long series of years before it can be brought into common cultivation. This proves the necessity, under certain circumstances, of lengthening the term beyond the usual period; in such cases thirty-one years probably might be a just and reasonable time. In districts which require both money and labour to an amount far beyond the value of the fee, sixty-one years would certainly not be too long; but where the tenant is good, let me strongly recommend a timely renewal; a lease should never be suffered to expire: a landlord and tenant may always understand each other before it comes to an end; and a reversionary lease to the occupier is as beneficial to both parties, as it is destructive when granted to a third. Very large estates should never be let in such a manner as to occasion an expiration of all the leases at the same time. This enables the tenants to combine; and when a large tract of land belongs to one individual, as is often the case in Ireland, if the divisions are very small, it is almost impossible to transact business with so numerous a body of tenants. Nothing tends so much to induce a landlord to let his whole estate to a middle-man, who is more accustomed to deal with people of that description, and consequently better enabled to endure the fatigue of it. Were my advice followed, landlords would so let their estates as to make the leases expire at different periods. From the information detailed in the preceding account of the landed property in the different counties, I have endeavoured to draw out an account of the rent per acre of the whole kingdom, distinguishing the rent per green acre from the rent of the total area, but it must be obvious, that without better materials, and a more accurate estimate of the quantity of waste land, nothing like correctness can be expected. It will be perceived by the following table, that I make the average rent of the total area of fourteen counties £1. 4s. 9d. per acre.-The average rent of the green acres of seventeen £1. 18s. 8d. per acre, which upon their total area is £1. 95. per acre.* Two counties, Antrim and Longford, I have left blank, conceiving that I have not data enough to form a calculation, but they certainly will not average above 30s. or under 25s. per acre; setting them down therefore at 27s. 6d. for the sake of making up an estimate of the island, the average of these three sums will be £1. 7s. 1d. per acre, which upon 12,722,615, is £17,228,540. Irish money, and Irish acres. * Calculating the difference between the green acres and total area according to Mr. Arrowsmith's opinion To this amount must be added an incalculable rent, for I have no data to enable me to ascertain it, arising not only from the large towns, such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmell, Drogheda, &c. but that produced by small towns, which on the first view might appear of very little consequence. The rents in some of these places are astonishing. I know moderatesized houses in Roscrea that let for £200: per annum. Even at Kilrush, which lies as far to the west as any part of Europe, building ground produces a good income, and consequently that arising from houses must be very great. A fear of misleading the public restrains me from assigning any value to the rental of towns in Ireland. I shall therefore leave this point to the judgment of the reader, who, however, must not overlook the difference between rent derived from land, which annually produces a return, and the site of a town which consumes that produce, With regard to the landed property of Ireland in general, it will be found to be placed under very advantageous circumstances. The landlord has no repairs to make, no land-tax to deduct, and except the agent's fees, his rent-roll is his income. How different from the state of the same kind of property in England. There are here no fines paid to the lord of the manor by copyhold tenures, the titles to estates being derived from a different principle. In Ireland, live and dead heriots are unknown, and fines upon death or alienation can in no instance be demanded. There are here no open-field tenures or lammas-land; none of those immense commons which cannot be inclosed without an Act of Parliament, obtained at a great expence, and the appointment of commissioners. The whole country is inclosed, ready to receive that improvement which the application of industry may give to it, and the tenants in general enjoy tenures which an English farmer would consider as highly advantageous. Some of the latter, indeed, if they could obtain a lease for their own and their son's lives, would, I am convinced, commence their exertions with as much spirit as if they possessed the fee. Besides the absence of poor's rates, the advantages are so striking, that I am surprised that English farmers do not eagerly seek after farms in Ireland. I had drawn up minutes for the formation of leases in Ireland, under the different circumstances of mountain, grazing, or arable land; but conceiving that the insertion of them would only have swelled to a greater size, a work which I fear will be considered already too large, I determined to suppress them. Landed estates in Ireland sell at very different rates. In the neighbourhood of Belfast, and thence to Armagh, the common price is thirty years' purchase. In the greater part of the rest of the island it does not exceed twenty; but in the turbulent districts, many estates may be sometimes bought for from sixteen to eighteen. Westmeath and Carlow are the only counties in which I have heard of a great transfer of property; estates are so much entailed that they are not often exposed to sale. The only three large estates which have been sold of late years, are those of Lord Barrymore, in the county of Cork, purchased by Mr. Anderson, that of Lord Dundas in Sligo and Roscommon, which was sold in lots, and the estates of Earl Moira, which were situated in different parts of the kingdom. What transfers take place are generally made by private bargain, as Irish gentlemen have a particular aversion to advertise their estates for sale by public auction. In this respect, the difference between England and Ireland is peculiarly striking. CHAPTER VIII. RURAL ECONOMY. HAVING treated in the preceding chapter of the nature of landed property in Ireland, the manner in which it is divided, the value of it, and other things pertaining to the subject, I shall now endeavour to describe the manner in which it is employed, whether for the breeding and maintenance of cattle and other animals, or for the raising of corn, which naturally forms two distinct heads. . Large tracts of country, exclusively devoted to the breeding of cattle, as is the case in the Highlands of Scotland, are not to be found in Ireland, and even in places where this system of rural economy is pursued, they are so uncommon, that they appear to have been set apart for that purpose rather by accident than design. In most of the dairy districts calves are reared, and frequently sold when yearlings, to persons who graze them till they are three or four years old. They are then resold to graziers, in order to be fattened, and in many instances where this method is not followed, the male calves are slaughtered at an early age, that perhaps of three or four days, and used at the table as veal.* The cow-calves, however, are preserved and reared for the supply of the dairy. A mixture of grazing and tillage is seldom adopted, except by gentlemen, and in this respect there is a wide difference between England and Ireland. In the eastern part of England in particular, there are many winter graziers whose farms are nearly all under the plough, but who fatten such numbers of cattle that the supply of the capital during April and May, depends in a great measure upon those which have been fed on turnips in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. The mountains of Ireland, instead of being grazed by their owners or large occupiers, who in that case would annually sell their draught stock, are frequently let on a partnership lease to the inhabitants of a mountain village, each of whom turns out a fixed number of collops,+ according to his share of the tenure. These collops, for the most part, are cows, goats, * Mr. Townsend says, that they are often the food of poor housekeepers in towns, p. 221. + The term collop appears to be very similar to that of cattle gait in England, when the tenants of a manor have a right to turn out on the common a fixed number of stock. or geese; and the only saleable produce of such districts is butter. The want of roads in these mountains is a great impediment to tillage; grain could not be transported from one place to another without considerable expence, but butter is easily conveyed in panniers, or at any rate on sliding cars, a kind of vehicle without wheels, which is similar to our sledge. The word collop is applied to various objects; a horse is generally a collop, two cows are equal to a horse, and consequently comprehended under the same term; four yearling calves, or one cow and two yearling calves are a collop; five goats are equal to a cow, so that ten goats are also a collop, and I believe the case is the same with twice that number of geese. Sheep are rated with goats, but are by no means so frequent, for milk is the chief object, and an ewe does not yield nearly the same quantity as a she-goat, yet now and then sheep are kept also for this purpose. Some readers, perhaps, may be surprised to hear that sheep are kept on account of their milk, but this custom is not confined to Ireland; it is common in Carmarthenshire, and I have observed it in other parts of Great Britain. * The northern mountains of Ireland support a few cattle, but they are generally in a famished condition; and even in the south, where they are much more frequent, some perish through bad food. In the north I have travelled during a whole day without seeing any other animals than goats, browzing in flocks as they do in Swisserland. The want of cultivation at the bottom of these heights, to insure food in winter, and of proper attention to shades, will sufficiently account for this circumstance. On the coast of Clare I observed shades, consisting of stone walls, built in the form of a T, which were exceedingly well calculated to answer the purpose intended. It is difficult to estimate the mountain produce of Ireland, for no measurement of such land has ever yet been made, at least as far as came within my knowledge. A mountain is generally let by the side, the bed of some small river often forming the boundary; but the quality of the soil is for the most part so variable, that its value or susceptibility of improvement, cannot easily be ascertained. The stock kept on, a given surface depends on the condition of the occupiers; if they are wealthy the number is of course greater, but possessions of this kind are often exceedingly small. The cotters who keep cows in all parts of the kingdom, rear a calf now and then on their landlord's farm. The privilege of doing this is one of the usual modes of payment which are here called "conveniences," and it is by these means that they are enabled to become possessed of cows; but I am much inclined to think that they are kept to too great an age, a system which occasions much waste of stock, and therefore is very unprofitable. Those who have attended to this subject will readily comprehend what I mean; but as it is a point on which many who are igno *Townsend's Survey of Cork, p. 237 and 250. Dutton's Survey of Clare, p. 129. |