| HOME | BOOKS | PRINTED MAPS | MAPS ON CD-ROM | GENEALOGISTS | CONTACT US | PRIVACY |
 

powered by FreeFind
 
Ireland Gazeteer

County Down in 1837

Agriculture & Condition of the People

The prevalent soil in the low district is a stony loam formed by the decomposition of the schistose rock. Clayey soils are confined to the north-east of the county and the barony of Ards, and are of a strong and productive quality, but they are wet and require a large quantity of manure.

The richest soil in the county is in the district of Lecale, and a small tract of loam incumbent on limestone gravel in the neighbourhood of Moira and Magheralin: the timber here is of larger growth than elsewhere in Down. Alluvial tracts are frequent, and yield luxuriant crops of grass without manure.

The bogs in general are not larger than is advantageous for purposes of turbary. Moory land is confined to the mountain district: the soil is here light and gravelly; but with proper cultivation, as in the vicinity of Newry and of Castlewellan, can be made to yield good crops of oats and barley.

Considerable quantities of wheat are raised throughout the county, but chiefly along both shores of Strangford Loch; oats and barley are the chief produce of the south and centre of the county.

Numerous resident nobility and gentry set an example of the best modes of cultivation; and several farming societies encourage competition among the landowners by annual ploughing matches and cattle-shows.

The contrast between the slovenly farming of Meath and the workmanlike manner in which the land is fenced and laid down in this county strikes an observer travelling from Dublin to Belfast very forcibly.

The system of green crops and stall feeding is now being pursued by most of the gentlemen-farmers; but has not yet become general among the ordinary landowners.

Fences on the Antrim boundary and along the line of the Dublin road are of quickthorn; clay banks and dry stone walls are most common in the other parts of the county.

Large quantities of sea-weed are used as manure along the north-east and eastern coast. The distance of limestone quarries renders lime manure very expensive throughout the central baronies; but in the south and south-east there is an abundant supply of marl in the barony of Lecale.

This valuable substance is found in morasses and alluvial tracts at the bottoms of hills, and consists entirely of marine exuviae: the bed of marl is sometimes five feet in thickness. It was first brought into use in 1707, before which time the neighbouring country was only moderately fertile in oats and barley: but with a judicious use of this manure it now yields excellent crops of wheat.

The immediate advance on the value of land which followed its introduction was four-fold, and a corn trade was opened from Strangford in consequence. The eagerness, however, with which this manure was applied led to the bad consequences which always attend strong manuring and over cropping; and it is said that so late as 1804 some of these lands had not yet recovered.

The annual agricultural produce of Down has been valued at £1,390,000; the rental of proprietors at £172,329 per annum, and the rent to occupiers of land, at 22 shillings per acre.

The following table exhibits the quantities of wheat, &c., sold at the principal grain markets of Down in the years 1834-5. The market of Newry is supplied from Armagh and other counties, as well as from Down ; and large quantities of the produce of Down are disposed of at Belfast.

(All amounts in the following table are in tons)

Wheat

Oats

Barley

Rye

Bere

Market increase or decrease
Downpatrick

3,200

380

2,400

200

450

Increasing
Portaferry

1,600

244

1,600

--

--

Increasing
Strangford

570

195

800

--

--

Decreasing
Ardglass

400

390

400

--

--

Decreasing
Killough

1,600

200

1,000

--

--

Increasing
Ballynahinch

3

1,700

7

4

--

Decreasing
Killileagh

1,900

200

140

--

--

Increasing
Banbridge

1,330

--

--

--

--

Increasing
Moira

214

90

--

--

--

Decreasing
Dromore

--

--

--

--

--

No return 1835
Newtownards

1,000

700

800

--

--

Increasing
Newry

7,710

23,850

3,610

--

--

Increasing

Down is not a grazing county, nor are there any sheep farms; but great numbers of pigs are reared for the provision markets of Newry and Belfast.

The general condition of the people is much superior to that of the peasantry of the southern counties. Wages of labourers are 10 pence per day in winter, and 1 shilling during the rest of the year: the average number of day's work obtained in agriculture each year is 160.

xtent of the county than in any other part of Ulster. Among the principal may be mentioned the marquisses of Downshire and Donegal, and during a part of each year the marquis of Londonderry and Lord Clanwilliam, the earl of Roden, Earl Annesley, Lord Dufferin and Claneboy, Lord Bangor, Sir Robert Bateson, Mr. Ker, Colonel Forde, Mr. Sharman Crawford, &c., with incomes varying from £8,000 to £60,000 per annum.

The yeomanry of the county are an intelligent class. Blue cloth is the usual dress of the better class of the peasantry, and the loose frieze coat so common in Louth and the borders of Armagh is rarely seen here.

The provisions of the lighting and paving act have been put in force in Newry and Downpatrick, and Banbridge, and are about being extended to Dromore.