Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/36

26 and comprising approximately 14,813 tenant purchasers, were inspected and considered. None of the tenants thus visited had been less than seven years in possession of their holdings, and the majority had been in enjoyment of them for from ten to fourteen years; so that sufficient time had elapsed to enable them to come to a definite conclusion on the merits of their new, as compared with their former status. A summary of the report will, accordingly, give us a fair impression of the general results of Land Purchase up to the date at which it was written.

In the vast majority of cases the amelioration was unmistakable. The purchasers, no longer afraid that improvements resulting from careful treatment of the soil would be taxed by an increased rent, set themselves assiduously to cultivate their holdings to the best advantage. The carrying powers of the soil were increased by manuring, top-dressing, and draining. Gripes were periodically cleaned, farm roads and fences maintained, and rough lands reclaimed for tillage. To use Arthur Young's famous phrase, "the magic of property had turned sand into gold." New buildings were erected and old repaired. On some estates, where the condition of purchased and non-purchased holdings could be contrasted, it was found that, while the houses on the first had been much improved, on the second they were in a very neglected state. The tendency to sub-let and sub-divide lay dormant or disappeared, and the tendency to sell diminished. The legislative restrictions on sub-letting and sub-division, however, probably contributed largely to this result, as on one Estate the Inspector noted that "if it were possible to overcome the objections of the Land Commission, sub-letting would be resorted to."

The purchasers themselves were better off. They had increased their stock, they had paid off debts to bankers and shopkeepers, and they could get money more easily on loan. A noteworthy proof of their improved financial condition was the caution they showed in using this increased credit. The insolvent man will borrow where and when he can; the man with a property which can be made liable acts with more circumspection. The tenant purchasers avoided incurring liabilities which they did not clearly see their way to meet, and limited their expenditure on improvements to what they could supply themselves. On an estate in Mayo the local agent for the sale of artificial manures told the Commissioners that "it was not like the old times. They do not ask for or want credit now—they pay in cash."

As during the period under review the general standard of living had gone up in Ireland, it was not surprising to find that peasant proprietors were sharing in the rise; but, making the fullest allowance for this collective improvement, the individual benefit to the tenant purchaser was still evident. The first and in many respects the most important outcome of purchase