424 The Prize System as applied to Small Farmers in Ireland. 
bear testimony to the enormous amount of labour expended by 
the occupiers on the reclamation of the upland. There is equally 
strong evidence of the amount of labour expended on the bog- 
land, which in its original or natural state was not worth Is. an 
acre for agricultural purposes, and a great deal of which, in its 
present condition, pays 1/. an acre. All this has been accom- 
plished by spade labour, the farms being too small, the upland 
too stony, and the bogs too soft, for horse-labour. With the 
exception of a few farms which lie along the public road, the 
farms I visited are approachable either by bridle-roads, on which 
a wheeled vehicle of any kind cannot travel, or by pathways. 
It will be seen from the tabular return (Table III., pp. 426, 
427) that the four persons who head the list are equal in 
merit. I give the premier place to John Jordan, of Crenane, 
to whom I have referred already. He lives within mile 
of Ballaghaderrin. His farm is approached by a wretched 
" bohreen." He holds 19 acres 2 roods from Lord Dillon. 
The present rent (7/. 19s. 4rf.), which was fixed eighteen years 
ago, when the land was " striped," must be regarded as a fair 
measure of its value at the time. There are about 8 acres of 
upland, and 11^ acres reclaimed bog. At my first inspection in 
1872, part of the bog was in a rough state. The whole of it is 
now bearing crops. It is divided into twelve sections, which are 
separated by open drains, and connected by temporary bridges 
thrown across the drains at the angles. The drainage-water 
finds its way into a river which flows through the bog, and bounds 
the farm on the north side. Two years ago the river was deepened 
by Jordan and his brother, but as the work benefits a great many 
neighbouring farms, Mr. Strickland, on the part of Lord Dillon, 
paid them for it. Two of the sections adjacent to the river are 
now in permanent grass. Of five other sections, also in grass, two 
were top-dressed with clay at the time of my visit. Two sections 
were cropped with potatoes in 1876 ; one, the largest, was under 
oats, with which the seed of Italian rye-grass was sown ; one was 
in lea oats ; and one, also a large one, was cropped with mangels 
and turnips. 
The roadway separates the bog-land from the upland. The 
house and offices are on the upland, which was cropped as 
follows : — 
A. R. P. 
Garden 0 1 10 
Paddock, which bore a luxuriant crop of " forced "I q 2 0 
grasses chiefly Italian rye-grass J 
Potatoes 2 0 0 
Oats with grass-seeds 1 2 20 
Pasture 3 2 20 
A plot of the artificial grass contains a large proportion of 
