18^ 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



One considerati ju must ha borne in miad — that the 

 humidity of the climate of Ireland renders pastm-e 

 rather than corn-growing the natural application of 

 its soil. It must be borne in mind, too, that one effect 

 of the potato system was to force into cultivation much 

 rocky land, the natural application of which was to 

 rough pasture for the rearing of cattle. 



The change which the potato failure and the En- 

 cumbered Estates Court have produced in the owner- 

 ship and occupation of land in Ireland has given rise 

 to two works under nearly similar titles : " Ireland 

 considered as a Field for Investment or Residence," 

 by Mr. Bullock Webster (1853), and " Ireland esti- 

 mated as a Field for Investment," by Mr. Thomas 

 Scott (1854). The first of these we noticed some time 

 since ; while the latter we have only lately met with. It 

 contains a considerable amount of valuable statistical 

 and agricultural information. We have only room, 

 however, to notice the following summary respecting the 

 agricultural improvement and capabilities of the coun- 

 try. Adverting t(r the prevalent opinion that, in order 

 to secure solvent and improving tenants, it is neces- 

 sary that land should be farmed in large masses, the 

 author observes : " In this supposition I do not alto- 

 gether agree. At all events, I am fully satisfied that 

 native tenants occupying from 20 to .30 acres oigood land 

 are the best rent-payers ; and if they are to be super- 



seded, men owning more capital and responsibility to 

 the state may be secured, but the change will involve a 

 considerable sacrifice of annual income to the owners of 

 the soil, irrespective of the outlay, to them hitherto 

 unknown, in permanent improvements. A certain 

 change has, no doubt, become necessary and inevi- 

 table, arising from the excessive subdivision of land 

 which had been allowed to go on until within these last 

 few years; and it is fortunate that, with this necessity, 

 the compensation for labour in Ireland is gradually 

 becoming sufficient to reconcile the smaller occupiers 

 to the change from pauper tenants to hired labourers. 

 It is not supposed, however, that they are ruthlessly 

 to be dispossessed of their little holdings, to consoidate 

 a farm for a larger capitalist or a stranger ; nor 

 will any one think it advisable to become an occu- 

 pier of their lauds under such circumstances ; but when, 

 as above supposed, they are found willing voluntarily 

 to vacate their insufficient allotments to become la- 

 bourers or to emigrate, and where they have been 

 required to do so under fair and humane arrange- 

 ments, others may take their place with prudence and 

 safety." 



Speaking from personal experience, we must declare 

 that we have found the peasantry of Ireland much more 

 disposed to place confidence in an Englishman than in 

 one of their own countrymen. 



MIDDLE- CLASS EDUCATION 



The importance and necessity for reforming and 

 extending the institutions for the education of all 

 ■classes have been I'epeatedly urged in this journal. In 

 none is it more required than in those establishments 

 devoted to middle-class education. The prevalent 

 error has also been combated, of supposing that special 

 educational establishments are required for the in- 

 struction of those destined for different industrial occu- 

 pations. 



We have often contended — and the subject cannot 

 be too often enforced— that the future farmer, 

 Tnerchant, manufacturer, and miner may receive in 

 common the rudiments of knowledge, in which no man 

 should be deficient who pretends to the title of educated, 

 and which are absolutely necessai'y to those who are to 

 be engaged in bending matter to the uses of man. It 

 has been well said that the powers of man over nature 

 are unlimited, provided only they be exercised in 

 obedience to the laws by which matter is governed, and 

 that we must study those laws as we would the temper 

 of a nation we would govern, or a horse we would 

 ride. We require, then, neither mining nor agricul- 

 tural nor engineering schools and colleges, but insti- 

 tutions for general instruction in those branches of 

 knowledge which no man should be without, which are 

 applicable, more or less, to every occupation in which 

 a man can be engaged, and are indispensably necessary 

 for some. Our attention has been again directed to 

 this subject by the perusal of two documents connected 



with industrial education in the west of the island. It 

 might be almost said that science is marching west- 

 ward. Sir Robert Peel's Colleges, liowever, have al- 

 ready established it in the far west — at least in our far 

 west. That establishment is, still, but a restoration 

 of knowledge, adapted to the wants of the age, to an 

 island where science took refuge during the dark ages, 

 and whence, as was said of another island, whose 

 schools were an offshoot from it, savage clans and 

 roaming barbarians derived the light of knowledge 

 and the blessings of religion. The success which has 

 attended Sir Robert Peel's Colleges, notwithstanding 

 all the opposition they have encountered from different 

 and opposite quarters, should stimulate to exertion on 

 this side St. George's Channel. Those colleges also 

 point out the objects at which we should aim in such 

 institutions, and show how best to attain them. 



The western educational establishments to which we 

 refer are of very different characters and pretensions. 

 They are both deserving of success. We allude to 

 Gnoll College, in the Vale of Neath, which may be 

 said at present to be only in posse, and to the humbler 

 Bristol Mining Schools, which may be considered 

 actually in esse, since its first annual examination took 

 place very lately. The object of the former of these 

 establishments has been so ably set forth by its pro- 

 moters as to leave no room for addition. All we can 

 say is, that everything is on the grandest and most 

 liberal scale, whether as regards the professors, the 



