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taken in connexion with my other plans of improve- 

 ment on bare, rocky soils, &c. described in this work, 

 see Leackenderry HilJ, No. XLVI., with many others, 

 I say I am perfectly convinced, when these improve- 

 ments are set on foot, Ireland will soon be the richest 

 and most independent of the three British nations, 

 and the noblemen, the gentlemen, and above all, the 

 farmer and the labourer, will, in their own sphere, 

 be equally benefited and enriched. 



Should the lords of the soil (as it must begin with 

 them) turn a deaf ear to this improvement, I may 

 say to them in the language of Holy Writ, what the 

 great Jehovah said to Israel of old, Ireland is joined 

 to idols and indolence, let her alone. The poor la- 

 bourer of five feet stature will still starve for want of 

 food, and wear the old casting clothes of the man of 

 six feet. But I hope better things of the lords of the 

 soil of Ireland. When once these improvements are 

 set about with spirit and life, it will be the best 

 emancipation, emigration, and corn bill, Ireland ever 

 saw or heard of. 



To give one striking example amongst many, 

 there is a farmer on an estate in Ayrshire, who 

 has some small spots of boggy land on his farm, 

 tending a good deal to moss, and I may observe 

 by the way, that this land is as inferior to the 

 most of the lands in Ireland, as cast iron is to gold ; 

 there being no outlet or descent for the water, the 

 farmer drained by deep ditches, and threw it up 

 into what is commonly called layse beds, say ridges, 

 about fifteen feet broad ; he trenched it over, and la- 

 boured it by manual labourers, and he had fifteen 

 bolls of wheat on an acre, and ten or eleven bolls 

 of oats. He has had it in crop for many years, and 

 still going on labouring and cropping in the same 



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