 
 allowing £10 an acre for the farm) at l^d. a day loss than upon 
 straw alone, and you get double the quantity of milk. So that 
 one cow fed in this way yields you fully as iiiuch milk as two 
 would give fed on straw, and the manure is also twice as valuable. 
 This ought to show you all the error you liill into. When you 
 talk of liceping a cow all the winter upon straw, you merely talk 
 of Ixecping her a?irn—but your object should bo to keep her so as 
 to yield you s.profit; and this can only be done by liccp'mg her on 
 moist food, which, I have shown you above, it is more profitable 
 for you to do than to feed her on straw, supposing the straw n-as 
 made a present to you. 
 
 Now as such a small space may be made to support a cow by 
 green crops and house-feeding, suppose that any industrious cotter 
 should turn his small patch of ground to that purpose, and even 
 admitting him to have no means of even getting straw to bed her 
 
with, yet if he is attentive to gather the weeds growing on the 
 road side, or in the fields adjoining, and nso them as a substitute, 
 he will find sufficient to increase the quantity of manure to such 
 an extent, that he will have no difficulty in getting, from his less 
 industrious neighbours, ground to put it out upon, and thus get a 
 crop of potatoes, amply sufficient to support his family, upon very 
 moderate terras—the quantity of manure thus obtained from a cow 
 well fed and kept constantly in the house, being greater than what 
 any one who has not made the experiment will believe ; but if the 
 cotter, instead of enriching the land of his neighbours, should 
 have even a field or two of his own, the constant supply of manure 
 would so improve the quality of the soil, that it would yield twice 
 as much as in the way now' usually practised ; and, having only 
 a small rent to pay, he w'ould soon become able to buy an acre or' 
 two more, and thus gradually advance himself to the rank of those 
 small farmers to wdiom I am now addressing myself, and would 
 very shortly be possessed of that quantity of manure which would 
 enable him to enter upon a rotation of crops; without at¬ 
 
 tention to which no farmer, great or small, can get the full return 
 from his land which it is capable of aftording. 
 
 To make you sensible of this, I w’ould wish you, for sake of 
 example, to suppose a small farmer, holding eight’ acres of land, 
 having acquired a stock of manure sufficient for one-fourth part, 
 or two acres—he is then able to commence the following rota¬ 
 tion:—these two acres are, the first year, planted with green 
 Crops, in which are included potatoes, turnips, cabbages, mangel 
 wurtzel, kc., according to the nature of the soil and other circum¬ 
 stances. The next year he manures two acres more; and does 
 the same the third year; and the fourth year the whole farm 
 has been gone over; and, after each manuring, the two acres so 
 manured are occupied with the following succession of crops; 
 fiist year, green crops, as already stated; second year, oats, barley, 
 flax, or wheat, with clover; third year, the clover to be cut and 
 brought to the cattle, making into hay whatever may be to spare ; 
 fourth year, oats, wheat, or barley. The fifth year the same rota- 
 
 * 'I'iiis iias been cleavly majc appear by tile enormous produce of small 
 patches of land cultivated under the allotment system, patronised by llio 
 Labouvors brieud Society, and staled in their iutcrcsliiig publications. 
 
50 
 
 tion commences again, and the one-fourth part is again placed in 
 green crops and well manured, and the other'crops succeed as 
 before. Bj' this means it is evident the farmer gets four produc¬ 
 tive crops from one manuring, and has always one-half of the 
 entire farm, viz. four acres in grain ; one-fourth, or two acres, in 
 clover and grass; and one-fourth, or two acres, in potatoes, turnips, 
 &c., which is much more than any farm yields, according to the 
 present system. 
 
 In order to make this rotation more simple, and less likely to 
 confuse you, I have desired all the manured land to be laid down 
 with clover, along with the first grain crop; but it is open to the 
 farmer to sow only half in clover, and put the other half in vet¬ 
 ches,* Italian rye grass, or cabbages, if he should wish to have 
 greater variety of food for his cattle, which is always desirable. 
 The onltj thing insisted upon is, that two exhausting erops are not 
 to le sowed in succession upon the same ground. It is also to be 
 observed, that the plentiness of manure obtained by this system 
 of house-feeding will enable you to manure the stirbble of the last 
 grain crop, and sow or transplant rape, which will yield a full 
 return, and be off the ground in time for your potatoes and tur¬ 
 nips, which, upon the foregoing plan, always succeed the second 
 grain crop.f The quantity of food for your cattle may still 
 be increased by planting with your potatoes curled kale on the 
 north edge of the ridges, in such a manner as that the mid-day 
 shadow may fall in the trench, and planted three feet asunder: a 
 material addition to the autumn and winter feeding will thus be 
 obtained without injury to the potato crop: and I have seen them 
 left standing in the furrows even after wheat had been sown, and 
 
 * lu this case the gi'aiu, when cut, should be immediately stocked ui)ou the 
 side of the fieldjsoived in clover, and winter vetches init in without delay, and 
 as they arc cut the following May and June, vetches should again he put in, 
 ridge by ridge, as the others are cut; these will be ready for use from October 
 to December, and will leave the ground fit to bear any crop. Or by sowing the 
 Italian rye-grass in one half, a still more valuable crop may be obtained 
 without any second labour. 
 
 f Potatoes seem to succeed better than turnips; but vetches or Italian 
 rye-grass for October feeding is perhaps as profitable as any, particularly 
 
yielding abundantlyBut if this should be objected to, they may¬ 
 be cut down and transplanted into any corner of the farm, to go 
 to seed, -wliicb will sell for double the money, perhaps, which any 
 other equal portion of the farm will produce. In some districts, 
 the finest flax is found to grow after the first grain crop succeeding 
 potatoes; but this exhausts the ground early in the rotation, and 
 leaves it unproductive. 
 
 I would rather recommend the flax to be grown after the last 
 grain crop upon the clover lay; by this means the land is restored 
 by the succeeding potato or turnip crop, and no loss is sustained, 
 —if necessary, a top dressing of guano or liquid manure may be 
 given to the clover, to enable the la,nd to give the grain and fla.x 
 in succession. In the model farm belonging to the National 
 Board of Education, Mr. Shelling, the manager, keeps his Italian 
 rye-grass and clover for two seasons without breaking up, and by 
 dint of manure applied in top dressing, continues to out the pro¬ 
 duce for house-feeding,—this saves both seed and labour, and 
 would answer admirably for enabling the land afterwards to bear 
 the two crops of grain and flax in succession;—but without some 
 such severe treatment, I should fear the land might get too rich 
 for grain crops. I wish it, however, to be particularly understood 
 that I recommend the foregoing rotation merely as a great im¬ 
 provement upon the present practice, and lilcely to be very 
 generally attended with success, but not as the best for cury 
 soil; for I am perfectly sensible the varieties of soil and the 
 varieties of circumstances are so numerous, that there is no pos¬ 
 sibility of laying down any plan to suit all cases ; and I liave, there¬ 
 fore, thought it better to obtain the assistance of an experienced 
 agriculturist, who will call upon you for the purpose of personally 
 inspecting your farms, and giving instructions suitable to the ■ 
 nature and condition of each, not only as to the rotation of crops, 
 
 * Espevieuce seems to be in favoin- of pilauting the cabbai'e in place of 
 kale; which will be kept iu mind where kale is mentioned elsewhere. (See 
 Jenkins’s account in the -4ppendix.) Catllo will eat even the stalks of the 
 cabbages, if cut into very small pieces; or a couple of seeds of rape may be 
 dibbled in the north side of the ridge, tbveo feet distance, immediately after llie 
 second shoveling, which will grow to an astonishing size, after tlio potato tops 
 decay, particularly in moory ground nr reciaiinod bog. 
 
but also as to the mode of preparing the ground and putting them 
 in, and also how to cultivate them afterwards, which accurate 
 information, I am of opinion, nolldng hut personal communication 
 can supply. Under such circumstances one would naturally 
 expect to see the instructions given most implicitly obeyed ; but 
 in place of this I have been provolced, year after year, with the 
 stupid obstinacy of many, who in spite of all that can be said to 
 them will delay to thin out their turnips, waiting until the plants 
 may afford a mouthful for their cattle, when by so doing they 
 injure the crop in a manner they will not believe. I have the 
 same complaint to make of the inattention shown to keep down 
 the weeds, and to keep the ground loose about the turnip plants 
 in the early stage of their growth, and indeed as long as any 
 implement can be with safety used for that purpose. I am in 
 hopes the importance of attention in these points is at last be¬ 
 ginning to be understood, and that I shall not much longer have 
 the same complaint to make; and beg reference to wbat is said 
 upon this subject by Mr. Bruce in the Appendix. 
 
CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 DIllECTIOXS FOr. THE PnESEr.VATIOX OF HE.UjTII—at>va>:tacies of 
 OEEANL 1KES3 AND VEXXrr.ATION IN THIS llESPECI—DANGER OF NE¬ 
 GLECTING TIIEJI IN CASES OF INFECTIOUS COJIPLAINTS—RECOJDIEN- 
 DATTON OF TEJIPERANCE SOCIETIES—GREAT SAVING BY ABSTiATNING 
 FROM DEAAI DRINKING. 
 
 Although personal inspection and personal instruction must 
 al\ya3’s be most valnable, yet tliere are, novertlieless, certain fixed 
 principles which every farmer is bound to attend to, and which 
 never should be lost sight of, and these I shall shortly enumerate ; 
 but first, I would wish to say a few words as to the preservation 
 of health, without which, the small farmer and cotter are entirely 
 incapacitated from taking advantage of these or any other means 
 to better their situation. 
 
 In this respect, I would recommend to you, most earnestly, im¬ 
 mediately to remove all stagnant water, filth, and putrid substances, 
 from the fronts of your houses, in order that the door, which is 
 often the only mode of ventilation, may admitpure air. If the floor 
 within is lower than the land without, let a trench be cut all 
 round, to carry off the moisture, and make the house as diy as the 
 nature of things will admit. Let the windows be made to open, 
 so that every part of the house may be thoroughly ventilated; and 
 let the inside and outside, but particularly the inside, be white¬ 
 washed as often as can be conveniently done, and let the most 
 minute attention be paid to cleanliness. With these precautions, 
 the health of a labouring man may generally be calculated on, 
 except in cases of fever or other infectious complaints, and even 
 against these the foregoing recommendations will be a great pro¬ 
 tection, if strictly attended, to; but should any member of the 
 family be attacked by any complaint of an infectious nature, there 
 is little chance of preventing its being communicated to every one 
 in the house, if they are neglected. The fresh air must be freely 
 
54 
 
 admitted, the walls whitewashed, and every thing in the house, 
 of furniture, bedding, and clothes, washed and put but, and exposed 
 to the sun and air, and hot lime put on the floor, if there is any 
 damp, to dry it up. When a person is ill of an infectious com¬ 
 plaint, the whole air around him is infected, and it is only by ad¬ 
 mitting the pure air from without, to dilute it, if 1 may use the 
 expression, that the infection can be so weakened as to prevent 
 bad consequences to those who breathe it. From not attending 
 to this, many complaints, which, at the beginning, wore not infec¬ 
 tious, become so afterwards, and whole families are carried off, or 
 put past labour, from neglecting precautions which might have 
 been so easily taken. It is observed, that infectious diseases sel¬ 
 dom spread in the houses of the upper ranks of society, which is 
 merely oudng to the admission of fresh air and the cleanliness 
 that is observed: and the same will account for the safety of 
 physicians and attendants in hospitals, where there are hundreds 
 of patients collected; whereas, if fever once gets admittance in a 
 poor man’s cabin, the infection is preserved by the moist and 
 putrid matter without, and the damp and dirt within, and is ren¬ 
 dered more and more malignant by the want of a circulation of 
 air, until, in general, it attacks the whole family, and, even if it 
 does not occasion their deaths, it so weakens their strength, and, 
 by repeated relapses, continues to hang over them so long, as 
 eventually to reduce them to poverty and wretchedness; all 
 which, in most cases, would probably have been prevented by a 
 timely attention to what has been here recommended. 
 
 But cleanliness and ventilation, however valuable they may be 
 as the means of preventing or banishing disease, cannot be as 
 effectual as they ought to be whilst the use of ardent spirits pre¬ 
 vails in the degree it now does. 
 
 I need not take up your time in expatiating upon the conse¬ 
 quences attending this ruinous practice—those who are even most 
 addicted to it are fully sensible of its injurious tendency, but think 
 it is in vain to struggle against it. Nothing, however, can be more 
 contrary to facts and experience than such a belief. It is only a 
 few years since some benevolent people in America first started 
 the idea of forming what are called Temperance Societies. The 
 hopelessness of such an undertaking rvas so much the belief of the 
 
public, that tbe attempt was ridiculed as absurd and visionary ; 
 but it has, nevertheless, proved quite the reverse. Thousands 
 have been thereby reclaimed, and are now enjoying a degree of 
 comfort and happiness before imknown to them. Even among 
 sailors, (a class of people least likely to be operated upon,) mem¬ 
 bers are now enrolled, and temperance ships are manned from 
 New York, rrithout difficulty, for the longest voyages. From 
 America the plan has extended to Scotland, and temperance ships 
 are now, in like manner, sailing from Glasgow, and numerous, 
 societies are spread over the face of the country. From Scotland, 
 the plan seems to have crossed over to the North of Ireland, and 
 societies are already in existence in this very county; therefore, 
 with such numerous examples of successful resolution before you, 
 both abroad and at home, I most earnestly beg of you to make 
 the attempt, and trust you will not show less firmness than so 
 many others have proved themselves to possess. Subjoined you 
 will find what a list of desirable articles of clothing may be bought 
 with the money which it would cost you to indulge in a single 
 glass of spirits daily. When you read it over, think of the short¬ 
 lived, selfish gratification you derive from the practice, and think 
 of the permanent comforts of which you deprive yourselves, your 
 wives, and your children thereby, and at once determine to 
 abandon the use of spirits; and, take my word, you will soon 
 find the benefit of it, both in your health and circumstances. 
 
 One Glass of Whiskey per Day, commonly called by drink¬ 
 ing men, “ their morning," costs (at three halfpence per glass,) 
 no less a sum than two pounds, five shillings, and seven pence 
 halfpenny, yearly ! which sum, if laid by, would provide the 
 following comforts and necessaries of life for a family, viz. 
 
 One pair of large Ijlanliets,..JEO 10 0 
 
 One pair of streets,.0 G 0 
 
 Two pair of slices, .0 12 0 
 
 Two shirts, 0 4 0 
 
 Two neclr lianfUcercliiefs,.Oil 
 
 Two pair of stochings, 0 2 3 
 
 ..050 
 
 Cloth for trowsers, and mahiug, . . . . 0 4 C 
 
 Change remaining,. 0 0 41 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MASBIS OF USIVEESAL APPLICATION IN FAEMING—AS TO BEAINING, 
 DESTEUCTION OF TOEDS, CEOPPINO—JLINAGE5IENT 01' MANURE 
 HEAPS—SQUARING ENCLOSURES—LEVELLING USELESS llITCIIES— 
 HORSES NOT SUITABLE TO SMALL FARMS—CONSUMPTION OF STRAW 
 IN TaVICH. 
 
 Having said thus imich upon the foregoing subject, of such first- 
 rate importance to the labouring classes, I proceed to give a list 
 of those maxims in farming, which are of universal application, as 
 far as I have been able to collect them :— 
 
 Istly, The ground must be thoroughly drained. To accomplish 
 this, it is not enough to search out the springs and carry off all 
 under water, a passage through the soil, for the water which falls 
 from the clouds, must be obtained likewise. To attain both these 
 objects, Mr, Smith of Deanston’s plan is now universally adopted. 
 I must refer you to the Agriculturist for full instructions, but 
 shall shortly allude to some indispensable rerpisites to be attended 
 to. The drains must be made perfectly straight, and parallel to 
 each other, in the direction of the furrow; from which it has 
 obtained the name of “ furrow-draining;”—if the fall is sufficient, 
 they should be fully three feet deep, as narrow as possible, say 
 four to five inches at bottom ; to be filled twelve to fifteen inches 
 with broken stones, such as used on roads, and covered with a 
 iliin sod or scraw, the grass side down; and the subsoil, which 
 has been thrown out, put over and tramped down, so as to prevent 
 the water sinking down through the loose earth, at top, which 
 would choke the drain,—the water w'ill filter in through the sides. 
 —The distance between the drains should be fifteen to twenty- 
 five feet, according to the soil; wdiere stones are not to be had, 
 tiles must be used. Many will toll you to make your drains 
 slanting across the furrow's, but do not attend to such suggestions. 
 The advantages peculiar to this system are, that the ground be- 
 
comes equally dry tliroiiglrout, that the rain sinks where it falls, 
 and as it finds its way into the drains, the ground, which has 
 been swelled by the moisture, shrinks and cracks underneath the 
 surface, which admits the atmospheric air into the soil to fill the 
 vacuities thus createdsucceeding rains expel this air by the 
 superior weight of the water, and in its descent is followed 
 by the air again and this operation is perpetually going on, until 
 the quality of the soil, to the depth of the drain, is entirely 
 changed,—exactly on the same principle of the change effected 
 in the nature of the earth thrown out of the gripe of a ditch, 
 after being exposed to the air for a few years. (See note 
 page 87 .) This change is expedited by the subsoil plough, 
 or by trenching with the spade and grape; which is thus per¬ 
 formed, and is the mode of proceeding best suited to the means of 
 small farmers with a spade he first throws off the surface earth 
 from a stripe of the laud to be trenched, about three feet wide, the 
 full length of the field, and lays it on one side. He then takes a 
 two-pronged grape,- fourteen to fifteen inches long, and stirs the 
 subsoil to that depth; after which, he begins on the stripe adjoin¬ 
 ing, and with his spade throws the surface soil, for three feet, 
 upon the surface of that which has just been graped; and this 
 same process is again and again commenced, until the whole field 
 has been gone over; after which the earth first cast aside must 
 be carted or wheeled, to cover the last dug stripe which will have 
 been deprived of its surface. Two or three men can be employed, 
 at same time, in this operation, following each other in succession, 
 and the air being thus admitted to the depth of the drain, in a 
 short time fresh soil may be turned up to that depth, of the most 
 fertile quality. It may not here be irrelevant to observe, that one 
 of the most beneficial effects of stirring the soil in the different 
 operations of agriculture, is to more freely admit air into the soil, 
 without which vegetation cannot proceed; but the advantages of 
 draining are not limited to the effects just stated; for, by freeing 
 the surface from superfluous moisture, the temperature of the soil 
 is most remarkably increased. It is a common expression among 
 farmers, “ a dry, warm soil,” but I imagine few stop to consider 
 why this should always be the case. But if any of you will make 
 the experiment of wetting one shirt sleeve, keeping the other dry. 
 
and then hold up your two anus to a sharp north-east wind, you 
 would soon find the additional cold that is produced by the wind 
 blowing upon a wet surface.* And this is precisely the same 
 efi'ect which is produced upon the land, by the wind blowing over 
 a wet surface, and accounts for the crops being always earlier, 
 where the land has been drained. 
 
 2dly. The weeds must be destroyed; which in a little time 
 will be accomplished by proper attention in collecting, as far as 
 possible, all weeds, Icfore putting in the crop, and by sowing the 
 green crops in drills,f and carefully weeding them afterwards; and 
 they may even be made worth the e.vpense of gathering, as they 
 will yield a valuable addition to the manure heap, if applied as 
 bedding in the cow-house. For this purpose they should be 
 collected before flowering. It is shameful to see, in many fields, 
 the quantities of rag-woed ripening to seed, and impoverishing 
 the ground as much as a crop, which might, if usefully applied, 
 as above directed, have brought nourishment to the soil, in place 
 of exhausting it. Where land is dirty or exhausted, no better 
 plan can be pursued, than to take two drill crops of turnips 
 followed by potatoes; this at the same time both cleans and 
 enriches the soil. 
 
 3dly. All cattle must be fed in the house or straw yard upon 
 good food; such as rape, cabbage, turnips, mangel-wurtzel, potatoes, 
 Italian rye-grass, clover, and vetches, in proper succession, will 
 abundantly supply, according to the nature of the land; there 
 being no farm in which some of these crops may not be raised iii 
 
 * This also shows the advantage of shelter, for the cold would not be so 
 severe if there was no wind. In mating the drains, the stones should be laid 
 down before they are made, and every day, as the drains are opened, they ought 
 to be filled and covered in, to prevent the sides crumbling down by frost or rain. 
 
 f I have already mentioned the practicability of getting an early supply of 
 the leaves of curled tale in autumn, by planting them with the potatoes in the 
 edge of the ridges, and I should lliint that to he the best plan for such a pur¬ 
 pose : but to plant the potatoes in drills is a much more effectual way of clean¬ 
 ing the land, and is, therefore, much to be preferred on that accoimt: and 
 curled kale or cabbage for winter use may be cultivated in this way, by planting 
 them at the edge of the broad ridges, as hereafter recommended. Ridges arc 
 best in wet laud, and drills when dry. 
 
59 
 
 abundance, with the aid of manure, which the practice of house¬ 
 feeding produces. 
 
 4thly. Never take two crops of the same kind in succession off 
 the same land, although this is sometimes done with potatoes, to 
 reclaim land that has never been in cultivation; but in other cases 
 this is not advisable ; and, in particular, two grain crops cannot he 
 taken in succession without injuring the soil, and in the end a 
 manifest loss arises from the practice, in place of that ad.mniaye 
 v/hicli the needy farmer looks for; because, by interposing a gresn 
 crop, such as clover, &c., full as many^raH2 crops may he had off 
 .the same piece of land and from the same manure, in any given 
 number of years, by taking them in rotaiion, as by taking them in 
 succession. But the rotation system has this advantage, that while 
 you get as many grain crops, you keep the laud always in good 
 heart, and between the crops olffmin yon get ffi'een crops equally 
 valuable. This is accounted for by considering that no two crops 
 derive the same particular nourishment from the land. The roots 
 of some sink deep, and draw their nourishment from the bottom, 
 while others spread on the surface, and it is generally believed 
 that plants derive their food and support from as different ingre¬ 
 dients in tlie earth, as the different kinds of cattle derive their 
 food from the surface. Horses will cat grass which cows reject, 
 and so with every description of cattle ; and supposing the analogy 
 to hold good in plants, it is easy to conceive that a change of crop 
 may find the soil abundant in that kind of nourishment which it 
 requires, although it might he, at the time, e.xhausted of that kind 
 required by the crop which had gone before; and thus the ground 
 may he as much restored by the introduction of a ^)‘ee7i crop after 
 tigruin crop, as if the field had actually lain fallow; and experience, 
 in a great degree, justifies this reasoning, 
 
 I am fully sensible, however, that a system of over cropping with 
 grain will extract every hincl of nourishment from the soil, and leave 
 it so that it mill not even yield grass. This is the case with the 
 land which is left to rest, as it is called by those who take three or 
 four grain erops in succession; and the phrase is well applied, for 
 the land is really not fit to do any thing. The error of this class 
 of persons is, that they turn the land to grass at the end, in place 
 of the heginning of their course. Had grass-seed been sown with 
 
60 
 
 the^rsl crop of grain, there would have heeu a good crop of haj-, 
 and good after-grass, and the second crop of grain would have 
 been as good as the first; and this is what ought to be done b}'- 
 those whose land is not suited to clover, or who, from poverty, are 
 not able to buy the clover seed ; and even where tmo grain crops 
 have been taken, it would be better lo sow it with rye-grass, whicli 
 will yield a crop on very poor land, rather than leave the ground 
 to be possessed by weeds and such herbage as may natuarlly rise. 
 The fact is, the last exhausting, crop should only be put in upon 
 that portion of the farm which is intended for potatoes, and other 
 green crops, the succeeding year, which crops then give the 
 manure to restore it to a productive state; and by this means 
 there is no land lost at all by what is called resting it. 
 
 Sthly. The place for manure should be contrived so that 
 it should not be exposed to any accumulation of rain water, 
 but should receive the contributions from the sewers of the 
 house, stable, cow-house, &c. The bottom should be paved, so 
 that the drainage of the niaunre could run into a cask or well 
 adjoining it. Fresh earth should be regularly brought and spread 
 over the manure, and the liquid in the well should be thrown our 
 it', by which means the whole compost would be equally rich, 
 and the quantity increased to any extent that could be required; 
 and the steam or smoke which arises from the stable manure, and 
 which is the very richest part of it, would be kept under and 
 imbibed by the earth so laid on, and the quantity of earth should 
 be proportioned to the strength of the dung with which it is 
 mixed. While speaking of manure, it may not be amiss to remark 
 the great loss arising from the practice of letting otf the water in 
 which flax has been steeped, which, if sprinkled over, or made 
 into compost with fresh earth, would be found most valuable.-" 
 
 * At tlio lime the ilax is taken out of steep, all tlio rivulets in the country 
 are strongly impregnated with the contents of the llax lioles, and those through 
 whose lands such rivulets pass, v.-ould do well to turn the slrcani, where it can 
 he done, over their after grass, or use it in watering their cabbages, turnips, &c. 
 the advantages of which would soon ho perceivable. The richness of llax 
 water is fully shown by the growth and colour of the grass, where flax lias 
 been spread to dry. I have seen a most luxuriant crop of oats upon laud 
 irrigated with llax water, althougli a secoxd cropwhich shows, that if this 
 manure was preserved, one of the greatest objections to the growth of llax 
 
61 
 
 Gtlily. It should be the object of the farmer, as soon as he pos¬ 
 sibly can, to have his fences made in straight lines, and of as great 
 length as the farm will conveniently admit of. It is almost incon¬ 
 ceivable the quantity of time lost by the frequent turning of the 
 plough, and the quantity of land thrown out of cultivation, by 
 having a crooked, irregular fence, the bendings of which, the 
 plough cannot follow. 
 
 7thly. A farmer who has any understanding must perceive, the 
 moment it is mentioned, that every unnecessary ditch is so much 
 laud actually lost, and that his care ought to be to have as few of 
 them as possible ; and it will, therefore, occur to him, that if he 
 feeds his own cattle in the house, all his ditches may he dispensed 
 with, except the mearing ditches, which are necessary to keep out 
 those belonging to other people ; and this would enable him to 
 raise hedge-rows, which never can he done if the cattle are turned 
 out, the value of v/hich, for shelter to his crops, and supplying 
 him with timber for all country purposes, is most important.* 
 
62 
 
 The loss of land, from useless fences, is greater than any one 
 would suppose who has not considered it: and I would almost 
 venture to say, there are farms in this country of twelve acres, in 
 which the ground lost between the trench or gripe, and the backs 
 of the ditclies, together with that lost by the crookedness of the 
 line, would amount fully to one acre, or one-twelfth part of the 
 whole.* Now, supposing a farmer to pay thirty shillings an acre 
 for his land, he of course loses thirty shillings annually by this 
 waste of the surface, which is equal to two shillings and sixpence 
 an acre upon his entire farm. It is quite evident, therefore, that 
 these ditches should be piped and levelled in, which would have 
 the additional advantage of relieving the crops from the vermin 
 to which they afford a shelter.f 
 
 One argument generally used against levelling all inside ditches 
 is, that the cattle cannot be turned out to eat what is called 
 the or food, which is to be found among the stubble after 
 harvest; but the gain supposed to be derived from this practice 
 is very much overrated. In the first place, ploughing it down 
 immediately will be of much more use to the land than any 
 advantage to be derived from it as food; for a cow turned out in 
 a cold or wet September day, will be put back in her milk more 
 than would pay for her entire day’s feeding in the house. Secondly, 
 
 been carried through the hack of the ditch,—the earth removed by so doing 
 being again replaced. This I have seen most successfully practised in the 
 grounds of the Rev. Francis Gervis, of Cecil, county of Tyrone. 
 
 * I have known people object to this, by stating all the trouble they had 
 taken, and the labour they had expended in making them ; but if you were to 
 meet with a man who on a journey had gone out of his road, and you pointed 
 out to him his mistake, would you not think him very .absurd if he refused to 
 turn hack, merely on account of the labour he had undergone in walking so 
 far astray, and rather persist in going wrong, than turn about to go right ? It 
 is just the same with the man who objects to level the useless ditch—he has 
 gone wrong, and refuses now to he sot right. 
 
 f There is no change whatever that will at once produce such an improve¬ 
 ment in the appearance of a country as the levelling the crooked fences, and 
 enlarging the enclosures: in proof of which, I would refer you to the appear¬ 
 ance of the Glebe land in JIullahrack, and the farms of Bradford and 
 M'Cammon, in Druminnis, and Cullons and Jiallon, in Ballindaragh. The 
 improvement is such, that no one who knew these lands formerly would 
 recognise them to he the same he had then been acquainted with. 
 
6-3 
 
 upon clay soils, the injury done to your land by the tramping of 
 the cattle, besides the water retained so injuriously in their tracks, 
 is beyond any thing you can have an idea of. Consider for a 
 moment, and ask yourselves, why it is, in the light sandy or 
 gravelly soils, that sheep farming is found so beneficial. You are, 
 perhaps, not aware of it, but if you went to Scotland you would 
 see upon soils of this description, hundreds of acres sowed with 
 turnips, intended to be fed off by sheep, folded on the ground, 
 principally with a view to have the lightness of the soil corrected, 
 from their tramping it into a kind of paste by the constant action 
 of their feet; and, owing to this process, the farmers there obtain 
 a tenacity of soil, which enables them to grow afterwards corn 
 crops, which their land would otherwise never yield: but in a 
 clay soil there is too much tenacity belonging to it naturally, and, 
 therefore, tramping, which makes it still more tenacious, directly 
 and most decidedly injures its fertility. The extent of the injury 
 thus occasioned, may in some measure be imagined, by consider¬ 
 ing the effect produced by the tramping of so light an animal as a 
 sheep; and from that to calculate what effect must be produced 
 by the weight of a cow, an animal so much heavier. The fact is, 
 clay land poached in this way is so puddled, if I may use the ex¬ 
 pression, that every track is water-tight, which shows that the soil 
 is completely closed against the influence of the atmosphere ; the 
 bad consecpuence of which is exemplified in note, p. 70.* I wish 
 to address myself to your natural good sense, and would ask you, 
 if the use of lime and manure, which you are all fully aware 
 makes land of this kind loose and open, and by so doing renders 
 it fruitful, must not, upon the same principle, the tramping of 
 cattle, which has the opposite effect of binding and compressing 
 the soil, render it unfruitful, and counteract the effects of all that 
 lime and manure, which at so much expense and labour, you have 
 perhaps but a year before laid on it ? I trust, that by representing 
 this inconsistency you will abandon the practice, and for a proof 
 of the truth of the observations I have made, I will confidently 
 refer you to the appearance of the soil, vdien ploughed up from 
 clover lea which has not been pastured, compared with that which 
 
 * See this subject more particularly alluded to in the concluding part of 
 chapter vi. 
 
64 
 
 has; or with stubble laud which has been trodden down by cattle 
 in the manner I objeet to. 
 
 Sthly. It requires a farm of fully fifty acres to give sufficient 
 employment to a pair of horses; perhaps sixty would be nearer the 
 truth ; and, therefore, if a farmer even ploughs in partnership, he 
 ought to have twenty-five or thirty acres. I here speak of those 
 who have no other employment for their horses than what the culti¬ 
 vation of the farm affords.* There are, however, cases where the 
 distance of fuel, and distance of lime, may make a horse necessary 
 when it might not be otherwise. All small farmers ought to use 
 the spade and grape, for many reaspns. It costs but little more, 
 even if he has to hire assistance, and does the business better, and 
 the crop is better. In all drill crops, also, by using these imple¬ 
 ments, he may put in a quicker succession of crops, and have one 
 coming forward as the other is ripening. In wet seasons he can 
 dig, when he cannot plough; and its value, in turning tqt stiff 
 clay lands in autumn, and exposing soil to the frost and snow, is 
 scarcely to be imagined ; and in all such lands, tins plan should 
 be pursued where no winter crop is put in. 
 
 This seems a fit place to allude to the great assistance the small 
 farmer may receive by the moderate working of his cows. By 
 the use of his spade and grape, he can prepare his small quantity 
 of land, and with his cow he can harrow in the seed, and thus, it is 
 his own fault, if his crop is not in the ground in proper time: 
 whereas, at present he must wait until others have finished, and the 
 proper season past,—with his cow he can also daily draw in his soil, 
 and take out his manure to the field it is intended for, wliere he 
 has it ready for his potato setting, and can cover it in the drill the 
 moment it is laid down. A cow kept in the house is the better 
 for two hours’ exercise of this kind just after milking, and the 
 practice would introduce a larger and better breed of cattle,—a 
 
 * Martin Doyle estimates the ground required to feed a horse at two acres, 
 aud the value of food and other c.vpenses at £20 Ss. 2d. yearly. The small 
 farmers in the counties of Down and Antrim adopt the plan of buying a young 
 horse rising three or four years old, and having used him in their spring laboui', 
 they sell him off in May or Juno, and tho natural improvement in the animal 
 at that age generally loaves thorn a profit, besides gcUiug their labour done for 
 tho Itcep. 
 
65 
 
 well fed yearling, or two-year old heifer, woidd in this way pay for 
 her keeping. The custom is universal in the best farmed dis- 
 tricts on the Continent, and has been introduced by Mrs. Gilbert, 
 among her numerous allotment tenants, in Sussex, with the greatest 
 advantage; and I have been much censured by Monsieur Valcourt 
 a distinguished French Agriculturist, for not strongly recom¬ 
 mending it in the first editions of this pamphlet. 
 
 9thly. In all wet lands, and where the clay is retentive, the 
 ridges should be narrow, which may, indeed, be almost laid down 
 as a general rule, in a climate so moist as this; but where the land 
 is sufficiently dry, the broad ridge is preferable. And when land 
 has been thoroughly drained and subsoiled, no furrow of any kind 
 is considered necessary—the land may be laid down quite flat, 
 which occasions the crops to ripen more evenly, and saves much 
 ground which would be lost in the furrows. 
 
 lOthly. No hay or straw whatever should be sold off the farm. 
 In England this is strictly forbidden by lease, and the tenant who 
 did so would be supposed to have an intention of running away. If 
 the cattle are house-fed, as here recommended, all the straw the 
 farm can be made to produce will prove little enough; and for this 
 reason, as soon as the farmer is in circumstances to enable him to 
 do so, it would be his interest to slate his house and out buildings, 
 which in the end would be found the cheapest roof, and would 
 preserve, for the use of the farm, the large quantity of straw which 
 is annually consumed in repairing the thatch. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE MODE OF CULin'ATION, AT PRE¬ 
 SENT IN USE, AS TO POTATOES, TURNIPS, FLAX, AND WHEAT,— 
 ADV.INTAGE OF LAYING ON LIME WITH THE POTATO CHOP, AND 
 GIVING HOUSE JLINURE TO RAISE lUENirS,—NECESSITY FOE STOP.. 
 PING THE SPBEjVD OF RAGWEED, COLTSFOOT, AND THISTLES, BY- 
 MEANS OF THE SEED,—USE OF CHAI’E AS AN ALTERATIVE FOR 
 CATTLE. 
 
 Having laid down these general maxims, the propriety of which 
 I think you cannot hut admit, I should wish to lay before you 
 some observations which have occurred to me in visiting yoiu' 
 farms : the first I shall make is upon your mode of ploughing old 
 lea for oats; when this is done, you form' so many hintons by 
 ploughing each ridge separately, that nearly a seventh part of the 
 entire surface is stripped off the good soil, and when the crop comes 
 up, you will see the braird confined almost exclusively to the mid- 
 hle of the ridge, where the good soil is gathered in, and though it 
 afterwards spreads, still a very considerable loss arises. Now, if 
 instead of ploughing each ridge by itself, you would take in six or 
 eight, you would still preserve the land in the same form; but 
 there would be only one hinton in the whole, in place of one for 
 each ridge; so that the surface, not being deprived of the good 
 soil, would give the crop evenly over its whole breadth. You 
 should also observe, in all ploughing for grain, to he particularly 
 careful to turn over the furrow .slice, with such an inclination 
 that the top exposed to view should as nearly as possible resemble 
 a ridge-stone in appearance, by which means the furrow slices 
 will pack close, so as to prevent any seed escaping, and the angle 
 at top will afford sufficient mould for the harrow to turn over and 
 cover the seed. 
 
 This inclination of the furrow slice is very material, and is pro¬ 
 duced partly by the shape of the mould board, and partly by the 
 skill and judgment of the ploughman proportioning the h-eaitli 
 
G7 
 
 properly to the depth of the furrow slice; the h'oader this is in 
 proportion, the more flat the slice is left; and the narrower it is, 
 the more upright; and the closer the coulter is adjusted to the sock, 
 with a slight inclination to the left, the more perfect the angle or 
 comb, as it is termed, will be at the top. 
 
 Next, as to your potato crop, which ought to follow your oat 
 crop after lea,—your present mode of cultivation is either in 
 ridges or drills: the advantage of the former is said to be, that 
 the potatoes are of better quality, but it is generally admitted 
 the produce is not so plentiful,—that it always requires a great 
 deal more manure,—that the weeds cannot he so well eradicated, 
 nor the ground so well fallowed, as it is by the latter,—and also 
 that in dry seasons, any partial fall of rain runs off without reach¬ 
 ing to the roots of the plants : on the other hand, in the drill way, 
 the potatoes, generally speaking, are more plentiful, but they are 
 not usually so dry, and in rainy seasons they are more liable to he 
 injured by superabundant moisture. Now, a mi.ved system of 
 cultivation appears to me likely to unite the advantages of loth, 
 and to he free from the disadvantages either; and I recommend, 
 for this purpose, that you should throw your land into broad ridges, 
 of twelve to fourteen feet, and then plant your potatoes* in regu- 
 
 * It appears, from a series of experiments given in the Second Edition of 
 the Encyclopedi® Metrapolitanos, that drilled potatoes yield the greatest pro¬ 
 duce when planted in drills thirty inches asunder. 
 
 The experiment seems to have been made witli great care, the potatoes used 
 were pink eyes, and the manure forty cart loads per acre, and fresh horse- 
 duug was tried against rotten coiv-duug. It deserves to be- noticed, that the 
 produce from the fresh horse-dung and rotten cow-dung was not oqnally ali'ect- 
 ed by the spaces betw'een the drills; for example. 
 
 Horse dung. Cow dtuig. 
 
 At 30 inches apart produce GO bolls per acre, GG bolls per acre. 
 
 24 - 60 - 61 _ 
 
 18 --- 51 __ 61) _ 
 
 I believe the distance between the drills, ought to bo regulated by the length 
 
68 
 
 lar drills across them, slanting the course of the drill according to 
 the lay of the land, so as just to give sufficient fall to the fim-ow 
 to carry off any moisture tliat might be injurious, and at the same 
 time retain as much as might be useful. It is evident that, in this 
 way, in wet weather, the french will prevent any water from lodg¬ 
 ing, and that, in dry seasons, the furrow receives the sligbiest 
 shower, and conveys the moisture direct to the roots of the plants. 
 The drill also, in this way, admits the use of the hoe and the 
 scuffle, by a person standing in the trench, which cleans the ground 
 with less trouble, and much better than it can be done by hand 
 weeding. You are also enabled to mould up higher, which is a 
 great object when those kinds are cultivated in which the increase 
 ffmvs up the sialh, as, in such cases, the higher you mould, the 
 greater produce you have, and in digging out (as you know where 
 to put the spade) there will not be seen so many potatoes cut,—but 
 in any case, a three or four pronged grape is much preferable to 
 the spade for this work. It appears to me, by following this plan, 
 you w'ould both gain in produce and save in manure, and your 
 land would get better tillage, and be left in a cleaner state; and 
 when the farmer has the command of a plough, there is nothing 
 to prevent its being used in the preparation of the ground, marking 
 out the place for the trench by a furrow; but where the ground 
 has been furrow drained, the drills may be at once made with the 
 plough, as, in that case, no injurious moisture can remain. In 
 regard to the cultivation of this crop, I should also wish to recom¬ 
 mend to you the practice of putting your manure in the ground, as 
 opportunity offers, through the course of the winter, as soon as it 
 is made, and leave for Spring only the work of dropping in seed 
 at the back of the spade, which any boy or girl can do, by wbich 
 means you will have the potato-setting over before, I may say, you 
 are now in the habit of beginning to it. By following this prac- 
 
 it in any way; the fi'catment wliich now fails has been successfully practised, 
 both in planting .and preserving, for a century, without any bad consecpienccs 
 arising, and the uncertainty of the growth at present appears quite incapable 
 of being explained. 
 
 I have suggested, at last Marhethill meeting, that better seed might pcrlmps 
 be obtained, by allowing a portion to rem.aiu undug in the ground, and this 
 has been tried with success. 
 
69 
 
 tico, there will be a prodigious saving in manure, as you may read¬ 
 ily prove by making the experiment of putting out twenty loads, or 
 any other particular quantity, of manure, then measure the ground 
 it sufficiently covers, putting a similar quantity by itself, in aheap, 
 letting it remain until the May following, and then measure how 
 far it will go. I will venture to say, it will not manure half the 
 space, and that the land manured at November will be found to give 
 the best and earliest crop. Care, however, should be taken, 
 during the dry weather in autumn, to clean ground of weeds; and 
 it must be seen that the litter has been completely incorporated 
 with the manure, so as to ensure a proper fermentation in the 
 ground. In order that the potatoes shall be of good quality, it is 
 very material that they should be fully ripe before the frost; to 
 accomplish which, the planting ought to take place in the month 
 of April. When the frost comes on, while the crop is in a growing 
 state, the plants are killed before they arrive at maturity,, and are 
 consequently wet, and without nourishment. It is a great mis¬ 
 take to suppose, because potatoes planted late in May often give 
 a more abundant produce, that the crop is, therefore, the most 
 profitable. Many people say they will do well enough for feeding 
 pigs and cattle, but a good dry potato is just as superior to a wet 
 one, as food for your pig, as it is for yourselves; and if you put 
 wet and dry into a basket together, the animal will soon show 
 you that he know’s the difference. 
 
 Next to the potato crop, which forms such a large portion of 
 your own food, then comes the turnip crop, which affords the most 
 wholesome food for your cattle; in regard to which, I must say 
 that great inattention prevails. There are four things in the culti¬ 
 vation of turnips which you ought to be most particularly careful 
 of. First, to have the ground in a finely pulverized state this i^ 
 
 » It sometime happens that severe frosts in June heave up the ground, and 
 raise the roots of the youug plant out of reach of the manure; the immediate 
 consequence of which is, the sicldy appearance of the crop. The drills should 
 in this case he rolled without loss of time, to replace the plant firmly in the 
 ground. When a roller cannot he obtained, a small round block may be sub¬ 
 stituted for the wheel'of a wheel-barrow, and some stones being put in the 
 bos, let it be wheeled over the rows; or if this cannot be got, let two people, 
 
70 
 
 much more easily accomplished by ploughing up the land roughly 
 and deep before the frost than by any other means. Secondly, to 
 force fonvard the young plants into rough leaf, in order to secure 
 them against the ravages of the birds, that are apt to pick up the 
 seeds just as they are bursting, and the attacks of the fly, which 
 the crop is liable to until the rough leaf comes out. The best 
 way to accomplish this, is to put out the manure in a heap in the 
 field a few days before putting it into the drills, shaking it out 
 very lightly, and if veiy dry, sprinkling a little water over it: this 
 will produce new fermentation, and when it begins to smoke, then 
 is the time to put it immediately into the dirlls and cover it up, 
 and sow the seed without delay.* The warmth thus obtained will 
 force the plant into rough leaf in the course of forty-eight Lours; 
 whereas, if you put the dung in cold, (it being generally what is 
 old and well rotted that is used,) the fermentation is slow, and 
 the plant wiU not be out of danger perhaps for a week. There is 
 nothing more effectual to accelerate the growth of the young 
 plants than the mixture of a little guano with the farm-yard 
 manure. Thirdly, to keep the ground clean of weeds: this should 
 be done by cleaning the land before the turnips are sown, as much 
 as possible, and watching their growth afterwards, and by the 
 scufiie or horse-hoe, cut them off before they can choke up the 
 crop. Fourthly, to keep the ground constantly loose and open 
 about the plants, by stirring the ground between the drills in dry 
 weather. It is quite extraordinary the universal prejudice that 
 exists against stirring the ground between the drills in dry wea¬ 
 ther, in summer, which, it is said, lets the heat more easily 
 penetrate the earth; now, the very reverse of this is the case,— 
 the oftener the ground is stirred, the less it will be affected by the 
 heat.f Laud, in a pulverized state, imbibes the dew and damp of 
 
 seen crops recovered by these means, which in a tew days would have entirely 
 withered away. 
 
 * When a bad ploughman makes his drill in the first instance crooked, he 
 sometimes strives to remedy the defect in covering in the manure. This will 
 help the look of the fuiTow, but it puts the top of the drill off the top of the 
 manure, and the crop misses, without the reason being perceivable. 
 
 f It is a fact well known, that drill crops In a sandy soil ai-e much less in¬ 
 jured by long continued dry weather than those in clay soil. What is the rea¬ 
 son of this ? Is it not that the nature of the soil keeps the ground about the 
 
71 
 
 the night, the exhalation of which, by the warmth of the following 
 day, produces a moisture round the plants, which nourishes and 
 invigorates them in a most remarkable degree; whereas, if left 
 unmoved, it often, particularly in clay land, gets baked so hard, 
 that no plant can thrive in it. Let the experiment be made in a 
 plot of cabbages, and dig carefully between the rows at one side, 
 and compare them with the others that are left untouched, and 
 you will soon see the difference; in fact, if you will take the 
 trouble to observe a drill of cabbages, when the earth is first 
 turned up after long parching weather, you will perceive, before 
 it has been done two hours, that the leaves have assumed a more 
 lively colour, and will look more vigorous than they did before; 
 and you may rest assured that, in dry weather, every drill crop is 
 improved by having the soil turned up as often as practicable, 
 provided you do not disturb the roots of the plants.* 
 
 The flax crop next seems to claim attention. This was once 
 the crop perhaps of the greatest importance to the North of Ire¬ 
 land ; but the introduction of spinning mills in England having 
 almost entirely destroyed hand-spinning, which had afforded a 
 market for the home growth, remunerating prices could no 
 longer be obtained, the spinning mills on the east coast of 
 England finding it more advantageous to procm'e their supply 
 from Eussia and Holland. 
 
 The necessary result has been, that from the period alluded to 
 until the year 1834, this valuable crop has been nearly lost to this 
 country. About this latter period, several spinning mills were 
 erected in the neighbourhood of Belfast, by which means this 
 
 plants loose and open? Does not this point out that artificial means must ho 
 taken to keep clay loose and open also, in order to prevent injury from the 
 drought; and this can only he done hy ploughing or digging the land heforo 
 the frost comes on, which will pulverize it effectually; and afterwards, when 
 the crops have been sown, when dry weather comes on, to turn it frequently, in 
 order to prevent its being baked into a flag by the heat of the sun. With this 
 mode of cultivation, clay land, in a dry season, will produce one-half more 
 potatoes; and without it, scarce any crop of turnips can he expected at all in 
 such soils. 
 
 * A small implement made with three iron teeth, curved like the fingers of 
 the hand, is a most useful instrumout to loosen the top of the drills between 
 the plants, and any child can use it. 
 
market for flax was brought nearer to the Irish grower, and 
 farther from the foreigner ; and from this cause, the cultivation of 
 flax has again become very extensive, and where it happens to be 
 of fine quality, so as to compete with what is imported from Hol¬ 
 land, there is no crop so remunerative; but this is seldom the case; 
 and where the quality only comes into competition with the 
 importations from Russia, the farmer is in general very badly 
 paid. The great profit,' however, made by a JiJie crop, tempts 
 many to sow flaxseed too extensively, which tends to lessen the 
 stock from the want of straw; and in all cases, where any reduc¬ 
 tion in this respect takes place, I feel quite certain the farmer 
 suffers a loss, in place of making a profit by its cultivation. 
 
 The great complaint made against its extensive cultivation is, 
 that it leaves nothing behind in the way of straw for manure ; but 
 I am w’cll convinced if the practice w-as adopted of watering the 
 flax ground with the water in which the crop had been steeped, it 
 would enable the land to give any other crop in succession, or 
 would secure a most abundant crop of clover, (which should al¬ 
 ways be sowed with it,) and a luxuriant crop of wdieat afterwards; 
 this practice being pursued, it might be grown to a very conside¬ 
 rable extent without injury to the soil, should any change of 
 circumstances again enhance the price. But to get this accom¬ 
 plished, the winter vetches must be sow'ed early in September, 
 and well manured, or they will not cut soon enough. 
 
 The next thing I wish to remark upon, is your mode of pro¬ 
 ceeding in the cultivation of wheat. This is generally grown 
 upon the potato land, and you have hitherto been afraid to harrow 
 in clover and grass-seed upon the growing crop in spring, for 
 fear of injuring it. This practice, though heretofore almost un¬ 
 known to you, is of infinite service to any winter crop, by 
 breaking the crust formed on the ground by the heavy rains, and 
 opens the surface to the influence of the atmosphere, at the same 
 time earthing up the plants, which being rolled * in the course of 
 a few days, will afterwards grow with double vigour. And by 
 not doing this you are driven to the necessity, most com¬ 
 monly, of putting in a crop of oats or flax after the wheat, and 
 
 » Take care not to roll until the crop rises after the harrowing. 
 
73 
 
 to take two severe crops in succession, which is contrary to the 
 fourth rule laid down. Your land thus becomes exhausted, and 
 as you have not (according to your present mode of feeding your 
 cattle) manure to potato the whole of it again, there is no alterna¬ 
 tive left you but to let it out to rest (as you term it); in which 
 state it remains worth little or nothing, perhaps for several years, 
 before you can get manure to spare to bring it again into cultiva¬ 
 tion ; whereas, if it had been sowed with clover and grass seed, 
 the practice of house-feeding, which this would enable you to 
 have adopted, would always supply you, as I have elsewhere 
 observed, with plenty of manure when required. 
 
 Those who, from not paying attention to these considerations, 
 have not put in clover with their wheat, should, nevertheless, 
 upon no account, put in oats : let them sow Italian rye-grass or a 
 crop of vetches, which will leave the ground in a fine state for 
 either oats or barley, and then it ought to be turned to potatoes or 
 turnips, and undergo a new course of cropping. I recommend 
 this more particularly, as it keeps one-fourth of the land always 
 in clover and vetches or Italian rye-grass, by which means, due 
 provision is made for the accumulation of house-mamtre; for it 
 cannot be too often urged upon your attention, that lime must not 
 be applied, 3 'ear after year, to the same land. Many of you 
 think, from witnessing its first effects, that you can always have 
 recourse to it with the same success; but in this you will most 
 assuredly be disappointed, and if persisted in, will bring your 
 ground into such a state that it will produce nothing,—once in 
 six or seven years is sufficient to apply it with advantage, but it 
 never will produce the same effect as at first. 
 
 It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that when you first 
 begin to lime,-'- you should raise your potatoes upon it and make 
 use of the house-manure, which this leaves at your disposal, to 
 raise turnips or mangel-wurtzel for house-feeding; and increase 
 your stock of cattle to the utmost which this plan will enable you 
 to keep, setting it down for certain, that you ought to have, at 
 
 * It is said, that if hot lime is slached with pichle, the salt combining with 
 the lime forms a more beneficial manure than it would be i.’' applied in the 
 common way. 
 
74 
 
 least, one cow for every three acres* of arable land, as being the 
 smallest stock which will enable you to keep your land in heart, 
 when the resource of lime can no longer be looked to; if this is 
 not kept in view, from the very outset, you will find you cannot 
 manure the one-fourth of yoiu' farm every year, and you will, 
 therefore, be thrown out of the rotation,—the land will be ex¬ 
 hausted and left out to rest, as formerly; and as it gets poor you 
 will get poor yourselves, and having no longer the relief of lime 
 to fall back upon, your case toII become worse than what it is at 
 present: but now, by lending you lime, I have no doubt of making 
 you comfortable and independent, if you are only industrious and 
 willing to follow the instructions given you; otherwise, this 
 resource is lost to you, and I do not see what other can be made 
 available for your restoration. 
 
 From this digression I return to another mode in use of culti¬ 
 vating the wheat crop, which is sowing it after a fallow,—the 
 nature and object of which operation you seem to me, in general, 
 but imperfectly to understand. It would appear, from the prac¬ 
 tice of many, that they considered the great object of so many 
 ploughings was merely to pulverize the ground, and if they accom¬ 
 plished that, by giving three or four ploughings in quick succes¬ 
 sion, nothing more was to he desired, without taking into account 
 that the principle of this operation is built upon this circum¬ 
 stance—that in the course of a certain number of years’ culti¬ 
 vation, almost all lands will accumulate a certain stock of the seeds 
 of a variety of weeds, which, being shed upon the surface, have, 
 from time to to time, been turned down by the plough, out of the 
 reach of vegetation, where they will be preserved for almost any 
 length of time, until they are again brought within the influence 
 
 * I calculate that the milk and butter of a cow will pay the rent of three 
 acres of land of average quality; and if she can he supported upon half an acre 
 there will he then two and a half acres out of every three, rent free for you to make 
 the most of, with plenty of manure to cultivate them, besides any profit that 
 may he derived from pigs, poultry, &c.; and it is from fully considering this, 
 that I have repeatedly asserted that every tenant on these estates might, if they 
 followed the instructions given them, have then- potatoes, their grain, and their 
 pork for themselves, in place of selling the two latter to pay their rent, as they 
 have heretofore in many cases been obliged to do.—(See sundry declarations in 
 Appendix upon this subject.) 
 
of the atmosphere, which will immediately cause them to grow. 
 The great object, therefore, of the fallow is, by repeated ploughings, 
 to bring, in succession, every particle of the soil into contact with 
 the air, and by allowing each crop of weeds to vegetate, and then 
 ploughing them down and bringing up another portion to be served 
 in the same way, completely to free the land from the seeds so 
 accumulated, which can in no other way be effectually done, as 
 they must be allowed to grow before they can be destroyed. It 
 is manifest, therefore, that time must be given between the plough¬ 
 ings to let the seeds spring up, and if this time is not allowed, the 
 seeds are again turned down until a succeeding ploughing may 
 restore them to light and life; this, therefore, should never be lost 
 sight of. The plan, however, of raising wheat after fallow is not 
 very suitable to a small farmer, who can seldom bear to lose a year 
 of his land ; but it may be adopted in the outset with advantage, 
 for the purpose of cleaning his ground, and enabling hini to get 
 into a better_system; and it must be admitted that the crop of 
 wheat, after fallow, is very superior, both in quantity and quality, 
 to any other, and will sell perhaps a shilling per cwt, higher than 
 the produce of the same seed sowed on potato land. Before 
 turning to any other subject, 1 wish to make one further observa¬ 
 tion upon the wheat crop, which is, that you, I may say almost 
 universally, let it stand until it is over-ripe v/hich thickens the 
 skin and spoils both the appearance and quality of the grain. The 
 rule laid down in Scotland to know when wheat is fit to be cut 
 down, is to take a few grains and squeeze them between your 
 finger and thumb, and if there is no milky fluid proceeding from 
 them, the crop ought to be cut, no matter what the appearance of 
 the straw may be.f 
 
 * This observation extends also to oats, particularly the potato oat, which 
 will fully ripen in the stoot, arid the danger of loss by a shake will he avoided. 
 
 f It may not be amiss here to remark, that where any smut may appear in 
 the wheat crop, the grain should be separated from the straw by lashing it, as 
 it is termed, which is striking the heads against a sharp board or rail—^by this 
 means the dust flies off without being mixed up with the grain, which the 
 operation of threshing is sure to do—the difference in the appearance of the 
 produce, under the two modes of management, will not he less than from one to 
 two shillings per cwt. according to the degree in which the crop has been affected. 
 
76 
 
 Another observation I have made, in going through your farms, 
 is the very little care taken to prevent the spreading of the 
 destructive weed called coltsfoot. This is the first plant that comes 
 into flower in spring; you will see the blossom, in the land where 
 it grows, ill the mouth of March, before a leaf is visible, and, in 
 the course of a month or six weeks, whilst the ground is still red, 
 it appears with a white tuft of down, on examining which, you 
 will find a seed attached to each particle, by which it is carried 
 for miles over the country at that season, when the ground is 
 ready prepared for its reception. It is by the sowing of the seed 
 in this way that this weed is propagated, for it makes but slow 
 progress by the root, however difiicult it may he to eradicate it 
 when it has once got hold of the ground. This weed also appears 
 to me to grow spontaneously, where the practice of over-liming, 
 or burning the surface to make ashes, prevails. The most effectual 
 way of baiiishiiig it, is to pull up after harvest, wherever you see the 
 leaf on the ground, as much of the root as can be got out ,• you 
 will find at the end from whence the leaf grows two or three 
 young buds, from which the floiver proceeds in spring, and by 
 pulling them the flower and seed are prevented; attention to this 
 and pulling also any blossoms arising in spring, will soon clear the 
 land of this most hurtful weed. 
 
 There is another weed which I likewise see doing a great deal 
 of mischief—I mean ragmed. 'i’he quantity of nourishment it 
 draws from the ground is shown by this, that it will not grow upon 
 bad land. In regard to it, a most ridiculous notion prevails, which 
 I have frequently found people possessed of, who ought to know 
 better—namely, that all the nourishment it has extracted from the 
 soil in its growth, is again returned to it in its decay, or in other 
 words, that after ripening the seed, the sap descends and enriches 
 the earth, which is, therefore, left nothing the worse.I see, also, 
 
 • The absurdity of this idea reminds me of having been once very urgent 
 with a man to drain part of his farm, which I saw was actually good for 
 nothing, from the neglect of it; and what do you think was the reason 
 assigned for not wishing to do so ? It was this—that “if he made drains in 
 iiis land, all the fat would run away.” You may perhaps laugh at this man’s 
 absurdity; but the idea that the nourisliment extracted by the growth of a 
 plant and the ripening of the seed, can ever descend through the dry stall,-. 
 
77 
 
 the cutting down thistles wholly unattended to, and the seed 
 allowed to scatter with the most perfect indifference. In England, 
 a farmer has been known to bring an action against his neighbour 
 for not cutting down the thistles on his farm, and he recovered 
 damages without difficulty. I wish most sincerely, that here, ^ 
 where people seem to be as litigious as in any part of the world, 
 some one would set an example of punishing such wanton neglect 
 as takes place with regard to all the weeds I have alluded to. 
 Thistles are only biennial plants, and therefore, if cut down for 
 two successive years, the supply of seed would be destroyed. I 
 see people employed for whole days pulling up these out of their 
 crops, when half an hour’s labour, in cutting down the parent 
 stocks, would have prevented the young growth from ever having 
 come into existence. Every one who has ever travelled through 
 Ireland at the time of harvest, must have been struck by the 
 manner in which dockens are left standing as if it was an object 
 of the most particular importance to preserve them, and permit the 
 seed to be ripened. Besides the weeds just mentioned, there are 
 others scarcely less injurious; such as the yellow flowering weed, 
 known in this country by the name of prussia, hut is I think more 
 properly called corn charlock. Also the corn marigold and wild 
 poppy. All these are seldom seen except in land exhausted by suc¬ 
 cessive corn crops. When the land is in this state it seems to 
 produce them naturally, for they are never seen where a proper 
 rotation of crop is pursued. I believe they are all annuals; and 
 if you will pay attention you will find they are rarely seen to grow 
 to any great extent in the first crop, after the manure, nor after 
 vetches or clover; both of which crops leave the ground hi good 
 heart. When this is the case, the vigorous growth of the crop 
 chokes these weeds, and they are soon banished; but when the 
 ground is poor, the weeds choke the - crop, and get almost entire 
 possession of the land. 
 
 There is another matter in which I have also observed great 
 
 and be discharged again by the roots for the enriching of the soil, is an 
 absurdity fuliy as great, if not greater, than the notion of the poor man 
 alluded to, who, although you may pity his ignorance, had just as high an 
 opinion of his own judgment in regard to the effect of the drain, as you 
 can possibly have in regard to the ragweed. 
 
7S . 
 
 ignorance and inattention shown,—that is, in your allowing the 
 chaff of your corn crops to be lost. You will say, perhaps, there 
 can be no nourishment in chaff, and why should we trouble our¬ 
 selves in that case about it; and it is very true there can be very 
 little actual nourishment in chaff’, but there is a great deal of use 
 in it, notwithstanding, which you may soon perceive, if you will 
 consider that when your coiv is confined to dry hay or straw in 
 winter after the juicy rich grass of summer, the change of food 
 immediately aft’ects her habit of body,—the dung gets dry,—the 
 coat stares,—and from the costive state of the bowels, without auy 
 suspicion on your part, diseases originate which often end iii the 
 death of the animal, and may perhaps tend thereby to your own 
 entire ruin. Now, the chaff which you throw away is the very 
 best remedy against this evil, and when well boiled with some 
 potatoes mashed down, and some seeds or bran mixed, to make it 
 palatable, a bushel full given in this way, night and morning, will 
 • open the bowels, make the skin look healthy, and increase the 
 quantity of milk beyond your most sanguine expectations. When 
 chaff cannot be had, chopped hay or straw may be substituted, a 
 machine for cutting which may be bought for about thirty shillings. 
 The mixture should be made of such a consistance as to be easily 
 stirred about with the hand,—a greater quantity of potatoes may 
 be given with advantage, in this way, than in any other, but they 
 must be boiled separately, as potato water is always injurious; 
 the mixture is improved by some Swedish turnips, which may be 
 boiled with the chaff but where turnips are given in quantity, 
 they will of themselves open the bowels sufficiently.f 
 
 • See Mr. Scott’s account in Appendix, 
 f Another useful article whicli I see going to waste is the seed of your flax. 
 If you were to stook up your flax like any other crop, and delay watering it 
 until spring, you might save the seed without the slightest difiiculty. It is 
 said, however, that the flax will not be so fine and silky in this way; the seed 
 however generally pays from £8 to £10 an acre, which is equal to most other 
 crops, and the flax remains over and above; but with a little trouble it may be 
 saved, without that delay, by following the plan pointed out to you some years 
 ago by the Liuen Board; but if you do not choose to take that trouble, let the 
 seed be at any rate taken otl by rippling, and made use of as is practised in 
 Scotland, for the rearing of calves. The seed, when boiled, forms a rich and 
 nourishing drink, upon which, mixed with a little skim-milk, calves will thrive 
 
79 
 
 In alluding to the loss you expose yourselves to by negligence 
 and inattention to the foregoing respects, I cannot allow myself to 
 pass over what you lose by the manifest neglect of the instructions 
 given in the fifth rule, as to the management of your manure. 
 When I published the first edition of this address, I certainly did 
 expect that a matter of such importance would have met with mm- 
 ve)-salattention ; and yet I am sorry to observe, that at the present 
 day / see many instances of a total disregard to what is so plainly 
 your advantage to attend to. It would seem to me some of you 
 have so little understanding, that you suppose if you have a certain 
 hulk of manure, you have all you can desire, and that the quality 
 or strength of it is of no importance whatever,—never considering 
 that the strength and richness of your manure is soluble in water; 
 and if you allow it to be drenched time after time by floods of rain 
 running through it, there will only be dross and refuse left behind. 
 If you keep the manure from being thus injured, and throw back 
 the seepage, and prevent the evaporation, as directed in the fifth 
 rule, you will preserve it in all its original strength, as it comes 
 from the corv-house; but as an example may perhaps bring this 
 before you in a stronger point of view than in any other way I can 
 put it, let me suppose that some of you should purchase a little 
 tea at the grocer’s,—as long as you keep it dry and shut up from 
 the weather, it will preserve its original strength, even for years; 
 but when you put it into a tea-pot and pour water on it three or 
 four times, the strength is all gone, and your tea becomes, I may 
 say, dead, useless matter. It is just so with your manure. I see 
 it often placed in such situations, that the rain water from your 
 house and offices, and the seepage from the higher grounds, all run 
 through it; thus every shower floods it day after day, carrying off 
 always some part of the strength, until at length it is left as dead 
 and as useless as the leaves thrown out of the tea-pot. Surely no 
 man in his senses will persist any longer in such gross mismanage- 
 
 as well as upon any food whatever, except ranuiug them on the cow; and it is 
 actually prejudicial to the colour of the flax, if you do not take it off before 
 steeping. If the wetness of the weather should prevent you drying the bolls 
 with facility, a slight drying upon a kiln will at once do the business, and 
 ensure their keeping safe until required for use; or will enable you to grind (ha 
 whole into meal. 
 
so 
 
 ment. If you were to observe a man quietly stand by and see his 
 ‘potatoes destroyed, which were to be the chief support of himself 
 and his family, you would say he was either mad or a downright 
 idiot; and if this would be your opinion olhm, what can you think 
 of yourselves when you stand by and daily look on at the destruc¬ 
 tion of that manure by which your potatoes are to be produced^ 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 EEnONEOUS OHKIOES AS TO LAND EJIPLOXED IN BAISING POOD FOR 
 CATTLE—DIFFERENT OPINIONS AS TO VALUE OF TURNIPS COJffAE- 
 ED WITH POTATOES—REASONS FOR PREFERRING FORiMER FOB THE 
 USE OF SHALL FARIIERS—LAND TO BE APPLIED TO WHAT WILL 
 PRODUCE THE MOST MONEY—GREAT RETURN FROM BUYING POOR 
 SPRINGERS—OBJECTIONS TO CONTINUAL TILLAGE ANSWERED— 
 ENCREASED EMPLOYMENT AND GOOD WAGES AND ACCUMULATION 
 OF PROPERTY THEREBY—NO ONE TO BE DISCOURAGED FROM COM¬ 
 MENCING, HOWEVER POOR. 
 
 Were I to allude to every subject which might appear worthy of 
 observation, the length of this address would greatly exceed that 
 to which I propose to confine myself; but I cannot help further 
 remarking, that farmers in this country are apt to judge erro¬ 
 neously in regard to the value of such crops as turnips and man¬ 
 gel wurzel, and other food for cattle, upon this principle, that 
 they are not saleable in the market, and they give an undue pre¬ 
 ference to potatoes, ou account of the money which they can 
 almost in every season command for them. I am far from wishing 
 to detract from the value of potatoes, and the great advantage 
 which arises from their being adapted to the food of both man 
 and beast; hut this very circumstance generally occasions their 
 being sold, and thus the farm is robbed of the manure, and the 
 future produce curtailed, for the temporary object of raising, 
 perhaps, a trifling sum of money, though the farmer might, in the 
 end, have even made more hy fattening stock with them (in which 
 respect many prefer them to any other crop,) and have had, in 
 this way, the manure besides. But, if a farmer has plenty of 
 iumips and mangel wurzel, he is not tempted to misapply them; 
 and they are, therefore, turned to the purpose for which they 
 were intended; and if he has more than is required for that pur¬ 
 pose, he buys cattle lean and sells them fat,—or he purchases 
 them in good condition, at November, when beef is cheap, and 
 
82 
 
 holds them over for a market in spring, when it is dear,—or he 
 buys springers in March or April, at a low price, when fodder is 
 scarce, and sells them at May, when they are near their calving, 
 and grass is plenty. In all cases he is sure of a good profit, in 
 money, besides what he makes by manure, which is always most 
 valuable; and both these crops have the advantage of being used 
 raw; whereas, potatoes ought, when given to cattle, to be half 
 boiled, which consumes a great deal of fuel, if used on any great 
 scale. It is a disputed point whether turnips or potatoes are the 
 most beneficial crop,* and great difference of opinion exists among 
 persons holding large clay land farms, where carting ofi^ the tur¬ 
 nips poaches the ground; and also among those who make a trade 
 of fattening cattle upon a large scale, who have, in several in¬ 
 stances, preferred the latter; but, whatever idea the large farmer 
 or the cattle-feeder may entertain, it appears to me, there can be 
 
 * There is a very general complaint against turnips, that they give a had 
 taste to the butter—but this is not necessarily the case. 
 
 The fact is, turnipmilk will not keep as long as grass milk, but gels rancid ; 
 and this is increased by the practice of keeping tlie churn near the fire in 
 winter, which is sometimes done. The milk, on the contrary, should be kept 
 cool, and warmed when churning by as much boiling water as it will bear. 
 IVhen yellow turnips are used, the butter will be nevertheless a good colour; 
 but if wanted with more of a yellow shade, dairy-maids use grated carrot in a 
 cloth, wet with boiling water, and stiueezo it into the churn. As the milk 
 does not keep, it is of great importance to churn often, at least twice, and if 
 possible, three times a week, so that it cannot be let stand for cream, but 
 churned whole. Where so frequent churning is impossible, it is useful to add 
 one-eighth part of boiling water to the milk as it comes from the cow, and 
 cover it over with a double cloth, which prevents the heat escaping, and im¬ 
 bibes the steam which seems to carry off with it the peculiar flavour which 
 the turnip would otherwise communicate—but under any management much 
 will always depends on the cleanliness and attention of the dairy-maid. As 
 a means of enabling people to churn often, and thereby get rid of the turnip 
 taste, I have lately introduced the French churn invented by Mr. Valcourt, 
 which can be made of so small a size that the owner of a single cow may 
 chum three times in the week. To dissolve saltpetre in water, and put a glass 
 full of the liquid into the pail, before milking, takes away the taste also in a 
 great degree,—but there is nothing effectual but frequent churning, and the 
 milk may be strained in a sufficient quantity of buttermilk to ripen it more 
 
83 
 
 but one opinion upon the superiority of the turnip crop, as re¬ 
 gards the small farmer.* In the first place, the saving of fuel, to 
 which I have already alluded, is a most material recommendation. 
 Likewise the late period of the year at which they can be sowed, 
 which admits of their succeeding rape, winter vetches, rye-grass, 
 annual clover, or early cabbage. The Malta turnip and white 
 globe may be sown at any time in July, with the prospect of a full 
 crop, and if the season turns out favourable, with plenty of manure 
 and good cultivation, a good crop of yellow bullock and dales 
 hybred may be obtained. Thus, it is clear that three crops may 
 be obtained in two years, turnips being one ; besides this, it is to 
 be considered that the principal use of the turnip crop to the 
 small farmer, is the support of his regular stock, and the supply 
 of milk and manure. Now, a stone of turnips will yield as much 
 
 * Richard Lloyd, Esq. states as follows in a Treatise on Agriculture lately 
 published by him:—The early Dutch garden turnips is by no means an un¬ 
 profitable root; my breadth of land in vetches last year being very limited, I 
 reserved them all for my horses. In consequence I sowed half an acre of the 
 early Dutch in JIarcli; I commenced tateu them up in July, and, first steam¬ 
 ing them, served them without any other food to eighteen newly weaned pigs, 
 and also to three breeding sows and a boar: they lasted until the end of Oc¬ 
 tober, when my other turnips were ready to supply their place. On the 23d 
 of the following November I sold the eigliteen pigs as stores for £23, which 
 had consumed very little more than the produce of half an acre, and left 
 behind them several cart-loads of very rich manure. Their condition as stores 
 was remarkably good, and they were never out of confinement until they went 
 to the fair: the price on pigs at that time was high, hnt had it been consider¬ 
 ably lower they would have paid well. I have mentioned this circumstance 
 ns a substitute for vetclies, and it is well worth any man’s consideration and 
 adoption. I should recommend vetches in preferauco, there being much less 
 trouble attending them; hut to have a certain quantity of both would he most 
 advisable. This year my pigs will have no other food than vetches as long as 
 they last. It may he observed here, that if a farmer is very desirious of try¬ 
 ing two crops in one year, he could not adopt a hotter or surer plan, than by 
 sowing the early Dutch turnip in March, and early in July, putting in spring 
 vetches after them, the vetches would be consumed in October, and wheat 
 might succeed them, but the land must he of good quality and the turnips 
 well manured for to accomplish tliis. It would appear to me, however, that 
 there could not be a good crop of vetches in this climate, and I should prefer 
 planting Scotch kail or cabbages, as the turnips were removed; or they might 
 be planted between the drills even before removal. 
 
84 
 
 milk and manure as a stone of potatoes, and the same land will 
 yield five stone of the former, at least, for one' of the latter. 
 Again, when they are applied to fattening, and compared with 
 potatoes sold in the market, (which is the usual mode of disposing 
 of them by small farmers,) it must not be forgot, that the expense 
 and loss of time in driving a fat cow to a fair, is nothing compared 
 to the labour of attending the market with a horse and cart, day 
 after day, to sell a quantity of potatoes, when both the farmer 
 and his horse might be most advantageously employed at home in 
 the business of the farm, and that, in the former case, he gets his 
 money in a lump, whereas the potato-seller receives payment in 
 small sums, which, perhaps, may be frittered away before it 
 accumulates to any amount.* 
 
 It should also not be overlooked, that even if only half the po¬ 
 tatoes were planted which the family might require, in order to 
 make room for such crops as would produce food for one or more 
 cows, the value of the milk which would be thus obtained would 
 
 * The force of these arguments appear to me still stronger now than when 
 originally written, for the experience of 1835 has shown that the wheat pro¬ 
 duced has so far exceeded the demand, that the price fell so low as to make it 
 a losing crop to the farmer; although formerly it was that upon which he 
 most relied to make up his rent. This was so generally the case, that the 
 land was turned to the growth of Oats and barley to such an extent that, with 
 
85 
 
 buy more than twice the quantity of potatoes which the ground 
 taken would have produced; and where there was little land, it 
 might be very profitable farming to plant only early potatoes 
 where there was a good mar'ket at hand, to sell the whole off in 
 the end of July, and sow the land with rape and stuhble turnips, for 
 winter and spring feeding. The value of an early crop of pota¬ 
 toes is very often superior to a late one, and the owner would have 
 the money to lay in his supply in November, and would have, 
 besides, all the winter and spring feeding, and the milk and 
 manure which the after crop would yield. A judicious farmer 
 should not consider himself bound to raise the potatoes he w'ill 
 consume himself on his own farm. His object ought to be to 
 manage his land in such a way as to produce him most money, 
 which will always supply him with what he may want. 
 
 Acting upon this principle, it appears to me that the man who 
 cultivates green crops largely, andls able to buy extra stock when 
 wanted to consume them, will make more of his farm than in any 
 other way. For example, suppose an acre of rape put in after 
 winter here or spring vetches, the land to be well manured and the 
 plants dibbled in by the second week in Augnst, it will be ready to 
 cut to great advantage when the clover fails in the middle of Octo¬ 
 ber, and would enable the owner to pay himself well by vealing 
 calves, after which it will be ready to out again in April following, 
 and will feed ten to fifteen head of cattle for a month or five weeks :* 
 and supposing that springers have been laid in in low condition to 
 calve about the first week in May, they will by that time be so 
 much improved, and being also just ready to calve, they will sell at 
 an advance of 25s. to 30s. each. But to take every thing at the 
 lowest, say eight cows sold at 25s. profit amounts to £10, leaving 
 the ground and the manure ready for turnips, an acre of which will 
 fatten four head of ordinary sized cattle, which should yield a 
 profit of £3 to £4 per head, but calculated at oOs. will produce 
 £10 more ; that is £20 gained by the acre, without calculating 
 any thing on the October cutting, which is worth £5 an acre more, 
 leaving the land in good heart for sowing barley and clover; or he 
 
 » The cutting in Octoher prevents the crop in April being so Ijeavy as it 
 otherwise wouht be, or it woulil do more than tliis, if let come into blossom 
 
 31 
 
might put in spring vetches, and after feediiig them off in the same 
 way, prepare the ground for wheat. Now, after making the 
 largest allowance for seed and labour, and some hay for the cattle 
 when fattening, the manure being supposed to pay for the straw, 
 it is evident there will be more clear profit remaining than any 
 single crop would produce; and, of course, if a man has money 
 to deal in this way, it will be his interest to do so, and with the 
 money so gained buy the potatoes or other produce he may require. 
 I have selected as an instance a crop of rape, to begin with, as it 
 comes in earliest, and cattle generally give a larger profit laid in 
 about the end of March or beginning of April, than at any other 
 season. . Mr. William Dougan of Lisdrumcher, has followed this 
 plan this last season, and has realized a much larger profit; but 
 at all seasons, springers bought in poor, and well fed for a month 
 or five weeks, and sold when ready to calve, are sure to leave a 
 handsome profit, perhaps more than vealing calves, as recommen. 
 ded in October. But the benefit of having a large supply of rape, 
 Swedish turnips* or mangel wurzel, for spring, is also of great 
 advantage where there are large grazing farms, as it enables the 
 stock to be kept in the straw-yard until the grass rises, which, by 
 the shelter it affords, draws up a succession of young shoots, and 
 produces a growth of grass that cannot be eaten down by the stock, 
 which would have been half starved upon the same ground if they 
 had been more early turned out upon it. Some of you, however, 
 may perhaps say, as I have often heard it urged, that your land 
 would not bear this constant turning and ploughing for so many 
 crops in succession. But there seems to be a great mistake in this 
 opinion. If repeated plonghing was to do the land so much in¬ 
 jury, how does it happen that it produces such crops after a fallow, 
 when it has been ploughed perhaps five times, with scarcely any 
 intermission ?—The truth is, that it is not the coTistiTit ploughing 
 but it is the constant grain crops you put in when you diO plough, 
 
 * It is a singular distinction bettreen tbe Stvedish turnip and all others, that 
 it seems to suffer very little in the quality of the root by being allowed to stay 
 in the ground and shoot up to seed, which gives a cutting like rape, and yet the 
 root will afterwards remain sound and sappy, and fit for cattle feeding until 
 the end of June. When this plan is pursued the ground should be afterwards 
 sown with late spring vetches, to cut in October or November. 
 
87 
 
 that does the harm,* and you need have no fear whatever about 
 hurting your land in that respect,! if you only pursue the proper 
 rotation of crops, taking care to introduce vetches, Italian rye¬ 
 grass, and clover, between your grain crops, which refreshes the 
 land more in one year than lying out to rest in a poor state would 
 do in three or four, as I have already said. 
 
 But others will be ready to complain of the great labour it will 
 require to put in one crop after another in this way; and no 
 doubt more labour will be required in this mode of cultivation, 
 than if you kept half your farm constantly lying at rest. But is 
 not the want of employment your constant complaint? and if the 
 crop pays you, are you not better off working for yourselves on 
 your own farms, than working for Lord Gosford or Colonel Close, 
 into whose employment it seems to be such an object to gain ad¬ 
 mittance? That the extra crops you will in that case find your¬ 
 selves possessed of will amply repay you for the extra labour you 
 bestow on them, you need not doubt. Look to the case of James 
 M'Donnell of Ballindaragh, who was one of the daily labourers at 
 Gosford, whose farm was in such a neglected state that I directed 
 his Lordship’s steward to discharge him, and send him home to 
 work for himself. It is now two years since, and at that time he 
 was in the greatest poverty, without a four-footed animal in his 
 possession. He thought he was turned to beggary when he was 
 dismissed; but go to his place now, and you will find him with a 
 
 • It seems to me that the increased fertility of fallowed land is mainly attri- 
 butahle to that very turning which is sometimes complained of as an evil. By 
 this, every part of the soil is exposed to the action of tho atmosphere, the ef¬ 
 fects of which in promoting fertility may he estimated by observing the bar¬ 
 renness which follows from excluding its influence. Examine the ground under 
 the hack of one of the newly levelled ditches, or what is called the seat of the ditch : 
 now, when the ditch was originally made, this was the surface productive soil, 
 and the stuS' thrown out of the gripe to form the back was perfectly barren 
 till. But now you will find the case exactly reversed,—what was then tho fruit¬ 
 ful surface soil is now rendered barren by being excluded, by the back of the 
 ditch being heaped over it, from ihe action of the atmosphere, and the back, 
 which was then barren, is now rendered fruitful by being exposed to it, 
 
 t So little cause is there to apprehend any impoverishment of the land, that 
 I find on several farms this last year they have lost their clover by the luxu- 
 riance of their oat crop, and they will have to change to bailey. 
 
couple of cows, and one or two pigs, and every thing in a thriving 
 state about him. It appears, therefore, his own farm paid him 
 much better for his labour than he was paid for it at Gosford; 
 and every one who has land to work upon will find in like manner 
 that he can earn more at home by raising extra crops thereon than 
 all he can make by his working elsewhere. This last objection, 
 therefore, should rather be considered an argument in favour of 
 the plan proposed, than be given as an argument against it.* 
 
 I have thought it necessary to go into these particulars, because 
 there are always people to be found ready to start objections to 
 every thing which differs in any respect from what they have been 
 accustomed to; but to any one who takes the trouble seriously to 
 consider the matter, the gain that may be made in the way 1 have 
 just pointed out will be very evident; and the only real objection 
 I can see to its being more commonly acted on is this, that it re- 
 quLres more capital to lay in the extra stock required than I fear 
 you are in general at present possessed of, the want of which will 
 therefore oblige you to leave the profit to be made by dealing in 
 cattle, in the manner I have been speaking of, to others, and to limit 
 your own operations to the purchase and maintenance of the per¬ 
 manent stock suited to your holdings, which, as I have elsewhere 
 said, should necer Ic less than one cow to every three acres of ara- 
 ble land; and when you have once attained to such a degree of pros¬ 
 perity as to be possessed of that stock, be assured there is nothing 
 wanting but industry and sobriety to insure your future comfort and 
 independence, and also such a gradual accumulation of property-]- 
 as will enable you to provide for your children without applying to 
 the miserable resource of dividing your farm (already perhaps too 
 small) among them, thereby making paupers of your entire family ; 
 and let no one be discouraged from commencing to raise green 
 crops, if he has the means of doing so, by the consideration that 
 
 * This man has since, from his own misconduct, come to poverty and 
 disgrace, after being in the prosperous way above stated. 
 
 -|- I do not know any considerable estate in the North of Ireland, in whieh 
 the tenant will not he able to pay his rent by milk and butter, provided ho 
 house-feeds this amount of stock, thereby leaving to him his pigs, his poul¬ 
 try, and all his gi-aiu, flax, and potatoes, entirely to himself, which shows the 
 practicability of the accumulation here spoken of in all ordinary cases. 
 
89 
 
 he has not a cow to get the benefit of them. Supposmg he is so 
 poor as to be unable to buy a cow, still there are few people who 
 have their health, and are inclined to be industrious, who cannot 
 raise the price of one, two, or three young pigs, on which these 
 crops will in a little time produce such an improvement, that, in 
 the common course of things, before many months he will be en¬ 
 abled to purchase the cow he was in want of; which he would most 
 likely not have been able to get in any other way. Vetches, clover, 
 and cabbage, are excellent feeding for growing pigs, and would soon 
 augment their value to the amount required; and if this plan of 
 getting a cow should fail, he will seldom be disappointed (whilst 
 the system of farming now in practice continues) in getting the use 
 of a cow, for her keep, from those who have not sufficient food for 
 their stock, by which arrangement he will have milk for his family 
 and manure for his farm. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CASE OF SMALL FAEMEES IN EEDUCED CIECUJISTANCES—MODE OF 
 EECOTOEY POINTED OUT—CEOES ACOOEDING TO OLD METHOD 
 COMPAEED WITH THOSE EECOMMENDED—OTHEES TO BE. SUB¬ 
 STITUTED ACCOBDING TO CIECUMSTANCES—IMPEOITJMENT IN THE 
 POWER OF ALL—OBJECTIONS ANSWEEED. 
 
 It is seldom ttat any one'deserving tlie appellation of even a 
 small farmer, is so very low in the world as not to have a cow of 
 some sort; and the more common case is, that he is possessed of 
 one at least of those useful animals. Let us suppose him, then, 
 to have four acres of land and one cow, and that two acres are in 
 grazing, or put out to rest, as it is termed; and of the remainder, 
 half an acre is intended for potatoes, half an acre for first crop of 
 oats on last year’s potatoe ground, half an acre of second crop oats, 
 and the remaining half acre third crop oats; which altogether make 
 up the four acres; and, with a small garden, may not he considered 
 to be an unfair representation of the general circumstances of the 
 poorer class of small farmers. Now, if an industrious man, re¬ 
 duced to such a situation by bad health, or any other calamity, 
 without capital, and without friends, was to ask me how he as a 
 small farmer might contrive to extricate himself from his difficul¬ 
 ties and retrieve his affairs—(and this is a question which, above 
 all others, most vitally concerns the poor of Ireland)—I should 
 answer by saying, if a small farmer means to live by his land, his 
 first object ought to be to make every inch of that land as pro¬ 
 ductive as its nature will admit of—and this can only be accom¬ 
 plished, (as I have stated in the commencement,) by having plenty 
 of manure, and pursuing such a rotation of crops as shall prevent 
 the ground from being ever exhausted. Various methods may be 
 taken by him to arrive at this, according to his particular resources 
 and the circumstances of his farm; but, under any state of things, 
 
91 
 
 he must keep in mind the fixed maxims of farming already enume¬ 
 rated. By reference to these, he will, in the first place, see that 
 wherever he intends to put out his manure, the land should pre¬ 
 viously be effectually drained; and likewise that the w’eeds should, 
 as far as possible, be eradicated before putting in bis crop. If 
 these directions are not attended to, a cold wet snbsoil will destroy 
 more than half the strength of the manure, and half the remainder 
 will perhaps go to nonrish the weeds, in place of the crop he in¬ 
 tended it for. The next thing he will see pointed out, is to provide 
 for the increase of his manure, by preparing the means of feeding 
 his cow in the house, and to refresh his land by a change of crop. 
 It is from want of attention to these points, the returns from his 
 farm have been heretofore so much reduced, that he has been. 
 kept struggling in poverty, when, with less labour and more skill, 
 he might have been living comfortably. But as an example will 
 make every thing more intelligible, I should be inclined to recom¬ 
 mend him, as one mode of carrying the rules laid down into prac¬ 
 tice, (draining and cleaning his land being always attended to in 
 the first instance,) to sow clover and grass-seed with his first grain 
 crop, as a provision for house-feeding his cow the following year ; 
 and he must begin early and pnt in kail or cabbage into his potato 
 ridges, and sow a succession of vetches on the stubble of his last 
 year’s potato land oats, to serve as feeding for the present. If there 
 should be any overplus after feeding his cow, and that he should 
 not be able to buy pigs to consume it, he may let such part stand 
 for seed, the produce of which will generally be more valuable than 
 any second crop of oats, and the straw from it will be found much 
 superior to oat straw, as fodder, and contribute to the support of 
 his cow in winter. He will further observe, by the fourth rule, that 
 the manure for his green crops, such as potatoes, turnips, &c.,' 
 should be put out upon that part which has been exhausted by 
 grain, therefore let it be given to tbe stubble of last year’s second 
 and third crop of oats; and by attending to fifth, sixth, and seventh 
 rules, let him take care not to have any of his land or manure 
 wasted; and, by burning the backs of the old ditches desired to 
 be levelled, he will obtain such a quantity of ashes as will enable 
 him, with his other manure, to sow half an acre of turnips and an 
 entire acre of potatoes, in place of the halt acre, as formerly sup- 
 
posed. By this means, he will be able to bring in half an acre of 
 the poorest part of the grazing, the remaining one aiid a half acres 
 of which may be used for the support of his cow, until the vetches 
 become fit for cutting, when, if he has any ashes remaining, or as 
 far as the summer manure will cover, the grazing may be broken 
 up and prepared for rape, or fallowed. Supposing these matters to 
 have been conducted upon this plan, when the turnips become 
 ready for use, it will be practicable for him to fatten his cow, and 
 sell her for a price that will enable him to make up the price of 
 two lean ones, or at least to add a heifer to his stock. One rood 
 of turnips is calculated to fatten a cow of moderate size, that has 
 been well fed in summer, which his wouldhave been on the vetches; 
 therefore, he would have remaining still one rood of turnips, the 
 curled kail, and what rape he might have got sown, to enable him 
 to support the two cows thus supposed to be bought for the re¬ 
 mainder of the year, until the clover would be fit for use, which 
 was formerly directed to be sown. 
 
 In considering the foregoing, I do not see any extra outlay which 
 can be said to render this commencement impracticable, nor any 
 reason to suppose that the person’s means of paying his rent will 
 he in any manner curtailed ; on the contrary, it appears to me that, 
 besides the additional half acre of potatoes, the vetches substituted 
 for the second crop of oats will produce, by the superior keep of 
 the cow, in milk and hutUr, and rearing of pigs, more than double 
 what an inferior crop of oats would be worth, and that by these 
 articles alone, the entire rent of a four aero farm would, in common 
 years, be paid, leaving the profit of the remainder of the farm to 
 go entirely to the support of the family and the increase of the 
 stock. But if it is clear from this statement that the farmer's cir- 
 ' cumstances the first year will not be made worse, it is still more 
 clear that the second year they must le made letter ; for it is plain 
 he will then have more than double his former quantity of manure 
 (owing to the turnip feeding and the second cow) which, with the 
 ashes of his remaining old ditches, will be fully sufiicient to bring 
 into cultivation all the remainder of the grazing land lying out to 
 rest, which will now be made to yield him a valuable crop of po¬ 
 tatoes and turnips, and he will have the manured land of last sea- 
 son, amounting to one and a half acres, in place of half an acre. 
 
93 
 
 as formerly; besides all which, he will have as good a crop after 
 the vetches as after his potatoes, and thus there will be no part 
 whatever of the entire farm which will not be under profitable 
 crop; and the clover, with what vetches he may think it neces¬ 
 sary to sow, will supply him with the means of feeding his two 
 cows in the house; by continuing which practice, he will have 
 suflacient manure to keep his land constantly in good heart, and 
 enable him to follow for the future any rotation of crops he may 
 think proper. His circumstances being thus improved, I would 
 recomend him as soon as possible to get his manured crops of pota¬ 
 toes and turnips sown adjoining to each other; and when he has ac¬ 
 complished in this way to manure the one fourth of his farm, then 
 he of necessity will get into the four-course rotation, by putting 
 the following year his manure on the next one-fourth, and so on 
 until the whole farm is gone over when each crop following iii 
 succession the farm will present a regular appearance. If the clo¬ 
 ver and Italian rye-grass are kept a second year, then it will be 
 what is termed a five-course rotation; and by constant top dress¬ 
 ing, this may be done, and the produce admit of liouse-feeding; 
 but on no account must this be laid aside, and if the land is not 
 rich enough for this, the clover lea must be ploughed up accord¬ 
 ing to the four-course rotation. 
 
 1 think any one who will afford a few minutes’ consideration to 
 the foregoing, will be of opinion that a satisfactory answer has been 
 given to the question proposed, and that, by a simple reference to 
 the maxims laid down, a mode of recovery has been pointed out, 
 which cannot fail to accomplish its object, having for its foundation 
 principles W'hich may be successfully applied to the circumstances 
 of every such farm as the case supposed : and a more important 
 case cannot well be submitted to the consideration of the friends of 
 Ireland, in its present situation. The plan recommended has been 
 selected as affording a clear and concise exemphfication of the 
 operation of the principles laid down, but it is not meant to be a 
 prescribed course that every one should invariably follow; on the 
 contrary, it may be changed and modified, in a variety of ways, 
 according to the nature of the farm, which may call for the intro¬ 
 duction of other crops. Thus cabbage, field peas, and beans, 
 mangel-wurzel, and many other things which I have not taken 
 
into account, may, in many cases, bo found more desirable than 
 those I have adopted. Where manure is scarce, kail and cabbage 
 are particularly valuable; they will grow with great luxuriance 
 upon the back of anew made ditch, without manure of any kind, 
 which proves that nothing more is required to insure a crop than 
 to turn up new earth, by deeply trenching the ground before the 
 frost sets in. But in whatever way the object is accomplished, 
 still the principle of house-feeding, and a rotation of crops, must 
 be equally attended to. I am fully aware that a person whose re¬ 
 sources enable him to buy lime or other manure,* may at oncc.suc- 
 ceed in making his entire farm productive, without waiting for the 
 slower process which, to his poorer neighbour, may be quite indis¬ 
 pensable ; but the person with such resources, although he may 
 hold a small farm, does not fairly belong to the class of those by 
 whom the question was supposed to be put, and the answer, 
 therefore, seems properly restricted to the single object of showing 
 all those to whom it was addressed, that they might get on by their 
 own industry, without any outlay beyond the means they may be 
 fairly supposed to possess, and that if they do not bettor their situ¬ 
 ation, it is not by reason of its being out of their power so to do; 
 such being the case, persons so circumstanced, I trust, will not 
 shut their eyes to what is so plainly for their advantage to see. If 
 their farms should be somewhat larger than the case stated, it may 
 perhaps take a little longer time to bring them round; but still the 
 improvement will be progressive, and they will be encouraged as 
 they proceed, by seeing that every step is not only attended with 
 its own peculiar advantages, but likewise facilitates that which is 
 to follow; and I therefore cannot but hope, that any among you, 
 whose cases may resemble that which has been stated, may be in¬ 
 duced to take what has been said into their most serious consi¬ 
 deration, and to try the effect of the proposed change in their 
 system of cultivation, notwithstanding the obstacles which may be 
 started by those who are too indolent to exert themselves, or so 
 much prejudiced in favour of old habits, as to think they cannot 
 
 * Since writing the above, the introduction of guano completely removes 
 every difllculty, and the person who is able to borrow or purchase it, can render 
 his land productive immediately. 
 
95 
 
 be improved. Such people, among other objections, will perhaps 
 say, if we follow this plan, according as the manure increases, our 
 grazing will be broke up, which is always a sure provision for our 
 cows, and then, if the clover and turnips fail, what is to become 
 of us ? The answer to which is, that there is little reason to ap¬ 
 prehend any failure in the clover crop, if the laud is properly pre¬ 
 pared, in which a person well qualified will be appointed to in¬ 
 struct you; but if from bad seed, or any other cause, a failure- 
 should take place, it will not affect the, rye-grass sown with it, 
 which may be cut as soil; and as any such failure will be evident 
 by the month of September, there will be full time to put in winter 
 vetches, annual clover, and early cabbage or rape, to supply its 
 place, and be ready for use before the rye-grass is consumed, and- 
 the succession of cabbages may be kept up until the succeeding 
 crop of turnips is fully ripe, or spring vetches may be cultivated 
 to any extent.* In the meantime, the land upon which the clover 
 is supposed to have failed, is by no means lost; the rye-grass will 
 be cut in ample time to dig up the ground and put it into turnips. 
 It appears, therefore, there would be little cause for apprehension, 
 even if such a failure did take place, and there is still less danger 
 in regard to turnips, the different kinds of which may be sown 
 from the middle of May (when the Swedish turnip is sown) to the- 
 end of July, at which late period the Malta and White Globe tur¬ 
 nip will yield a full crop ; so that if one sowing was to fail, it may 
 be supplied by another of a different kind. Some inconvenience- 
 may, however, be felt, in case a failure should take place in S. crop 
 of Swedes, as they are relied upon for the latter part of the season; 
 but this also may be guarded against, by sowing a sufficient quan- 
 tity of rape to succeed the yellow Aberdeen, and yield food for the 
 stock until the succeeding clover and rye-grass are ready for use. 
 Others will tell you that it is an unnatural thing to confine cows ta 
 tbe house or straw-yard, and that they will give much more milk 
 upon grass; and this is very true in summer, if the grass is good 
 the reverse, however, is the fact, even then, if the comparison is 
 
 * The Italian ryc-grass lately introducea, seems hy its rapid growth welt 
 qualified to make up for all deficiencies of this kind; and is most valuahlo to 
 come in, in October, when the clover fails, for which purpose a portion of every 
 farm ought always to he under this crop.—(See Appendix.) 
 
96 
 
 made with such grazing as the small farmer’s cow is usually 
 turned out upon ; but in winter, a cow well fed and kept warm in 
 the house, will give twice, or perhaps three times as much milk as 
 what she will when turned out and exposed to cold and hunger 
 and wet, upon the bare hills I often see them on; and at that sea¬ 
 son of the year materially injuring the laud, by poaching it with 
 their feet, whilst wandering over it in search of food; besides all 
 which, it is to be taken into the argument, that the manure-^ will 
 he saved, and that where a poor man now keeps one cow, he 
 would, upon the plan of house-feeding, be able easily to keep 
 three.] 
 
 All these objections, when they come to be considered, are 
 easily confuted ; indeed, the people who make them, do it more as 
 a cloak to cover their own slothfulness, than from any belief in the 
 truth of what they advance; for the case is so plain, and the bene¬ 
 fit arising from feeding the cattle in the house, and having such an 
 ■abundance of manure as to render the whole farm as rich as a gar¬ 
 den, is so apparent, that no one can avoid being sensible of it. 
 
 * Mr. Cobbett estimates the quantity of manure which may be aocumiJated 
 by the owner of one cow fed in the house, to be sufficient to manure one 
 acre; and in these calculations ho is not bad authority: but I oniy calculate 
 on its manuring three roods. 
 
 f Cattle fed upon Clover, either in the field or in the house (when it is 
 given too soon after being cut) are liable to its fermenting in their stomach, 
 which if not observed in time, will occasion their death. The usual remedy 
 is to stab them in the side, in order to let the air escape: but this is no small 
 injury to the animal, and the cure may be effected by putting down the throat 
 an egg-shell full of tar, in which three or four drops of the spirits of turpentine 
 has been mixed. Cattle getting too many raw potatoes are liable to the same 
 complaint. Some garlic pounded and made into a ball with a little oatmeal 
 and water will give relief in a very short time also, and no country man’s gardei) 
 ought to be without some garlic, were it only for this purpose. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 jpBESSING THE IMPORTANCE OP THE SUBJECT, AND EXPLAINING THE 
 PLAN OF ASSISTANCE TO BE GIVEN—ADVANTAGE OF PLANTING 
 TBIBER FOE FUEL—PEESENT STATE OF THE SMALL FABMEE, AND 
 THE APPEAEANCE OF THE COUNTEY, CONTE ASTED WITH WHAT THEY 
 JHGHT BE—ANXIOUS DESIRE TELIT THIS ADDEESS SIAY BE AT¬ 
 TENDED WITH SOME GOOD EFFECTS. 
 
 Theee are nevertheless many well-meaning people such slaves to 
 habit, and so little able to form a just estimate of what their own 
 industry and exertion would enable them to accomplish,, that they 
 despair of surmounting the difficulties which surround them; and 
 it has often fallen to my lot to be told, with a perversity of rea¬ 
 soning not a little provoking, “ that such a plan might do very 
 well for the rich, but how could any poor man afford to form his 
 land in that way ? ” and, notwithstanding, it is evident the poor 
 man can least of all afford to lose any gain which might be made 
 by following a better system. He seldom thinks of even making 
 an attempt at what appears to him so far beyond his utmost efforts; 
 whereas, if the attempt were made, scarcely any industrious man 
 Gould fail of success. From a sincere desire to benefit all of you, 
 but particularly those of this unfortunate class, who, under existing 
 circumstances, seem likely to be deprived of their small holdings, 
 if they do not hit upon some expedient so to better their condi¬ 
 tion, as to be no longer a disgrace to the properties they inhabit, 
 I have endeavoured, in the foregoing Address, (as being the first 
 step to improvement,) to convince you of the wretched plan you 
 have been hitherto pm-suing, and of the beneficial change which 
 might soon be brought about by adopting some such alterations as 
 I have been suggesting. In this I hope I have at least so far suc¬ 
 ceeded, as in some degree to weaken your attachments to old cus¬ 
 toms, and dispose you to follow such instructions as may be given to 
 you; and in order to set aside any e.xeiises that might be made, 
 
98 
 
 either ou account of ignorance or inability, I have, with the con¬ 
 currence of your landlords, engaged two Scotch farmers or agri¬ 
 culturists, for the purpose of giving the instructions you so much 
 require. You will find them to be practical men, who have had 
 experience of every kind of soil, and know how each should he 
 treated. Their duty will be day after day to go in succession 
 round every part of the estate, and, after minutely examining your 
 difierent farms, they will point out to you how they are to be drain¬ 
 ed, cleaned, and prepared for the growth of green crops, so as to 
 introduce the plan of house-feeding and accumulating of manure, 
 which has been already insisted on. Thus your want of skill in 
 the management of your land will at once he remedied; and 
 then, to provide you with manure, (the want of which at present 
 I am aware would incapacitate you from cultivating the crops 
 recommended,) your landlords have kindly consented to lend 
 such of you as may require assistance as much lime as will be 
 sufficient to insure you as many potatoes as you may require for 
 your families; on condition that the house manure you may be 
 possessed of shall go to the other crops which the agriculturist 
 may point out. Or you may have a loan of the guano manure 
 lately brought into use, which will give you any quantity of tur¬ 
 nips you may chuse without any farm yard manure whatever. 
 Thus nothing will be wanting to the perfect cultivation of your 
 farms but your own industry and that of your families; for the 
 above-mentioned assistance will be continued to all such as show 
 themselves deserving of it, until they are brought into a situation 
 no longer to require it. My employers, therefore, I repeat, having 
 gone to such expense and trouble to better the condition of the 
 small farmers on their estates, and the benefits to be derived by 
 following some better plan of cultivation being so evident to the 
 commonest understanding, no one who, by his own want of indus¬ 
 try, fails to take advantage of the assistance ollered, can have just 
 grounds of complaint, if the land which ho refuses to cultivate is 
 taken from him, and given to some of his more industrious neigh¬ 
 bours, which will most assuredly be the case, when a fair time for 
 making the experiment has been allowed.* 
 
 * He who leaves his laud iiiicultivaled, and not producing one half of what 
 it ought to do, may not unaptly ho addressed like the unfruitful tree lu the pa- 
 
99 
 
 I trust few will be found so blind to their own interests as to 
 force their landlords to this painful alternative; and it is with great 
 pleasure I look forward to the prospect of seeing their estates 
 peopled with a thriving tenantry, and covered with neat and re¬ 
 spectable cottages, and the farms divided by hedge-rows of useful 
 and ornamental timber, with underwood for fuel. The calllc leing 
 kept from injuring these plantations they would soon come to a 
 luxuriant growth, and I am confident would not only yield a 
 quantity of valuable timber, but also sufficient faggots to afford a 
 cheerful fire in the winter’s evening; and if the farmer has a lease, 
 and registers the trees planted, as here recommended, he may 
 have, at the expiration of bis tenure, even if the farm be a very 
 small one, one hundred or two hundred trees, from twenty to forty ■ 
 years old, according to the duration of bis lease, ovell grown, which 
 they would be, if the cattle are home fed, and thus prevented from 
 injuring them; and these trees he cannot be prevented from 
 selling at their full value; and if his landlord even should turn 
 him out, (which in such a case is not likely,) he would not have 
 to go away empty handed ; and thus the hank of his ditch would 
 be to him a savings' hank, the mort economical and the most 
 productive he could have recourse to. 
 
 When the present state of the small farmer is considered,—re¬ 
 duced as he often is to potatoes and salt, and perhaps even a scanty 
 supply of these, with a house almost unfit for a^human habitation, 
 and suffering under a scarcity of both fire and clothing; and then 
 look forward to him in the enjoyment of the comforts of life, well 
 fed, well clothed, and well lodged, with a cheerful fire on the hearth, 
 and his flitch of bacon in the chimney,—what a change is opened 
 to the view, and what an ardent wish arises to see it realized! 
 Again, when the beautiful variety of surface, which this country 
 affords, is now observed bleak, dreary, and naked ; and then look 
 forward to it covered with well built cottages, well laid out farms 
 and thriving plantations, with contentment and its natural compa¬ 
 nions, good order, peace, and prosperity reigning around, surely 
 
 raMc—“Why cumber ye tbo gi'ound t" Aud having met with reasonable care 
 and indulgence, may with equal justice, lil;o it, be no longer left in possession 
 of the soil. 
 
100 
 
 eveiy one ought to be tempted to put his hand to the work, and, 
 as far as his influence extends, assist in bringing about a change 
 so desirable. Connected as I have been with you now for many 
 years, I feel most sincerely desirous to give effect to the kind 
 wishes of your landlords, and to use the means placed at my dis¬ 
 posal, and the influence my situation as land agent gives me, to 
 promote your comfort and happiness. 11 is that feeling alone W'hich 
 has prompted me to take the trouble of thus addressing you, aud 
 to devote so much time to personalty enforcing the requisite at¬ 
 tention to the instructions of the agriculturists who are engaged 
 for the purpose of directing you in the selection of the crops best 
 adapted to the soil and situation of your farms, and the proper 
 mode of cultivating them. Their appointment renders it un¬ 
 necessary for me to enter into any discussion upon these subjects,* 
 which would require more space than would be suitable to this 
 Address, already prolonged much beyond my original intention. 
 All I contend for is, that you shall cultivate such a succession of 
 crops as will afford a plentiful supply of moist food for your cattle 
 in the house, during the entire year. Experience has fully proved 
 that one-fourth of your land usually employed in this way will 
 suffice: and as house-feeding has the additional recommendation 
 of producing the manure necessary to bring the land so saved into 
 profitable cultivation, common sense will justify me in insisting 
 upon the practice being adopted, which, under the orders of your 
 landlords, I am determined to do. I have only further to add, if 
 my exertions should in any manner bring about that improvement 
 which is so much required in the cultivation of the soil upon 
 which your welfare and happiness so much depends, I shall feel 
 myself most amply rewarded. But if the perusal of the foregoing 
 should have no other effect than merely to awaken your under¬ 
 standings to the consideration of the subject, and induce you to 
 think how every thing may be turned to the best advantage, and 
 how you may make the most of every opportunity which may offer 
 
 » In this respect, I would beg to refer to Mr. Martin Doyle’s “ Hints to 
 small Farmers,” nhich give most valuable information, not only regarding the 
 cultivation, but also as to the respective merits of the ditferent crop.s at present 
 cultivated in this country. 
 
101 
 
 to better your situation and increase your comforts; I stall even 
 then congratulate myself that an important service bas been 
 rendered to you and your families, by your sincere friend and 
 well-wisher, 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKEE. 
 
 P. S.—As nothing which tends to increase your comforts in any 
 way is foreign to the nature of this Address, I cannot help calling 
 your attention to the high price you often give for oatmeal, when 
 wheaten meal might perhaps yield a much cheaper and more nou¬ 
 rishing food. If you buy wheat and get it gronnd at any common 
 country mill, your hundred weight of wheaten meal will not stand 
 you generally more, if so much, as a hundred weight of oaten 
 meal. Now, if you take and mix a well beaten up egg with a 
 pound of the wheaten meal, and wet it with milk made boiling hot, 
 it will produce near a pound and a half of excellent bread, which, 
 by being warmed before the fire, will be as good the second and 
 third day as the first, and will contain nearly twice the notnishment 
 which a pound of oatmeal will yield,—or by wetting the meal with 
 buttermilk kept until it becomes very sour, and adding a little 
 soda, the bread will be a slight and as palatable as if barm had 
 been used. It also surprises me that in winter, when milk is 
 scarce, you do not try to make a substitute of broth.. A single 
 ox head, which you may buy in any market town for a shilling, 
 with a small quantity of groats or barley, and a few onions, cab¬ 
 bage sprouts, shced turnips, or any thing of that kind, will, I am 
 informed, make twenty quarts of broth of most excellent quality; 
 and again, in summer, when”potatoes get soft and bad, if the skin 
 is taken off, and they are put into a pot to stew, with about three 
 pints of water to a stone, and half a pound of bacon, cut into very 
 small pieces, put at the top, with a little pepper, salt and onions, 
 and the pot kept close'covered, it will make a wholesome and pal¬ 
 atable mess for an entire family. Any one wishing to get more 
 particular information on this subject, may easily find persons able 
 and willing to give it; and what tends to the comfort and satisfac- 
 tion of a family two or three times every day of their lives is surely 
 well worth of being attended to. Almost all of you know what a 
 good mixture beans and potatoes make, and what nonrishing food 
 it affords; and yet how seldom do you see raised the small quantity 
 of beans which will be required for this purpose. 
 
 0 _ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No; 1. 
 
 Useful Hints for the Labourer, published hj the Labourers' 
 Friend Society. 
 
 “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; but he that followeth 
 after vain persons shall have poverty enough .”—Proverbs xxviii. 19. 
 
 Savings’ Banks. —Should a young man of 18 begin to save 2s. a 
 week, and go on regularly for ten years, he would, at the age of 28, 
 have in bank, reckoning his savings and the interest, about £60, tbe 
 value of which, observe, consists very much in the manner of acquir¬ 
 ing it. For, suppose him to have spent those ten years, as is too 
 commonly the case, working half his time, and drinking and idling the 
 rest, and suppose the sura of £60 to be then given him, what effect 
 would it have ? ’ Would he not, most likely, drink more and work 
 less ? But, when a man has set his mind upon saving, he will almost 
 necessarily contract such habits as will make his savings useful. He 
 will find hard work grow easier, because it increases his gains ; he 
 will shun idleness, because it stops them; he will turn away from the 
 ale-house, because it swallows them up; he will be content with frugal 
 fare, because it adds to his savings, and though he may look forward 
 to the comforts of marriage, he will be in no hurry to bring upon him¬ 
 self the charge of a family. Being careful himself, he will look about 
 for some careful young woman, and they will resolve not to be mar¬ 
 ried till they can furnish a house, and have some money in store. This 
 will make them doubly industrious and doubly careful, and then their 
 savings will mount up so fast, that, perhaps, they will begin to have 
 higher notions, and will put off their marriage a little longer, till they 
 have saved enough to set up on a small farm, or in some business, 
 
103 
 
 where they think they can, by joining their savings, become richer, 
 though married, than they could if separate, Here marriage is, in» 
 deed, a blessing. The children will have advantages in education,, 
 which their parents did not possess ; and though all this cannot hap¬ 
 pen to all, it is yet impossible to foresee what benefit may arise to a 
 man and his descendants, from placing a portion of his early earnings 
 in a savings’ bank. One shilling a week saved, will, with the interest,, 
 amount to £20 in seven years; three shillings a week will amount to 
 £60 in the same period. If a man who earns 30s. a week deposits 
 10s., he will possess, at the end of five years, £140 ; and if he should 
 marry a female who has been able to accumulate half as much, they 
 would together possess no less a sum than £200 to begin the world: 
 with. It is true that a savings’ bank holds out the best prospect to 
 those who are young and unencumbered, but almost all may derive 
 some advantage from itat least they may point out to their children the- 
 easy means of securing their own comfort, and it will be strange if, out 
 of a large family, some do not prove able to assist their less fortunate 
 parents in their old age. Teach but a child to put part of his first 
 little earnings in the bank, and, in all probability, poverty will not 
 overtake him to the end of his life. Teach one child to save,, and 
 others will follow the example, till industry and frugality become as 
 common as vice and misery are now. If a boy of twelve years of age- 
 can lay by 3c?. a week till he is fourteen, then Qd. a week till he is 
 sixteen, and then Is. week till he is eighteen,by which time he maybe- 
 supposed to have learned his business, he will have in the bank, add¬ 
 ing the interest of his money, £10, besides having acquired habits of 
 industry and carefulness. It has been shown above what he may lay 
 by In the next ten years; and what he will he at the end of that time,, 
 compared with men of his own age, who have not saved, and who are- 
 neither industrious nor careful, need not be shown. Many who have 
 been wild in their youth; begin to be steady when they marry; but bad 
 habits will break out, and an increasing family presses so hard upon 
 those who have nothing beforehand, that they often become discou¬ 
 raged, and sink under.the evils of poverty. They need not, however, 
 despair. Let them consider if they have not some inclination which 
 they now and then indulge at the expense of some of their comforts, 
 though the thought of it afterwards only causes them pain; let theni- 
 Iry to turn that inclination into an inclination for saving;, it wilLsooii 
 
104 
 
 grow u])on them, for it gives pleasure both in deed and in thought; 
 it will go with them to the plough, it will stay with them at the loom, 
 and it will sweeten the labour of both. Let them only make a begin¬ 
 ning, if it is but with sixpence; if necessity compels them, they can 
 take it back; the attempt will do them credit, and perhaps they will 
 be more fortunate another time. Let them consider every penny they 
 spend; let them examine if they cannot do without something which 
 before they thought necessary. If they happen to have money in their 
 pockets, without any immediate use for it, let them take it to the bank, 
 and trust to their industry to supply their future w'ants. A shilling, 
 not called for, soon tempts to the ale-house: it is soon spent there— 
 a shot is soon run up—a day’s wages are soon lost, and thus 5s. are 
 gone without thought and without profit. Now, 5s. in the bank would 
 make an e.xcellent beginning towards rent, or towards clothing.— 
 Scrape a little money together, and some pounds in the year may be 
 saved by laying in potatoes, or coals, or flour, at the best hand, instead 
 of in very small quantities, and on credit. By buying two pair of good 
 strong shoes at once, so that they may be always well dried be¬ 
 fore they are put on, and mended as soon as they want it, two pair will 
 last as long as three that are constantly worn. Here are at least 10s. 
 saved, besides the saving of health and strength. There are many 
 other ways of saving, by means of a little money beforehand; and it 
 is clear that a man and his family, who earn even moderate wages, 
 may, by good management, live better than they did before; or, if 
 they prefer it, may lay by something at the end of the year. If a man 
 wants to borrow a little money on any particular occasion, or for any 
 particular purpose, what is so likely to obtain him credit as his having 
 been a regular saver in the bank ? If he has, unfortunately, not been 
 so steady as he might have been, what is so likely to get him a charac- 
 ter as his beginning to put money in the bank ? But there is scarcely 
 any end to the advantages of such an establishment to those who 
 choose to avail themselves of it; for unmarried women, especially, it 
 is particularly desirable; they may there place their savings in safety, 
 without trouble or expense; it gives them the best chance of making 
 themselves comfortable if they marry, and independent if they do not. 
 As yet savings’ banks have not been established long enough to prove 
 more than a very few of the good effects which may be expected from 
 them. They are calculated, however, to serve the country in the best 
 
105 
 
 of all possible ways, by enabling every man to serve Limself; they 
 bold out encouragement to youtb, comfort to middle life, and inde¬ 
 pendence to old age, and a perpetual opportunity to men to improve 
 tbeir condition from generation to generation.—(From “ Observations 
 on tbe Utility and Management of Savings’ Banks,” written long since 
 by Mr. Walker, and quoted by him in The Original, No. xxvii., 
 p.413.) 
 
 List of different Agricultural Seeds for an English Acre. 
 
 Seed Wheat. 
 
 Seed Baidey. 
 
 Seed Oats. 
 
 Seed Beans in drills. 
 Seed Beas in drills.. 
 Seed Vetches. 
 
 12 stone; 
 9 do, 
 14 do. 
 
 12 do! 
 12 do. 
 
 Flaxseed.2j or 2 bushels. 
 
 Rape.. lUbs. 
 
 Turnip seed. 4 lbs. 
 
 Clover seed. 12 lbs. \ 
 
 With perennial rye grass.. 11 packs J 
 Rye-grass without clover. 3 bushels. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 List of Garden Seeds in quantities suited to Cottagers’ use. 
 
 1 Pint of common Peas will sow 14 yards of a drill. 
 
 1 Pints of Marrow Peas will sow 20 yards of a drill. 
 
 1 Pint of Beans will sow 22 yards of a drill. 
 
 1 Ounce of Onion seed will sow 10 square yards, 
 
 J Ounce of Leek seed will sow 6 square yards. 
 
 1 Ounce of Carrot seed will sow 10 square yards. 
 
 1 Ounce of Parsnip seed will sow 12 square yards, 
 i Ounce of Cabbage, Savoy, Brocoli, or Cauliflower, seed will sow 
 between 3 and 4 yards square. 
 
 1^ It is supposed that all the abovo Agricultural and Garden Seeds shall 
 be of tho best quality, and that the ground they are sowed on shaU be com¬ 
 pletely clean and free from weeds. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Quality of Milk during the Process of Milking. 
 
 Several large coffee-cups having been successively filled from 
 one cow, till she was quite drj', tbe following results appeared, great 
 Care having been taken to weigh the cups to ascertain that they held 
 exactly the same quantity. In every case the quantity of cream was 
 
106 
 
 found lo increase in proportion as the process of milking advanced-. 
 In different cows the proportion varied, but in tlie greater number the 
 excess of cream in the last cup, as compared with the first, was as 
 sixteen to one; in some it was not so considerable; therefore, as an 
 average, it may be called as ten or twelve to one. The difference 
 in the quality of the two sorts of cream was no less striking; the 
 cream given by the first-drawn milk was thin, white, and without 
 consistence, while that furnished by the last was thick, buttery, and of 
 a rich colour. The milk remaining in the different cups presented 
 similar differences ; that which was drawn first, was very poor, blue,, 
 and had the appearance of milk and water; that in the last cup, was 
 of a yellowish hue, rich, and, to the eye and taste, resembled cream- 
 rather than milk. It appears, therefore, from these experiments, 
 that if, after drawing seven or eight pints from a cow, half a pin*" 
 remains in the teats, not only almost as much cream will be lost as 
 the seven or eight pints will furnish, but that of the best quality, and 
 which gives the richest taste and colour to butter. This fact has 
 been corroborated by chemical experiments, and holds good with, 
 respect to goats and asses. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 BMiod of Curing Butter, strongly recotnmended in the Irish Agri. 
 cultural Magasine, hj which it is said it may he preserved for 
 years ivithout any unpleasant taste. 
 
 Take two parts of the best common salt, as fine as can be. had, one 
 part of sugar, and one part of saltpetre ; beat them up together, and 
 blend the whole completely: take one ounce of this composition for 
 every sixteen ounces of butter, work it well into the mass, and let it 
 stand one month closed up before being opened for use. It requires 
 this time to let the ingredients incorporate. 
 
 Feeding Cattle on Flaxseed,—System of Mr. Wm. Taylor, Agrs~ 
 culturist to Lord Viscount Bangor. 
 
 Bruise the seed at a mill, or make it into meal; then take as much 
 cut hay, or straw, or chaff, as will make a sufficient feed for your 
 
107 
 
 cow, or Iiorsp, &c., and put it into a pail or tub, and mix your 
 linseed meal w'itli it, and pour on boding rvater sufficient to wet it 
 well; cover it up closely, so as to prevent tbe steam escaping, and 
 let it stand until cold, or nearly so (I have always found hot food iu- 
 jurious to cattle); two quarts of linseed meal, given daily to a cow or 
 horse, will add very much indeed to their fattening, and, of course, 
 both to the quantity and quality of the cow’s milk, but particularly 
 to the quality. I have fed and fattened cattle both on linseed meal and 
 linseed cake, mixed with cut hay, &c., and a.little cold water sprinkled 
 over it so as to make the meal stick to the hay, &c., and always found 
 the cattle thrive, and fatten uncommonly well on it. Linseed gruel is 
 an excellent food for calves; and I have always found them thrive 
 better with a little of it in their milk, than when fed solely on milk: 
 and I seldom or never found a diseased calf that was partly fed on 
 linseed gruel. I generally allowed one quart to each calf, at each end 
 of tbe day, in lieu of as much milk, until they were six weeks old, 
 after which I gave them, by degrees, four quarts daily, deducting the 
 milk as I added the gruel. One quarter of linseed meal, when boiled 
 about an hour, will make three quarts'of excellent gruel. The 
 calves got so fond of it, after getting it for some time, that they wont 
 take their milk without it, except when very hungry indeed. Linseed 
 should always be bruised, or made into meal, before it is given to any 
 sort of cattle, otherwise they will void more or less of it whole, which 
 is of little or no use to them. 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 Mr. Anderson's Statement, as Agricidlurisi on BicliMU Estate, 
 
 In 1831, about twenty tenants sowed clover, and about the same 
 number had turnips. Tbe proprietors of the estate offered premiums 
 for turnips, and there were only three competitors in that year. 
 
 In 1832, fifty-three persons sowed clover, and fifty had turnips. 
 
 In 1833, premiums were offered for the best clover, and there 
 were fifty-one competitors, holding under twelve acres each. Also 
 one hundred persons, had turnips. 
 
 In 1834, one hundred and fifty-six persons sowed clover, and 
 two hundred and fifty-six had turnips; and premiums having been 
 offered for house-feeding, ninety-four persons house-fed their cattle. 
 
108 
 
 III 1835, two liundred and eighty-seven'persons sowed clover, 
 and two liundred and sixty.seven have turnips, (not including small 
 patches;) one hundred and sixteen persons had vetches, and one 
 hundred and nineteen are now house-feeding their cattle. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 Extracts from the Account of the Marhelhill Agricultural Meet¬ 
 ing, for the year 1833. 
 
 Mr. Ingram being called upon, as having got the first premium, to 
 state the result of his experience in house-feeding, stated that, on a 
 former occasion, he had excited some surprise by declaring that he 
 had paid the entire rent of his farm, consisting of twenty-two acres, 
 by the sale of butter alone—but that he had now the same thing to 
 state over again, as he would do the same this year, which he proved 
 most satisfactorily to the company by a regular detail of what he had 
 already realized. He spoke in the highest terms of the system, and 
 was listened to with the greatest attention. 
 
 Mr. Moses Greer, having obtained the first prize in this class, be¬ 
 ing called on, gave a very clear and satisfactory account of the pro¬ 
 ductive state of his farm —the unnecessary ditches having been all 
 piped and levelled, except one, which would be done before February. 
 That he would then have no unproductive laud whatever in his entire 
 farm, and the whole of it in the very best condition. He said his en¬ 
 tire stock of three cows were fed upon one acre of clover, and a small 
 quantity of vetches, and that he bad no grazing whatever. He said, 
 like Mr. Ingram, that he paid his rent, and more, by butter, and as¬ 
 cribed the entire improvement in his farm, and in his circumstances, 
 to his having adopted the plan of house-feeding, which had enabled 
 him to manure his land as it ought to be; and that, in order to increase 
 the quantity of this article, so important to a farmer, he had found it 
 his interest to collect every weed from his ground, and the high road 
 adjoining, for the purpose of bringing them into the cow-house; and 
 that, by attention to this, a farmer would have more manure, from one 
 cow fed in the house, than he would have from three cows fed, as they 
 usually were, upon pasture. 
 
 A very animated discussion afterwards took place upon the pro¬ 
 priety of harrowing-in cloverseed upon the growing wheal crop in 
 
109 
 
 April and May; and Mf. Beck, of Mecantrira, being referred to, 
 stated tbat be had been induced to try it in the Spring of 1832, by the 
 advice of Mr. Bruce, agriculturist on bis Lordship’s estates, and tbat it 
 had been attended with the best possible effect. The wheat crop was 
 improved by the harrowing and rolling, and the clover was earlier and 
 more luxuriant than any other in the neighbourhood. He added, that 
 he had followed the same practice this last Spring, with equal advan¬ 
 tage to. his wheat crop, and tbat the young clover was there now to 
 speak for itself, and tbat nothing could have a more healthy appear¬ 
 ance. The general adoption of this plan would prevent the ruinous 
 practice of putting in a crop of oats after wheat, which leaves the land 
 in an impoverished state, but, by interposing a crop of clover, the crop 
 of oats, or winter here, may be had after it without injury. 
 
 Extractsfrom ilie Account of the MarkethiU Agricultural Dinner 
 0/1834. 
 
 Moses Greer, of Corlust, as entitled to the first premium for the best 
 stock fed upon the smallest quantity of land—it appearing that he bad 
 fed his stock, of four cows and two calves, upon the astonishing small 
 quantity of one acre and two roods of land, all summer, being about 
 one rood and four perches for each cow, after allowing for the calves, 
 and had three roods of turnips and one of rape, for winter—being 
 called on to give an account of his farming, said—^My Lords and Gen- 
 tlemen, I hold eight acres and three roods of land, which I have now 
 got info the highest condition ; and I shall, in future, be able to keep 
 it so, without going to the expense in lime which I have heretofore 
 been at, by reason of the great quantity of manure I make from my 
 increased stock of cattle, consisting of four cows and two calves; and 
 it will surprise you to hear, my Lords and Gentlemen, tbat this stock 
 has been fed this last summer, and up to the present time, on clover 
 and vetches, upon the identical same piece of ground which, when for- 
 merly in grazing, fed only one cow, and that very poorly. My land is 
 held, part at 23s., and part at 8s. 3rf. per acre, and my rent amounts 
 to £7 14s. 6cf. yearly; and I have already sold butter to the amount 
 of £11 4s,, clear of all deductions, and have had enough of milk and 
 butter for myself and my family besides. The abundance of manure 
 has enabled me to set as many potatoes as ray neighbours, holding the 
 
110 
 
 same quantity of land, and I have as niucli crop, too, besides having 
 my turnips likewise. In conclusion, my Lord, I am satisfied there is 
 no way in which land can be made to produce so much, or by which 
 it can be brought into such heart, as by the soiling system and four- 
 course rotation of crops, from which I expect, every year, to derive 
 greater advantage ; as I may say I am only just now beginning to feel 
 the benefit arising from it, my land being now all perfectly clean, every 
 inside ditch levelled, not a spot in the whole that is not productive, 
 and not any of it whatever in pasture. 
 
 James Eolston, being next called on, said—I am likewise an ad- 
 vocate for green feeding; I had more clover than fed all the stock I 
 had, although I had more than doubled it, and 1 was enabled to save 
 three five-fathom cocks of hay, which will leave me all my straw for 
 manure. After cutting my early vetches, I sowed the ground, ridge 
 by ridge, as I cut it, with rape, which I am now cutting a yard long, 
 and giving to my cattle; so that I shall not have to begin to my tur¬ 
 nips for some lime; and it will be again fit to cut in April next, when 
 the turnips begin to fail. I have also levelled every useless ditch ; and 
 my land, so far from being exhausted by the four-course rotation, is 
 every year becoming better. 
 
 [A discussion here took place whether it was better to cut rape now, 
 and again in spring, or to let it stand, and by that means have one 
 heavy crop, in which Mr. Matthew Black, Mr. Bruce, and several 
 others, took a share—from which it appeared that their opinion was, 
 there could be no very great difference in the weight, but that, if very 
 far forward, the danger of snow injuring it, and the convenience of 
 having it come in when the clover failed, made it eligible to cut it at 
 this season, when there were no late vetches to supply its place. Mr. 
 M‘Kean stated, that it would be much more substantial food by letting 
 it stand to spring, in which Mr. Black agreed.] 
 
 Mr. Ikgram, having got the premium for best cultivated farm, being 
 called on to give an account of his management, said—I am still of the 
 same opinion as I have formerly expressed, of the benefit to be derived 
 by green crops and house-feeding, which I continue to practise. I 
 find I can thereby increase my.stock, and my crop also, and have ma¬ 
 nure for my potatoes and my turnips; besides, by this means, I find 
 my land improving under the four-course rotation, and, though I am 
 paving according to a late valuation, I am still able lo say, as I said 
 last year, I shall be able to make my rent from my dairy. 
 
Ill 
 
 [A discussion lievn arose, wlietlier, by growing turnips, and the prae- 
 tice of bouse-feeding, llie manure would always be so increased that 
 there would be plenty for every purpose; and that any farmer might, 
 thereby, have a greater abundance of potatoes than he otherwise would, 
 and have plenty for bis turnips besides. This opinion seemed decidedly 
 to prevail.] 
 
 Thomas Bruce, having got the premium for best crop of turnips, 
 being called on to give an account of his farming, said—When I came 
 into possession of my farm, in 1831, there was no more than about 
 half an acre of potato ground, and this in such a dirty, bad condition, 
 that it bad to be dug over with a grape, in order to clean it, before it 
 could be sowed with grain and clover-seed. The rest of the land was 
 in a miserable, exhausted state, not fit to produce anything, and I was 
 then possessed of but one cow, and bad no meat to feed more; that 
 year I sowed a few turnips upon what manure I had to spare, by em¬ 
 ploying lime compost for ray potatoes, and the next spring, between 
 compost and cow-house manure, I was able to set an acre and half of 
 potatoes, and half an acre of turnips. That year I was able to house- 
 feed, upon the clover and some vetches, two cows, and had plenty for 
 them all winter. Next spring I had so much manure, that, with some 
 assistance from lime compost, I was able to set two acres and a rood 
 of potatoes, and three roods of turnips; and, having sowed more clo¬ 
 ver, I was enabled that season to keep three cows and a horse—which 
 stock I still have, with the addition of a calf; and have fed them this 
 season on five roods of clover, two roods of vetches, and one rood of 
 grazing; which, being chiefly on a rocky bottom, cannot be broken 
 up. And if an acre was allowed for the keep of the horse, and twenty 
 perches for the calf, this would leave only one rood and four perches 
 for the summer feeding of each cow; and this, with one rood of tur¬ 
 nips for each during winter (which would allow, at thirty-four tons 
 per acre, near ninety pounds a day for each, for seven months), would 
 only make eighty-four perches, or little more than half an English acre 
 for the year’s keep; and I have a rood of rape, as a stolen crop, be¬ 
 sides ; so that I have 'plenty of food for them; and my land is im¬ 
 proved to such a degree, that there is more than three times the return 
 from it than formerly gave; and I shall now be able to keep it in 
 heart by the manure made by house-feeding, without any of the 
 expense for lime which I have been formerly at. 
 
112 
 
 Mr, Herd, Steward to the Earl of Gosford, declared that he con- 
 aidered Swedish turnips as being equally nutritious as any potatoes, 
 and much more wholesome food—that although raw potatoes might 
 fatten stock for market, yet, as a permanent food, there could be no 
 doubt they were unwholesome; and mentioned the result of a wager, 
 in Scotland, as to the effects of potato and turnip water on cattle, to 
 decide which, two cows were put up, one of them having potato water 
 mixed with her food, and the other turnip water—the consequence of 
 which was, that the former declined daily, and finally died, whilst the 
 other continued to thrive as well as could be wished. This showed 
 that there must be something unwholesome in the raw potato; for if it 
 was not in the potato, it could not get into the water. 
 
 Mr. Bruce coincided with Mr. Herd, in regard to the injurious 
 effects of potato water and raw potatoes, which produced, in a year or 
 two, inward unsoundness, 
 
 Mr. Nathaniel Greer stated, that be likewise disapproved of 
 the use of potato water, and also raw potatoes, as a permanent food; 
 but that he considered boiled potatoes and crushed oats to be the 
 food that fattened cattle quickest, which was universally assented to ; 
 but the addition of oats destroyed the comparison, and it was said 
 that in general those who favoured pat.atoes almost always gave some 
 addition of that kind, which was not fully put forth in their calcular 
 tions. 
 
 Mr. M'Kean said, that even when cattle were fed on boiled pota¬ 
 toes after turnips, they always fell off in their condition; but when 
 changed from boiled potatoes to Swedish turnips, no falling off, but 
 an improvement, took place. On the whole it appeared that the 
 Swedish turnip had the advantage in the opinion of the company. 
 
 Scetracts from the account of the MarTcethill Agricultural Vinner 
 for the year 1835. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Ingram said that he had now got his farm into 
 such a rotation, that he never sowed a second crop of grain in 
 succession, the benefit of which he was now fully aware of. He 
 formerly kept but three cows and one horse, now he had seven 
 milch cows, two heifers, and two horses, and can continue to pay 
 his rent by butter alone this season, as well as formerly, and had 
 more grain than he ever had under the old system. 
 
113 
 
 Mr. SiMP.soV, an independent farmer, being called on, said—I have 
 now had ample experience both of potatoes and turnips, and can de¬ 
 clare my opinion to be that ihe turnips are the most beneficial to the 
 farmer, from the quantity of manure they produce; and I think them 
 more useful under the present increasing quantity of flax culture, than 
 ever they have been before. Flax leaves nothing to renew the soil or 
 enrich the farm, and if the farmer cultivates it to any extent, and do 
 not take some additional means of making manure, his want of 
 foresight will ruin his land and himself too,—for he can have neither 
 flax nor any other crop without manure; ho other crop makes the 
 same quantity as the turnip crop, and, by gr-owing it extensively, I 
 find I can have more manure for my potatoes than I otherwise would, 
 and have plenty for my turnips besides. I can further say, since I 
 became extensive in green-feeding, I have added from six to seven 
 acres to my crop, and have greatly increased my stock besides. 
 
 Mr. Nathawel Greer fully concurred in the same opinion, 
 which was confirmed by Mr. Bruce and several others. 
 
 .Tames Bradford and John Hogg, having obtained premiums 
 for' the best cultivated farms on the four-course rotation, James 
 Bradford, being called on, said—^When I came under Lord Gosford, 
 I owed £5 an acre of arrears ; I had no property whatever, nor meat 
 for my family. I have now, thank God, and the assistance he has 
 been pleased to send me through Mr. Blacker, plenty of provisions 
 to do me until next crop, though I had none then, I have also two 
 cows and a pig, and then I had neither one nor other. My land, 
 also, is now in heart, and produces as much in one year as it then 
 would in three; and this season 1 expect to pay up all the arrears 
 that are against me, and I will only owe the purchase-money of a 
 small piece of land his honour added to my farm, as an encourage¬ 
 ment ; and when I get clear of this I think I will be comfortable, and 
 very thankful for all that has been done for me. 
 
 John Hogg was then called on, and stated that he had been in 
 distressed circumstances before Lord Gosford bought the property, 
 and was intending to go to America; but having got encouragement 
 from Mr. Blacker, he had followed his advice, and his farm was now 
 all under the four-course rotation: he had two cows and a horse, bad 
 a cart and a plough ; owed no rent now, though he was deep in arrear 
 formerly j had bought more land, and was in the way of doing well. 
 
114 
 
 The new system kept himself and family all busy, .and paid them 
 well for their labour. He formerly had been obliged to pay £7 for 
 potatoes for his family, and now he had £3 worth to sell, owing to 
 the manure from his'turnips. 
 
 JOHN Whittle, having got a premium for the best rape after a grain 
 crop, stated that he had formerly only one cow and a horse upon si.x: 
 and a half acres. He had since, for his exertions, got from Mr. 
 Blacker the addition of another acre, and he now kept tvell two 
 cows, two heifers, and his horse. He had levelled all his ditches, and 
 filled up an old quarry, and covered rocks with soil, so as to gain a 
 full rood of land, on which he had this,day a capital crop of turnips, 
 and had his rape after his grain by stocking the grain crop in one side 
 of the field, and sowing the other, and giving it the summer manure, 
 which he had plenty of. 
 
 Michael Clakke,* being called on, said—'When Mr. Blacker 
 first came to my house I had fallen info arrear; the distress of mind and 
 ill health that it brought on, had driven me to a state of despondency ; 
 I did not care what became of me, or whether I was turned out or 
 not. I was in despair; and my family in misery surrounding ;.ie. 
 He fold me he would help me if I would do as he directed, and that 
 he would send a person to instruct me, and that the place would be 
 worth having if it got justice. I did not believe that it ever would 
 have turned out as he said it would; but as he was so kind, I pro¬ 
 mised I would take heart again and do as I was bid; accordingly, 
 Mr. Bruce came aud pointed out what was to be done. I got up my 
 spirits, and my health got better. Mr. Blacker lent me a cow, when 
 I bad got clover to feed her on. The first year I was able to pay 
 nothing, but he saw I was doing my endeavour, and he did not press 
 me. The next year, I paid a year and a half; the one after, 1 paid 
 another year and a half; and the one following, I paid two years; 
 and now I expect to be able to clear off all, and to have my cow and 
 pig to myself. I have a new loom besides ; all my ditches are lev¬ 
 elled, and the whole farm in good heart; and my health is got better, 
 I have no more to say, gentlemen; but, thank God and his honour, I 
 am in the way of doing well. I have meat for myself, and meat for 
 my cow, and meat for my family, all provided for the next twelve 
 months, and it is long since I was able to say so before. 
 
 • This is tho man who is alluded to in Mr. B.’s pamiihlet, who had his 
 daughter assisting him in wheeling earth in a barrow. 
 
The Chaiuhan then rose and said—Genlleinen, I cannot help- 
 calling your attention to the competitors in this class ; their example 
 shows what diligence gains and negligence loses. These, you see, 
 have gained their rape crop after their grain upon the same ground, 
 by stooking the corn as it was on one side of the field, and manuring 
 and sowing the cleared part of the stubble; and so have now to con¬ 
 gratulate themselves on having, by this means, obtained ample food 
 for their stock for six weeks of the year most trying to the small 
 farmer, viz. from the first week of April to the middle of May. 
 
 Mr. Moses Greer then said—M'hen I came under his Lordship 
 I was a tradesman, and had just saved as much as enabled me to buy 
 a bit of land of about five acres from my father, out of his farm; hut 
 I was without stock, or manure, or skill how to labour it. Mr. 
 Bruce, the Agriculturist, came about, and, as he reported me willing 
 to work, Mr. Blacker gave me every assistance I stood in need of. 
 As I succeeded well, he laid me off more land, and last year I'cleared 
 off all that was against me ; and this year the farm adjoining me being 
 to be sold, 1 ventured to buy it, seeing the way that lime and manure, 
 and draining and weeding, made land produce; and I am not afraid 
 of getting on, as I am happy to say 1 have now, not three times, but 
 fo?.ir times the quantity of land I started with, all but a rood, and am 
 doing as much as I possibly can to bring it to a proper state; and 
 next year I think I will be higher placed in the premfiim list. 
 
 Extracts from the Account of the Marhethill Agricultural 
 Dinner, for the year 1836. 
 
 According to the usual practice, the health of James Jenkins 
 was given, as having obtained the first premium for stock, and 
 he was afterwards called upon to state what advantage he had 
 derived from the plan hp was pursuing. This he did in a manner 
 very satisfactory to the company. He said, 
 
 I am able to say, gentlemen, that since 1 have followed the plan 
 recommended by Mr. Blacker, I have been able to change my 
 stock, with considerable profit to myself, from a very bad stock to 
 a very good one, as my getting the first premium shows; and 
 though I was then pinched to feed them poorly, I have now 
 plenty to feed them well; and whereas I had only two cows, a 
 
116 
 
 heifer, and a poney formerly, I have now five cows, two heifers, 
 and one good horse, on my sixteen acres, kept on clover and vet¬ 
 ches in summer, on cabbage at this season of the year, and turnips 
 in winter and spring. I prefer early York and Sugar-loaf, and flat 
 Dutch cabbage, to the curled kail, for they give more food at this 
 season ; and if the plants are put in about three inches under the 
 manure, the potatoes can be dug out without injuring them, and 
 as they grow into the trench they do not overshadow or injure the 
 potato as the curled kail does. I am also happy to tell you, gen¬ 
 tlemen, that I find the produce of my farm is increased, as well as 
 my stock. Formerly I could manure but an acre and a half of 
 potatoes, and that but indifferently, but now I have this year four 
 acres of potatoes and turnips manured in the very best fashion ; 
 and you all know the more manured land you have in the farm, the 
 more grain you will get out of it. Many gentlemen, from distant 
 parts, have come to see my farm, and I am always glad to see them, 
 and have always something pleasing to show them. Gentlemen, 
 I have nothing more to say, but that I am well content, and de¬ 
 termined to persevere in the plan I have now been so much the 
 better of. 
 
 Samuel Parks, of Lurgyross, being next called on, said—I 
 hold 4a. 2r. 20p. of land, at a rent of £4 9s. 2d.: upon this 
 I feed two cows; and after providing my family, I have sold £7 
 worth of butter and milk, being one-half more than my rent. My 
 cows are house-fed, and in capital condition, as my getting a 
 premium shows. 
 
 After him, Joseph Thompson, of Grayhilla, was called on. He 
 said—I have 11a. 3r. of land, and on this I have three cows, a 
 heifer, and a horse. The half of my land was formerly in grazing, 
 and my stock far inferior in number and condition. I consider 
 the four-course rotation as an excellent plan, and mean to persist 
 in it; and I think I will be able to increase my stock next season 
 from the fine appearance my clover now has. 
 
 The Chairman then introduced the reading of the premiums for 
 the best cultivated farms, according to the four-course rotation, by 
 stating that the smallness of the quantity of land kept in grazing 
 proved, in a great degree, the profitable occupation of the rest of 
 the land, and mentioned that the certificate had been given to Mr. 
 
117 
 
 Thomas Ingram, of Drumhoney, who I have had, in former 
 accounts, often to mention. 
 
 The list being read out, the Chairman reminded Mr. Ingram, 
 .who had got the certificate, how doubtful some of the company 
 were formerly about the produce of his diary, and asked him 
 had he now the same thing as then to say about paying his rent 
 thereby ? 
 
 Mr. Ingram, being thus called on, said,—Gentlemen, I cannot 
 only say the same thing, but I can say better. I hold twenty, 
 three acres of land, and nobody can say that I hold it too cheap, 
 when I tell them I pay £25 a-year rent. My stock is seven cows, 
 two heifers, one calf, and two horses, and they are all in good 
 condition; the butter has already produced £26, which is a pound. 
 over the rent, and I expect to make it £30 before the year is out, 
 as the price is so high. And I will tell you more, gentlemen, I 
 had nine hundred stooks of excellent oats and an acre of flax, and 
 all early in and well saved, so that' I could make four times my 
 rent ofif my farm. 
 
 This account seemed to give the greatest pleasure to all present, 
 and Mr. Ingram’s health was drank most cordially. The mention 
 of the produce of Mr. Ingram’s dairy afforded much surprise, as 
 he keeps three farm servants, and must, therefore, have great con¬ 
 sumption at home. The Chairman, however, said he understood 
 there was another in the list that would surprise them still more. 
 He then passed a high encomium on Michael Clark’s farm, in 
 which; he said, there was not the space of a single foot neglected ; 
 and also noticed Ruth M'Connell, who, by her own exertions, had 
 made a small piece of ground, (which had merely fed a goat before, 
 and never yielded more potatoes than lasted until Christmas,) now 
 to keep a cow right well, and supply potatoes for the year. 
 
 The Chairman here adverted to the advantage of turnip feeding, 
 and expressed his surprise that so many people would be so blind 
 to their own interests as not to see the advantage of it. He stated 
 that a rood of well-cultivated turnips would yield from eight to ten 
 tons, supposing the crops to be part white, yellow, and Swedish. 
 This, therefore, would give from eighty to one hundred pounds 
 a-day for a cow for seven months, or two hundred and ten days. 
 Now, even a springer will give two quarts of milk more upon 
 
■ 118 
 
 Uirnips than on either hay or straw. A stripper might increase 
 four, and a new calved cow would give seven or eight quarts more. 
 But taking it at two quarts, which is the lowest, these two quarts 
 are worth two pence per quart all winter and spring; and four 
 pence per day, for two hundred and ten days, is exactly seventy 
 shillings gained in extra milk by one rood of turnips, which is 
 fourteen pounds to the acre. Thus the extra quantity pays four¬ 
 teen pounds per acre for the turnips, and you have all the cow 
 would have given without them for nothing, or next to nothing, 
 and the manure besides. This is as plain as that two and two 
 make four, and yet it would appear that people could not see it. 
 
 Mr. Pabks here rose and said, he had bought a springer that 
 did not give two pints, and upon giving her turnips she gave four 
 quarts. 
 
 The Chairman, in giving the health of Mr. Bruce, requested him 
 to say how it happened that his field of turnips was quite green 
 without a single yellow leaf, and Mr. Singleton’s, at the opposite 
 side of the road, was quite yellow with the number of leaves that 
 were decayed. 
 
 Mr. Bruce, —Gentlemen, this is very easily accounted for. Mr. 
 Singleton, and almost all others, think when the leaves begin to 
 cover the ground, that the horse-hoe or poney-plough is no longer 
 necessary, and that the horses travelling through will injure the 
 crop. Now, I think the reverse; and I ran the poney-plough three 
 times through mine after they had attained the same gi'owth that 
 Mr. Singleton and others stop at. The consequence is that mine 
 are still in the height of their growth, and will grow on until 
 Christmas, whilst theirs are stunted, and will not yield within one 
 third of the weight they would otherwise have done. 
 
 Eobert Mitchell, being next called, said his farm formerly 
 produced him no more than about £8 16s. which was the rent he 
 then paid; he now had to pay more, but, by the new system, he 
 had last year made £44 5s. 4d. out of it, leaving plenty of food 
 for himself and nine of a family. He had also increased his stock 
 from one cow to three cows and a horse; and he saw clearly that 
 by going on as he was doing, he could have three times as much 
 potatoes, oats, and flax as he had formerly. 
 
 The premium list for rape was then read over, by which it 
 appeared— 
 
119 
 
 Mr. Anderson, of Drummard, got the 1st premium. 
 
 Edward Coyne, of Drumgaw, the 2ud' ditto. 
 
 Thomas Scott, of Dirlet, the 3rd ditto. 
 
 Mr. ANDEEsoii bore testimony to the advantages he had derived 
 in the increase of his stock and crops. He stated he had sowed 
 his rape in August, after flax, and that he had saved this year 
 twenty.five bushels of winter vetches seed from less than an acre 
 of land. 
 
 The Chairman here pointed out the necessity of early sowing 
 both rape and winter vetches, and that not a moment should be 
 lost in putting them in even, ridge by ridge, as fast as the ground 
 could be cleared of the crop preceding,—observing that a week in 
 August was worth the whole month of October. He also noticed- 
 that Mr. Anderson had made near £12 an acre by his vetches, 
 and recommended the more general sowing of that crop for seed- 
 
 George Scott’s Account of his Experiment in feeding Milch cattle 
 upon loiled Turnips and steamed cut Say. 
 
 “ TO WILLIAM BLACKER, ESQ. 
 
 “ Sir— By giving the following statement publicity, with the pro. 
 ceedings of the farmers’ dinner, it may be of use to some of its readers- 
 I tried the experiment, as directed by you, of feeding with boiled 
 turnips and steamed bay, cut, and 1 find a great deal more benefit by 
 it in the increase of milk than feeding with the raw turnip. I began 
 to feed one springing cow in the month of February; at that time she 
 was giving about four quarts per day with the above feeding, together 
 with a little bran. The increase of milk in one.week was two quarts 
 per day. I would recommend this feeding of milch cattle to persons 
 that have plenty of firing. A springer fed in this way in winter will 
 give a great deal more milk when calved in summer. 
 
 “ I remain, your obedient servant, 
 
 “ George Scott. 
 
 "Lurgaboy, November J8th, I83G.” 
 
 IX. 
 
 Statement of the present circumstances of the same people in 1845. 
 It appears to me that it w'ould be inexpedient to add to the expense 
 
120 
 
 of tlie present edition, by introducing further examples' of the good 
 effects arising from the adoption of the recommendation contained in 
 the foregoing, the great advantage arising therefrom being now 
 universally admitted ; but as it may prove interesting to the public to 
 know how those small farmers are now circumstanced, whose names 
 appear in the foregoing extracts, I venture to add the following 
 particulars respecting them. 
 
 Thomas Ingram is now living on the estate of Alexr. Stewart, 
 Esq., of Ards, in the county of Donegall, to whom I recommended him 
 as a fit person to show an example in the cultivation of green crops, 
 in that county. He sold his lease of twenty-two statute acres, under 
 Lord Gosford, for £425, on account of its high state of cultivation; 
 and he got from Mr. Stewart a farm of sixty statute acres, with slated 
 Louse and offices, imtlwut any purchase, and the promise of a lease. 
 He has conducted himself so as fully to justify my recommendation, 
 and is in a most prosperous way, and laying by above £100 every 
 year, 
 
 Moses Greer, after having brought his farm into the highest order, 
 got into a dissolute course of living, and was obliged to sell his land 
 and go to Australia. 
 
 John Beck is now living on the estate of the Rev. Francis 
 Gervais, where he has got a farm of three times as many acres, 
 without purchase, as he held under Lord Gosford, and has given 
 great satisfaction to his new landlord, and sold his good-will of the 
 small farm he held under Iiord Gosford, for £120. He is getting 
 better in the world ever year. 
 
 James Rolston is still on the Gosford estate,—he had originally 
 only eight statute acres when he began the system of green cropping 
 and house-feeding; he has now extended his farm, by sundry purchases, 
 from neighbours going to America, to twelve statute acres • has four 
 cows and a horse, besides pigs, and by fining down his rent has become 
 a £10 freeholder, having got a lease from Lord Gosford for his own 
 life or twenty-one years, without any advance of rent in consequence 
 of his improvements. 
 
 Thomas Bruce is now agriculturist to-Mr. St. George, of Head- 
 ford, at a high salary, and is doing well. 
 
 James Bradford has now more than double the quantity of land 
 he had originally, and in a high state of cultivation, and will, I think, 
 
121 
 
 soon be fit to purcLase more, should there be any for sale in his 
 neighbourhood. He and his family are living comfortably, with a 
 stock of three cows and several pigs, having formerly began without 
 stock of any kind, and very much in debt. 
 
 John Hogg had originally but siS statute acres, and was £10 in 
 ■ debt; has now twenty-two acres, which he purchased the good-will 
 of; is a £10 freeholder, and has got a lease for his own life or 
 twenty-one years, without any advance of rent in consequence of his 
 improvements; has a stock of four cows, a heifer, a bullock, and a 
 horse, besides pigs, and is living in great comfort. 
 
 Robert Mitcheli. is doing well, but has been kept back by the 
 long illness of one of his sons and .the absence of another, for whom I 
 obtained a situation as steward, in consequence of his good conduct 
 and the improvement he had made on his lather’s farm. 
 
 John Whittle is likewise doing well, and has added to his farm 
 twice, and is still able to purchase more. 
 
 Michael Claekb, after having recovered himself, as he stated, 
 from foolishly persisting in keeping a large family of girls at home, 
 upon a farm of only four acres, instead of putting them out to service, 
 or teaching them to weave, got into debt, and from usurious charges 
 was ruined, and went to England to work, where he caught a fever 
 and died. His widow refused a free passage for herself and family 
 to Australia, and the family support themselves by labouring, being 
 allowed the use of the original cabin, free. 
 
 James Jenkins has gone on very prosperously; has added to his 
 farm, and slated his house; and in consequence of his improvements 
 has got a lease for his own life or twenty-one years, and is a £10 
 freeholder. 
 
 Samuel Parks formerly held 4 acres, 2 roods, 20 perches j has 
 built a house and slated it, worth £70 to £80, and is now gathering 
 money to add to his fartn. 
 
 Joseph Thompson had originally 10 acres, 2 roods, 13 perches; 
 has now above 15 acres; has built a good house, and is going on 
 very prosperously. 
 
 John Anderson has improved his farm very much, and huilt 
 additional slated offices, and got a lease, and is a £10 freeholder, with 
 a good stock, and living comfortably, 
 
 Edward Coyne had increased his farm considerably, when he 
 
122 
 
 lost Lis LealtL, atid after some time died,—tlie addition lie Lad made 
 was, in consequence of tLis, sold, and Lis widow is now living on tlie 
 original farm. 
 
 Thomas Scott Las purchased a larger farm, and sold the one he 
 Lad, wLich only contained nine acres j Lis present farm contains 
 twenty-tLree acres, and Le is going on well. 
 
 TLe otLer persons mentioned in the foregoing extracts were either 
 strangers invited to the dinner, or else persons above the rank of small 
 farmers; and I Lave only to add, that, in all cases, those who Lave 
 adopted the improved system of cultivation Lave derived the benefit 
 from it which might be expected, and Lave uniformly improved in 
 their circumstances, unless prevented by some misconduct of their 
 own; and I am happy to be able now to say, that old prejudices are 
 annually giving way, and the growth of turnips so much increasing, 
 that I have no doubt, in a few years, they will be universally cultivated? 
 not only in the county of Armagh, but in every part of Ireland. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKER. 
 
 Armagh, March, 1845. 
 
 Bolfast: Printed by Paul Kolso, nj, Uigb-strcot, (Quin’s Couil).