MONAGHAN SOIL
The undulating surface of the county produces a great variety of soil. The low lands are generally wet, sour, and moory, particularly near the foot of Slievebeagh; yet even in this district are some exceptions, for amid the very poorest tracts several gentle elevations of limestone are found, and in the valleys are extensive deposits of marl; this moory soil is everywhere reclaimable, though the subsoil is stiff, and the shallow and mossy loam on its surface imbibes the moisture like a sponge, so that after a fall of rain it is nearly impassable for cattle, and a few dry days harden the surface so as to render it nearly impenetrable to a plough; this character pervades the greater portion of the barony of Trough.
The central district, comprehending the depressed land between the Slievebeagh and Crieve mountains, is far superior to any other part of the county in point of fertility; it is interspersed with beautiful lakes, well watered with streams, has a sufficiency of bog, and in richness and natural capability may vie with some of the best improved lands in the north of Ireland. A vein of excellent land runs from Glaslough, by Tyhallon, Monaghan, Scotstown, and Clones, into Fermanagh at Corren. The southern extremity of the county consists for the most part of a rich and highly productive soil, based on a substratum of limestone, and in some places a deep loam highly improveable by calcareous manure.
The soil in the intermediate district varies much in quality, and is disposed very irregularly: even in several parts of the same field it is seen sometimes to vary extremely, being deep and argillaceous at one spot, a gravelly grit at another, exhibiting at a third a stiff clay, and at a fourth a party-coloured mixture of red and greenish gravel; yet in general character it approximates nearly to that of the northern part. The western side of the county is a rich but shallow loam, in its natural state spongy, wet, and overspread with rushes, but capable of a high degree of improvement by manuring.
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