CH. V.] CONSOLIDATION OF FARMS. 81 



house of those who have to quit the land. During the last 

 ten years a hundred families have been ejected in the ba- 

 rony, and their houses destroyed. Not long ago five or six 

 hundred persons, who had been refused a renewal of their 

 leases, collected from different baronies and took posses- 

 sion of a large extent of common-land, containing several 

 hundred acres. They divided the whole common into 

 small lots, and began building cabins on them ; they could 

 only be expelled by sending to another district for a troop 

 of cavalry. As no instances are known of the landlord 

 assisting his ejected tenantry, many have been driven to 

 begging, others have taken refuge in the towns, whilst 

 many of these unhappy people have died of starvation. 



Formerly the land was consolidated into farms of ten 

 acres, which were considered large, but now these farms 

 are thrown into larger ones, of a hundred acres. The 

 witnesses say also, that the land cultivated in large farms 

 is more productive, and that the large farmers hold at a 

 low rent, because they find the soil so much exhausted. 



In the barony of Moyfenragh, the size of holdings has 

 increased of late years ; the landlords have determined to 

 rid their estates of the swarms of paupers which the sub- 

 division of the land has raised upon them. 



In the barony of Portnahinch the system of joining small 

 farms has prevailed to a trifling extent. One landlord re- 

 fused to continue leases to fifty or sixty small occupiers, 

 but he assisted them to remove to an uncultivated moun- 

 tain tract : each family having assigned to them a house, 

 and from ten to seventy acres of ground, they have done 

 very well. To several other families, who preferred emi- 

 grating, he gave from five to ten pounds for their passage- 

 money. Notwithstanding the attachment of the small 



