Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/134

professing the same religion as his tenants, might consider it not only a very convenient, but a very

 more than food for the rapidly accumulating population to be fed out of it. When subdivided with tenants' sons it encourages improvident and early marriages (already too general), and consequently a fall in the condition of the farmer; and, when sublet for the sake of income to cottiers, a most exacting rent is enforced with rigorous punctuality in the shape of money and labour utterly disproportioned to the value received, and leading the farmer rather to depend upon this income than upon his own industry, and is therefore a great discouragement to agricultural improvement.

"I conceive the evil at this moment is, that if a man comes into a farm held under me, he subdivides it, and before I can take any proceedings against him, the evil has grown up, and I should have to increase the evil by driving the man out." Dig. Dev. Com. p. 428.

Evidence of H. L. Prentice, Esq. Agent to Lord Caledon.

(Armagh and Tyrone.)

"Has subdividing or subletting been carried on to any extent in other districts?—Yes, to an alarming extent.
"How minutely have you known farms to be subdivided?—I have known ten families on a farm of six Irish acres.
"Was that a case where land was held under a determinable lease or at will?—There was a lease of it.
"Do you find that a man holding by lease even in perpetuity disposes him to divide?—Yes, it does."—Ibid. p. 428.

Evidence of James Johnson, Esq., Land Proprietor.

"It is not carried to a great extent in Donegal, but it does exist, I am sorry to say; and although every means are taken by both proprietors and agents to prevent it, they find it almost impossible to put a stop to it.
"Do you find that subdividing farms takes place to a greater extent on those estates than where the proprietor is resident?—Yes, it must do so; and even with a resident proprietor it is very difficult to prevent a father giving his children portions of his farm"—Dig. Devon Com. p. 429.