Bleary Rural Community

Farming In Ulster Throughout The Centuries

During the last 250 years, changes in farming methods have transformed the countryside. Ulster farmers have worked with the changes in common with the rest of Ireland producing potatoes and oats as the basic food crops while cattle, sheep and the pig have been the most important livestock.

After the catastrophic Famine years of the 1840’s, there was somewhat of a long-term swing away from tillage of the land with the rearing of livestock taking prominence. To this day, livestock farming remains the specialised sector of the rural economy.

The overall pattern of Ulster farming has had its own distinctive regional character. A true example of this in history is that of pig farming. The large White Ulster pig has been perhaps one of the most economically efficient breed of all time. At a domestic level, pigs were fattened both for money and also to enrich the family diet. Commercially, pigs have also been slaughtered on the home farm before being brought to market.

On the other hand, tillage has also been a common means of farming and one crop has been strongly associated with this area, namely Flax. During the eighteenth century, many farms were involved in linen production with the smaller farmers complimenting their income with weaving sometimes termed ‘farm weavers’.

Industrialisation of linen manufacture was on the horizon in the late 1800’s, thus removing spinning and weaving from the farms e.g. Cottage industry. At this time, holdings remained small due largely to labour intensive linen production as farmers could only work small holdings.

For instance, in 1911, almost 90% of farms in Ulster were less than 50 acres but with industrialisation and the advent of mechanisation, the scene was changing.

Most medium sized farms owned a swing plough, a set of implements for drill cultivation and perhaps a small reaping machine. Many of these implements and especially the plough, were manufactured in small localfoundries or blacksmiths shops. In this area in particular, there was a recognisable local character to the ‘home-made’ implements.

Ideas for new implements were not all imports. Many notable inventions come from local areas and perhaps Ferguson’s three-point linkage is the most notable.

Other inventions include J. Hanson’s potato digger and H.Adams Fiddle, which assisted in the tricky task of spreading sown seed evenly. It was in the 1920’s that the government decided to organise large scale marketing of produce and to standardise the processing of food.

The Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture passed an actin 1947 known as ‘The Farmers Charter’ which assured markets and guaranteed prices for fat cattle, sheep, pigs, liquid milk, wool, eggs, potatoes and cereals. This act assured farmers of a guaranteed income and thus allowed farmers to develop and expand their business with the small farms rapidly disappearing.
In more recent times, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) have had the task of integrating the agricultural industry in Northern Ireland into the European Union with even the smallest of farms having to respond to directives from Brussels. In the last few years, as the agricultural industry has suffered various set backs through diseases and the loss of export markets, there has been a growing awareness of the environmental dangers posed by intensive farming methods and over production.  The idea has again arisen of smaller farms, diversified, mixed farming suited to the local environment. As we strive forward, one can appreciate the enormous advances that have been made in the agricultural industry but we should not forget that rural society has suffered dramatically with changing practices.

John Harrison 2008