ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 



23 



farm a lettable subject. It was based on tlie Ulster custom. 

 The Ulster tenants, like other tenants in Ireland, held for the 

 most part under yearly tenancies. The custom in Ulster, varying 

 in different districts and on different estates, was roughly this : 

 The tenant, so long as he paid a fair rent, liable to readjustment 

 at reasonable intervals, and acted properly as a tenant, was not to 

 be disturbed in his possession. The tenant could also, with the 

 approval of the landlord, sell his tenant right. While the other 

 farmers in Ireland were liable to eviction at any time, and had no 

 heart to improve their farms, and while the system of ownership 

 in Ireland generally had completely failed — ownership in which 



WEEKIA' MARKET, CASTLEREA 



each of the partners contributed a share of the capital which 

 forthwith became the property of one of them — the farmers of 

 Ulster had by the custom such security as gave them an interest 

 in the improvement and development of their holdings, and dual 

 ownership in Ulster, notwithstanding that the holdings were 

 smaller, the land poorer, and the climate worse than elsewhere 

 in Ireland, was a success. The Land Act of 1881, extended, in 

 1887. to include leaseholders, secured for the Irish tenants the 

 three outstanding characteristics of the Ulster custom — fair rent, 

 fixity of tenure, and free sale. 



Fair Rent 



The rent was fixed by a Land Commission. The main object 

 was" to see that the tenant did not pay for his own buildings and 

 improvements, and that he got the share of the profit due to the 



