When Boate wrote his natural history of Ireland, wheat appears to have been cultivated only in a very partial man ner in the province of Connaught ; and, from the account which has been given of the agriculture of Ireland in its dif ferent districts, it will be seen that, even at present, its cul tivation is very limited. There is little or no wheat grown in the counties of Monaghan, Tyrone, Derry, D megal, Sli go, Mayo, Leitrim, or Cavan ; the principal wheat districts are, the counties of Kilkenny, Carlow, Dublin, Nleath, Louth, and parts of Limerick, Tipperary, Clare, and Cork. The red Lammas is the kind most in use. Spring wheat grows well near the sea coast of \Vicklow. Wheat is ge nerally sown after potatoes, or a fallow : little attention is paid to it while growing. The Irish wheat is for the most part coarse, and of inferior quality ; in consequence either of the wetness of the climate, or bad harvesting, it all re quires to be kiln dried. Barley is by no means generally cultivated in Ireland : it is of inferior quality to that grown in England, not yielding so much saccharine matter by 20 per cent. Where barley is cultivated, it is sown after po tatoes. Here, or big, is grown in Kildare, Meath, West Meath, Longford, and in the north on cut-out bogs. Mes lin, or a mixture of wheat and rye, is sown near Drogheda. at the market of which it finds a ready sale.
Of all the species of corn, oats are the most extensively cultivated ; forming the principal part of the food of the people, a market for them is every where to be found. It is calculated, that, throughout the whole kingdom, there are ten acres of oats for one of any other species of corn. They are sown after wheat, potatoes, flax, and barley ; and even year after year in succession, till the land is quite ex hausted. In the mountainous districts, the black oat is gee-. nerally sown; of late years the potatoe oat has been intro duced into the lower grounds. The Irish oats are not equal in weight or quality to the English. Beans are cultivated no Ns here except in parts of the county of Wexford. Rape is grown for seed in King's and Queen's counties, and some parts of Tipperary.
Ireland has long been celebrated for the immense quan tities of potatoes it produces, as well as for their excel lent quality. They are planted on every kind of soil, either in drills or on lazy beds. The former method has been introduced lately, but it is gaining ground fast. In general, the potatoes are stored up by the poorer classes in their cabins ; where they are in large quantities, they arc pitted in the fields where they grow. A potatoe pit, lined with turf, is deemed preferable to one lined with straw. Potatoe land rents from 6!. 6s. to 10/.10s. per acre;
the whole ex pence of growing them, including rent, va ries from 13/. to 161. per acre. The produce varies very much ; perhaps from 40 to 50 sacks, of 20 stone to the sack, and 211bs. to the stone, may be deemed not unusual produce on good land.
Flax is cultivated through almost the whole of Ireland, except Wicklow and Wexford ; but it is principally grown in the province of Ulster : it follows potatoes, oats, and barley. The plough is seldom employed ; the ground, for the most part, being prepared by the spade, but the earth taken from the trenches is not always shovelled over the beds.
The culture of hemp was formerly pretty extensive on the rich lands in the county of Limerick ; but it is now abandoned there ; nor has it succeeded in other parts in any considerable degree, notwithstanding government af• forded premiums ror that purpese. The quantity of land i sown with hemp. as returned to the Linen Board in 1803, was only 523 acres.
Of the indigenous grasses or Leland, it does not seem necessary to specify any, except the florin grass, or agros which has been lately very highly extolled by Dr. Richardson. Its merits, however, are not nearly so great as he represents them ; and, indeed, the only situa tion for which it is adapted is sea-walls, when its roots run and bind them together.
Considering the very imperfect and backward nature of Irish husbandry, it is not to be expected, that i laving down land to grass is well understood. In fact, this seldom done with seeds ; but, in most places, the ground is suf fered to clothe itself with its natural herbage. Soon after grass is cut for hay, it is formed by the hand into what are called lap-cocks," each of which is as much as a wo man can twist round her arms like a muff; these being laid on the ground in the direction of the wind, which blows through them, are soon dried ; and are then put into a tramp-cock." In this state it becomes heated, and its quality is further injured by the heated hay being put into ricks, so that the quality of by far the greater part of Irish hay is very indifferent. From the account of the arable husbandry of the different districts, it has already been seen that very little clover is cultivated. In the west and south-west it is scarcely known ; and, according to Mr. Newenham, there are not 5000 acres in the whole island ; where it is cultivated, it is sown on exhausted and foul land. There arc few quickset hedges in Ireland. In the limestone districts, stone-walls, and in the other districts, earthen banks, arc the usual fences. In the southern coun ties, furze is sometimes planted on these banks.