200 



The Country Gentlemaiis Magazine 



tions for loans for farm buildings have in- 

 creased, and I anticipate a progressive im- 

 provement and increase. Loans for build- 

 ing labourers' cottages must become more 

 numerous ; the difficulty of getting labourers, 



wages is expended on them, and shops vath 

 modern imported articles of dress are now 

 well supported in the same towns and vil- 

 lages where no such things were seen prior 

 to the potato failure. New banks have alsO' 



even at 50 per cent, advance on the rate of been established in numerous towns, fre- 



wages paid ten or twelve years since, unless 

 suitable habitations are provided for them, 

 will increase every year, and landowners who 

 reside any distance from towns must provide 

 houses for their workmen on their lands, and 

 even v/ith this inducement they do not find 

 it easy to get good men." 



The report of Mr W. P. Prendergast, 

 inspector for the North Western District, is 

 especially worthy of note : — "The applica- 

 tions for new loans," he says, " have not been 



quented exclusively by farmers, and which 

 have not increased in size, but derive their . 

 business from the agricultural profits brought 

 in. The breed of live stock of all kinds — 

 cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, has vastly- 

 improved. Prices for all farming producc?- 

 especially what is sold by the smaller farmers, 

 in this district, such as butter, pigs, eggs, and 

 poultry, have risen so much that the rewards- 

 for exertion are felt to be quite different 

 from what were formerly kno\\Ti, and the- 



numerous, as owners do not, for the most use of money is better understood by the 

 part, feel disposed to expend money on farms rural population, so that while higher wages. 



in the hands of tenants, and the greater 

 number of resident landlords in these counties 

 had already improved the land in their own 

 occupation ; but wherever any ground falls 

 under the immediate control of a proprietor. 



are demanded than employers ever before 

 paid — and some check is said to be given lo- 

 works of drainage and land improvemeiftt 

 from this cause — it can only be considered as 

 a temporary stoppage, similar to what occurs 



there is ample proof that drainage and other in manufacturing enterprise." 



improvements are far better understood than 

 in former years, and that it is not from any 

 objection to the terms of the Acts, or to the 

 regulations of the Board, that the fund is not 

 more frequently resorted to. I find in all 

 quarters more attention paid than hitherto to 

 the question of improved dwelling-houses 

 and offices for farmers and labourers, and the 

 advance of money at 5 per cent, to clear 

 both principal and interest in thirty-five years 

 ■has been considered a most useful and 

 liberal provision. . . . The improve- 



The last-named inspector sends a letter 

 from an owner, resident in Sligo, who, during 

 the last twenty years, has eftected great im- 

 provements on his estates with the aid of 

 loans from the Board. Pie gives an account 

 of his drainage and its successful results, and 

 adds that there is scarcely anything permitted 

 by the Board which he has not tried. With 

 the exception of labourers' cottages, every 

 step taken has paid him well. Plill tops, he 

 says, fenced off for grazing, were the best in- 

 vestment, and the profits of a farm of his had 



ment in all newly-constructed country-dwell- been increased from ^I'^d to about ;^iooa 

 ings is accompanied by an equally marked 

 change in dress, furniture, and food, among 

 the farming classes ; and in the smal- 

 ler towns supported altogether by the 

 agricultural population, there are new 

 permanent shops with meat and bread, 

 where such supplies were only to be pro- 

 cured once a-week, on market days, Vv'hen I 

 first acted for the Board in this part of Ire- 

 land. The consumption of tea, coffee, and 

 sugar is so much increased in the farming 



a-year. He adds : — " It has always been a 

 ticklish thing to drain lands for tenants, 

 though I have done it largel}'. For some 

 years, at least, they must be closely over- 

 looked, or they would let the work go to 

 ruin. In time, however, they learn to 

 appreciate the benefits. Furthermore, it 

 is to be remembered that by im- 

 proving their land you put it in their 

 power more thoroughly to exhaust it. 

 I have ever found that the part of the farm 



districts that a great portion of labourers' that was most impracticable to bring into- 



