LONDONDERRY AGRICULTURE

Samuel Lewis

1837

The fertile soils are chiefly under tillage, in farms varying in size from 2 to 200 acres and averaging eight. Though wheat is cultivated on some of the richest soils, barley is grown to a far more considerable extent, especially in the districts bordering on Lough Neagh, also around Myroe and Coleraine; the other crops most extensively raised are oats, potatoes, and flax; barley is said to pay the summer's rent and flax the winter's. Beans were formerly grown in vast quantities in Aghanloo and in Myroe, and rye in some of the lower districts, but both are now uncommon; four kinds of wheat, red, white, plain and bearded are sown, the produce of which varies from twelve to twenty barrels per acre; of barley, which is all of the four-rowed kind, called bere or Scotch barley, from eight to fourteen barrels of 21 stone (one-half more than the wheat measure); and of oats, of which the brown Poland, light-foot, blantire and potato oat are commonly sown, from 30 to 70 bushels per acre.

Potatoes yield from 200 to 800 bushels per acre. An acre of good flax will produce twelve stocks, each yielding seventy-two pounds of clean scutched flax; but the common produce is one-third less. Turnips are grown by all the gentry and leading farmers, and mangel wurzel is a favourite crop with some; but its cultivation is yet imperfectly understood. The principal artificial grass is clover, to which the annual and perennial ray are sometimes added: these seeds are generally sown as the last crop of a course, but the common farmers seldom sow any, trusting to the powers of the soil and the humidity of the climate to restore the herbage: the prevailing kind is, in marshy situations, the fiorin, or jointed grass, which produces crops of amazing weight and good quality. Of manures, lime, which can be procured in almost every part of the county, is in most extensive use, that of Desertmartin being esteemed the best; the contiguous marl is also used, especially at Cruint-ballyguillen, or the Leck.

In the maritime districts, and from six to ten miles inland, a favourite manure is sea-shells brought by boats from islands in Lough Foyle . the shells are chiefly oyster, muscle, and cockle; from 30 to 60 barrels are spread on an acre. Shelly sand is also gathered from the coast and from the shores of the Bann: trenching and throwing the mould on an unturned ridge, and the burning of peat for the ashes, are likewise practised. The breeds of cattle of every kind are much improved by judicious crossing; Derry not being a sheep-feeding county, the attention of the farmers has been less turned to this species of stock; yet some of the gentry have large flocks. Pigs are to be found in almost every house and cottage; they are usually slaughtered at home and the carcasses sent to market for the supply of the provision merchants of Belfast, Londonderry, and Coleraine.

Of the horses, one breed is the active, hardy mountain garran, of a bay or sorrel colour and slight make: the Scottish highland horses are likewise in great request, and, together with a cross with the sinewy draught horse, are in common use. A cross with the blood horse has also been introduced. Myroe is famous for good cattle. All the improved agricultural implements are in general use; the advances made in every department of rural economy have been considerably promoted by the exertions of the North-West Farming Society, which holds its meetings in Londonderry and receives an annual donation of ten guineas from the Irish Society of London. Among wild fowl, one species is very remarkable, the barnacle, which frequents Lough Foyle in great numbers, and is here much esteemed for the sweetness of its flesh, in like manner as at Wexford and Strangford, though elsewhere rank and unsavoury: this difference arises from its here feeding on the fucus saccharinus.

The ancient abundance of timber is evinced both by tradition and public documents, also by the abundance of pine found in all the bogs, of yew at Magilligan, and of fossil oak and fir in the mosses, even in the most exposed situations; but the woods have been wholly demolished by the policy of clearing the country, the lavish waste of fuel, the destruction made by exporting staves (once the staple of the county), and the demand for charcoal for smelting lead and iron. Coal, chiefly from Lancashire, is the principal fuel of the respectable classes in Londonderry and its vicinity. English, Scotch, and Ballycastle coals are used at Coleraine: but almost the universal fuel of the county is turf; in the fertile and thickly inhabited districts many of the bogs are exhausted, and recourse has been had to those of the mountains.

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