St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-09-27
IRISH HusBANDRY.
The Incredible Labor Performed ~
the Small Farmer for Very
Poor Return.

/ When a man begins to cultivate
Patch of ground in the Swinford Union
of county Mayo, the first three crops
he gets consist OF stones.
| I state the plain facts, says writer
| in London Mail. There is no room TO.
humorous exaggeration with respect
to that amazing wilderness OF glaclai
debris. The peasant goes to work with
a hammer and chisel on stones OF a
hundredweight and upwards. Then,
with pick, he gets out the stones OF
moderate SIZE In the third year he
| collects innumerable small stones.
There is no land until he has made 1t.
That is to say, there is no place
where he can put the stones to have
them out of the way. He has to pile
them UP in the middle of his hard-Won
patch.
The landscape, Of course, is one
gray spread of elementary ruin.
I fixed my attention on little space
of less than an acre. 1t was in no way
worse than the rest, but I wanted to
realize this incredible labor. The
yield of three such harvests had been
strong boundary wall and heap OF
certainly not less than 40 tons weight.
Nobody shall tell me again that the
Irish peasant is lazy. The whole west
of Ireland is jeweled with such monu-
ments of courage. They are OF all
dimensions up to that of large house.
Yet Swinford Union accommodates
$1,000 o~J 1b;11ron tn the acre
than any other union in Ireland.
Fifty thousand people exist on land
which is valued for rating at e41,0oo,
and the valuation includes villages.
No man knows now why people ever
went there. There they are, heroic
ally.
l counted Sc homes in one cluster at
Cleragh. I am sure that if the land
they stand on were offered in one es-
tate as free gift to the meanest lit
tie farmer in England, he would think
it bad joke. But, as fact, rent ~
charged for it. Between them the 50
farmers pay, at very moderate COM
putation, $50 or EGO year for the
privilege of residing on it. Each has
four or five acres of stones.
Of course, it is impossible to make
a living so, even in the utmost misery.
What these farmers do, in order to
pay their rents, is to work in England
during nine or ten months of the year.
They bring home 16 or 20 in Novem-
ber That frees them and keeps
starvation just at arms length. These
are some of the men | have met in the
north, such hard workers in the hay
field that Yorkshire farmer prefers
the best of these to all others. One
man will come over to the same farm
for 20, 80 and 40 years. If he is not
there when the grass is ready, the
Yorkshire farmer knows that he has
not the money to pay his. fare, and
sends it.
The ridiculous patch in county
Mayo, with its whitewashed howell,
meaner and more vilely kept than any
dwelling have seen in city slums, is
Pats winter residence; no more.
If you want notion Of simple pa
triotism, here it is, absurd and sublime.
He goes back from thriving land
every winter, and still clings to the
place where he was born.
But his sons and daughters leave
him.
The stream of emigrants going west
overseas flows on, by 10000 year,
after all that has been done for Ire
land. The merriest song in the land
still is: "Of to Philadelphia in the
Morning"