BUYING OR LEASING LAND. 151 



farmer than they have yet met with in Ireland. 

 There are landed estates in almost every county 

 in Great Britain coming from time to time into 

 the market, which are not sufficiently residential 

 to attract great capitalists, but which would be 

 very eligible investments for resident tenant- 

 farmers, if they were placed on a par with their 

 Irish brethren in the facilities offered by the 

 Legislature for finding capital to buy them. 

 Outside of such exceptional assistance a British 

 farmer can still employ his limited capital to 

 greater advantage by hiring farms than by 

 buying them. 



The second mode will probably, therefore, be 

 found in the end the most generally applicable, 

 viz., that of a lengthened leasehold tenure. 

 Time is required in the operations of agriculture. Time 



essential in 



Drainage, clean cultivation, manures of the the opera- 

 tions of 



more lasting kind, and the costly and skilful agricul- 

 ture. 



formation of a suitable live-stock, each demand 

 a considerable period of years for profitable 

 realisation. A well-organised farm is not only 

 the source of employment to the labour and 

 trades of the neighbourhood, but a school of 



