CH. VII.] AGRICULTURE. 99 



The witnesses cited an instance of one, which contains 

 18,000 English acres and 14,000 inhabitants. 



The Commissioners collected statements of the soil of 

 a great number of farms, the nature of their cultivation, 

 and the number of men and of horses employed upon each. 

 From these they deduce the following results : 



1st. That more than one-third of Ireland is cultivated 

 by spade-husbandry. 



2nd. That, although the wages of day-labourers are not 

 half, sometimes not even a third, of what they are in 

 England, yet the cost of labour is not cheaper than in 

 England, because labourers so badly fed cannot do so 

 much work as those who are well fed. 



3rd. That it requires eight Irishmen to do the work of 

 three Englishmen, and that the horses in some of the ba- 

 ronies are of so wretched a kind that two are required for 

 the work of one in England. 



The Commissioners wished to ascertain the state of such 

 farms as were devoted to grazing and rearing cattle ; whe- 

 ther the labourers were better off in those than in other 

 farms ; whether the dairies were well regulated, and what 

 was the quantity of butter and cheese they furnished. 



They ascertained, that in general these farms are held by 

 persons of small capital ; that the labourers are not better 

 treated there than upon other farms; that there is no 

 separate establishment for the dairies ; that the butter is 

 not of a quality proportioned to the nature of the soil, and 

 that in general no cheese is made, the milk being too poor, 

 from the bad cultivation of the pastures; nevertheless 

 many improvements have already been introduced in this 

 kind of farms. 



Another inquiry made by the Commissioners was, 

 H 2 



