GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT. 107 



an inn, a school, carpenter's, blacksmith's, and other 

 tradesmen's houses. The model farm of 300 acres was 

 then laid out, and farm-buildings erected.* The land 

 was divided into fields which were drained — though, 

 from the rushj appearance of the fields, that operation 

 seems to have been very imperfectly done. A limestone 

 quarry being fortunately discovered at no great distance, a 

 kiln was erected, and this valuable manure for reclaiming 

 mountain land got at a very moderate expense on the spot. 

 In this, the experiment had a peculiar and a very great 

 advantage. A stock of dairy cattle was gradually intro- 

 duced, green crops cultivated, and a regular rotation 

 established. 



The land was worked by con-acre labour. That is, 

 the people assembled in spring, and agreed to pay 

 £6 an acre for the use of wild heath land, to grow 

 potatoes. They got lime for it, but put in the seed and 

 tilled the land at their own cost, giving their labour on 

 the farm till it paid this exorbitant rent. A second 

 crop of potatoes was taken, dung being applied to the 

 land, and the rent proportionally increased. The land 

 was then ready for turnips or oats, after which it was 

 sown out with grass seeds, and laid to pasture. The 

 moor was thus converted into grass at no other expense 

 than that of seed, inasmuch as the labour of the people 

 in cultivating their own potato crops reclaimed it from 

 its natural state, and the rent they paid for the use of 

 the ground repaid their labour in the subsequent pro- 



* The Government pay rates and county-cess for all their tenants here. 

 Some of those who are most favourably situated are said to be going on 

 well, but many of them will be obliged to give up their holdings on account 

 of the failure of the potato. 



