200 Irish Agriculture. [April, 



One-half of the above land is under flax or grain crops. 



Would a single farmer with his family, in our own country, 

 make a living off the whole 98 acres, after paying a rent of 

 ^£121, \2s.,Sd. ($583 90)? Unquestionably not, under any- 

 thing like ordinary circumstances. Neither could an equal 

 amount of stock be kept on anything like the same amount of 

 even our best lands. It will be observed that one-half of the 98 

 acres is under crops, very little of which reaches the stock, be- 

 sides the straw: Should we let the keep of the horses, heifers, 

 sheep, pigs, and two of the cows offset against the straw, then 

 we should have 30 cows kept on 49 acres of land, — a cow to an 

 acre and a fraction less than two-thirds of an acre! 



Whence this difference in the acreable products of the United 

 States and Ireland? Is it in the quality of the soil? The better 

 class of New York lands, are decidedly superior to the 98 acres 

 above particularized, if we may credit Mr. Bkker, — that is, be- 

 fore the latter were recently made over, so to speak, by the pre- 

 sent system of culture. How then sixty human beings can obtain 

 subsistence, where in this country a single family could not (over 

 and above rent), is indeed surprising. True, things which the 

 American farmer would consider necessaries — things of course — 

 would be unapproachable luxuries to the small Irish tenant, even 

 under the ameliorating influences of a Gosford and a Blaker.* 

 An American farmer, thank God I can eat of meat, wheaten 

 bread, milk and butter (tea!), and as many varieties of vegetables 

 as he chooses, three times a day, and have a " chicken in his 

 pot " not only " on Sunday," but on any other day in the week! 



• Justice all round requires that I should copy the following statement of 

 Mr. Blaker in relation to the holders of the ten farms given in the table. 

 He says : " the stock that these small farmers are possessed of shows that 

 they are by no means in penury. I have chosen those who are living along 

 the road side, and if any one has the curiosity to- visit them to-morrow, I 

 shall have a jaunting car ready at Mr. Ringland's, at Gosford gate, to take 

 them to their houses. No one, I expect, will conceive he is to meet with any 

 great appearance of wealth — it is up-hill work to amass riches from a few 

 acres of land, paying a fair rent, and rearing a young family — but I believe 

 every one of them will be found in a thriving condition." 



