may be found; but it will be perceived that this very beneficial practice is confined to gentlemen, not a single grazier being in the list: if I should through ignorance have omitted any, I shall feel a singular gratification in publickly acknowledging it. It must be here understood, that I do not give the cultivator of a random crop of rape to reclaim a bog, and whose chief inducement is the value of the seed, the enviable title of a cultivator of green winter food, it can be only a steady systematic cultivator that can deserve it. In the numberless advantages of soiling in the house in summer, may justly be added the following opinion of the enlightened and scientific Sir Humphry Davy: "The plants are less injured when cut, than when torn "or jagged by the teeth of the cattle, and no food is "wasted by being trodden down; they are likewise

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obliged to feed without making a selection, conse

quently the whole food is consumed; the attach"ment or dislike to a particular kind of food, exhibited "by animals, offers no proof of its nutritive powers. "Cattle, at first, refuse linseed cake, one of the most "nutritive substances on which they can be fed." Almost every gentleman has a few stall-fed cattle for his own use in winter; but, except in the distilleries, few are fed for a market. Galway takes a good many. There are very few, if any other markets, that would encourage the feeding of any quantity, and Dublin would be too great a journey for fat cattle. A few years ago fat cattle and sheep were brought to Dublin by the grand canal, in cattle boats, and seemed for some time to be much approved of; for what reason they have been given up, I am ignorant.

SECTION V.

NATURAL GRASSES.

THE natural grasses are the same in general produced in every part of Ireland, in similar soils and situations. A bountiful Providence provides the seeds, and the constant feeding keeps it good, otherwise it might be any thing else; the grazier takes no pains; he neither drains, sows hay seeds, nor destroys weeds; and his fences, if any, are bad. The plants that predominate in most lands remarkable for fattening, are chiefly the following:

Sweet scented vernal grass, (Anthoxantum odoratum,)

Creeping bent grass,

Birds foot trefoil,

J (Fiorin-Agrostis stolo

nifera,)

(Lotus corniculatus.)

Meadow foxtail, (Alopecurus pratensis) is by no means a common grass in this county; I perceived it only at the Bishop of Clonfert's, Mr. Charles Seymour's, Summerset, Mr. Bellew's, Mount Bellew, in very small quantity, and in a field between Galway and Rahoon, on the top of a granite rock, with scarcely any earth on it;

in each of those places it was produced in small quantity, and looked as if it was not indigenous, but probably had been brought in hay seeds from Dublin, in the neighbourhood of which it abounds in many fields. In addition to the list I have given, there might have been some other kinds, probably perennial red clover (Cow grass), &c. but those I have mentioned were most abundant, indeed, almost to the exclusion of all others. I do not recollect to have met with any ground remarkable for its fattening quality, that did not abound with yarrow, and Birds foot trefoil:-except by the late Dr. Anderson (whose works are not so much read as they should be) they are not probably mentioned by any agricultural writer as food for cattle, yet there are no two plants that could be propagated with more ease by seed, of which they are very productive. The few fields that are sowed with hay seeds are too generally stocked with what is sold in the seed shops as white English hay seed, (Holcus lanatus) a small portion of Ray grass, and a very small quantity of red clover. Probably it will be found that there are few more worthless grasses than the holcus lanatus,* as it possesses, amongst many others, the bad property of retaining, nearly through the entire day, the rains and dews: it is the kind usually sowed in reclaimed bog, and generally gives a great return of seed, but declines rapidly afterwards; it is for this situation greatly inferior to

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* Sir Humphry Davy says, “it appears to be disliked by all sorts of cattle; the produce is not so great as a view of it in the fields would indicate; but being left almost entirely untouched by cattle, it appears as the most productive part of the herbage. The hay which is made from it, from the number of downy hairs which cover the surface of the leaves, is soft and spungy, and disliked by cattle in general."-After this opinion from so competent a judge, I feel strengthened greatly in my dislike to this unjustly fashionable grass,

Fiorin grass, which has now established itself, aided by the indefatigable exertions of Dr. Richardson, who, (instead of the sneers of ignorance) for his unwearied dispersion of it all over the world, deserves a statue to his memory; and I must be permitted to suggest, that the Farming Society of Ireland are not as much alive to his merit as he deserves: though he is above all pecuniary remuneration, they should rank their deep sense of his merit, by a handsome piece of plate, made still more acceptable, by a consciousness of deserving it. There is not perhaps in all the range of agricultural improvement, any vegetable more highly deserving of encouragement, especially, when it is considered, that it thrives best on bog. It would be amusing, if it was not disgusting, to hear the doubts expressed of the truth of the statements of its produce by different gentlemen: will those sagacious men tell the following gentlemen they lie ?-The Bishop of Derry 71⁄2 tons of dry hay per acre: in December 1812, the Rev. Thomas Radcliffe, secretary to the Farmers' Society, and well known for his scientific knowledge of agriculture, sent in a report to the Farming Society of Ireland of Dr. Richardson's Fiorin meadows; it is inserted in the Irish Farmer's Journal of January the 9th, 1813, to which I must refer, as being too long for this publication; and as I cannot possibly suppose any agriculturist can be so stupid as not to possess this valuable publication;-I also publish the following state

* Since I composed this eulogium, the subject of it has gone to that place where virtue meets its reward. It is curious to see the opinion expressed of Fiorin grass, in his Elementary Treatise on the indigenous grasses of Ireland. "There is also a grass which grows in our low "grounds, that I have heard some farmers talk of with much delight; "they call it Fiorin or Fioreen grass; I have taken pains to procure "some plants of it, but have not succeeded."

ment from the same Journal of the 27th May, 1815.— The late much lamented Mr. Travers Adamson, near Moate, county of Westmeath, received a premium of £50. from the Farming Society of Ireland, for two acres of Fiorin hay: it was stated by sworn viewers to be perfectly well saved, for either rick or loft, (a doubtful point with some wiseacres); it was planted only in November 1813, on a dry pasturable bog, with ten or twelve spit of turf under it;-the bog was pared and burned; the crop was mowed between the 12th September, and 1st of October; it was weighed and ricked in November and weighed 16 tons, 2cwt. 3qrs. and 16lb. it was weighed again in May, before Mr. Anthony Robinson of Moate, and weighed 12 tons, 6cwt. and 2qrs. and was, as he affirms, of prime quality; this was equal to upwards of 31 Smithfield loads, of 4cwt. weight each, per acre. The expence of procuring this very valuable crop (exclusive of burning, probably forty shillings), was only £4. 10s. 2d. Every person can appreciate the value of this immense crop, on ground of very little value; it must be also recollected, that it was produced in one year from the time of planting, which could not be accomplished from any other plant usually made into hay.—Mr. Morley Saunders, of Saunder's Grove in the county of Wicklow, at the same time received the second premium of £30. for the second best two acres; the produce, by the affidavit of Mr. James Critchly, appears to be 9 tons, 15cwt." the hay was remarkably dry, (if any thing too dry.)" and on the 13th of May, 1815, it had been weighed when it was fit to rick, and weighed 11 tons per acre; it is necessary to remark, that this crop was of spontaneous growth:* at the same time Mr. David

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• I much doubt the propriety of giving a premium for spontaneous growth.