S E L E C T C O M M I T T E E O N F I C T I T I O U S V O T E S , I R E L A N D . ; 537 C the summer were sued for the loss of cows that died upon the land ; I was con- Mr. G Battersbu cerned myself in some of those cases. 13818. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.~\ It would not appear, therefore, that the grazing 19 June 1838. upon the common was a very valuable thing to a farmer ?— It would depend upon the quality of the land; I did not see it. 13819. Mr. Curry.] With respect to the oats at 8s. a barrel, that is exclusive of the produce of the straw ?— It is. 13820. What value do you put upon the straw in your calculation; or do you put any .-— When I made a calculation of the value, I did; but here I have not; for here it was very little; there ought to be five acres of land, and if there were, it must have been very bad only to produce 20 barrels, and the straw very short. 13821. Is it not the case that bad oats has very long straw ?— Yes ; but that must be from the rankness of the soil, and a wet season; and I believe they have not a rank soil in the King's County. 13822. It might happen from a wet season ?— Yes. 13823. What is the general value of an acre of oat straw r—£. 2. 13824. Is not the value of the straw generally considered by the farmers as tantamount to the whole expense of cultivating the oat crop r— No. 13825. How near does it go to it?— The value of the straw as I said is 2 I.; the expense of cultivating an acre of oats is ; ploughing and harrowing once only ( which is bad husbandry), 1 I.; reaping, 10 men, at Is. each, 10s.; thrashing, 15 barrels, at 6 d., 7 s. 6 d.; seed, 1 \ barrels to the acre, 10 s., 15s.; that is the usual expense of an acre of good oats. 13826. But the expense of an acre of bad oats would not be so great?— The expense would be as great, but the return would not be so much. 13827. I am speaking of the labour ?— The labour would be as much. 13828. Would it take as much labour to thrash an acre of bad oats as an acre of good oats ?—- No. 13829. Would it take as much labour to reap an acre of bad oats as good oats ?— I have seen it take more. 13830. Upon an average would it take as much?— A moderately short crop will be less. 13831. Mr. French.] But the fault of a bad crop is not its shortness, but its thinness ?— A moderately light crop would be less, unquestionably. 13832. Mr. Curry.] Is not 20 s. for ploughing and harrowing a high estimate in the King's County ?— I should think not. 13833. Mr. French.] Would you not get a heavy soil for the plough in the county of Meath ?— Yes. 13834. Would you not, in the light soil of which you are speaking, get it done cheaper than in a heavy soil ?— I cannot with certainty say as to that; but in a light soil, in Meath, I have known that paid, a light sandy soil. 13835. Mr. Curry.] Does it appear how many persons Michael Cassell had in his family ?— No, I do not recollect to have examined into the number of the members of the family in any case but one, which was Farrell's case. 13836. According to the estimate you have made of the amount of gross pro- duce of his farm, and the outgoings, supposing he had to pay for the labour, he would have been at an actual loss of somewhere about 3 1.?— I have not directly taken down the result of the items, therefore the precise sum I cannot tell you. 13837. But as you have given it in your evidence now, the details you have furnished the Committee with, would not the actual loss amount to 31. ?— Yes, it would. 13838. Chairman.] If I understand you correctly you assume that the state- ment of Cassell was correct as to the produce of the farm; but to obviate the inference from those statements, you brought forward evidence to show what the cost of production, in point of labour, and seed, and so forth was ?— I did. 13839. And you then drew the conclusion from that evidence, that supposing Cassell had stated the truth with regard to the produce of the farm, still he could not have a beneficial interest ?— Yes, I took that claimant and the preceding claimants to have told the truth ; I did not controvert their statements. 13840. You did not interfere with their statements of the produce; all you did was to show the expense which they must have been fairlv out to, to produce that produce ?— Yes. „ . , 643. T T 3 13841. And