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 acre. The land that lets at one pound an acre here, would give three pounds an acre in the county of Antrim and the north of Ireland._" Mr Andrew Muir and Mr William Milne, Scotch farmers employed by Lord Erne in Fermanagh, after describing the bad cultivation, say:--"They think the land of the same quality in Scotland would fetch £4 the Irish acre." "You think the Scotch farmer could afford to pay £4 an acre, corresponding with this, under the Scotch system?"[7] "Yes, and if he had the advantage of the Scotch markets here." We have thus proved, we trust, to the satisfaction of our readers, and solely by the evidence of _impartial and most competent witnesses_, that the exorbitance of the rent cannot possibly be the cause of Irish discontent, because, as we before stated, the most respectable and comfortable tenantry are to be found on the worst and highest-priced lands; and we shall conclude our remarks upon this subject by a quotation from "the _Times_ commissioner" as to the quality of the soil thus moderately rented:--"In no part," says that gentleman, writing from Enniskillen, "have I seen the natural capabilities of the soil and climate surpass those of Ireland, and in no part have I seen those natural capabilities more neglected, more uncultivated, more wasted, than in Ireland. It is now the middle of the hay harvest in Ireland--the meadows, for the most part, are wholly unmanured, and yield simply a natural crop of grass. I speak with confidence when I say, that the quantity of hay cut appears to the eye to be, in proportion to the land, _nearly double the amount which ordinary land in England well manured produces; and it is certainly one-fourth more than the best land in England yields_; but this is the produce of the unassisted soil and climate. I have seen such crops of potatoes growing as I never saw before."