OF THE COUNTY OF DOWN. 245 



CHAPTER XVI. 



OBSTACLES TO IMPROVEMENT; INCLUDING OBSER- 

 VATIONS ON AGRICULTURAL LEGISLA- 

 TION AND POLICE. 



IN the courfe of this Report the writer has touched 

 upon thofe fubjedls, which ftruck him as obftacles to 

 improvement, as they fell in his way; the principal of 

 thefe were the fmallnefs of farms, and exhaufting the 

 land by repeated crops of grain. There is no occafion 

 to repeat what has already been faid ; the only addi-. 

 tional obfervation, that offers at prefent, is the extreme' 

 difficulty, if not impoffibility, of obtaining any effectual 

 alteration in the firft; but the fecond is certainly to be 

 remedied, and is the more to be attended to, as a cor- 

 rective for the firft, to which the ftrong objection is, 

 that, from an eager defire to raife crops of grain upon 

 a fmajl portion of ground every year, and from the 

 want of {kill in doing fo, the produce of the land is 

 diminifhed. Another obftacle is the want of proper 

 capital; without this all bufmefs muft languifh, and 

 why fhould agriculture be thought exempt from the 

 inconveniencies that refult from this want more than 



any 



