at Ballykelly. The shells are chiefly oyster, muscle, cockle, and cock-spur. The farmer generally bespeaks one or more boat-loads; he lands them himself, paying at the rate of 6d. per barrel of six bushels; the rest of his cost depends on the ability of horses, and the distance he has to draw them; two barrels form a load to a good horse; from 30 to 60 barrels are given to an acre; they also enter into composts, and are in great demand even in the interior country, from six to ten miles; which circumstance is the more remarkable, as many of those, who draw them up into their mountainous countries, are almost in contact with turf, lime, and marle. In examining the heaps of sand laid up for manure, I found them in great part minute fragments of shells; which, being lighter than basaltic or siliceous sands, are left, by the waves, spread uppermost on the beach; the black, or basaltic sand, is carefully rejected. The sand is taken also from the banks of the Bann, near a mile above the bar. Shells are spread on the lea from one to three years. It is a good plan, after spreading on wet ground, to trench it, laying up the earth on the shells. The first year of ploughing, they are turned in lightly; the farmer guards against burying them too deep, and, when he lays out his ground, wishes to have the shells brought up again to the surface.

Another species of manure is obtained in the sandy land by folding the sheep and young cattle; it is also obtained by folding on lands inaccessible to the plough; this is dug off the corners of fields chosen for the purpose.

Trenching a spade deep of the mold at the interval of a ridge breadth, and throwing this over the grass at the fall of the year, is practised to open and manure the ground. This practice encreases the present vegetative power, and thereby food for future plants is also encreased.

In many parts of the country, the excellent and cheap process of burning bog for ashes is encreasing daily, so that our Irish peasant may be ranked as a pupil of the classic days, instructed

"Effœtos cinerem immundum jactare per agros."

The general practice is to make composts with ashes, mixed with the peat earth; but in cases, where this compost has not been ready, I have seen the heaps, still smoking, carried to cover the potatoes just kibbed, and success has rewarded the experiment.

Composts.

This is a general term, comprehending all sorts of collections for manuring. I have little to observe, but that all alkaline matters, such as soaper's-waste, kelp-dross, &c. are now carefully preserved, and successfully used.

The value of peat is practically known as an accumulation of vegetable matter in a coarse state, which needs only to be reduced, in order to become fit for the nourishment of the finest plants.

Composts of bog should be long exposed and digested. In their recent state, they produce sorrel, in their digested state, they nourish clover, &c.

Irrigation.

Irrigation is only commencing, in the improved mode; in a rude way it has been long, but not generally, practised. The first good offer was made to a Gloucestershire man, brought by the Donegal Farming Society for the purpose. The price of this artist's labour is half a guinea per day. No money can be better laid out.

How many fine declivities, intersected by constant streams of water, seem to invite this admirable process? Almost the whole of this county is furnished copiously with rivulets, and is itself shaped into slopes and levels. From March to May, is by some thought the best time for letting on water. But nature shews, in what manner a perennial irrigation can change even heathy wastes into verdant carpets. There is, however, an advantage, in intermitting the process-it was known in the time of Virgil, as is evident from this passage

"Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat prata biberunt."

TILLAGE.

Size of Farms and Fields,-Mode of Culture,-Extent of it, and of each Species of Grain sowed,-Course of Crops.

Nam sine ludicris artibus, atque etiam sine causidicis, olim satis felices fuere, futuræque sunt urbes. At sine AGRICULTORIBUS, nec consistere mortales, nec ali posse manifestum est; quo magis prodigii simile est, quod accidit, ut res corporibus nostris vitæque utilitati maxime convenientes, minimam, usque in hoc tempus, consummationem haberent; idque sperneretur genus amplificandi retinendique patrimonii, quod omni crimine caret.

COLUMELLA de re rustica.

Not a few of those who have engaged in the task of local reports, seem to have considered themselves called upon, rather to generalise in splendid theories, than to detail in humble facts. If, therefore, in their assumed capacity of public lecturers, they have satisfied themselves, it must be owned, that in their rival character of real annalists, they have disappointed the public. In this perception, we are warned lest, in our zeal for dilating our own notions of what might be, we forget what is the state of those things, which it is our immediate duty to collect and arrange.

After a great deal of consideration, no better method seems to occur, than that of reporting the actual state of every district, just as it has been noted during my personal inspection. Perhaps the mind receives information more just, and in a manner more agreeable, by passing over a series of particulars, than by any abstract description. Impressed, by this conviction, not only here, but in other parts of the work, the Author has aimed at laying before the reader that information, which it was wished that he should receive, in the order, and with the precision, of local detail.

Q q

Eastern side of the Bann.

(Size of farms-from three to forty Irish acres; average 6 acres, ditto. Size of fields-from 1 to 10, ditto; average 31⁄2, ditto.)

In this district near the sea-coast, where the soil is a sandy nature, the portions of the farms which are ranked as arable, are not unfrequently allowed to rest for ten, twelve, and even fourteen years, under the character of lea or grazing. After breaking up, the usual succession is as follows:

1. Ploughed in spring, and sown with oats. 2. Ploughed in spring, dunged from the stable and cow-house without any compost. Potatoes, planted in the lazy-bed. 3. Barley. 4. Oats. 5. In chosen spots, flax.

There is no bad soil, nor very small fields, towards the interior of these lands; but the country is ill fenced, and no such thing as a quickset, even where it seems out of the reach of the northwestern winds. I observed with satisfaction, that some farmers had taken advantage of the changes of soil, from stiff bottoms to light swells, and had begun composts of each mixed with sea-wrack, to transfer to its opposite.

The species of corn sown is generally blanter, or else potatoe-oats; this country is in repute for hard small seed oats, which are purchased by the farmers of other districts, who hold clay soils. The yield seldom surpasses four or five to one. White peters are the kind of potatoe preferred for tender ground, and Red peters for clay; Scotch greys are also in use, and English reds highly approved; Scotch leckies coming into vogue. The earliest kind are Ladies-fingers, and another bad, but very early sort, called Rookins; it is distinguishable by the weakness of its tops. The potatoe here is planted and spaded over or on the dung, in the lazy-bed.

Considerable attention is paid to changing their seed from one soil to another, in which they find a great advantage. In a farm of forty acres, of superior quality, thirty were managed under the

description of in-field or croft, that is, never left out in lea. These crofts were supplied by the cottiers with all their manures, which, with that of the owner, are drawn out and scaled (i. e. spread) in May. Here the succession is, 1. The potatoes, planted in lazy-beds over the dung. 2. Barley. 3. Oats, nine bushels sown to the acre, yielding about seventy. 5. Flax. 6. Oats; then begin anew, or else three years lea. No clover sown, on account of promiscuous flocks of sheep, which are emphatically called pirates.

The sea-wrack, gathered during the winter, is spread on the soil for next year's potatoes. One Irish car-load to a ridge of twenty-one by six feet is abundant; three loads to of four such ridges (five feet in breadth) is more usual. The potatoes are planted on the wrack, and spaded over.

Some of the best grounds are cropped as follows: 1. Potatoes, planted on the lea. 2. Oats. 3. Potatoes on manure. 4. Barley. 5. Oats.

Around Coleraine there is a mode of letting out ground, for the poor inhabitants to lay on their yearly collection of manure; for this purpose, land of good quality lets at four or six guineas per acre ready ploughed. The succession then is, barley, with grass or clover; or else, 1. Barley. 2. Oats. 3. Oats or flax; then grassseed for pasture, or laid out for lea, or else begin anew.

Near Camus, on ploughed lea, the farmer sows from eight to nine bushels, which seldom yield more than four bolls per acre, each boll containing twelve bushels. His potatoes are planted at the rate of forty bushels, and his return, not more than twelve or thirteen bolls.

The succession is barley, flax, oats. His lea grounds, (or, as they are called, out-fields,) are ploughed two years in succession for oats, and are left two years in succession for lea. Fields thus alternated are said to be," two in and two out."