SLIGO AGRICULTURE

The size of farms varies from three acres and even less to 400 or 500; those of larger size were formerly held by several tenants in partnership, and consisted usually of a small portion of tillage land to which an extensive tract of coarse mountain and bottom land was annexed, but this mode of tenure is on the decline: most of the large farms are now held by one individual and consist chiefly of pasture land. Tillage has increased rapidly; the principal crops are oats and potatoes, very little wheat being sown. The rotation system and green crops are common with the gentry, and, through the laudable exertions of Mr. Cooper, and Major O'Hara, who have formed farming societies for the diffusion of agricultural knowledge, and for improvements in rural economy by means of premiums, they are gradually extending among the small farmers.

A pair of horses abreast and driven by the ploughman is now often seen; a pair of asses may also be frequently seen ploughing instead of horses. Oxen were formerly used under the plough, but never at present. In the mountainous districts much of the tillage is performed by the spade or loy. Natural manures are found in the greatest abundance in every part; sea-sand, which is collected in large quantities along the coast, proves an excellent manure for potatoes, when spread some time before the seed is planted, as otherwise the potato produced by it is wet; lime, marl, and sea-weed are also used. Vast beds of oyster shells stretch along different parts of the shore, and are even found in the interior, at some miles from the coast, at an elevation of 60 feet above high water mark; they make the best manure; even the sand in which they are imbedded is so impregnated with calcareous particles as to be used beneficially for the same purpose.

The fences in some parts are broad ditches faced with stone or sods, and sometimes planted with quicksets; in others they are dry stone walls, which give a denuded and sterile appearance to the parts in which they are used. The soil is peculiarly adapted to pasturage; the rich low lands fatten bullocks of the largest size for the Dublin and English markets.

On the hilly districts towards the west, sheep are grazed in large flocks, and on those in the interior herds of young cattle are reared. On some of the mountains the sheep and horses are subject to a disease called the staggers, that often proves fatal, yet horned cattle feeding on the same pasture are never subject to it. Near Ardnaree cattle are affected with a disease called "crasson," in every apparent symptom similar to the gout; in the early stage of the complaint, feeding with hot bran has proved an infallible remedy. The favourite breed of cattle is a cross between the Durham and the native cow; that between the long-horned Leicester and the native is also much esteemed; equal attention is paid to the breed of sheep. Around Sligo and Ballymote are some excellent dairy farms, and butter is made by all the small farmers, by much the greater part of which is shipped at Sligo for the British market.

Good horses are brought from Galway and Roscommon; the native breed is small, light, and unsightly. Pigs are numerous, of large size and very profitable. Goats, which are sometimes seen on the small farms and near the mountains, are of small size and by no means numerous.

The land indicates a strong tendency to produce timber spontaneously: the escars are generally covered with brushwood; and even among the clefts of the rocks in the mountain glens the oak, hazel, yew, holly, and beech shoot forth, requiring only protection from the inroads of cattle to come to maturity.

Around the mansions of the gentry there are large and thriving plantations; planting forest trees in hedgerows is becoming every year more customary. The only trees that thrive near the coast are the sycamore and the willow, whose pliancy allows them to give way under the pressure of the blasts from the Atlantic. Alder also flourishes for a time in these exposed situations, but soon decays. The arbutus grows spontaneously, but does not attain the same size as in the south-western counties. Myrtle is to be seen in great abundance in sheltered situations.

County Sligo | Sligo Towns and Baronies | Sligo Topography | Sligo Climate | Sligo Agriculture | Sligo Geology | Sligo Manufacturing | Sligo Rivers | Sligo Antiquities | Sligo Society | Sligo Town

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