I may add, that absurd practice of cutting turf, without any regularity; whereby great quantities of restorable land are made utterly desperate, many thousands of cattle destroyed, the turf more difficult to come at, and carry home, and less fit for burning; the air made unwholesome by stagnating pools and marshes; and the very sight of such places offensive to those who ride by. Neither should that odious custom be allowed, of cutting scraws, (as they call them) which is flaying off the green surface of the ground, to cover their cabins; or make up their ditches; sometimes in shallow soils, where all is gravel within a few inches; and sometimes in low ground, with a thin greensward, and sloughy underneath; which last turns all into bog, by this mismanagement. And, I have heard from very skilful country-men, that by these two practices in turf and scraws, the kingdom loseth some hundreds of acres of profitable land every year; besides the irreparable loss of many skirts of bogs, which have a green coat of grass, and yet are mangled for turf; and, besides the want of canals, by regular cutting, which would not only be a great convenience for bringing their turf home at an easy rate; but likewise render even the larger bogs more dry and safe, for summer pasture.
These, and some other speculations of the like kind, I had intended to publish in a particular discourse against this session of Parliament; because, in some periods of my life, I had opportunity and curiosity to observe, from what causes those great errors, in every branch of country management, have arisen; of which I have now ventured to relate but few, out of very many; whereof some, perhaps, would not be mentioned without giving offence; which I have endeavoured, by all possible means, to avoid. And, for the same reason, I chose to add here, the little I thought proper to say on this subject.
But, as to the lands of those who are perpetual absentees, I do not see any probability of their being ever improved. In former times, their tenants sat at easy rents; but for some years past, they have been, generally speaking, more terribly racked by the dexterity of merciless agents from England, than even those held under the severest landlords here. I was assured upon the place, by great numbers of credible people, that a prodigious estate in the county of Cork, being let upon leases for lives, and great fines paid; the rent was so high, that the tenants begged leave to surrender their leases, and were content to lose their fines.