266 THE ARDS: FLAX AND POTATOES 



his improvements, yet he had always one eye on the 

 Commissioners, who might raise at any rate, not 

 reduce his rent every five years if the farm looked 

 prosperous. But nowadays as prospective owner he 

 has reformed the drainage, hedges are taken in hand, 

 and the farming is tuned up as rapidly as the profits 

 permit. 



To obtain the real rent one ought to add to the 

 annual instalment the interest on the tenant right 

 which had been accumulated by previous work ; indeed; 

 on this account we must usually consider the Irish 

 farmer as a substantial capitalist having as much 

 money sunk in his business as the English farmer 

 occupying an area three or four times greater. For 

 example, nearer Belfast we found another farm the 

 rental of which was 253. an acre, but on which the 

 tenant right had changed hands at nearly 50 an 

 acre. 



As a further factor in the prosperity of Ulster, 

 farming labour is very cheap, about IDS. a week; and 

 the farm does not find the cottages, for most of the 

 men live in cottages built by the rural district council 

 and let at a non-economic rent. Still, taking all these 

 conditions into account, and the good prices that can 

 be obtained for potatoes, milk, and on occasion flax, 

 the Ulster farmer needs to be a good manager, work- 

 ing under a favourable climate, to live as well as he 

 does on such small holdings. In the Ards seaweed is 

 also an asset, and of the favourable climate we have 

 evidence in the successes of the one or two firms of 

 rose growers which have made this part of Ireland 

 famous among horticulturists. 



