TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' WORK. 



to the same crop. This manure was chiefly earth 

 drawn the previous autumn to the yard, and mixed 

 with the small quantity of dung a starved horse 

 or two, and the few cattle kept, made, and some- 

 times with calcareous sea-sand besides. The potatoes 

 were followed by wheat, and if the land would bear 

 it, this again by oats once or twice, and then left to 

 rest, as it was called, three or four years, i.e. to grow 

 weeds (no grass seeds or clover whatever being 

 usually sown) till some sort of skin was formed, 

 enough to burn again. It may easily be judged 

 what was the result of such a course. Very little 

 stock could be kept; 20 bushels of wheat per acre 

 were thought a capital crop — 12 bushels were more 

 frequent ; green crops were almost unknown ; drain- 

 ing hardly thought of. Rents were very irregularly 

 paid, and tenants were little better than paupers. 

 A reduction of rents on the estate had been tried, 

 but arrears still accumulated. There never was any 

 certainty what money would be received, and it was 

 a source of constant vexation and difficulty to the 

 landlord, whilst the tenants were most of them 

 always in trouble. All this was before the potato 

 failure was thought of. 



It was at last resolved to try a system of 

 improvement that had succeeded elsewhere. 



An agent was altogether dispensed with. All 

 former arrears of rent, with trifling exceptions, were 

 wiped off, and it was announced that all future 



