402 Hie Prize System as applied to Small Farmers in Ireland. 
nothing extraordinary in his farming. There are tens of 
thousands of small farmers in Ulster who would, however, 
double their incomes, and add largely to their happiness, if 
they farmed as well as he does. 
What he has accomplished is the result of industry, of skill, 
and of frugality. His landlord has dealt with him on the 
good old principle of " live and let live," and there is be- 
tween them the feeling that ought to be universal throughout 
the land. 
The Spencer system has had the merit of bringing this man 
to the front, and of holding him up as a model farmer. 
Among the competitors in 1875 and 1876, there has been one 
man, James McGinn, who deserves a special notice. Up to 
November 1873, he lived exclusively by working as a labourer 
on Mr. Burges' home farm. He then got from Mr. Bulges a 
field containing 1 acre and 1 rood (statute), which became avail- 
able ; to which he added 1 acre 3 roods in November 1874, 
by purchasing the interest for 14Z. He borrowed 8/. of the 
purchase-money from a local loan fund, for which he has paid 
interest at the rate of \d. per pound per week. He got time to 
pay the remaining 6/. 
Soon after obtaining possession of the first plot he com- 
menced to build a cottage, which he completed in due time. 
This cottage consists of two apartments — a kitchen, used as a 
living-room, and a bed-room. Each apartment is 13 feet by 
13 feet in the clear. The walls are built of mud, which is 
plastered over. The thatch consists of wheat-straw. The floor 
is made up of a mixture of clay and lime-rubbish. It makes a 
warm, comfortable home, and is fit, so far as the accommodation 
goes, for an ordinary labourer or the occupier of one of the 
smaller holdings. The walls being rough cast, and the windows 
mullioned as in English cottages, it rises, in its appearance, out 
of the category of " mud cabins." 
A rude but warm and suitable piggery, and a temporary 
cowhouse, have been added. These will, in due time, be 
replaced by permanent structures. 
The situation being much exposed, the poor man has planted 
alders and poplars to break the blast ; and I am glad to find 
that they are all doing well. There is an approach, Avhich he 
has made more passable than the roadways leading to thousands 
of large farms in Ireland. 
I am satisfied that there is no class in the community which 
deserves more encouragement and countenance than men of this 
stamp, who evince an honest desire to provide for old age by 
lifting themselves out of the grade of the dependent poor. If 
single-handed, he may fail ; for in that case a few casualties, or 
