In considering the agriculture of Ireland, it will be pro per to divide it into three parts. The arable husbandry, the dairy husbandry, and the grazing husbandry. The ge neral character of all the three kinds, particularly of the arable husbandry, is vet y low.
That the agriculture of Ireland has improved much within these few years is evident, from the greater supplies of cord which she has he n enabled to export to Great Bri tain. On this point, the Report of the Committee on the Corn Trade, which sat in 1813. is decidedly satisfactory. This committee put ecrtau t queries to the Farming Socie ty ol Ireland ; and the following is theits report of the an swers to these queries, and of the iesult of other investiga tions which they entered into on the same subject.
" Tnc answers of the Farming Society ol Ireland to the queries of the committee shew, that there has been a very considerable increase of tillage in that country. in the cow se of the last ten years; estimated, by many skilful persues, at nearly one•fourth. That the land already in tillage is capable of being rendered much more produc tive—that the same land in some parts, upon which for merly seven barrels of wheat the acre was considered a good return, now yields, by hie ttcr management, (without the loss of two seasons rent and lebour under the system of open fallow,) at least ten hart cis the acre ; and that there e rely considerable tracts ol land now in grass fit to be eon% erted into tillage ; almost all the menthews pas tures which are dry and free from rock being capable of producing a crop of lea oats with one ploughing, and of being made productive afterwards, by rotation crops, in the usual way.
The evidence of several persons, well acquainted with Ireland, concurs in proving, that the tillage of Ireland has of late years increased %cry much, and is capable of being still farther increased. Of the actual practicable increase, it is impossible to form any correct opinion ; bot when all the various circumstances arc taken into consideration, exist in Ireland favourable to such an increase, the production of a much greater quantity of corn may be ex pected, than would he sufficient to provide for the average deficiency (calculated upon the importation for the last ten years) of the produce of this country to supply its own rants.
The following comparison of the prices of corn in Ire land, coupled vvith the value of corn exported from thence in the last year, L2,958,180, affords a striking practical il lustration of the foregoing reasoning : April 1812. April 1813.
The highest price of wheat, per barrel Z 83s. 60s. of 20 stone, was of Barley, per barrel of 16 stone, 445. 29s.
of oats, her barrel of 14 stone, 34s. 23s.
It is worthy of observation, bow much larger the pro portion of corn imported into Great Britain from Ireland is to the whole of the corn imported into Great Britain in the last five years, than it was in the preceding 16 years.
lu the last five years, the value of the whole imported was L18,934,359 ; of this was Irish corn being something more than one-third of the whole.
In the preceding sixteen years, the value of the whole imported was L54,586.787 ; of this was Irish corn L8,379,027 ; being L6I6,075 more than one-seventh of the whole." Tillage husbandry forms a small part of the agriculture of Ireland. In consequence of the village-partnership sys tem, which prevails in the western counties—the small manufacturing farmers in the eastern parts of ulster—the small subdivisions of property throughout the greater part of the southern coast—the large tracts of mountains—and the extensive grazing pastures and dairy farms in other parts of Ireland, there is little room for tillage husbandry. This husbandry varies so much in different parts of Ire land, that Mr. Wakefield, in order to give a clear and ac curate idea of it, divides the whole country into nine dis tricts.
In the first district he comprehends the flat parts of An trim, the eastern side of Tyrone, Down, Armagh, Mona ghan, and Cavan. In this district the farms are extremely small ; in consequence of which the land is generally dug with the spade. Potatoes, flax, and oats, are the crops commonly cultivated ; and these are grown till the land is exhausted, when it is recruited by the cow, the goats, two or three sheep, and the poultry, lying upon it sonic years. The ploughs used in this district are of the most rude and imperfect structure, and do their work in the most slovenly manner. When a plough is used, three or four neighbours unite their strength, each bringing his horse, or his bullock, or his milch cow. Most ploughs are attended by a person, whose employment it is to turn back the furrow, which would otherwise revert to its bed. All the other operations of agriculture are performed in this district in the same rude manner. The little wheat that is raised in it is " lashed ;" that is, the grain is knock ed out by striking the sheaf across a beam placed above a cloth ; it is, however, afterwards thrashed with a flail. " In this district, as well as in the greater part of Ireland, the corn is thrashed on the highways, and is dressed by let ting it fall from a kind of sieve, which, during a pretty strong wind, is held by a woman as high from the ground as her arms can reach.