Then and Now 17 



and the worst rood from end to end will make 

 fair meadow, even without manuring. An area of 

 about two acres remains still not sufficiently 

 drained for the plough, but it is sufficiently 

 reclaimed for good results in permanent pasture. 

 In its present state, and at 35. yd. an acre, the land 

 is as good as I have seen in England at 2 an 

 acre, and the difference is enough to bring me as 

 near to the Manchester market as the farmer 

 living in Lancashire, not to mention my greatly 

 diminished cost of production apart from rent. 

 This may not apply to every single product of the 

 farm, but farm produce is readily convertible into 

 forms more portable. I cannot send a horse and 

 cart to Manchester with a load of unpressed hay, 

 but I can send the hay in live beef to Dublin for 

 less than 2-J- per cent, of the beef value. 

 Enormous harm has been done by idle spouters 

 getting Irish farmers to believe that the railways 

 made their position impossible. How much saner 

 it would be to tell them how their less marketable 

 produce can be converted into more marketable 

 forms. Besides, I have sometimes seen our local 

 price for hay considerably higher than the Man- 

 chester price on the same day, and this year (1915) 

 our local price for roots is 50 per cent, above 

 the price in England. 



On the most generous estimate, the gross 

 production before I came could not be more than 

 60 a year. Now, I get a yearly average of ^115 

 for cattle alone, all raised on the place, none ever 

 bought unless a suckling calf ; and in proportion to 



B 



