CH. VII.] AGRICULTURE. 101 



The Commissioners put the same questions respecting 

 cattle, of the quantity fattened, and the methods employed 

 for this. The replies were similar to the preceding ones : 

 some improvement has taken place in the breeds, but the 

 state of agriculture is not enough advanced for the best 

 English breeds to prosper. 



In proportion to the spread of capital, the rearing and 

 fattening of cattle increases. This art is still in its infancy : 

 in general, grazing is the only means known, and the 

 people are ignorant of the advantage of keeping the cattle 

 in the shed, feeding them with the new farm-products 

 roots, vetches, etc. The small quantity of cattle fattened 

 is sent to Liverpool ; they are killed at four years old. 



The Commissioners inquired into the state of the farm 

 buildings, and whether there was in general a good supply 

 of agricultural implements. 



The houses of the small farmers are scarcely superior to 

 the cabins of those labourers who hold land upon the con- 

 acre system ; and the farmers holding fifty acres, and who 

 keep three cows, have no means of turning the milk to 

 profit. In many baronies the plough is almost unknown, 

 there being at most five or six in a district. 



The Commissioners also inquired what system of ma- 

 nuring was employed on the land ; whether animal manure, 

 sea-weed, composts, or whether the custom of burning the 

 land prevailed. 



Lime, burnt with turf, is employed, and the landlords 

 generally allow the farmers to take as much as they require. 



The principal resources of the farmer are bog-earth 

 and road-scrapings, for the cattle are not stalled for feed- 

 ing, and straw is their only food in winter. The largest 

 farmers sell the straw which they have to spare, over and 



