36 
Irish Agriculture. 
now about 50 statute acres, but on Lord Erne's estates in County 
Fermanagh, where the same system has been carried on, the 
farms are less in extent ; nevertheless, the occupiers are thoroughly 
comfortable. On this point I take leave to quote from a report 
on Lord Erne's estates made by me some years ago, after a very 
minute examination of the farms. " There is no one who can 
see the tenantry on the Erne estates without being struck with 
the remarkably respectable appearance they present, whether at 
home or abroad ; and those who imagine that a class of small 
farmers must necessarily be a struggling impoverished race ought 
to visit the Erne estates before they decide in this matter."* 
In the report to which reference is made, an account is given 
of a farm consisting of 9^ statute acres, which had been reclaimed 
entirely out of bog. It was under a four-shift course, and main- 
tained four head of cattle, an ass, and two or three pigs. Three 
of the cattle " were as good cows as any man would wish to see 
about his farm." On another farm of scarcely 20 acres (statute) 
four excellent cows, two or three calves, and half-a-dozen of pigs 
were kept, and kept well : and on another farm of 15 acres five 
cows and a calf were house-fed. The crops grown for the use of 
those animals were of course in addition to corn, potatoes, and 
sometimes flax crops ; and the instances quoted are not taken as 
exceptional, but as a fair illustration of the results of the system 
of practical instruction which has been carried out on Lord 
Erne's estates. That system is still in operation, no change 
having been made in the details, except to introduce improve- 
ments where experience has shown that such were practicable. 
A similar system has, as I have already intimated, been carried 
out on other estates, and notably so on those belonging to the 
Earl of Longford in the counties of Westmeath and Longford, 
and the Earl of Arran in Mayo, the late Lord Palmerston's 
estates in Sligo, the Duke of Devonshire's estates, the Marquis 
of Londonderry's estates, and others. 
About thirty years ago nearlv the whole of Lord Longford's 
estates in Westmeath were held under very old leases, and, as 
was customary in such cases, the land so liold was subdivided 
into an immense number of very small holdings. Scarcely any 
one person held his land in one compact lot or farm ; one field 
or patch of ground might lie in the immediate vicinity of the 
occupier's dwelling, but a second patch was perhaps half a mile 
away in one direction, and a third as far, or farther, in another. 
This system prevailed at one time in most parts of Ireland, and 
instances of it are still to be met with. Where it does exist, the 
people are very averse to having their land " striped," or laid off 
* ' Irish Fanner's Gazette,' vol. xvi. p. 923. 
