THE BIRCHES is a rural post-office and Petty Sessions district, 6 miles north-west of Portadown.  Colonel Stanley, Mr. Edward S. Obré, Mr. Charles Stanley, Lord Charlemont, Capt. William Brown, and Mr. A.T. Wakefield are the landlords.  A clump of birches growing near the road, a short distance below the post office, suggest the appropriateness of the name given to the neighbourhood, the greater part of which is a partly cultivated bog.  Birches grow naturally in this region.  Mr.  Thomas Palmer informs me that the entire bog was a birch forest 70 years ago.  The roots are now found in cutting peat.  Good crops of potatoes and oats are produced in the boggy land by means of a process known as "heating."  Turf fires are lighted around the parts about to be planted, and kept up until sufficient warmth is generated to force vegetation.  Hot ashes are also spread upon the surface.  By treatment of this kind a better crop of oats is secured than is yielded by the richest loam lands.  Without "heating," oats will not average eighteen inches in height.  Some of the landlords have objected to the heating process on the ground that it is using up the surface of the bog.  A proposal was made to induce the tenants to pay 5s. an acre extra for the privilege, but they did not seem to relish the idea.
Church:  Methodist, Portadown Circuit