, 1880-04-03
IRISH FARMS AND FARMING.
From The Times Specicg Correspondent.

made TO me, Win regard 10 the mea-
sures of relief. Immediate succour is
most distressed localities; and the ne
~cessities of the people may, perhaps
be met during the whole spring and sum
mer by the funds so muniicently contribut-
ed and administered through q w~ell-organ-
lied means of distribution, and by the great
amount OF employment which will be en-
gagged upon the numerous relief works.
Reckoning from the acreage OF potatoes
in - counties which comprise 800 600
holdings, it appears that the average
breadth per holding is u acre, and on the
class of smallest farms the potato plot may
be about half this. III years of fair yield
there may be a produce of two tons for con
sumption by the family and by their
money-earning and manure-making pigs.
But in this calamitOuS year of universal
disease there is, probably, not a third Of
this requisite quantity OF food left, after
reservation made for seed. That is. tho
main article of diet OF two families out
of three is destroyed and this in nearly
every part OF Ireland where small farms
exist. 1t is exceedingly desirable to re-
place a portion of the usual potato patch
Inv carrots, of which heavy Yields are FIRE.
ouently obtained but the mere inroduc.
inc of new in place of worn-0ut sorts iol
potatoes must of itself, apart from consi-
derations of resisting disease, result in
marked augmentation OF produce. | have
had opportunities of gathering the views
of such eminent practical authorities as tie
Rev. Canon Bagot, Mr. Henry Brett, {. f.,
Mr.. James Robertson, and others; ard,
from experience of the tilSt great famine.
they recommend denial Of pauperiZing gra-
t%uities, but the sale OF seed at a lOT price,
with ~repaymentS III cay instruments, COM
mencing after harvest. Mr.. Brett, who is
now the county surveyor OF Wicklow, was
county surveyor of Mayo in the famine
time; and advises that, excepting in cases
of restitution, potatoes should be supplied
only to men producing proofs that they
have dug the ground III readiness for plant
inc. And Canon Bagot confirms the safe
tx of such sales from his own experience
at the anime period, when, OF 5000 lent
in this way, every penny was faithfully
repaid to HIM Whether any security can
be made available or not, action i'll the
matter is a necessity, and cannot be too
quickly begun.
The |craziers are in good spirits. Every
where YOU hear of cattle fetching several
pounds per head more than they could
have been sold for i'll November. The rise
is rcmarkable; and while u tlourisling
trade is being done i'll stores now being
sent over la England in great numbers to
replace the beasts which are being turned
out fat from stalls and boxes, there is quite
n run on cattle having any condition at all
in flosh. though not even half fed, for Man
chester and other meat markets. Perhaps
part of the squirt in the demand for stores
may be due to the position of the English
sheep stock-untruStwOrthy OIL account of
the terrible prevalence of rot from last sum
mers wet, and in Scant and dear supply
from having been hurried to market as
half-fed mutton by farmers who have been
driven to sell something, though at a sacri
flee. and who have had scarcely a half crop
of roots to carry on their tiocks till spring.
Store sheep are expected to stand at high
prices when the grass season begins, and
cattle will be in unwonted demand to make
ND for the short number of sheep. Pork,
too. is up, after q low time; and at Ath.
lone fair the pig of halfbreed Berkshire
type which filled the streets of the town
mot penned. but driven and held by straw
bands to their legs) l saw selling at quite
SIS. Cd. a "~scoIe.n
The practice of the small farmers OF the
West is to breed calves, in some districts to
be disposed of as yearlings, but more COM
monty kept till two or sometimes three
years old, when they are sold to the Lem
ster and midland graziers to be fed during
another season. Beasts bought in autumn
are grazed in the pastures OF Meath, West
meath, Galway, and Roscommon all the