106 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK I. 



CHAPTER VIII, 



OF CAPITAL. 



MB. BRASSINGTON, a farmer holding a pretty large occu- 

 pation in Ireland, who has travelled through the whole 

 country as agent of many proprietors, and is expert in 

 the valuation of lands, stated to the Committee charged 

 with examining the state of agriculture in the three king- 

 doms, that a man required to have at least 500/. capital 

 to take a farm of a hundred acres in Ireland ; but that 

 the farmers of this country were far from having such a 

 capital, and that thus the agriculture in Ireland was not 

 comparable to that of Great Britain. He stated, however, 

 that many Scotchmen have settled in Ireland, and that in 

 the province of Leinster, chiefly in the environs of Dublin, 

 there is more capital than in the other provinces. The 

 farms in that part are better managed, and attention is 

 begun to be paid to the drainage of the soil, and the care 

 of the hedges and ditches. 



The same witness adds, that the division of the farms 

 in that part is excessive; that among a hundred small 

 farmers, there is scarcely one who has the necessary capital 

 to manage his farm well, and that he does not apply the 

 capital he possesses to render the ground productive. It 

 answers his purpose better to turn usurer, since for 10/., 

 which he lends to those worse off than himself, he exacts 

 the crop of a piece of land, which amounts to an exorbitant 

 interest. 



He stated, that the joint-stock banks, which were sane- 



