, 1880-03-13
: s ~ g u o z & "A VT 5

eultlvatOrS have converted wet bog into
potato land and pasture, and have pushed
their zig-zag chequer OF stone walls up to the
very SUBMITS OF the hills on which the
rain clouds rest. There is but thin cover
ing Of soil upon,the rock-which is 10 some
places Of limestone or granite, but near
Westport a variety of formations, exclu-
sive of those, aud classed together by the
nomenclature of tae country as "whin-
stone.' The lands are generally associated
with areas Of fiat red or of black .mouu-
tain moss or bog. On the few farms
where larger tillage is attempted and fair
crops Of turnips are grown the soil is de.
ceptiveIy good on the top; and the plough
share, when thrust in, encounters a mass
Of grinding rafting stones, or strikes upon
boulders which only blasting conld remove.
So in the Immense tract extending towards
sounty Sligo and into R~oscommon. it is
only 10 part of the country that the
plough could be worked in short-length
burrows between :he masses of protruding
rock, or that the soft bog would bear the
tread of the horses. And. again, much
of the cultivated area has been created by
The spade or gradually laid bare by the
digging away OF The turf for fuel. The one
prevailing Characteristic OF this husban6ry,
adapted as it specially is for the country,
is the opening it presents for improvement.
The low style of management seems to
have acquired fixity of type by pedigree
continued ln-and-in from the old system of
+" rundale'-which itself is not yet extinct.
A number of tenants Joined together in
a take, securing the landlord by being
jointly and severaIly responsible Tor the
whole rent. Zach man had his share 10
dig and crop and in order that the appor-
tlonment might be fair, each one was
allotted a bit of the best and u bit of the
worst, and so on with plots Of all the diff
feren: qualities to its proportion of ire
movable rock. With the death of each
tenant came in subdivision OF each one of
his scattered plots among his children till
a patchwork was arrived at often ludi-
clous in its minuteness Of plotting, and in
some strips of ground stretching halt a
mile from a frontage road back over a bog
or up q mountain side, Were too narrow
to hold the foundation of a house. Some
times occupierS Of contiguous plots arrang-
ed to crop alike, to dig contemporaneous.
ly, and sow grass seeds together, the
ground being rarely wasted in any rear
ing of fences but as the custom was to
depasture the whole area by the live stock
OF all the tenants from the harvest clearing
10 the time OF spring sowing, no forward
trenching and laying up for winter, and
no proper cleansing tillage at all, was
practicable till the animals were cleared off
in spring. The style of husbandry became
so engrafted into the ideas and habits OF
the population that when by vast pains
and against almost frantic opposition
agents and landlords, sometimes with q
high haod, persuaded their tenants. to sub
nit TO a permanent allotment Of the land
in severed and separate holdings, it was
found next TO impossible to urge the occu-
piers out of the old sluggish method OF
culture which was now no longer q neces-
sify. Ia vain might they witness on the
farms OF owners or agents the effect OF early
winter ~ploughiug increasing the crop OF
turnips. or the enhancement OF yield from
diligently wedding corr; the greatest
ingenuity of these people was exercised in
putting forth excuses, such as contrasting
their want of means with the horses aud
manures of their instructor and to this mo-
ment, of all the logged adhereGts to former
and traditional usages, a Tory of Tories is
the west country peasant farmer. Many of