there was nothing to prevent
the lessee from subletting the land. This had been done to an enormous
extent when Mr. Crosbie came into possession, and the lowland part of
the estate was greatly over-populated. The upper part was greatly
under-populated, and in the words of the proprietor, nothing could be
worse than the way in which the tenants held the land. "No one knew
from year to year which farm he had to till, and they used to divide
every field and divide the crops every year." Mr. Crosbie was not
deterred by the difficulty of the task before him, and undertook the
redistribution of his tenantry, on the anti-rundale system, and by
degrees succeeded in planting the surplus population of the lowlands
upon the higher ground. Moreover he anticipated the ideas of Mr.
Mitchell Henry and Canon Griffin by putting his tenants under the
direct control of a skilled agriculturist, under his own supervision.
Having thus redistributed his people on the land and taught them the
elements of agricultural science, he commenced the work of building
them suitable houses and farm buildings.

Mr. Crosbie's estate in Kerry is of 9,913 acres valued by Government
at 4,638l., with a present rent roll of 8,500l., thanks to the
expenditure of 40,000l. since 1839. As one approaches Ardfert the
cabin common in Kerry vanishes to make room for houses well and
substantially built of concrete, with whale-back roofs also of
concrete. The merit of originally introducing concrete as a building
material into this part of Ireland belongs, I believe, to Mr. Mahony,
of Dromore, who has employed it largely on his own estate; but Mr.
Crosbie was, at least, one of the first to perceive the advantage of
using it. With Portland cement and the sand and pebbles of the
adjacent sea-shore he has made a concrete village, and given his
farmers houses of a kind previously unknown in his neighbourhood.
Concrete has several advantages keenly appreciated in Kerry. It is
dry--an immense advantage in a humid climate, and floors, ceilings,
partition walls, and roofs, are all made of it, as well as the
external walls. It also requires very little skilled work, and can be
built up by ordinary labourers under proper supervision. Another great
advantage is that it can be moulded to any shape and thickness, and is
therefore most useful for barns, cowhouses, and feeding stalls.

The houses and farm buildings I have seen certainly seem perfect, and
have, I am informed, been c