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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



into order; but the tenant must keep them in good 

 repair during the cuirency of tlie lease, and the 

 proprietor has ample and easy means of enforcing 

 this. Now, though many of the Irisli landlords 

 have done all a tenant could desire, yet such is not 

 the general rule. The house is frequently far too 

 large, fitted for a nobleman or gentleman's family, 

 or it contains only two or three apartments, or 

 there is no house at all. The oflfices are equally 

 bad, and the fences are most likely bad, Now this 

 should not be the case. A fine or sum of money 

 paid down is often exacted from the new tenant. 

 If Ulster tenant-right be repugnant to British 

 farmers, so the laying out of money in the building 

 or repairs of houses and offices, and payment of 

 fines, are equally opposed to all their ideas of the 

 proper modes of dealing between landlord and 

 tenant. It is unwise forj proprietors to take the 

 capital from their tenants, which ought to go to 

 stock, and crop, and carry on the business of the 

 farm, and force them to employ this capital for 

 purposes for which they themselves ought to find 

 the money. The taking of a fine has a tendency 

 to induce the Irish farmer not to be so careful of 

 his landlord's interests as he ought to be, but to 

 take as much as he can out of the land. No class 

 of society, however, have suflf'ered more from their 

 tenantry than the Irish landlords, nor have been 

 more unjustly maligned than they for their treat- 

 ment of their tenants. But as a body they have 

 treated them with the greatest kindness and for- 

 bearance, and have often submitted to claims which 

 it could uev^er enter into the minds of British 

 tenants to make, and which, if made, would have 

 been indignantly spurned by English and Scotch 

 landlords. Happily, this state of matters has passed 

 away. Not only are rents fully paid up, but nearly 

 every tenant is possessed of money. The tendency 

 all over the country is onward in the march of im- 

 provement. Small farms are yearly decreasing in 

 number, the total diminution of them between 

 1841 and 1856 being 98,625. As the number of 

 the smaller holdings diminish, and the number of 

 the larger ones increase, better culture will follow. 

 Useless fences and ditches will be rooted out and 

 fields enlarged; better houses and offices be built, 

 and improved husbandry follow. Scotland was 

 formerly as badly farmed as Ireland. There was 

 the in- field and the out-field. The in-field was en- 

 closed, and on it was the homestead ; the out-field 

 generally lay at some distance, and was unenclosed, 

 and the cattle and sheep which grazed on it were 

 herded. Small farms and small fields were abun- 

 dant. "What a contrast does Scotland now pre- 

 sent ! Every field enclosed, and good substantial 

 houses and oflices, and steam-engines. The small 

 farms have been consolidated, and the whole 



country has an improved appearance. Scotland 

 owes much to the Highland Agricultural Society 

 and the patriotic exertions of the nobility and 

 gentry of the country, and the intelligence, and 

 skill, and imtiring industry of her farmers, who 

 have made their country stand foremost amongst 

 the nations for agricultural improvement. The 

 Royal Dublin Society and the Royal Agricultural 

 Improvement Society of Ireland are doing much 

 for the country, by introducing the best husbandry 

 and the most improved breeds of cattle. The 

 annual shows of each, as well in Dublin as in the 

 provinces, bring together the purest breeds from 

 all parts of the United Kingdom ; and so great 

 has been the patriotic emulation among the nobility, 

 gentry, and farmers to possess the finest stock, 

 that Irish shorthorned cattle are not inferior to the 

 best in Great Britain. Mr. Miller stated that he 

 had been assured by one of the first judges of stock 

 in England, that the British farmers may soon be 

 obliged to look to Ireland for the finest animals to 

 improve their stock. The implement-makers who 

 attend these shows now sell large numbers of their 

 most improved machines; a sure sign of the great 

 progress of tillage husbandry. At the Dublin 

 Society's show it is not uncommon to see prizes 

 awarded for crops of Swedish turnips of 60 tons 

 per acre, mangel wurzel of different varieties from 

 50 to 80 tons per acre, and field carrots from 50 to 

 60 tons per acre. The Royal Irish Agricultural 

 Improvement Society has also roused a spirit of 

 improvement through the covmtry, by the encou- 

 ragement it has given to the promotion of local 

 societies. The high prices given for all kinds of 

 stock, as well as for green and other crops, have 

 given an additional impetus to agricultural pur- 

 suits. The Registrar-General states that, since, 

 1851, there has been a probable reduction in 

 the number of the people of 5:59,282 ; and that 

 the y)robable i)opulation of Ireland is now 

 6,013,103. This reduction of the population 

 has undoubtedly contributed to reduce the small 

 holdings, as well as to raise the rates of labour. 

 The English and Scotch proprietors and farmers 

 have greatly aided in improving the condition of 

 the poor Irish labourers. Sixpence and eightpence a 

 day were the former wages ; and if a mud cabin and 

 a bit of potato ground were added, a very high 

 rent was charged, and he was generally bound, at 

 these scanty wages, to give three days' work a 

 week to his master. Patient, though thus crushed 

 down, it is difficult to conceive how he and his 

 family could subsist. Scotch and English far- 

 mers saw that no man could give a day's work on 

 such poor wages, and lOd. to Is. 3d. a day may 

 now be about the average rates of labour. So sen- 

 sible arethe poor men ofthe benefits conferred upon 



