find that our valuation is not more than 2s.
6d. in the pound, or 12-1/2 per cent, under the letting rents_. This
does not arise from any change in the relative scale of valuation, but
is owing to the poverty of the people, and the injurious system which
prevails of burning the upland soils for the purpose of raising crops
without the aid of ordinary manure, or new lime, which is abundant in
the country; hence the land, though intrinsically of equal value with
similar land in the counties of Longford and Westmeath, on the east side
of the Shannon, does not bring so high a rent, and yet the people, on an
average, are not nearly so well off as those of Westmeath or
Longford--their houses, as well as their food and clothing, being
inferior. * * * * * _On going into the west of Ireland, I found my
valuation nearer to the rents than it was near the east coast. I
consider that the circumstance arose from want of industry in the
people, and their ignorance of the ordinary principles of agriculture,
as practised in the districts to the eastward of the Shannon._ For these
reasons, the small farmers of Roscommon, Mayo, and Galway, do not, on an
average, raise the same quantity of produce from land of similar quality
and circumstances as do the farmers to the eastward; and hence the rents
are necessarily lower, and at the same time the people are not so well
off." And on being asked to account for the vast difference between the
rents paid in the county Down and his valuation, in answer to the
question--"You have stated that the rental in parts of Down is _fifty
per cent higher than your valuation_: is it your opinion that rents in
that county are high according to the ability of the people to pay
them?" "I think the rentals of the county Down, in proportion to the
_industry of the people_, are not higher than they are in other
counties. The people are better off."

"_So that the people in the county of Down, paying fifty per cent higher
than your valuation, are able to pay that, and yet be comfortable?_"
"Certainly; they are amongst the most comfortable tenantry in Ireland."

Mr James Clapperton, a Scotchman, agriculturist to the Ballinasloe
Farming Society, being asked--"What is the rent here compared with the
rent in Berwickshire?" replies, "It is not one-third what some are
there." "What would the lands you have described as let here for
twenty-one shillings be let for?" "_They would be considered cheap at
four pounds the acr