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Deduct rent, penalty, and costs,......25 0 0

Nett profit,......£13 18 6

So that he may very well pay the penalty, and then, after taking all those crops, throw up the ground, as few graziers take land without a clause of surrender. That there are many who are above such mean shifts, I have great pleasure in acknowledging, but on the other hand, every one in the county knows who has often sat for the picture-he cannot be mistaken. That many kinds of soils would not bear all this cropping will be readily granted; but graziers of the above description seldom take poor land.

To many farms large tracts of moory bottoms are attached, for which in the survey there is an abatement of the rent. I have seen many of those that were considered by the proprietor as worth little, that would be worth twice the value of their best land; in their present state they feed cattle in very dry weather or hard frosts; but if they were drained, burned and gravelled, or limed, would produce more pasture at all seasons than their best upland; but most graziers seem to have an aversion to draining land, and if they do attempt it, they do it so injudiciously, that, after incurring a great and unnecessary expense, the land in a short period reverts to its original state. I had an opportunity, lately,

of seeing an instance of money thrown away by bad draining. A wealthy grazier accidentally met a Tipperary gentleman, who advised him to make sod drains at two perches asunder, and instead of being drawn across the declivity, they were in its direction, down the hill. They were accordingly made to the amount of above thirty, though only about half of what was intended; how they were made, by men who had never seen a sod drain made, and without any person to instruct them, we may easily conclude. The wetness of the ground (above 50 acres) proceeded from springs from very high ground, and their natural outlet was so accurately defined, that one intercepting drain, probably not more than three feet deep, would have drained the whole; but it was a travelling opinion my friend got, which is generally worth little. It is intended to plant the whole with fiorin grass, and as it can be all irrigated, it will then be many times the value of the adjoining upland, though at present it is esteemed of little value, and indeed I believe rent free.

The pasture of cottiers is uniformly bad; it is generally ground converted to this purpose after a scourging rotation of crops, without the benefit of any kind of hay seeds, frequently wet and poached through the winter by their starving cattle; they persist in this wretched mode, though the ground is perfectly bare of any kind of herbage. The ground they intend for meadow is generally used in this manner until far in the month of June, by which means, as well as from a wish to scrape all they can, they seldom mow until September or October, consequently their land produces little or no aftergrass.

Some few pastures possess a peculiar fattening quality; it seems to be the received opinion, that old pastures

only will give inside fat to animals in any quantity, and that grounds newly laid down will not do so, though it will make them fat on the outside of the carcass; butchers are well aware of this when they buy.* I have examined many of those famous fattening pastures in this county, and that of Clare, and have uniformly found a large portion of the herbage to consist of

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I have made many inquiries into the probable cause of this peculiarity of old ground, and the only answer I

ever could receive was, graziers knew no more cattle that fed on them. that as new soils are laid down with clean hay seeds, in which the seeds of many of the plants I have mentioned are not permitted to mix, this fattening quality in the soil does not take place until nature stocks the ground with them. There are two of those plants (birds-foot trefoil and yarrow) that never lose their verdure in the driest weather, and seem to be highly valuable, especially as they flourish in the sand banks of the sea coast, where

"that it was so indeed." The the names of plants than the It seems to be highly probable,

As there is no difference made in the sales, the profit lies with the butcher.

I have traced their roots to ten or twelve feet deep, how much further L could not ascertain.

SECTION II.

BREED OF CATTLE-HOW FAR IMPROVED, AND HOW FAR CAPABLE OF FURTHER IMPROVEMENT.

THE breed of cattle are almost entirely long horned; the produce of bulls many years since, and still continued to be imported from England. I am informed by many who have seen the common stock of long horned cattle of England, that ours are much superior, and if the practice pursued by sheep breeders, of reserving the best always for breed, was generally followed, the cattle of this country would be superior to any long horns in the united kingdom; but the contrary practice usually prevails, and, except by a few amateurs, the best heifers are all sent to the great May fair of Ballinasloe, and other places. If a reserve of the best was made, with the use of none but the best bulls, they would rival the best of the sister country. With almost every extensive grazier, a few favourites have been preserved in the family for breed, which shews what might be expected if the scale was extended.

In the baronies of Ross, Moycullen, and Ballynahinch, the original breed are middle horned, usually a black or rusty brown colour; they are larger than the produce of the mountains of Kerry, and I think not so fine in their shape. The bulls generally have their horns set wide like bullocks, and do not in general possess that peculiarity of appearance, especially about the head, that the bulls of other breeds do. The cattle at

the fair of those baronies, particularly that of Clifden, are generally very reasonable, and I am at a loss to know why the graziers do not speculate in them. There are a good many Devonshire cattle in the hands of different gentlemen, but they are confined to them; the graziers imagine a cross with their long horned breed would not be beneficial; but the same objection cannot be made by those who have estates in the baronies of Ross, Moycullen, or Ballynahinch; I imagine for them the Devon cross would be very valuable. The opinion of the inhabitants of those baronies of the long horned cross, is, that there is little improvement, except in the length of the horns; that their lands are too poor to maintain them. It is highly probable that the Devon cross would produce good plough cattle, as the native Irish are very quick steppers.

The Hereford, or middle horned breed of cattle, is also only in the hands of a few gentlemen; the Teeswater, or short horned, in still fewer hands. Of their comparative merits I shall not presume to judge, especially after the opinion so decidedly expressed by Mr. Coke at one of his shows, of cattle at Holkham; who, after regretting that the late Mr. Bakewell had not chosen a better breed than the long horned Leicesters to display his great talents upon, asserted, "that he really considered them rather the worst breed in England." He called upon Mr. Child, and other men eminent in their breed of cattle, who strongly corroborated the justness of Mr. Coke's assertion. I leave it therefore to the long horned breeders to fight their own battles; but it will take many more and better arguments to effect a change in Ireland. It must also be considered, that probably the meeting at Holkham were mostly breeders of Devonshire and short horned cattle. A strange idea prevails in Ireland, that Devonshire

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