A very valuable description of farm practice in Ireland! Thanks you so much Mr. McCoy.
K. Green On Oct 18, 2018, at 6:46 PM, Ron McCoy via CoTyroneList <cotyronelist@cotyroneireland.com> wrote: > Hi Marion > > I am guilty of being a farmer and my last name is McCoy a version of McCay. I > have also walked a lot of farms in Ireland but do not claim to be an expert > on any thing you have mentioned below. Having said that I can give it a go > until someone who is more knowledgeable comes along and corrects my poor > thoughts. You say it is 39 Cunningham acres shared by four farmers. That is > hard to know how big that is because the Cunningham acre was different in > different Scotch/Ulster communities. As you know the Irish acre was about 27% > bigger per side for a 60% increase over a Statue acre. You are right about > the potatoes and oats. These were grown in any shape plot they could find and > often close to the house to provide food and sale if possible. At the height > of the many potato famines Irish potatoes were still advertised on the Docks > of Quebec and Montreal for sale. The first description is mountain arable and > heathy pasture, shallow white gravely sand subsoil. The land is arable so > it has been cleared and has been plowed at one time. Likely rocks picked and > fences build. However by the description as being heathy pasture and shallow > I take it to likely mean at one time there was lots of erosion and the fields > played out quickly. Heathy land especially on the hill sides are usually > covered with low growing shrubs which are the devil to take out again and are > extremely invasive. With out an aerial map it is hard to tell but probably > the land is on a steep slope and may be part of what is known as a ladder > grazing system. The population of Ireland was about 8 million people to this > day it still has not regained that number. Every inch of land was being > cleared and utilized. The ladder grazing systems took old fields that were > unsuited for plowing any longer and used them for seasonal grazing. Farmers > usually together took the cattle to the top fields of the hills early in the > spring were the top field was dry and the early grass already growing. As > each field below grew and got dry enough they would move the cattle down the > ladder to the bottom of the hill. This system was well established and > communities worked together to mend fences, maintain fields and share pasture > land. > > The next description is of a deep arable soil which usually means that their > is a good depth of top soil. Moory land is usually wet and boggy often > containing high levels of peat and high organic mater which has a number of > difficulties in farming. The Irish farmers dealt with wet bogey lands by > ditching and creating what was known as ,"Irish Drains,." These were the for > runner of our modern tile drains. They would dig a net work of ditches and > lay stones in them with flat stones on top. The water would find its way to > the spaces between the stones and flow to a near by stream via the Irish > drain. This took incredible craftsmanship and hand labour and many of them > still work today however once you had improved the land this way the tax or > rent would jump considerably. In some ways times have not changed... > > Hope that is of some help > > cheers > > Ron McCoy > > > On 2018-10-18 12:22 PM, Marion via CoTyroneList wrote: >> Hello All, >> Are there any farmers out there? This is a description of the area where my >> Great gt Grandfather, Thomas McCay, farmed in the Townland Valuation . He >> shared about 39 Cunningham acres with four other farmers in the first area >> and had about 2 acres in the second . The land is obviously pretty poor and >> I wondered if anyone could suggest how this land would have been used at >> that time. From my reading I guess he grew some oats and potatoes and used >> the pasture for some kind of livestock but I would be interested in any >> comments from people with more knowledge than me. >> The Townland Valuation 1828-40 >> This was carried out by the Ordnance Survey and provided a very detailed >> description of the land in each townland. On June 20th 1833 it was the turn >> of Rabstown to undergo this process. The townland was divided into 5 areas, >> noted on an accompanying map, and each described and valued. The area in >> which Thomas shared land with a group of farmers and in which Archibald's >> farm was situated was probably area 3 and the following description is given: >> >> '3 A recd (reclaimed) mountain arable >> >> and heathy pasture, shallow, >> >> white gravely sand subsoil' >> >> The value or rate for the land in this area is given as 3s per statute acre, >> later increased to 3/6. This was by far the least valuable land in Rabstown, >> other areas being rated at between 9/6 and 14s in the initial valuation. >> Thomas' land in Glentown was obviously much better. It was in area 7 and >> surveyed on June 24th. The description is as follows: >> >> '7 A good free deep arable 1/3 >> deep 2/3 a moory arable of moderate depth and part exposed >> >> >> >> Also reclaimed bog wet and heathy pasture’ >> >> >> >> This was valued initially at 11/6 per statute acre, later being raised to >> 12/6, while the reclaimed bog and heathy pasture was valued at 3/6. >> >> Many Thanks >> Marion Shephard >> >> Sent from Mail for Windows 10 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> CoTyroneList mailing list >> CoTyroneList@cotyroneireland.com >> http://mail.cotyroneireland.com/mailman/listinfo/cotyronelist_cotyroneireland.com > > _______________________________________________ > CoTyroneList mailing list > CoTyroneList@cotyroneireland.com > http://mail.cotyroneireland.com/mailman/listinfo/ > (_internal_name)s > <A > HREF="https://www.mail-archive.com/cotyronelist@cotyroneireland.com/index.html";>CoTyroneIreland.com > Mailing List Archive</A> >
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