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From: Alison Causton <>
Subject: [ARMAGH] Armagh Guardian: News: BLACKER ­ Improving Agriculture in Ireland, Part II ­ 27 May 1845
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 07:46:01 -0400


Armagh Guardian: News: BLACKER ­ Improving Agriculture in Ireland ­ 27 May
1845

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The following article was transcribed from The Armagh Guardian, by
permission of The British Library.

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PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE AGRICULTURE OF
IRELAND.

Part II:

Now, taking 1730, the number of persons stated by Mr.
Clapperton to have become converts to the new system, to be
able, after being fairly embarked in that system, to manure
merely two acres more than they formerly did, this would make
an extra quantity of manured land equal to 3,460 acres, which
would be qualified, according to the four-course rotation, to
give, after the manured crop, a crop of wheat or oats, laid
down with clover and grass for next year¹s soiling, and another
grain crop after the clover, which four crops would, upon an
average, be worth above £7 10s per acre, Irish mearure [sic], or
£30 for the four crops; which multiplied by the 3,460, comes to
above £1,00,000 (at a valuation nearly one-third under the
fair estimate), brought into a small district by the exertions of
one man, in a little more than two and a half years, at an ex-
pense not much exceeding £160, which his wages would about
amount to for that time. But this is far from being a true
estimate of the benefit likely to be derived; for the number of
converts will be increasing from year to year, and the produce
of the land will be augmented by the new converts likely to
follow the successful examples given them by so many of their
neighbours, until the mind is actually lost in astonishment in
the contemplation of results of such magnitude, arising out of
an outlay apparently so inadequate; and a contribution of £50
annually towards the wages of an agriculturist, in each union,
would most probably be the means of inducing the resident
gentry in each district to unite to provide means of making the
appointment practically useful, by providing an advance of ma-
nure, seeds, &c., and in some cases, money, in order to enable
the poorer classes to avail themselves of the instructions afforded
them. If it is calculated what the return to government, in the
revenue, from the additional outlay of £100,000, in any one
district, expended in whatever way it may, the contribution of
£50 in each will appear to be a profitable investment for the
public, instead of an expense, and this is the true way of view-
ing the matter in. It may be further said, in favour of this,
that the education thus afforded to the farmer and his family,
upon their own farms, is precisely the education suited to their
situation. They learn to be useful members of society in the
condition in which Providence has placed them; and, by honest
industry and the practice of what they are taught, the means
of advancement in the world are placed within their reach. It
is a common error to suppose that this mode of proceeding
tends to pauperize an estate, by sanctioning and encouraging
small farms, and that the true way to have a rich tenantry is,
to divide the land into large farms, and turn off the small
holders ; no doubt this process, however repugnant to the bet-
ter feelings of human nature, would be effective, if new tenants
could be got to occupy these large farms with capital suited to
their cultivation. There may, perhaps, be some parts of Ire-
land where such capital is to be met with; but in general, such
tenants could not be had, were this plan extensively acted on.
In such cases, with all deference to the judgment of those
who adopt the clearance system, they are, under such circum-
stances, taking the direct way to impoverish their estates, in
place of enriching them. To give a man a larger farm than
he has the capital to cultivate, very nearly resembles the prac-
tice of Indian princes, who make a present of an elephant to
the courtier they wish to ruin‹the expense beggars him: so it
is with the large farm the rent must be paid, which is just as
eating an evil as the elephant ; and the tenant who has not the
capital to support it, is broke. It will be found, I think, when
the subject is well considered, that it is not large farms make
a wealthy tenantry, but it is a wealthy tenantry that make the
large farms. Therefore, those landlords who wish for large
farms, which, in this view of the case, every landlord will natu-
rally do, his first exertions must be to improve the circum-
stances of the farmers he had ; and, as they can only better
their circumstances by improved cultivation, his first object
should be to give them agricultural instruction. Knowledge is
power; and the power of making three acres of land produce as
much as nine, with one-third of the rent, and much less expense
in other respects, must be degrees effect an improvement in a
certain proportion of any tenantry. Suppose this knowledge is
pretty generally diffused over any particular district, the value
of land (to those who have improved) is enhanced, by their
knowing, from experience, what an increased return can be had
from it. If any tenant who adheres to old prejudices gets into
difficulties, or wishes to emigrate, the man who has improved
is the person who will give the highest price for his farm, from
knowing what he can make of it; and, by what he had made,
is, also, the person best able to pay for it. Thus, the improver
extends his farm from time to time, as opportunity offers. On
the other hand, suppose that no such opportunity occurs‹that
no one wishes to emigrate, or may be forced to sell from being
in difficulties, then the improver, having acquired a little capi-
tal, and knowing he can part with his own farm to advantage,
from its high state of cultivation, looks round to other localities
where agriculture is less understood, and where land, there-
fore, may be obtained on cheaper terms ; he sells his own farm,
and purchases, elsewhere, one twice or three times the size,
which his skill and exertions will soon double the value of; and
his old farm goes to increase the farm of some of his neigh-
bours whom he leaves behind him ; and thus, in any case, the
acquisition of capital leads to the increase of the holdings as
I have stated.
There can be no truth more certain than this, that, as a ge-
neral principle, capital will find room for itself, and go where
it will yield the best return. The colonization schemes of the
present day, in New Zealand and elsewhere, are all examples
that capital will find room for itself, and are no more than in-
stances, upon a large scale, of the principle contended for, and
which is demonstrated in a small way by what has been said of
the small farmer, whose improved knowledge is in itself an ac-
quired capital, which he will not fail to turn to advantage in
some way or other. The truth of what has been thus advanced
could be substantiated by numerous examples on the Earl of
Gosford¹s estates. The premium men who have most distin-
guished themselves have invariably increased their farms 3where
they had the opportunity of so doing. Many more are waiting
that opportunity ; and many have sold their farms under Lord
Gosford, and have purchased larger farms at lower rents else-
wheere ; and some have obtained valuable farms, without pur-
chase, from landlords who have been anxious to establish exam-
ples of improved cultivation on their estates. Thus, the spread-
ing of the populatation [sic], however different the causes which
may bring it about, in every case tends to enlarge the farms of
those who remain stationary, whilst bettering greatly the
condition of those who remove.
But the state of things near large towns, where capital
abounds, affords still more convincing proof of what I assert,
because it is there visible to the eye. No one can there see the
miserable cottier starving upon two or three acres of land,
clinging to it with desperate tenacity, as his only hope of exis-
tence. If such small portions exist, they are in the hands of
the market gardener, whose knowledge enables him to buy out
the cottier, who may have escaped the acquisitiveness of the
adjoining farmer. The cottier becomes the labourer, and the
capital of the vicinity affords him constant employment ; that
division of labour which capital is sure to produce has been
brought into existence, and improvement, proceeding in confor-
mity to natural laws, progresses, with benefit to all and injury
to none. but to make large farms where there is not capital to
occupy them, and to turn out cottiers where there is not capital
to employ them, is acting in opposition to natural laws‹is
forcing a state of things which the advancement of the country
is not adequate to maintain, and which must be attended with
loss to the proprietors if they cannot get tenants with adequate
means ; and with misery to the poor people, who, in losing their
patch of land, are obliged to part with all they can rely on for
employment, without having any prospect of such a permanent
demand for their labour as may render them independent of that
resource they have lost.
In every point of view, therefore, the location of an agricul-
turist seems best suited to the present circumstances of Ireland.
The information he gives, as has been already alluded to, suits
the peasant for his place in society and makes him a valuable
member of the community, without elevating him so much
above his former circumstances as to make him unsuited to them,
which is the case with many of those trained in agricultural
schools, where they acquire different branches of learning,
which, however advantageous to the individual, disqualify him
for returning to his father¹s cabin and few acres of land, to make
the most of his acquirements. The local is unsuited to him.
He leaves it in disgust to seek a situation better suited to him,
and his father and his farm are left as they are. To take a
large farm he has not capital ; to sink into a small one he can-
not brook ; and if he cannot get a situation as land-steward or
agriculturist, which his want of experience and knowledge of
the world are great obstacles to his obtaining, his Irish history
ends by his becoming an emigrant to America, leaving his
native land, without benefit from him or his education, to ad-
vance or retrogade as other circumstances may happen to
promote or retard it.
Emigration is, no doubt, the natural vent for our population ;
but no country can be reasonably said to be over-peopled until
the soil has been brought to something near its maximum state
of cultivation, and found insufficient for the support of its in-
habitants.
There is no truth more clear than that capital is the result of
labour ; for man brought nothing in the world, and, therefore,
there was nothing but his labour to produce it. To part, there-
fore, with the labourer is, to part with that which produces the
wealth of the country ; and if the country affords the means of
employment, it seems to me the government, as acting for the
good of the community, ought first to endeavour to make that
employment available; and ought not, until all means of ac-
complishing this have failed, to encourage the emigration of a
population able and willing to work, for the cultivation and
improvement of foreign lands, which is so much wanted for the
cultivation and improvement of our own. If the population is
kept profitably employed, capital will so increase, that it will
have to find room for itself elsewhere ; and those who are
possessed of it will find means to export themselves, without
any other inducement than their own interest ; and there will be
always enough of growing population and capital coming for-
ward to take its place ; so the wealth and property of the coun-
try will always remain full, even to overflowing.
The present state of Ireland does not, I regret to say, furnish
an example of this desirable state of things; but it, nevertheless,
exhibits very striking proofs of the correctness of the doctrines
here insisted on ; for of what class are the great body of emi-
grants usually composed? Are they not those possessed of a
certain amount of capital, which, they hope to lay out to more
permanent advantage elsewhere than they can at home ; or
those better educated, who wish to take their talents and ac-
quirements to a better market ; or the able-bodied labourer,
whose capital is his health and strength, who seeks elsewhere
the occupation and employment which he cannot here obtain?
It is a common complaint, that those only leave the country
whom it would be most desirable to keep in it; and this fact
is often accounted for according to the opposite views of reli-
gious and party feelings. But the whole seems to take place in
strict conformity with the admitted law of nature ; that capital
will always find room for itself ; and all those people obey this
law in taking their capital voluntarily, whether it be monetary,
mental, or corporeal, to the best market. But to force emigra-
tion prematurely, by bounties and other inducements, seems to
me to be little better than the clearance system, sanctioned in the
gross, though it is denounced in detail; and will probably cost
more than would provide employment at home in a manner more
beneficial to the country, and more satisfactory to the persons
for whose benefit it is proposed. WM. BLACKER
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This reprint is intended SOLELY for the non-commercial use of family
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