In several places in the southern half of the limestone plain 
there are isolated ranges of 700-1,000 feet [above] sea-level and of 
considerable extent, formed by the coal-bearing strata. They occur 
in synclines in the surface of the limestone, protruding from it as 
plateaus with fairly steep sides. 

“The escarpments in these widely separated tracts of coal-measures are so 
similar, and the beds composing them so precisely alike, that it is impossible to 
suppose otherwise than that they originally formed continuous sheets of rock, 
although they are now separated by sixty or eighty miles.... This belief is strongly 
confirmed by the fact, that there are often, between the two larger areas, several 
little outlying patches in which the coal-measures are found capping the summits of 
small hills [...] and that wherever the undulation of the limestone is such as to bring 
its upper beds down beneath the level of the present surface of the ground, we 
invariably find some of the lower beds of the coal-measures coming in upon them” 
(Jukes, p. 286).* 

Yet other factors, which would lead us into too much detail here 
and can be found in Jukes, pp. 286-89, leave no doubt that, as 
Jukes says, the entire central plain of Ireland is a result of 
denudation, so that, the coal-measures and the upper limestone 
deposits having been washed away—an average thickness of at 
least 2,000-3,000 feet, perhaps 5,000-6,000 feet of stone,—it is 
now principally the bottom layers of limestone that have emerged 
on the surface. Even on the highest ridge of the Burren Hills, 
County Clare, which consist of pure limestone and are 1,000 feet 
high, Jukes found (p. 513) yet another small outcrop of the 
coal-measures. 

In fact, in the south of Ireland there are still some fairly 
significant tracts possessing coal-measures; but among them only 
isolated spots contain coal thick enough to make mining worth- 
while. Moreover, the coal itself is anthracitic, i.e. it contains little 
hydrogen and cannot be used for all industrial purposes without 
additives. 

In the north of Ireland there are also several not very extensive 
coalfields whose coal is bituminous, i.e. ordinary pit-coal rich in 
hydrogen, and whose stratification does not entirely match that of 
the coal districts further south. It is, however, quite evident that 
the coal-measures were washed away here too: large pieces of coal, 
along with sandstone and blue clay from the same formation, have 
been found on the surface of a limestone valley to the south-east 
of one of these coalfields in the direction of Belturbet and Mohill. 
Large blocks of coal have frequently been found in the course 
of well-sinking in the drift of this area; and, in some cases, the 

amounts of coal were so considerable that it was thought that _ 
deeper excavation would lead to a coal seam (Kane, Industrial 
Resources of Ireland, 2nd edition, Dublin, 1845, p. 265). 

It can be seen that Ireland’s misfortune is ancient indeed: it 
‘commences immediately after the coal-measures were deposited. A 
country whose coal deposits have been washed away, situated right 
next to a larger country with plenty of coal, was for a long time 
condemned by nature, as it were, to play the part of a farming 
land vis-a-vis the future industrial country. This sentence, pro- 
nounced millions of years ago, was not carried out until this 
century. What is more, we shall see later how the English gave 
nature a helping hand by immediately and violently trampling 
underfoot almost any sign of burgeoning industry in Ireland. 

More recent Secondary and Tertiary deposits '*’ occur almost 
solely in the north-east; among them of chief interest to us are the 
Keuper strata in the Belfast area, which contain more or less pure 
rock-salt to a. thickness of up to 200 feet (Jukes, p. 554), and the 
chalk, which covers the whole of County Antrim, the chalk itself 
being overlaid with basalt. Generally speaking, the history of 
Ireland’s geological development came to a halt from the end of 
the Carboniferous Period to the Ice Age. 

It is known that after the end of the Tertiary Epoch there was a 
period when the lowlands of the middle latitudes of Europe were 
submerged beneath the sea and when such cold temperatures 
prevailed in Europe that the valleys of the islands of mountain still 
protruding were covered with glaciers right down to the sea. The 
icebergs, which detached themselves from these glaciers, carried 
large and small boulders from the mountains out to sea, until the 
ice melted and the boulders and other debris transported by the 
ice sank to the bottom—a process that still occurs daily along the 
coasts of the polar regions. 

During the Ice Age Ireland, too, with the exception of the 
mountain tops, was submerged beneath the sea. The maximum 
extent of this submergence may not have been the same 
everywhere, but one may assume it to have been, on average, 
about 1,000 feet below the present level; the granite mountains 
to the south of Dublin must have been submerged by over 1,200 
feet. 

If Ireland were to sink only 500 feet, the mountain ranges alone 
would be left, forming two semi-circular groups of islands on 
either side of a broad sound stretching from Dublin to Galway. 
Were the land to sink even lower, these islands would shrink in 
size and in number until, at a drop of 2,000 feet, omy the peaks of 

the outermost mountains would be left sticking up out of the 
water.* 

As this submersion slowly took place, the limestone plain and 
the mountainsides must have been cleared of a great deal of older 
rock that had overlain them; there then followed the deposition of 
the “drift” peculiar to the Ice Age over the entire area that was 
covered by water. The matter produced by the weathering of the 
mountain islands, and the finely ground particles of rock scraped 
out of the valleys by the slowly but powerfully moving glaciers— 
earth, sand, gravel, stones, smoothly polished blocks in the ice 
itself, sharp-edged ones on its surface—all this was carried out to 
sea by the icebergs as they detached themselves from the shore, 
and eventually sank to the bottom. Depending on the cir- 
cumstances, the layer thus formed consists of clay (deriving from 
argillaceous schist), sand (from quartz and granite), limestone 
gravel (from limestone mountains), mar] (where finely ground 
limestone was mixed with clay) or of mixtures of all these 
components; in every case, however, it contains a quantity of 
stones, some large, some small, sometimes rounded, sometimes 
jagged, and some the size of those colossal erratic boulders which 
occur even more frequently in Ireland than on the North German 
Plain or between the Alps and the Jura. 

When the land was subsequently raised up out of the sea once 
more, this newly formed surface acquired, more or less, its 
present-day composition. In Ireland little washing-away seems to 
have taken place in the process; with few exceptions, the drift 
covers all the flat land in a layer of varying thickness, extends to. 
the valleys in the mountains and is often found high up on the 
mountainsides, too. The rocks occurring in it are chiefly lime- 
stone; for this reason, the entire layer is commonly termed Limestone 
GrAvEL* here. Numerous large limestone boulders are also scattered | 
over all the lowlying land, one or more in almost every field. 
Obviously, near the mountains besides the limestone, the local 
rocks originating there (particularly granite) are also found in 
large quantities. Granite from the northern shore of Galway Bay 
occurs in the plain to the south-east, in large quantities as far as 
the Galton Mountains, and in odd instances as far as Mallow 
(County Cork). 

* Of Ireland’s 32,509 English square miles, 13,243 lie between sea-level and 250 
feet; 11,797 are 251-500 feet above sea-level; 5,798 are 501-1,000 feet; 1,589 are 
1,001-2,000 feet; 82 square miles are 2,001 feet or more above sea-level. 

The north of the country is covered with drift to the same 
height above sea-level as the central plain; between the various 
more or less parallel chains of mountains traversing it, the south 
displays a similar deposit, deriving from local rocks of chiefly 
Silurian formation, and occurring in large quantities particularly 
in the valley of the Flesk and the Laune near Killarney. 

The traces of the glacier on the mountainsides and the valley. 
floors in Ireland are very common and unmistakable, particularly 
in the south-west. Only in Oberhasli and here and there in 
Sweden do I recall having seen more distinct traces of ice of every 
kind than in Killarney (in the Black Valley and the Gap of 
Dunloe). 

The elevation of the land during or after the Ice Age seems to 
have been so pronounced that Britain was for a while connected 
by dry land not only with the Continent but with Ireland as well. 
At least, this seems to be the only explanation for the similarity of 
the fauna of these countries. Of the extinct large mammals 
Ireland had: the mammoth, the Irish giant stag, the cave-bear, a 
species of reindeer, and others in common with the Continent. In 
fact, an elevation of less than 240 feet above the present level 
would be sufficient to join Ireland and Scotland, and one of less 
than 360 feet to join Ireland and Wales with wide ridges of land.* 
The fact that at some time after the Ice Age Ireland occupied a 
higher level than at present is proved by the underwater peat 
bogs with upright treestumps and roots which occur all along the 
coast, and are identical in every respect with the lowest layers 
of the adjoining inland peat bogs. 

Insofar as it is suitable for agriculture, the soil of Ireland is 
accordingly almost entirely composed of “drift” from the Ice Age; 
here, thanks to its schist and limestone origin, it is an extremely 
fertile light loam, unlike the barren. sand with which the Scottish, 
Scandinavian and Finnish granites have covered such a large part 
of North Germany. The diversity of the rocks which have laid 
down their deposits on this soil—and continue to do so— 
provided it with a corresponding diversity of the mineral elements 

* See Map 15a in Stieler’s school-atlas, 1868. This map, as well as No. 15d of 
Ireland in particular, gives a very clear picture of the nature of the terrain. 

necessary for the vegetation; and if one of these, lime, is often 
absent from the surface soil, there is nevertheless an abundance of 
limestone boulders of different sizes everywhere—quite apart 
from the underlying limestone bed—so that it can easily be added. 

When the well-known English agronomist Arthur Young travel- 
led in Ireland in the 1770s he did not know what surprised him 
more, the natural fertility of the soil, or the barbaric treatment 
meted out to it by the farmers. “A light, dry, soft, sandy loam 
soil” prevails wherever the land is any good at all. In the “Golden 
Vale” of Tipperary and elsewhere, too, he found 

“the same sandy reddish loam I have already described, incomparable land for 
tillage”. From there, in the airection of Clonmel, “the whole way, through the 
same rich vein of red sandy loam I have so often mentioned. I examined it in 
several fields, and found it to be of an extraordinary fertility, and as fine turnip 
land as ever I saw”. 

Further: 

“The rich land reaches from Charleville, at the foot of the mountains, to 
Tipperary,” (the city), “by Kilfennan, a line of twenty-five miles, and across from 
Ardpatrick to within four miles of Limerick—sixteen miles.”—‘“The richest land is 
the Corcasses on the Maag, near Adare, a tract of five miles long, and two broad, 
down to the Shannon... When they break this land up, they sow first oats, and get 
twenty barrels an acre” (14 stone or 196 pounds per barrel), “or forty common 
_ barrels, and do not reckon that an extra crop; they take ten or twelve in succession 
[...] till the crops grow poor, and then they sow one of horse beans, which refreshes 
the land enough to take ten crops of oats more; the beans are very good.... Were 
such barbarians ever heard of?” 

Further, near Castle Oliver, County Limerick: 

“The finest soil in the country is upon the roots of mountains; it is a rich, 
mellow, crumbling, putrid, sandy loam, eighteen inches to three feet deep; the 
colour a reddish brown. It is dry, sound land, and would do for turnips 
exceedingly well, for carrots, for cabbages; and, in a word, for everything. I think 
upon the whole it is the richest soil I ever saw, and such as is applicable to every 
purpose you can wish. It will fat the largest bullock, and at the same time do 
equally well for sheep, for tillage, for turnips, for wheat, for beans; and, in a word, 
for every crop [...]. You must examine into the soil before you will believe that a 
country, which has so beggarly an appearance, can be so rich and fertile.” 

On the river Blackwater near Mallow 

“there are tracts of flat lands, in some places one quarter of a mile broad; the grass 
everywhere remarkably fine. It-is the finest sandy land I have anywhere seen, of a 
reddish-brown colour; would yield the greatest arable crops in the world, if in 
tillage. It is five feet deep, and [...] burns into good brick; yet it is a perfect sand. 
The banks of this river-—from its source to the sea—are equally remarkable for 
beauty of prospect, and fertility of soil.” —“Friable, sandy loams, dry but fertile, are 
very common, and they form the best soils in the kingdom for tillage and sheep. 
Tipperary and Roscommon abound particularly in them. The most fertile of all are 
the bullock pastures of Limerick, and the banks of the Shannon, in Clare, called 

the Corcasses.... Sand, which is so common in England, and yet more common 
through Spain, France, Germany, and Poland—quite from Gibraltar to Peters- 
burg—is nowhere met with in Ireland, except for narrow slips of hillocks upon the 
sea coast. Nor did I-ever meet with or hear of a chalky soil.” * 

Young’s verdict on the soil of Ireland is summarised in the 

following sentences: 

“If I was to name the characteristics of an excellent soil, I should say that* upon 
which you may fat an ox, and feed off a crop of turnips. By the way I recollect 
little or no such land in England, yet it is not uncommon in Ireland” (II, p. 271). 
“Natural fertility, acre for acre over the two kingdoms, is certainly in favour of 
Ireland” (II, Part 2, p. 3).—‘“As far as I can form a general idea of the soil of the 
two kingdoms, Ireland has much the advantage” (II, Part 2, p. 12). 

In 1808-10, Edward Wakefield, another Englishman versed in 
agronomy, travelled around Ireland and presented the results of 
his observations in a most valuable work.** His comments are 
better arranged, more lucid and more complete than those in 
Young’s travel book; on the whole, however, they are both 
accurate. 

On the whole, Wakefield finds no great diversity of soil in 
Ireland. Sand only occurs on the shore (it is so rare inland that 
large quantities of sea-sand are transported to the interior in order 
to improve the peat and loam soil), chalky soil is unknown (the 
chalk in Antrim, as mentioned above, is covered by a layer of 
basalt, which after weathering produces an extremely fertile 
surface soil—chalk constitutes the poorest soil in England), 

“and tenacious clays, such as those found in Oxfordshire, in some parts of 
Essex, and throughout High Suffolk, I could never meet with in Ireland’’.> 

The Irish call any loamy soil clay‘; there may be proper clay in 
Ireland, too, but in any case not on the surface as in some parts of 
England. There is limestone or calcareous gravel almost 
everywhere, he says. 

“The former is a useful production, and is converted into a source of wealth 
that will always be employed with advantage.” 4 

Mountains and peat bogs do, of course, reduce the fertile 
surface considerably. In the north, he says, there is little fertile 

* A Tour in Ireland by Arthur Young, 3 vols., London, 177.... The above 
passages are in Vol. II, pp. 28, 135, 143, 154, 165 and Part 2, p. 4.188 

** An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political. By Edward Wakefield. London, 
1812, 2 vols., in 4°.189 

land; yet here, too, there are extremely luxuriant valleys in every 
county, and even in deepest Donegal, at the foot of the wildest 
mountains, Wakefield unexpectedly came across a very fertile 
area. The intensive cultivation of flax in the north is in itself 
sufficient indication of the soil’s fertility, since this plant never 
thrives in poor soil. | 

“A great portion of the soil of Ireland throws out a luxuriant herbage, 
springing up from a calcareous subsoil, without any considerable depth. I have 
seen bullocks of the weight of 180 stone, rapidly fattening on land incapable of 
receiving the print of a horse’s foot, even in the wettest season, and where there 
were not many inches of soil. This is one species of the rich soil of Ireland, and is 
to be found throughout Roscommon, in some parts of Galway, Clare, and other 
districts. Some places exhibit the richest loam that I ever saw turned up by a 
plough; this is the case throughout Meath in particular. Where such soil occurs, its 
fertility is so conspicuous, that it appears as if nature had determined to counteract 
the bad effects produced by the clumsy system of its cultivators.— On. the banks of 
the Fergus and Shannon, the land is of a different kind, but equally productive, 
though the surface. presents the appearance of marsh. These districts are’ called 
‘the caucasses’”’ (thus writes Wakefield, differing with Young); “the substratum is a 
blue silt, deposited by the sea, which seems to partake of the qualities of the upper 
stratum; for this land can be injured by no depth of ploughing.—In the counties 
of Limerick and Tipperary there is another kind of rich land, consisting of a dark, 
friable, dry, sandy loam which, if preserved in a clean state, would throw out corn 
for several years in succession. It is equally well adapted to grazing and tillage, and 
I will venture to say, seldom experiences a season too wet, or a summer too dry. 
The richness of the land, in some of the vales, may be accounted for by the 
deposition of soil carried thither from the upper grounds by the rain. The subsoil 
is calcareous, so that the very richest manure is thus spread over the land below, 
without subjecting the farmer to any labour” (Vol. I, pp. 79, 80). 

Where there is a thinnish layer of sticky loam immediately on 
top of the limestone, the land is no use for arable farming, 
yielding only miserable crops of corn; but it provides excellent 
sheep-walks, which go on improving it, producing a thick grass 
mixed with plenty of white clover and...* (Vol. I, p. 80). 

Dr. Beaufort *. writes that in the west, particularly in Mayo, 
there are a great many rurtoucus—flat areas of differing sizes 
which, though not perceptibly fed by any streams or rivers, are 
covered with water in winter which drains away in summer 
through underground fissures in the limestone, leaving behind a 
firm, fertile grazing land. 

“Independently of the caucasses,” continues Wakefield, “the richest soil in 

Ireland is to be found in the counties of Tipperary, Limerick, Roscommon, 
Longford, and Meath. In Longford there is a farm called Granard Kill, which 

* Beaufort, Revd. Dr., Memoir of a Map of Ireland, 1792, pp. 75, 76. Quoted in 
Wakefield, Vol. I, p. 36. 

produced eight crops of potatoes without manure. Some parts of the County of 
Cork are uncommonly fertile, and upon the whole, Ireland may be considered as 
affording land of an excellent quality, though I am by no means prepared to go 
the length of many writers, who assert, that it is decidedly acre for acre richer than 
England” (Vol. I, |pp. 80-81)). 

The last remark, which is aimed at Young, stems from a 
misunderstanding of the statement by Young quoted above.* 
Young does not say that Ireland’s soil is more productive than 
England’s, taking them both in their present state of cultivation, 
which is naturally much higher in England; Young simply says 
that the natural fertility of the soil in Ireland is greater than in 
England, and Wakefield does not directly dispute this. 

A Scottish agronomist, Mr.Caird, was sent to Ireland in 1849, 
after the last famine, by Sir‘ Robert Peel to report on means of 
improving the agriculture there. In his report, published soon 
afterwards, on the West of Ireland, the worst hit part of the 
country except for the extreme north-west, he says: 

“I was much surprised to find so great an extent of fine fertile land. The 
interior of the country is very level, and its general character stony and dry; the 
soil dry and friable. The humidity of the climate causes a very constant vegetation, 
which has both advantages and disadvantages. It is favourable for grass and green 
crops,* but renders it necessary to employ very vigorous and persevering efforts to 
extirpate weeds. The abundance of lime everywhere, both in the rock itself, and as 
sand and gravel beneath the surface, are of the greatest value.” 

Caird also confirms that the whole of County Westmeath 
consists of the finest pasture land. Of the region north of Lough 
Corrib (County Mayo) he writes: 

“The greater part of this farm” (a farm of 500 acres) “is the finest feeding land 
for sheep and cattle—dry, friable, undulating land, all on limestone. The fields of 
rich old grass are superior to anything we have, except in small patches, in any part 
of Scotland I at present remember. The best of it is too good for tillage, but about 
one half of it might be profitably brought under the plough... The rapidity with 
which the land on this limestone subsoil recovers itself, and, without any seeds 
being sown, reverts to good pasture, is very remarkable.” ** 

* “GREEN CROPS”4 include all cultivated fodder crops, root vegetables of all 
kinds and potatoes; everything but corn, grass and garden produce. 

** Caird, The Plantation Scheme, or the West of Ireland as a field for investment, 
Edinburgh, 1850. The above passages are on pp. 6, 17-18, 121. In 1850-51, Mr. 
Caird wrote travel reports for The Times on the condition of agriculture in the 
main counties of England. 

Finally let us hear what a French authority says *: 

“Of the two divisions of Ireland, that of the north-west, embracing a fourth of 
the island, and comprehending the province of Connaught, with the adjacent 
counties of Donegal, Clare and Kerry, resembles Wales, and even, in its worst 
parts, the Highlands of Scotland. Here again are two millions of unsightly hectares, 
the frightful aspect of which has given rise to the national proverb, ‘Go to thé devil 
or Connaught’ **, The other, or south-east and much larger division, since it [...] 
includes the provinces of Leinster, Ulster and Munster, equal to about six millions of 
hectares, is at least equal in natural fertility to England proper. It is not 
all, however, equally good; the amount of humidity there is still greater than in 
England. Extensive bogs cover about a tenth of the surface; more than another 
tenth is occupied with mountains and lakes. In fact, five only out of eight millions 
of hectares in Ireland are cultivated” (pp. 9, 10).—‘“Even the English admit that 
Ireland, in point of soil, is superior to England. [...] Ireland contains eight millions 
of hectares. Rocks, lakes, and bogs occupy about two millions of these, and two 
millions more are indifferent land. The remainder—that is to say about half the 
country—is rich land, with calcareous subsoil. What better could be conceived?” 
(p. 343). 

It is evident that all the authorities are agreed that the soil of 
Ireland contains all the elements of fertility to an unusual degree, 
with regard to both its chemical constituents and its physical 
composition. The extremes—sticky, impenetrable clay, which 
allows no water through, and loose sand, which does not retain it 
for an hour—are nowhere to be found. Yet Ireland has another 
disadvantage. While the mountains are mainly along the coast, the 
watersheds between the different river basins in the interior of the 
country are mostly very low-lying. The rivers are not able to drain 
off all the rainwater into the sea, and this gives rise to extensive 
peat bogs in the interior, particularly on the watersheds. In the 
plain alone 1,576,000 acres are covered by peat bogs. These are 
mostly depressions or hollows in the terrain, largely former 
shallow lake basins, which have gradually become overgrown with 
moss and bog plants and filled up with their decayed remains. 
Like our North German bogs they are no use except for 
peat-cutting. With the present system of agriculture their edges 
can only slowly be brought under cultivation. The floor of these 
former lake basins consists of marl everywhere which derives its 
limestone content (ranging from 5 to 90%) from the shells of the 
freshwater mussels in the lake. Thus, each one of these peat bogs 
contains within itself the material for its own reclamation and 
cultivation. In addition, most of them are rich in iron stone. Apart 

* Léonce de Lavergne, Rural Economy of England, Scotland and_ Ireland.