Domes/ ic Notices : — Ireland. 365 



Rural Improvement. — Our correspondent, Mr. Murphy, we are glad to 

 find, is making arrangements for being supplied with agricultural seeds ; and, 

 as he has had nuich experience in rural affairs, he proposes affording to 

 " such gentlemen as honour his establishment with theii* orders, any in- 

 formation which they may require, and which it may be in his power to 

 give, as to the best means of reclaiming lands ; the prices, age, and kinds 

 of trees suited to particular soils and situations ; the kinds and proportions 

 of grass seeds adapted to particular circumstances, &c.; subjects, for want 

 of an acquaintance with which, he has reason to know that large sums are 

 annually misapplied in this country [Ireland]." A man of Mr. Murphy's 

 science and experience might render immense service to the agricultural 

 interest in Ireland, if there were enterprise enough among the country 

 gentlemen to consult him, and take his advice. — Cond. 



Improvement of the Labouring Class. — In the county of Clare, about ten 

 miles from the city of Limerick, Mr. Vandeleur resides on his estate ; and 

 has employed on it between sixty and seventy people, all the year round, at 

 the rate of eight-pence per day. About one third of this number are women 

 (there are no children employed) ; but the greater part of the labourers are 

 young and strong men, between 18 and 30. Some live in single cottages 

 of long standing ; the remainder are boarded and lodged, under Mr. Van- 

 deleur's inspection, in large but comfortable rooms newly built for the 

 purpose, which admit of many economical arrangements of fuel, cookery, 

 attendance, and arrangements, which obviate the necessity of the young 

 labourer marrying merely that he may have some one to cook and bring 

 him his meals. Mr. Vandeleur's ultimate object is to give the peasantry 

 an opportunity of elevating themselves to comfort and independence by 

 their own exertions, and, if they please, obtaining a permanent interest in 

 the land which they till. The working plan is this : — The labourers have 

 well arranged committees of cultivation amongst themselves, who not only 

 examine the localities, and determine what is best to be grown upon each, 

 but assist in doing the work themselves. An exact account is kept of all 

 the expenditure and produce. The labourers are credited to the full with 

 all they can bring to the barn or the market, for Mr. Vandeleur's use : and 

 are debited with their wages for present support ; with the rent of the land 

 under cultivation, at an average of about 25s. per acre ; with the county 

 rates thereon ; and, lastly, with the interest of Mr. Vandeleur's stock and 

 capital employed for their use. If they can produce a surplus on these 

 necessary expenses, they are, by agreement, fully entitled to it, and may, 

 if they think fit, become the purchasers of the land, at a fixed rate; or, 

 having acquired stock of their own, they may remain on it as perpetual 

 lessees. In its present early stage, this undertaking can only be considered 

 as an experiment : it is, however, a most interesting one to the philanthro- 

 pist; especially in the present state of the empire, when the oldest institu- 

 tions are crumbling away before novel necessity and the growing spirit of 

 reform in all things. 



Another undertaking, on a smaller scale, but which promises to be equally 

 instructive as an example, has occurred in the county of Cork, a few miles 

 from the coast, at Tullig, near Skibbereen. Mr. Thompson of Cork has laid 

 out a model cottage farm, of five acres, for the instruction of a numerous 

 tenantry, strongly attached to old modes of cultivation and old habits of 

 all kinds. He has stocked one acre as a garden, with fruit trees, roots, &c. ; 

 fenced, cultivated, and laid down the other four with the most improved 

 rotation of cottager's crops ; built a cottage, with its addenda of cow- 

 house, bee-house, pigst}', dairy, &c. ; and placed a peasant of good cha- 

 racter, and his little stock, on the little farm, with full powers to consume 

 and enjoy all he can produce, but strictly bound to cultivate every perch 

 of it by spade, and in the manner which RL-. Thompson has laid down as 

 most exemplary. Failing in this, the tenant will fail also in his right of 



