IRELAND, 1840-1880. 103 



is dispossessed I suppose was never seen. The men 

 put out knew that they got better terms than they 

 could get by going to law, and so were satisfied ; 

 and everybody else was glad. Improvements made 

 by the tenant there were none, and of course he had 

 the rent forgiven to cover any supposed value he had 

 added to the farm. 



In this way in a few years every tenant's land 

 was put near his house and yard, where he could 

 farm it with most advantage, and at least cost of 

 labour ; and as he paid no more per acre than under 

 the former system, the gain to him was great. Be- 

 sides, some farms were much enlarged which had 

 been small before, and so were enabled to employ 

 a pair of horses fully. 



The next step was to arrange roads for each farm, 

 so that every part of it might be accessible to carts 

 for drawing manure on the fields, and drawing home 

 the crops. Before, though the country is not moun- 

 tainous, but only somewhat hilly, many farms had 

 large parts that no cart could approach. Whenever 

 manure was carried out, it was in panniers on the 

 backs of horses ; and, of course, very little was thus 

 carried. 



To utilise the existing roads and lanes, widening 

 them, and adding bits of new road where necessary, 

 was not a very heavy job, and a couple of years' 

 work did all that was wanted in this way, and made 

 every farm practicable for an industrious tenant. 



