The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-05-14
OBSERVATIONS On IRELAND.
By Rev. R. Latham, in Yorkvillo Enquirer.

About six Irish miles North invest of
Ballycarry, at the head Of Larne Lough
is the old town Larne. The population
is nearly three thousand FIVE hundred.
It Is connected with Ballymena on the
west and Belfast on the south by railroad,
and carries on considerable traffic with
England and Scotland. Boats run be.
tween. London, Liverpool, Fleetwood,
Glasgow and various other ports, both in
England and Scotland, and Larne.
Between several of these ports, perhaps
all of them, and Larne steamboats, run
every night. Very large quantities of
lime are shipped from Larne to Ayrshire,
Scotland. This lime is mainly used for
agricultural purposes. Here it may be
remarked that the farmers of the British
Isles devote more attention to making
manure than the farmers of America do.
With the farmers of England, Ireland
and Scotland manure making is the bus
iness. They use large quantities OF
lime; we, as a rule, use very little lime.
This is strictly true with regard to South
ern farmers. In Ireland-and the same
is true of England and Scotland moth.
ing is planted or.sown without the ground
being first thoroughly manured. The
manuring is not done, as it is most fre.
quently done in our Southern country,
By dropping down a small handful of
manure in the hill or by scattering it
sparingly in the drill, but it is always
spread broadcast over the ground so
thick that the ground is literally covered
by it. Not. only are the fields designed
to be planted in oats, fax, turnips, po.
tatoes and other crops manured broad
cast, but the pasture fields are manured.
This system of manuring has been in
practice for several hundred years. The
result is that the soil is made permanent
.ly rich. Land, which in some cases was
naturally poor, has, by this long contin-;
ued process OF thorough lnanuring, been
made so rich that it may be compared to
those places in our country on which
hogs or COWS have been penned for years.
In fact T was told that sometimes the
land is made too rich to be productive
and requires to be tempered with poor
soil. 4.
In Ireland manure heap is a part
and parcel of every we'll conducted farm.
From the low marshy places the farmers
haul muck, and having placed it in some
convenient place, it is mixed with lime.
This is allowed to- remain until it is
thoroughly decomposed, then it is hauled
out into the, fields and scattered. Lime
lis scattered broadcast oyer the fields on
which the crops are growing. So far as
I now remember the practice of scatter:
ing pure. lime, ,.sor silime aunmixed. with
muck. is confined: to potato cfelds on
which it is designed to SOW oats after the
potato crop is gathered. / frequently
saw potato fields covered so completely
with lime that they presented the same
appearance as if covered with snow.
Lime is sometimes sown over the pasture
fields. I think this is done in early
Spring. The cost of lime at the kiln, in
Ireland, is about the same that it is in
our country. I do not think that our
ridge lands would bear the heavy appli-
cations of lime that are made by Irish
farmers, and it would prove of no avail
if applied to old worn out land, in which
there is no vegetable matter. But am
not writing an essay on agriculture.
At one time in the worlds history,
Larne vas place of perhaps more note
than it is at present. On the extreme
point of narrow peninsula, which, be.
cause of its resemblance to a sickle, is
called Carran. Carran, being the Irish
word for sickle or reap.hook, are the
remains Of OlderAeet Castle. 1t was at
this place that Edward Bruce, the brother
of the celebrated Robert Bruce, King of
Scotland, landed. This was in 1915.
Edward the Second was King of Eng
land. Ireland was in a wretched condi.
tion, and Scotland was not much, if any,
better. As an evidence of this, it may
be stated that by an Act of Parliament,
held at Kilkenny, in 1909, the murder of
an Irishman was not punishable by law,
and the defaming of an Irish woman was
declared no crime. After the battle Of
Bannockburn, which was fought on the
oath of June, 1914, the Irish invited
Robert Bruce to become their King.
Many reasons were urged why this step
should be TAKEN, The similarity of the
manner and customs of the Scotch and
Irish, their common lineage and Ian
,guage, and the fact that both were
harrassed by England, seemed toindicate
the wisdom of the movement. So tap.
,peared to Robert Bruce, and to show his
interest in. poor down-trodden Ireland,
he sent his brother Edward with an army
of. six thousand men to assist in the de-
liverance of the Irish from English rule.
Edward Bruce, with his six thousand
men, landed at Larne, or rather at Older
feet Castle, near Larne, in May, 1916.
The Irish focked to his standard, and he
began in earnest the work of devastation.
The Earl of Ulster was defeated and
many of the English noble slain in a
battle which was fought soon after the
landing of Bruce. Carrickfergus was
next attacked. Being strongly fortified
and we'll garrisoned its capture could
only be effected by siege. Lord Man
deville was in command of the garrison.
Many deeds of daring valor were per-
formed, both by the besieged and besieg-
ers.A Prominent among these may be no.
ticed the heroism of one Neill Fleming,
the commander of Scotch guard of
sixty men. At time when the COM
mander of the besiegers seems to have
been apprehending no danger, Lord
Vaudeville led his forces out to attack
them. Neill Fleming and his guard of
sixty men, were the only persons in the
Scotch army prepared for battle. The
troops led by Vaudeville were desperate.
Fleming saw that the Scotch army was
likely to be surprised and routed unless
something desperate was done. He
promptly sent messenger to Edward
Bruce to warn him of the impending
danger, and threw himself and his guard
in front of the advancing forces of Man.
deville. AS the forces of the besieged,
made desperate BY hunger, advanced,
Neill Fleming shouted to his men. "Now
let them see how we can die for our
lord" The desperate courage of Flem-
ing and his sixty men stopped, for time,
the forces of Vaudeville. But sixty men
j L l..