Book I. AGRICULTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 135 



809. Landed })ropert7/ in Ireland is more generally in large estates of some thousands 

 of acres, than in small ones ; but in its occupation it is subdivided in a degree far beyond 

 any thing which occurs in any other part of the empire. In some counties, as Mayo for 

 example, there are upwards of 15,000 freeholders on properties of not more than 

 405. value, and who are perhaps not worth 10/. each. These are, for the most part, 

 tenants of the great proprietors possessing a life interest in their little farm. 



810. In Ireland there are no rnanorial rights separable from the right to the soil, as 

 in England, nor legal poor rates, wliich are circumstances materially in favor of the former 

 country. (Wakejield, i. 242.) 



811. Leases are generalbj of long endurance ; and three lives, or thirty-one years, is a 

 common rate. The price of land varies in different parts of Ireland. In the neighbor- 

 hood of Belfast, and thence to Armagh, it brings thirty years purchase ; in the greatest 

 part of the island, it does not exceed twenty ; and, in the richest districts, it may often 

 be bought for sixteen or eighteen. The exposure of landed estates to public sale takes 

 place very seldom, which is, perhaps, one cause of their not bringing so high a price as 

 they would otherwise do. ( Wakefield.) 



812. Farming in Ireland \Sy generally speaking, in a very backward state. With 

 a few exceptions, such as the county of Meath, and some other well- cultivated 

 districts, the farmers are destitute of capital, and labor small crofts, which they 

 hold of middlemen, interposed between them and the landlord. The fact that the 

 landlord never, in Ireland, lays out any thing upon repairs or buildings, coupled with 

 the general inability of the farmer to do either in a substantial mann^er, is very signifi- 

 cant as to the state of agriculture. ( Tighe's Survey of Kilkenny, 412.; Wakefield, i. 244.) 

 But the worst features of the rural economy of this island are the entire want of capital 

 in the farmers, and the complete indifference of the landlord to the character, wealth, or 

 industry of his tenant. " Capital," says Wakefifeld, " is considered of so little im- 

 portance in Ireland, that advertisements constantly appear in the newspapers, in which 

 it is stated, that the preference will certainly be given to the highest bidder. Bargains 

 are constantly made with a beggar, as a new tenant, who, offering more rent, invariably 

 turns out the old one, however industrious. Even if the unfortunate wretch has a little 

 ready cash to begin with, it only serves, in ninety nine cases out of one hundred, as a 

 temptation to the landlord, who, when the fact becomes known to him, finds means to 

 obtain it under the name of a fine for possession." ( Vol. i. p. 587.) Regard to present 

 gain, without the least attention to the future, constitutes the principal object of the Irish 

 landlord. {Ibid. i. 304.) 



813. The rent of land in Ireland from these causes, coupled with the excessive com- 

 petition of the peasantry for small farms, as their only means of subsistence, has risen to 

 a great height. (Townsend's Cork, 218. ; Wakefield,!. 582.) 



814. Ireland is divided, by Wakefield, into nine agricultural districts, in each of wliich 

 the mode of culture is somewhat different from what it is in the others. 



815. The first district comprehends the flat parts of Antrim; the eastern side of 

 Tyrone, Down, Armagh, Monaghan, and Cavaru Throughout this district, the farms 

 are extremely small, and the land is generally dug with the spade. Potatoes, flax, and 

 oats, are the crops usually cultivated, and these are grown till the land is exhausted, and 

 suffered to " lie at rest," as they term it, till its strength is recruited by the cow, the 

 goat, two or three sheep, and the poultry lying upon it, for some years. The ploughs 

 used in this district are of the rudest structure, and perform their work in the most 

 slovenly manner. Three or four neighbors unite their strength to each plough, every 

 one bringing his horse, his bullock, or his cow. All the other operations of agriculture 

 are performed in an equally slovenly manner. The little wheat that is raised is " lashed," 

 as they call it ; that is, the grain is knocked out by striking the sheaf across a beam 

 placed above a cloth : it is, however, afterwards threshed with a flail. This operation 

 of threshing usually takes place in the highway, and 119 

 it is dressed by letting it fall from a kind of sieve, 

 which, during a pretty strong wind, is held breast- 

 high by a woman . Many cottars in this district have 

 a cabin {fig. 119.) with no land attached to it. They 

 hire an acre or two, for grass or potatoe land, from 

 some cottar in their vicinity. The custom of hiring 

 labourers is unknown. The neighbours all assist 

 each other in their more considerable occupations, 

 such as sowing, and reaping. The dwellings here 

 are miserably small ; often too small to contain the numerous families that issue from 

 their doors. Land is every where divided into the 'most minute portions. {Wake- 

 field, i. 363. ; Dubourdieus Down, 39. ) 



816. Under the second district may be comprised the northern part of Antrim, Londonderry, the north 

 and west of Tyrone, and the whole of Donegal. Agriculture here is in a worse state than in the pre- 



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