_Deduct_-- Rent, £262 0 0 Labour, 40s. per acre, 520 0 0 Manure purchased, (p. 23, Caird,) 256 0 0 Food for cattle purchased, (do.,) 270 0 0 Seed potatoes, 108 tons, at £2, for 90 acres, 216 0 0 Seed wheat, 120 bushels, at 5s., 30 0 0 Tradesmen's bills, at £7 per pair horses each half-year, 70 0 0 Incidental expenses, 50 0 0 Interest on £2000 capital, at 10 per cent, 200 0 0 -------- 1874 0 0 -------- £931 0 0 [21] It will be seen, by referring to the statement in question, that Mr Stephens' calculation is more favourable to the tenant than the other. According to him, the excess of produce over expenditure would be £931. The county Down farmer estimates it at £888. "This balance sheet shows a profit of £931; but as the potatoes are worth £1350, which is no less than £419 more than all the profit, it is evident that it is the potato _alone_ that affords any profit under this instance of high farming. Indeed Mr Caird admits as much when he says, 'The _great_ value of a sound potato crop induces the tenant to adopt such means as will not interfere with the _continued_ cultivation of this root.' The admission is, that the profit rests entirely on the precarious potato. The potato has hitherto been safe in the moss of Auchness, and it is safe there in no other class of soil. In Ireland, even the moss does not save it. There is no high farming in the matter, in so far as manures are concerned, for as much and richer manure is used in the neighbourhood of large towns; and as on the moss at Auchness too much manure may be applied, at least after a certain time, so there may be on other soils; and thus high farming, in reference to soils, just means heavy manuring. Mr Caird says, 'The potato has been grown on the moss land successively, year after year; but the entire reclaimed portions, _from being so frequently manured_, are becoming too rich, and the crop beginning to show signs of disease, and a tendency to grow to tops rather than roots, which makes it necessary to adopt some plan of reducing its fertility.' It is known to every farmer, that it is quite possible to overmanure any crop, and the effects of overmanuring are, the breaking down of the straw of the grain crops, and the hollowing of the core of the tubers and bulbs of the green crops. The inference then is, that a profit which depends entirely on potatoes is uncertain in any year; and the particular case of Auchness, in which that profit is derived from moss, is not generally applicable to the country, and cannot,