52 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK I. 



a certain day. He is not allowed to dig up the crop be- 

 fore he has paid the rent, and if he attempts to remove 

 it he is summoned to the Petty Sessions. There are 

 frequently disputes on the neglect of the farmer to keep 

 the fences in repair, and to prevent the trespassing of 

 cattle and their destroying the crops. 



Throughout Ireland the evidence of the witnesses was 

 the same as the foregoing. In the province of Leinster the 

 labourers often rear a pig with the crop of- potatoes, and 

 they obtain a postponement of the payment of the rent 

 till six weeks after they have dug them up. 



Many persons are fined for burning the land, as that is 

 forbidden by an act of parliament, which declares that 

 method of cultivation pernicious. In many baronies dis- 

 turbances have arisen from the farmers opposing the re- 

 moval of the crop before the payment of the rent, and it 

 frequently rots upon the land. In the province of Ulster 

 this system has caused few disputes, because the labourers 

 are afraid of not having the plots of ground the following 

 year ; but the magistrate says that generally, in cases of 

 litigation, it is the farmer who is in the wrong, from 

 giving bad land, or not fulfilling the conditions of the 

 bargain. 



On the contrary, in the province of Munster, disputes 

 are very frequent on account of the excessive price at 

 which the farmers sublet the land. They often pay their 

 servants by permitting them to cultivate plots of land. 

 In some parishes coalitions of the labourers have taken 

 place, to compel the farmers to let land on this system. 



All the witnesses concur in opinion, that a continued 

 employment for the poor, bringing in only 6d. or even 4d. 

 a day, would be far preferable to con-acre ; but that this 



