WASTELANDS. 71 



The annual produft of the improved land is in this fyftern 

 very eafily afeertained. Suppofe only twenty * (heep per acre, 

 and no more than fifteen lambs from them, worth two {"hillings 

 and fixpence each, it is thirty-feven {hillings andfixper.ee, and 

 the twenty fleeces at one (hilling make fifty-feven {hillings and 

 fixpence : about three pound therefore may be reckoned the 

 loweft value of an acre of turneps at firft j but as fucceflive 

 crops on the fame land improve greatly, they would winter 

 more than twenty, and both lambs and wool be more valuable, 

 fo that from a variety of circumltances I have attended to in that 

 country, I am clear the common value of the turneps might be 

 carried to four pounds, and in the courfe of a few years per- 

 haps to five pounds an acre. And to ftate the expence of fuch 

 an improvement completely finifhed at ten pounds an acre, in- 

 cluding every article whatever; three crops of turneps amply 

 repay the whole, and the future produce or rent of the land, 

 neat profit. This would be twenty {hillings an acre ; twenty- 

 five fhillings are commonly paid for much worfe land. The 

 real faft of fuch improvements is a landlord's accepting an 

 etlate gratis, or at leaft paying nothing but trouble for it. 

 Nearly fuch concluftons muft be drawn froui lord Altamont's 

 mountain works, of which an account is given in the minutes. 

 I ihould remark that the people I employed, though aj igno- 

 rant as any in the kingdom, and had never feen a turnep hoe, 

 hoed the turneps when I {hewed them the manner, very rea- 

 dily, and though not fkilfully, well enough to prove their do- 

 cility would not be wanting ; it was the fame with the paring 

 mattock, and the Norfolk turnep fower. They very readily 

 execute orders, and feem to give their inclination to it. 



There are fevera! reafons which make thefe improvements 

 more profitable and eafy in Ireland than they are in England. 

 There are no common rights to encounter, which are the curfe 

 of our moors. Buildings, which in England form one of the 

 heavieft articles, are but a trifling expence ; make the land 

 good, and you will let it readily without any at all ; or at leaft 

 with an allowance of a roof towards a cabbin ; and laftly, the 

 proportionate value of improved land compared with that of 

 unimproved is much higher than it is with us, owing to the 

 want of capital, rendering all improvements fo rare, and to the 

 common people fo difficult. Three hundred pounds a year 

 fteadily employed in fuch an undertaking, would in a fewyears 

 create an eftate fuftkient for the greateft undertakings : but 

 fuccefs depends on a regular unbroken exertion, a point I found 

 very few perfons in Ireland thoroughly underftood, owing to 

 their not being accuftouied to large flocks of iheep regularly 

 depending on turneps. At the fame time that this wr.rk wns 

 carrying on, his lordrtrp, by my advice, encouraged the pea- 



* It is fo le noted that fork Jhtef at- d, or.d that 



rhiefy in bad weather. The winters in ! -'ucb triiletr 



than in England, 



f&ntry 



