708 



FARMERS' REGISTER— SMALL FARMS IN IRELAND. 



mitted, seems at least to have much to recommend 

 it? To this it may be answered, the ex|)ense is 

 trifling indeed, compared with the objects likely to 

 be obtained. Those agriculturists I have hitherto 

 brought, and who have all turned out to be very 

 deserving men, have been engaged at a salary ol 

 25 £ a-year, with a cabin and two acres of land, 

 rent free; or in lieu thereof, a lodging, with the 

 Scotch allowance of six and a half bolls of meal, 

 and what milk they might require, all which does 

 not amount to more than 10 ii a-year in addition 

 to their fixed salary. Nothing can be accomplish- 

 ed on a large scale, without having a respectable 

 man in this situation; for the ignorance of the gener- 

 ality of small farmers is such, that they will put out 

 their lime on land not drained, whereby the advan- 

 tage of it will be lost almost entirely; and they 

 will sow the clover-seed on exhausted land, 

 where it will not grow, and will therefore be- 

 come a total loss; also they have, generally speak- 

 ing, little idea of what clean land is, nor how to 

 eet about making it so, and their manure therefore 

 goes to nourish weeds as much, or more perhaps, 

 than the crop sown; for all which reasons, I look 

 upon this appointment as indispensable, where any 

 extensive success is aimed at, 



"The next expense to be considered is the ad- 

 vance of lime. In this respect my practice has 

 been t« lend it to almost every one who applied, 

 let their circumstances be what they might, making 

 only the stipulation that the instructions given 

 ehould be strictly followed. I adopted this line in 

 order to show the people that my wish was to 

 benefit every one, and that I was not actuated by 

 the selfish motive of merely aiding tlie very poor 

 class, in order to lessen my own trouble in getting 

 in the rents. The liberality of my employers ena- 

 bled me to act on this extended plan, which of 

 course occasioned the greater outlay. But when 

 the landlord is restricted in means, of course the 

 loan will be confined to those who stand most in 

 need of assistance. The advance required de- 

 pends so much upon the size of the farms, the 

 density of the population, and other circumstances, 

 that it is hard to fix upon any sum per thousand 

 acres, as sufficient lor this branch of the expendi- 

 ture. The more people there are, the more indus- 

 try is capable of being brought into activity, and 

 the more capital is of course required; likewise the 

 greater the poverty the greater assistance will be 

 necessary; so that the advance required must evi- 

 dently vary in different estates, though they may 

 consist of the same number of acres. 



'•But I would hazard the opinon, that in most 

 parts of the north of Ireland, 50 £ per thousand 

 acres would be found sufficient to supply the requi- 

 site loan of lime, and provide turnip and rape seed, 

 which I liave as yet given gratis. Every poor 

 tenantry will be found so much in debt for their 

 seed- oats, seed-potatoes, and perhaps even for 

 subsistence, and subjected thereby to such usurious 

 charges, that I have found it necessar}^ to give in 

 the first instance three years' credit, in order to get 

 them out of the power of" their creditors. The 

 repayment of the sum so lent now forms a fund 

 for carrying on the S3"stem, and I do not anticipate 

 being obliged to make further demands upon my 

 employers;'but when this credit, from the pecu- 

 niary wants of the landlords, cannot be given, I 

 think the repayment might be insisted upon from 

 the produce of the first grain crop after the loan. 



My lending of clover-seed was an afterthought) 

 but is a matter of pecuniary importance, and the 

 cost of so large a supply came to such a sum, 

 that I was obliged to limit the credit upon it to six 

 months, which brought the repayment to the time 

 of harvest, and as 1 obtained the same credit from 

 the London seedsman that I gave to the tenantry, 

 there was no advance of money in that particular, 

 and the advantage has been the greatest that could 

 be imagined, in doing away immediately with the 

 practice of sowing successive grain-crops as al- 

 ready alluded to. 



"To sum up the whole then, it w"ould appear, 

 that to make the conviction produced by the peru- 

 sal of the pamphlet operative, all that would be 

 necessary on the part of tlie landlord, would be, 

 an annual outlay of about 35 £ to the agricul- 

 turist which would aflbrd the necessary instruc- 

 tion and an advance of about 50 £ a-year per 

 1000 acres, for three j'ears at most, in lime, to re- 

 place the manure taken fi-om the potato crop. 

 This is the entire expense, except the trifiing cost 

 of the pamphlets; and when to this the tenant has 

 added his industry, and the agent his influence, 

 the system is complete. I do not in the above 

 calculation, include the trifling sum which the land- 

 lord may feel disposed to give the premiums for 

 the encouragement of those who most distin- 

 guished themselves by their exertions, nor any 

 occasional assistance he may feel disposed to give 

 in lending a pound or two for a few months to as- 

 sist a tenant in buying an additional cow, when 

 his clover was superabundant; these being optional 

 matters, and not absolutely necessary." 



The usurious prices paid in many places by poor 

 farmers for seed-oats and potatoes, are often most 

 oppressive. Twenty-five per cent, has been fre- 

 quently paid for the accommodation of seed-oats 

 in spring (of inferior quality too,) to be paid for in 

 the ensuing autumn. By supplying seed, there- 

 fore, on fair terms, an agent may frequently save 

 a poor tenant from considerable loss, and as to clo- 

 ver and grass- seeds (the latter usually of the 

 worst and most dirty description on the small farm- 

 er's field,) these may be supplied by obtaining 

 credit from the seedsman, as Mr, Blacker did, 

 without the actual loss of a single shilling. 



It appears from the pamphlets before us, that 

 the tenants thus aided, from having strong motives 

 to exertion, are extremely industrious; theirs is not 

 the hopeless condition of men deep in arrear and 

 without a ray of hope, in apprehension of ejection 

 from their homes, and destitution in consequence, 

 but the happy state of a peasantry llill of hope 

 and energy, and enjoying independence, or at least 

 every rational anticipation of it. 



On the Cavan estate of Lord Gosford, consist- 

 ing of 8000 acres, and moderately set, the arrears 

 had been increasing; yet in the second year of 

 Mr, Blacker's operations, the rents of the then 

 current year were discharged, whh a /)flr< of the 

 arrears, and many of the tenants have subsequent- 

 ly paid up all which they owed, Mr. Blacker hav- 

 ing made a rule " never to forgive any arrears 

 ivhatever,^^ (unless a retrospective reduction in the 

 amount of rent, calculated with reference to agri- 

 cultural prices and proportionally granted to all the 

 tenants, be so considered,) which would be a dis- 

 couragement to those who had regularly paid their 

 rents. 



