farming

farming began in Ireland around 3800 bc. Archaeological evidence suggests that cattle, sheep, and pigs were kept and that cereals have been cultivated since earliest times. Other crops and animals have been introduced at later dates, for example horses and flax in the Bronze Age, poultry in the Iron Age, hay in the medieval period, and potatoes in the 16th century. New farming methods have also been developed or introduced throughout the millennia. It is probably best to see these as increasing available options for farmers rather than as a simple progression, where a new method immediately rendered earlier techniques obsolete. Some techniques, such as the use of narrow, steep‐sided cultivation ridges, which were in use by 2500 bc, are still sometimes found today.

Early literary sources show that by the early medieval period, a stratified, settled agricultural society was well established. Prestige was measured by the number and quality of cattle a farmer owned, but possession of horses and especially the ability to make up a plough team were also important indicators of status. The Anglo‐Normans made a major impact on farming practices. Farm implements, particularly ploughs, changed greatly, and implements such as scythes were introduced. During the late medieval and early modern periods, increasing trade led to the introduction of larger cattle, horses, and other types of livestock, and change of all sorts accelerated in the early 18th century. The foundation of the Dublin Society (see royal dublin society) in 1731 can be seen as marking the beginning of this period of great change, which was documented in increasing detail by contemporaries. Most of these were highly critical of farming practices in common use. It was alleged that implements were crude and inefficient, crops low yielding and weed infested, rotations minimal or non‐existent, and ground cropped to exhaustion. Animals were claimed to be generally unimpressive in size, breeding uncontrolled, and care and management negligent. Modern historians have argued that these criticisms failed to take into account great variations in practice, related to differences in farm size and regional conditions. Arthur Young, for example, visited farms in Co. Tipperary during the 1770s which were huge even by international standards, while in other parts of Ireland, and particularly in Connacht and Ulster, farming was done on tiny holdings which could barely provide a subsistence living for their occupiers.

Contemporary commentators also lacked awareness of the limits which size of holding, labour supply, and lack of capital put not only on farmers' ability to make large‐scale systemic changes, but also on the potential value of such ‘improvements’. Common farming practice required heavy labour inputs, but where these were available the systems followed were often remarkable more for their refinement and adaptability than for their crudity. Spade tillage, or the use of sickles for harvesting grain, for example, allow minute adjustments in response to varying conditions within a field, of a kind which are impossible using mechanized techniques. Evidence for the relative efficiency of ‘common’ systems can be found in the massive exports of Irish farm produce during the early 19th century, which led to Ireland being described as the granary of Britain.

By the mid‐19th century many Irish farmers, responding to changing market conditions, and in particular to competition from North American imports, were turning away from crop production towards livestock farming. This trend accelerated greatly after the Great Famine, when the sharp decline in the availability of cheap agricultural labour made more capital‐intensive livestock farming increasingly attractive. The movement away from tillage has continued almost uninterrupted until the present day. Paradoxically, the swing away from arable farming coincided with the period of increasing mechanization of farming methods, made possible both by the importation of new machinery, and by the local production of implements in a growing number of foundries (see iron). Older, labour‐intensive methods increasingly gave way to the standardized techniques developed by international experimentation. The complex manual techniques used to prepare marginal land for cultivation began a particularly rapid decline, as the areas concerned, cleared of people by heavy Famine mortality and emigration, were converted by landlords to large‐scale sheep farming. During the second half of the 19th century, the number of sheep in Ireland more than doubled.

In richer lowland areas, cattle farming expanded greatly. Throughout Ireland as a whole, the number of cattle increased by over 60 per cent, to 4,673,323 in 1900. The activities of bodies such as the co‐operative movement and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction led to the organization of dairy production in creameries, and by the early 20th century Ireland had become a leading exporter in this field.

During the 20th century, Ireland, north and south, developed an international reputation in scientific farming, particularly in the production of new potato varieties. The country has also played a central role in farm technology, especially in the development of tractors. The south of Ireland became an early centre for tractor production when Henry Ford moved production of his company's tractors to a factory outside Cork in 1919. In the north, Harry Ferguson revolutionized tractor design worldwide during the 1930s, with the development of his three‐point hydraulic linkage. This allowed farmers to drive the tractor and at the same time manipulate the implement attached behind. By the 1950s, Ferguson tractors were internationally famous. The paradox of Irish farming, noted since the 18th century, still applies, however. Irish farmers now respond rapidly to changes in world conditions, mediated to a large extent by current policies in the European Union. At the same time, it is still possible to see techniques used, such as ridge making and stone wall building, which were practised 4,500 years ago.

See also agriculture.

Bibliography

Bell, J., and and Watson, M. , Irish Farming (1986)
Gillmor, D. A. , ‘The Political Factor in Agricultural History: Trends in Irish Agriculture 1922–85’, Agricultural History Review, 37/2 (1989)
Kelly, Fergus , Early Irish Law (1988)

Jonathan Bell