472 Review of Down Survey. Nov- 



vey. We have obfe-rved him i^iving very jadiclour. t-hreftions, 

 U'here the general pracflice of the county was not to be coiti- 

 mendetl : And we ?.i\d vvitli pleafure, that if the landed pro- 

 prif^tors were as humane, and the farmers of this county as in- 

 telligent as the reclor of Annrdiilt,- the county of Down would 

 advance rapidly in agricultural improvement ; nmre rapidly, in- 

 deed, than the Reporter of this furvey would lead us to fuppofe. 

 For, once the d<'fc<!:l:s of a bad fyftem are known, and a few 

 good pra6lices are introduced by landed proprietors, or the bet- 

 ter fort of farmers, the example of a few is quickly imitated, 

 and a fpirit of emidation prevails among the lower orders of the 

 people. To promote the profperity of Downfliire, we would 

 iay to the landholders — * Build comfortable houfes and other 

 farm buildings to your farmers; ere£l villages in convenWnt 

 places ; exa61: a moderate per centage as the rent of thefe houfes •, 

 give ploughs and other implements as premiums; and aflift with 

 capital any very intelligent farmer, when you make an addition 

 to his farm, or his leafe. * To the farmers we would fay — 

 * Clean your grounds with potatoes, or other green crops; but 

 never take more than one white crop, till they lye at leafl; one 

 year in grafs ; and put always a green or a black crop between 

 every two corn crops. Spend not the fummer months in travel- 

 ling for fuel to diftant turf bogs; but plough and hoe your po- 

 tato, turnip and fallow grounds, and you Oiall be able to pur- 

 chafe coals for your fuel, with the increafed produce of your 

 fields. ' 



What is here applied to Downfliire may be addrefTed to feve- 

 ral counties of Scotland, particularly the Highlands. Wherever 

 fmall farms are predominant ; wherever capital ftock is fcarce j 

 wherever the tenure of pofTenion is fliort, or infecure ; unque- 

 ftionably there luill be found an imperfe6l hufliandry, and a de- 

 prefTed tenantry, together with their concomitants, bad imple- 

 ments and uncomfortable houfes. Indeed, tliefe things follow 

 .one another {o regularly, that a pretty correct opinion may be 

 formed of any diftridl, from a tranfitory infpeftion. Ireland, at 

 the prefent moment, may be confidered as not one ftep further 

 advanced in agricultural improvement, than Scotland was in 

 1750 ; and the meafures fuccefsfully adopted in the latter coun- 

 try, could not fail of producing the like happy effedts in the 

 former, though a confiderable time muft necciTdrily intervene 

 before they could be fully recognifed* 



E. E. H. 



BRANCH 



