From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837
The great attention paid to tillage has brought the land to a high state of agricultural improvement. The prevailing corn crop is oats, of which the favourite sorts are the Poland, Blantire, Lightfoot, and early Holland; wheat is sown in every part, and in Lecale is of excellent quality, and very good also in Castlereagh barony; barley is a favourite crop, mostly preceded by potatoes; rye is seldom sown, except on bog; much flax is cultivated; and turnips, mangel-wurzel, and other green crops are very general. Though, from the great uneven-ness of surface, considerable tracts of flat pasture land are very uncommon, yet on the sides of the rivers there are excellent and extensive meadows, annually enriched by the overflowing of the waters; and, in the valleys, the accumulation of the finer particles of mould washed down from the sides of the surrounding hills produces heavy crops of grass. Many of the finest and most productive meadows are those which lie on the skirts of turf bogs, at the junction of the peat and loam: the fertility of the compound soil is very great, the vegetation rapid, and the natural grasses of the best kind. Artificial grasses are general; clover in frequent cultivation, particularly the white.
Draining is extensively and judiciously practised; and irrigation is successfully resorted to, especially upon turf bog, which, when reclaimed, is benefited by it in an extraordinary manner. In the management of the dairy, butter is the chief object: considerable quantities are sold fresh in the towns, but the greatest part is salted and sent to Belfast and Newry for exportation. Dung is principally applied as manure for raising potatoes, and great attention is paid by the farmers to collect it and to increase its quantity by additional substances, such as earth, bog soil, and clay. Lime, however, is the most general manure. At Ballinahinch, the most central part of the county, limestone of three kinds may be seen at a small distance from each other, the blue from Carlingford, the red from Castlespie, and the white from Moira, a distance of fourteen miles; the white is most esteemed. Limestone gravel is used in the neighbourhood of Moira, and found to be of powerful and lasting efficacy. Marling was introduced into Lecale about a century ago: the result of the first experiments was an immediate fourfold advance in the value of land, and the opening of a corn trade from Strangford; but the intemperate use of it brought it into discredit for some time, though it has latterly, under more judicious management, resumed its former character.
Shell-sand is used to advantage on stiff clay lands; and sea-weed is frequently applied to land near the coast, but its efficacy is of short duration. Turf bog, both by itself and combined with clay, has been found useful. The system of burning and paring is practised only in the mountainous parts. In the neighbourhood of towns, coal-ashes and soot are employed: the ashes of bleach-greens, and soapers' waste, have been found to improve meadows and pastures considerably. The attention of the higher class of farmers has been for many years directed to the introduction of improved implements of husbandry, most of which have had their merits proved by fair trial: threshing machines are in general use. In no part of the country is the art of raising hedges better understood, although it has not yet been extended so universally as could be desired. In many parts the enclosure is formed of a ditch and a bank, from four to eight feet wide, and of the same depth, without any quicks; sometimes it is topped with furze, here called whins. In the mountainous parts the dry stone wall is common.
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From a sad, comfortless childhood Giles Truelove developed into a reclusive and uncommunicative man whose sole passion was books. For so long they were the only meaning to his existence. But when fate eventually intervened to have the outside world intrude upon his life, he began to discover emotions that he never knew he had.
A touching story for the genuine booklover, written by an Irish bookseller under the pseudonym of Ralph St John Featherstonehaugh.
Annals of the Famine in Ireland
Annals of the Famine in Ireland, by Asenath Nicholson, still has the power to shock and sadden even though the events described are ever-receding further into the past. When you read, for example, of the poor widowed mother who was caught trying to salvage a few potatoes from her landlord's field, and what the magistrate discovered in the pot in her cabin, you cannot help but be appalled and distressed.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger
This book, the prequel to Annals of the Famine in Ireland cannot be recommended highly enough to those interested in Irish social history. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, travelled from her native America to assess the condition of the poor in Ireland during the mid 1840s. Refusing the luxury of hotels and first class travel, she stayed at a variety of lodging-houses, and even in the crude cabins of the very poorest. Not to be missed!
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
Henry Ford Jones' book, first published in 1915 by Princeton University, is a classic in its field. It covers the history of the Scotch-Irish from the first settlement in Ulster to the American Revolutionary period and the foundation of the country.
The ebook is available for download in .mobi (Kindle), .epub (iBooks, etc.) and .pdf formats. For further information on the book and author see details ».
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