ai TENANTRY. 



In the arable counties of Louth, part of Mcath, Kildare, 

 Kilkenny, Carlow, Queen's, and part of King's, and Tip- 

 perary, they are much more induftrious. It is the nature of 

 tillage, to raife a more regular and animated attention to 

 bufinefs ; but the farms are too fmall, and the tenants too 

 poor, to exhibit any appearances that can ftrike an Englifht tra- 

 veller. They have a great deal of corn, and many fine wheat 

 erops ; but being gained at the expence and lofs of a fallow, 

 as in the open fields of England, they do not Aiggeft the ideas 

 of profit to the individual, or advantage to the ftate, which 

 worfe crops in a well appointed rotation would do. Their 

 manuring is trivial, their tackle and implements wretched, 

 their teams weak, their profit fmall, and their living little bet- 

 ter than that of the cottars they employ. Thefe circumftances 

 are the neceflary refult of the fmallnefs of their capitals, which 

 even in thefe tillage counties do net ufually amount to a third 

 of what an Englifh farmer would have to manage the fame 

 extent of land. The leafes of thefe men are ufually three 

 lives to proteftants, and thirty-one years to catholics. 



The tenantry in the more unimproved parts, fuch as Corke, 

 Wicklow, Longford, and all the mouncamous counties, where 

 it is part tillage, and part pafturage, are generally in a very 

 backward ftate. Their capitals are fmaller than the clafs I 

 juft mentioned, and among them is chiefly found the practice 

 of many poor cottars hiring large farms in partnerfhip. They 

 make their rents by a little butter, a little wool, a little corn, 

 and a few young cattle and lambs. Their lands at extreme 

 low rents, are the moft unimproved, (mountain and bog ex- 

 cepted,) in the kingdom. They have, however, more induf- 

 try than capital j and with a very little management, might 

 be brought greatly to improve their hufbandry. I think they 

 hold more generally from intermediate tenants than any other 

 fet ; one reafcn why the land they occupy is in fo wafte a 

 ftate. In the mountainous tracts, I faw inftances of greater in- 

 duftry than in any other part of Ireland. Little occupiers, who 

 can get leafes of a mountain fide, make exertions in improve- 

 ment, which, though far enough from being complete, or ac- 

 curate, yet prove clearly what great effedts encouragement 

 would have among them. 



In the King's county, and alfo in fomc other parts, I faw 

 many traits of land, not large enough to be relet, which were 

 occupied under leafes for ever, very well planted and improv- 

 ed by men of fubftance and induftry. 



The poverty, common among the fmall occupying tenantry, 

 may be pretty well afcertained from their general conduct in 

 hiring a farm. They will manage to take one with a fum 

 furprifcingly fmall ; they provide iabour, which in England is 

 fo considerable an article, by afligning portions of land to cot- 

 tars for their potatoe gardens, and keeping one or two cows 



for 



