scrutiny by impartial judges. It appears that in Sir Richard O'Donnell's district, in the county Mayo, more than four acres have been drained for the same amount of outlay expended in draining one acre in Lord Dufferin's district, in the county of Down; and that Lord Waterford's drainage in 1842 cost nearly twice as much per acre as it did in 1845. The average amongst one class of competitors is £3 58. 7d., and amongst another class, £4 13s. 10d. per statute acre, making a mean average of £3 198. 84d.-say £4 per statute acre; and this might probably be considered as a fair average rate. -p. 114. One witness mentions that in his neighbourhood it is the 899, Q. 20-25 practice for poor persons to take the use of land for two crops, and instead of paying a rent for the two years they hold it, they return the land to the farmer thorough-drained. It is clear that the value received by the poor man for his labour and cost in thorough-draining the land, would be equal to the fair rent of it for two years. It may be inferred, from what this witness states, that the land here alluded to is mountain land, which by this treatment becomes the best land in the farm. The very important operation of subsoiling can be effected in a great variety of ways, each of which more or less varies or modifies the cost. These methods are reducible into three classes, according as they are done by spade labour, or by horse labour, or by a mixture of both. Again, the subsoiling by spade labour may cost from 10s. 8d. Appendix, per acre, as performed by Mr. Wilson, to £7 or £8, or even £12 per acre, as described by Mr. Barber, by trenching. The cost of ordinary subsoiling with the plough may be taken at about £1 108. per acre. No. 30p. 106. 360, Q. 27p. 123. -p. 111. The mixed method by the ordinary plough, with spades, Appendix 56 instead of the subsoil plough following, has the advantage of employing many labourers instead of the whole being horse work, and may be calculated to cost from £1 5s. to £1 10s., 330, Q. 87where the subsoil is not very hard or stony. These various methods of executing the same class of work are well worth the closest consideration of all persons having such work to perform on any extensive scale. p. 102. 487, Q. 17 p. 120. 360, Q. 27P. 123. The enormous ratio of improvement that the operations themselves produce upon the land, insures a remunerative return even where a costly method is adopted. Still that is no argument in favour of adopting a costly method of effecting the same result that may be obtained in another way at one-tenth of such rate. The ingenious mode recommended by Mr. Wilson was admirably suited to the small farmer, by taking advantage of the open potato trench to move the soil to the requisite depth below that level. But here again the fact of our desertion by that crop will probably prevent any extensive application of this principle for the future. Mr. Lambert's method is somewhat of the same class: the cost he estimates at £1 10s. The ordinary spade subsoiling and trenching, which consists in moving the soil with the spade to two spits deep, must always be a most costly operation. The subsoil plough is scarcely applicable to the rocky districts, or to the small farm districts, unless in the latter case where the proprietor establishes teams, and executes the work at a contract price for the occupiers. The mixed method of employing a number of men to follow and delve deeply the furrow, after the ordinary plough, will probably be found the most economical and profitable method in this country in future, if the potato should really have deserted us; and it is probable, that even supposing the root itself to recover its healthy state again, the impulse given to permanent drainage would soon drive out the lazybed an apt name for this contrivance, which was at best but a lazy and imperfect scheme, entailing the annual repetition of a small amount of labour, amounting in the aggregate to what would have completed the effectual and permanent drainage of the land many times over. We may certainly estimate the extra labour on an acre of lazy-bed potatoes, as compared with drill culture, at £1 10s., and this extra labour on two acres would have been nearly sufficient, on the average, to have thorough-drained one acre; assuming, therefore, the quantity of ridge potatoes in Ireland to have been one million of acres, the extra labour wasted in this crop annually would have permanently drained nearly half a million of acres per annum ; or the labour thus wasted during the last twenty years might probably have drained all the productive land requiring drainage in Ireland. The question, however, of what might have been done is of little importance at present. We have only to look now to what may be done with profit in future; and we may calculate upon the drainage of the lands as a most fortunate and profitable means of employment to carry the country through its present difficulties. From what has been shown in the evidence, it is impossible to imagine any other legitimate investment that could be expected to make so large a return, or to afford so conveniently the precise description of employment required by the labouring classes of this country; and the Land Improvement Bill now before the legislature will promote these desirable ends, without cost to the Government, if it be passed, and sustained by a loan fund of sufficient magnitude. At the same time this resource, fortunate and extensive as it is, must not be overrated. Its duration will not probably exceed from six to ten years, during which period it must be the business of a wise government to promote other measures, that shall have a permanent effect upon employment, when this temporary demand shall cease. For cease it must, the land to be drained being a finite quantity, and drained land requiring less of human labour than wet land for its cultivation. Land proprietors appear desirous to extend the practice of drainage as much as possible, and various causes were alleged by different witnesses as operating to prevent or retard such extension. The want of capital, energy, and skill amongst the majority of the tenant farmers, and the insecurity of their tenure, are the impediments most frequently mentioned. Many proprietors, however, have endeavoured to meet and overcome these obstacles, and for this purpose have adopted systems of different degrees of efficacy and expense. Some proprietors make the main drains at their own cost; 977, Q. 37. others, in addition to this, employ a professional agriculturist to instruct the tenants in the system of thorough-drainage, 1000, Q. 27. and to lay out the drains. Some proprietors allow to their tenants certain sums of money to assist in the expense of the undertaking. Another class pay the entire cost, in the first instance, on 172, Q. 6, 8, 9 agreement on the part of the tenant to pay a per centage on that cost, as an additional rent, or to repay the outlay, without interest, in a certain number of instalments. -p. 103. 807, Q. 13p. 111. The following abstract, framed from the evidence given by a large number of witnesses in different parts of Ireland, will give a view of the different rates of cost, the return or profit growing out of the investment, and the different rates of assistance given by proprietors in some districts. TABLE, compiled from the Evidence of the number of Witnesses who have spoken on the Cost, Profit, &c.* of Farm Drainage, and on allowances made by Landlords to Tenants for Drainage. 7d. a perch, and upwards, year's rent, 2 years' rent, not precisely specified, . 84 Effected at landlord's expense, or tenant allowed whole cost of, charged} 7 Although there is now an extensive and a rapidly increasing degree of attention directed by proprietors and farmers to the important subject of estate and farm drainage, there does not yet apear to have been generally applied in its The above is not to be taken as a summary of all the witnesses who have spoken on the cost, profit, &c. of drainage, but is confined merely to those who have spoken from practical knowledge, and whose answers were grounded on the results of their own experience. execution that methodized arrangement of which the subject admits, and which would tend materially to promote its success. There are but few proofs that persons charged with a general drainage superintendence in any estate or district are, in the first instance, provided with a record or report and accompanying map, laying down the main outlets of the district in its whole extent, and exhibiting the operations and cost required to put these on a permanent and efficient footing. Nor do we find generally specific rules by which the agricultural superintendents, overseers, pay-clerks, &c., are required to regulate themselves in the discharge of their respective duties. The magnitude of the drainage operations now to be expected, demands all the forethought and pre-arrangement that can be brought to bear on the subject; and the interests of both occupiers and proprietors of land call for minute preparatory inquiries and records, as well as specific and well-digested forms of proceeding in the progress and execution of the work. It is essential, for example, that a separate account of the expenditure on each farm should be preserved; and it is desirable that the superintendent and the overseer of the work, as well as the proprietor and the occupier of the land, should have frequently the whole cost and the quantity of work done on each farm under their view as its progress advances. The following rules, which are now in practical operation on several estates, have proved useful in this respect. ON ESTATE DRAINAGE. Rules for Superintendents, Overseers, &c., for works executed by the Proprietor. REPORT. 1. The first preparation for draining any portion of land is to lay down, on the six-inch Ordnance sheets, the general limits of the drainage basin in which it is included. This basin will exhibit the whole area from which the waters are conveyed by any one main stream and its tributaries; or it may consist only of a minor basin, dependent on a single tributary. 2. The second preparation must be to exhibit, on the same map, the limits of each farm to be affected in any way by the proposed drainage; to report upon the state of such farms-their soil, subsoil, the degree of necessity for their drainage, the distance at which they |