52 
Irish Agriculture. 
any country save in one where there was a larg^e superabundant 
and unemployed population, whose chief means of subsistence 
were derived from the potato-patches which they procured in this 
way. The failure of the potato-crop in the years mentioned, 
and the distress which followed, put a stop to the system, but it 
has since been partially revived, and certain provisions relating; 
to it were inserted in the "Irish Land Act" of 1870. 
Amonj; the causes which have led to the extension of grass- 
farming: in Ireland, a certain prejudice ao:ainst cultivation has 
undoubtedly exercised considerable influence. Many owners 
and occupiers of land were not familiar with anv kind of 
tilla'je-farming' save that which prevailed amongst the small 
landholders, and as that was evidently of an exceedingly ex- 
hausting nature; they not unnaturally became averse to culti- 
vation. The want of practical skill in this department of rural 
economy, combined with the close attention which a regular 
system of cultivati(m re([uires, has operated materially in favour 
of the more simple and less troublesome system of pasturage. 
In carrying out that system it is not even necessary that the 
owner or occupier of land be a judge of stock. His Dublin 
cattle salesman buys what may be required to stock the land, and 
sells the same when fit for market; and if cash is scarce the 
salesman will make all straight by advancing the price of 
the stock he has bought, or by endorsing bills for the same, 
repaving himself out of the sales in autumn, and charging, of 
course, interest on the money so advanced. In this way the 
salesman has two commissions out of the stock, and good interest 
for his money. This practice was, perhaps, more prevalent at 
one time than it is now, but it is still carried on to a greater 
extent than many are aware of. 
With reference to the influence which the freedom from close 
superintendence, necessary on a tillage-farm, has had on the 
extensi<m of the pasturage system, the following incident, 
narrated by Mr. M'Lagan, M.P., illustrates one phase of the 
(juestion which has been generally overlooked. Mr. M Lagan 
says: "An agent told me of a tenant who had thrown all his 
land into grass, though the soil was not so well adapted for grass 
as for tillage ; and the conse(juence was that the tenant was not 
so prosperous as he might have been. On the agent advising 
him to plough more of his land, his answer was, ' That would 
require too much of my personal superintendence, and would ne- 
cessitate my giving up hunting'" 'Jliis, I may remark, is by 
no means a solitary instance of such a reason being assigned 
lor preferring grass-farming to tillage. 
During the series of wet summers and autumns which 
occurred 10 years ago, certain innucntia! London papers jnessed 
