CH. VII.] AGRICULTURE. 97 



to let the lands in small lots, from the extreme increase in 

 the population. 



If the farmers had the necessary capital for the proper 

 cultivation of the mountain^tracts, said one of the Com- 

 missioners, this part of Ireland would be the most valuable. 



The Commissioners interrogated the witnesses as to the 

 system of cropping practised in each district. 



Corn is cultivated, but in small quantities, and in so im- 

 perfect a manner as not to deserve the name of culture. 

 The general plan of the farmers is, first to have a crop of 

 potatoes on a fallow, then two years oats, and sometimes 

 as long as the land continues to produce them, even for 

 twenty successive years ; they then leave the soil without 

 sowing anything until it has in some degree recovered its 

 fertility, when they recommence the same rotation. The 

 produce per acre diminishes every year ; but it never enters 

 into the farmer's head to let the soil rest, until it is so 

 much exhausted as absolutely to produce nothing. 



The witnesses state that the great misery in Ireland is 

 caused by the frequent failure of the potatoe-crops, and 

 that in 1834 and 1835 the people were obliged to dig them 

 up long before the proper time, which occasioned many 

 fevers. 



The Commissioners inquired whether much care was be- 

 stowed on cultivation, and whether the artificial grasses, 

 and the different roots and plants recently introduced into 

 the cropping, were known. 



Little attention has been paid to cultivation. The small 

 farmers alone grow corn, and they have not money enough 

 either to harrow, roll or weed the land. In most of the 

 baronies the seeds of the plants recently introduced into 

 the system of cropping are scarcely known, and they are 



ii 



