Poultry Hens scratching around a farmyard were a common sight in rural Ireland. At night these free-range hens would be shut in chicken huts to ...
Aughnacloy Egg Market If eggs were produced in sufficient quantity the farmer’s wife had the opportunity to sell her produce in the nearby town or village. ...
Cattle In the second half of the l9th century there was a 60 per cent increase in cattle numbers in Ireland, which reflected the general shift ...
Turf cutting In rural Ulster turf provided the main fuel for heating and cooking. The widespread deposits of peat and the easy access to the bogs ...
Flax Harvest The growing demand for flax from the linen industry encouraged more Ulster farmers to grow the crop. After the sheaves of flax had been ...
Flax Harvest 2 After the flax stems had rotted labourers had the unpleasant task of removing the retted flax from the dams. The retted flax was then ...
Retted Flax After the flax had been retted it had to be tied up and built in stacks where it stayed until it was time to send it to a local mill for ...
Hayshed Stronger farmers were willing to invest profits in new buildings and machinery. While most farmers left their hay outside in stacks, ...
Mechanical Binder New machinery reduced the demand for agricultural labourers on many Ulster farms. The mechanical binder, which was pulled by horses and ...
Manual work In spite of the increased use of machinery, a great deal of manual labour was still common on the land. In bogland, which was either ...
