EMPLOYMENT OF AGRICULTURISTS. 269 



William Blacker, Esq., on the estate of Lord Gosford, in the 

 county of Armagh, Ireland, an experienced and intelligent man, 

 well skilled in communicating his ideas, is employed to visit the 

 tenants on the property, to advise them in regard to the manage 

 ment and cultivation of their small farms, and to encourage them 

 by some small premiums, and by reporting their condition and 

 success to the principal manager. The occupations in these 

 cases are very small, often not exceeding three, four, and six 

 acres. As I understood Mr. Blacker, he has the care of twenty- 

 five hundred tenants on the property of this nobleman. This 

 number, I confess, seems very extraordinary ; but the subdi 

 visions on the place are quite small and numerous. I shall, on 

 another occasion, give a particular account of Mr. Blacker s 

 excellent management of small farms, because it is full of useful 

 instruction, and does the highest honor to his judgment, perse 

 verance, and benevolence. At present, I speak only of the 

 employment of an agriculturist, which has been attended with 

 the best effects. This person lives on the estate, and has a 

 small amount of land in the neighborhood of his own house, 

 which he is expected to keep in the best possible order, accord 

 ing to the system which he lays down for others, so that he 

 is called upon to teach by example as well as precept. 



The same arrangement has been made, at the suggestion of 

 Mr. Blacker, on the farm of Lady Bassett, near Camborne, in 

 Cornwall, which I had the pleasure to visit. Here, too, it works 

 well. The farmers in Cornwall hold larger farms than in 

 Armagh, and therefore have a higher idea of their own impor 

 tance. They were at first very jealous of the direct approaches 

 of the agriculturist to advise and instruct them. But by a little 

 address, and by especially avoiding any thing like dogmatism or 

 self-conceit, and by a frank manner convincing the farmers that 

 he was disinterestedly seeking their good, his success is becom 

 ing remarkable, and he is every day gaining upon their esteem 

 and confidence. A horse, loose in a pasture, can rarely be 

 caught if you approach him swinging the bridle, the emblem of 

 his subjugation, before his eyes ; but if you go to him shaking 

 only the measure of oats before him, and concealing the bridle 

 under your coat, you can generally take him without difficulty. 

 I am no advocate for treachery under any form ; but where the 

 object aimed at is unexceptionable and excellent, I see no occa- 

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