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whether on high or low lands, on the animit or sides of mountain ranges, or in vallies or hollows; and as the ground is more or less wet, different plants will be produced. On ground completely saturated with water, various species of moss grow, to the almost total exclusion of other plants; but if the land should become less moist, reeds, rushes, marsh trefoil, horsetail, and other plants, spring up with or in the place of moss. The quality of the bog may therefore be judged of, from the plants which grow upon it. All the moss tribe, the horsetail and the marsh trefoil, are fibrous, and do not readily decompose, whilst reeds, rushes, and sedge, are comparatively easy of decomposition.

Peat possesses an astringent quality, and preserves bodies immersed in it, which is supposed to arise from the decayed bark of trees, and the vegetable gum and · resin which it contains. Many of the bogs or mosses are formed upon decayed trees, and the wood most commonly found, is either pine, birch, hazel, or oak; and in these cases the presence of the tanning principle in the peat is readily accounted for. It is also probable that the plants themselves of which the bog is composed, by the action of natural agents, may have acquired an antiseptic property, checking their own decay.

In some cases, lakes and pools of water have been filled up by the accumulation of moss; and it has been observed that fermentation occurs where this has taken place. Gaseous matter is thrown off, and the neighbourhood of such a moss is generally unhealthy; but dry peat soils are always considered healthful.

Chalky soils, consist chiefly of calcareous matter, mixed with various other substances, in greater or less proportion. When clayey or earthy substances are found in considerable quantities in chalky soils, the composition is heavy and productive; when sand and gravel abound, it is light and not very fertile. The crops chiefly cultivated on chalky soils are peas, turnips, barley, clover, and wheat; and however much the soil may be exhausted, it will produce sainfoin, which indicates that when exhausted by other crops, the growth of sainfoin will serve to recruit the soil.

Alluvial soils, are composed of the finest parts of earth and clay, washed off by rain and running waters, and deposited in low-lying situations, and on the shores of estuaries, where they are increased by the flowings of the tide, and enriched by marine productions. They generally have a level surface, and yield abundant crops of wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, clover, and tares; but from their being for the most part low and damp, they require the occasional application of lime.

Loamy soils, may be described as being less tenacious than the clayey, and more so than the sandy. Loams are the most desirable of all soils for the farmer; the clods are easily broken, and the land can be worked at any season of the year. Loams are ploughed with greater facility than clays, and bear better the vicissitudes of the seasons. They are well adapted for convertible husbandry, and may be changed, generally with benefit, from grass to tillage, and from tillage to grass.

In selecting any of the foregoing soils, the under or subsoil should not be overlooked by the farmer. The nature of the subsoil has always a powerful influence on the productive properties of that which lies above it. If the land be dry and porous, and the climate also inclining to dry, it is desirable that the subsoil should be such as to preserve the surface soil in a moist condition; but if the land and climate be wet, a porous subsoil is preferable. If the surface soil be deep, the nature of the subsoil is comparatively of less consequence.

The greater or less elevation of lands has a material influence on the quality of their produce. In the higher districts, the herbage is less succulent and nourishing, and the growth slower when the land is in grass; and when it is in grain, the head is smaller, the plant runs more to straw, is less perfectly ripened, and the harvest is later. In considering the crops to be raised on any particular farm, attention ought therefore to be paid to its height above the level of the sea. It is considered that in latitude 54° and 55°, (or about that of Dublin) an elevation of 500 feet above the level of the sea is the greatest height at which wheat can be cultivated with profit; and even then the grain will be often light, and

perhaps a month later in ripening than if sown at a less elevation.

The ordinary height at which common grain crops can be raised in the British islands, is from 600 to 800 feet above the level of the sea; but in some favourable situations, tolerable crops of barley and oats may be produced at a height of 900 feet, and even higher. In proportion as the climate is improved by sheltering plantations and drainage, the height at which grain crops may be obtained becomes greater. Good crops of barley and oats are raised near Edinburgh, at a height of 800 feet; but in general, it is more advantageous to devote high grounds to pasturage, than to tillage.

Land on the banks of a running stream, is more salubrious for crops than that which is near sluggish brooks, or sedgy lakes. From dull stagnant waters there arise, in certain conditions of the atmosphere, heavy noxious vapours, which steal along the surface of the adjacent grounds, and blight and injure the crops. Running waters, on the contrary, serve to purify the air, and are of great advantage for cattle.

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Climate, soil, and elevation, although important, are yet, however, all of secondary consideration to the distance from market. A long carriage to market is one of the greatest drawbacks which the agriculturist has to encounter, particularly if the roads be indifferent; and where bad roads interpose, a few miles is practically equivalent to a much greater distance. The value of a farm will therefore depend, in no inconsiderable degree, upon the goodness of the roads which surround it, and the facility of transit to a good market.

AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS.

Agriculture may be practised, especially on a small scale, without possessing a very profound knowledge of its theory, although this occupies a prominent place in most books on the subject; and very properly so, for many useful improvements have been suggested by scientific men, who were not themselves practically con versant with the details of farming. Nothing will, how ever, be here recommended for adoption, which has not

been successfully tried in other situations, under cir cumstances similar to those prevalent in this country; and in the following rules and suggestions, the Irish farmer will obtain the benefit of a large experience, without incurring the risks which usually attend experi ments in agriculture.

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Farming operations apply to such a variety of soils and crops, that it is necessary to be brief in speaking of each, in a treatise like the present; and we propose to give only some of the more general rules for the reclaiming of waste, and the management of cultivated lands: but this brevity is of less consequence, as the soils in Ireland are mostly of two kinds,-peat, and gravelly loam; and the crops best adapted to these soils, are for the most part limited to wheat, oats, barley, clover, potatoes, turnips, and flax.

RECLAIMING OF LAND.

Under this head, we will treat, in the first instance, of bog, peat, or moss land, being the kind of land with which you will most frequently have to deal. Whatever prejudice may exist against the cultivation of this description of soil, there is no doubt that it contains more vegetable matter than any other, and that it becomes highly productive when properly treated.

In reclaiming bog, the first object is to bring the surface to a level, by throwing the rough heights into the holes and crooked water-courses, and forming the whole into ridges 16 feet in breadth, leaving a small cut, 18 inches wide, and 12 deep, between the ridges, which must be slightly raised at the centres, to allow the surface water to run off.

If there is more of the spongy turf than is required for filling up the holes and hollows, it should be formed into small heaps, and when dry, burnt to ashes for ma nure. The black bog yields a large quantity of valuable ashes, and may be thus profitably burnt: but the red bog is softer and more spongy, and yields scarcely any ashes, and this so light and volatile that the least breath of wind disperses them; so that the ashes of red bog

may be said to be valueless, and this description of bog should therefore never be burnt.

Paring and burning land is disapproved by the best agriculturists, and particularly when vegetable matter is not very abundant in the soil: but the reverse of this is the case with respect to moss or peaty soil, and all the heath, fog, and coarse grasses, together with the surface, to the depth of five or six inches, may profitably be burnt for manure, provided it be not the red bog, as before stated. The burning is effected by collecting the turf, when dry, into heaps, and consuming them by a slow smouldering fire, excluding any current of air, which might make them burn too briskly, by additional coverings of sod.

In burning the turf in this moist climate, the drying and firing require attention. The sods must be set up in lots, three in each lot, with the grassy side inwards, and if the weather be very wet, they should be piled up together, though only half dry, in large heaps, and again laid out at the first favourable opportunity, until dry enough to burn. When burnt, the ashes should be kept in heaps, and protected from the weather by a covering of sods, until regularly spread and ploughed in, if oats are to be sown, or until laid in along with the dung, sand, or sea-weed, for potatoes.

A ditch six feet wide at top, two at bottom, and four deep, should then be dug all round the plot intended for cultivation, and the stuff should be thrown up on the border, and heightened by additional layers of turf, so as to form a fence against cattle, and a shelter from the winds, which are injurious to crops in exposed situations. After this, some clay or rough sandy or gravelly soil of any kind, should be laid over the moss, to any thickness from two inches to six,-the more the better. Lime and common sea-sand, improve moss land in a remarkable degree, mingling with and decomposing the vegetable matter, and rendering the soil more solid, and giving it such a consistence as prevents its throwing up the seed in frosty or very dry weather: but no moss land can be considered thoroughly reclaimed, until it has had a coating of clay, gravel, or loam, to the depth of

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