Table of the Extent of the several Counties of Ireland, exclusive of Lakes, distinguishing the Cultivated Land from the Unimproved Mountain and Bog; showing also the Proportion of Cultivated Land in each County, assuming 1,000 to represent the Total Extent of Cultivated Land in Ireland, with the Estimated Rental of the Land in the several Counties, and the Average Rent per Statute Acre. Table of the Extent of the several Counties of Ireland - continued. Average rent per statute acre in Connaught. 2,805,109 1,330,022 4,135,131 192-085,061 2,236,170 0 10 9 Grand Total 14,603,473 5,340,736 19,944,209 1,000-000,000 12,715,4 Average value per statute acre in the whole kingdom 0 12 9 N. B. The estimated value here given is exclusive of the value of the houses in the cities of Dublin, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Galway. Distribution of Land - Quantity and Value of Agricultural Produce. There are no means whatever for forming any estimates of the extent of land under different crops in Ireland. Of the 8 millions of people in that part of the empire, it is supposed that about 5 millions are principally dependent on the potato; and of the remaining 3 millions, 2,500,000 are believed to be principally dependent on oats. According to the table previously given (p. 515.), the average produce per statute acre in oats is 444 Winch. bushels; and estimating the consumption of each of the 2,500,000 indíviduals principally fed on oats at 24 quarters, we should have 1,110,000 acres employed in raising food for them; and adding to this the quantity required for the partial feeding of others, for seed, the feeding of horses, and other internal purposes, and for exportation to England, the whole land under oats may, perhaps, be taken at from 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 acres. The extent of land under wheat and barley does not, probably, exceed 600,000 or 700,000 acres. Mr. Griffith estimates the whole extent of Ireland, exclusive of lakes, at about 19,944,000 statute acres. He further estimates the unimproved mountain and bog at 5,340,000 acres, leaving 14,603,000 acres of land fit for tillage, pasture, &c. Now, if we estimate the average annual value of the produce of this land, tillage as well as pasturage, at 37. 15s. an acre, the entire annual value of the land produce of Ireland, exclusive of bogs, will be 54,761,000l.; and including bogs, it may be taken at 55,500,000. This estimate is, of course, merely given as a very rude approximation. No materials exist for making one that shall have much greater pretensions to accuracy. Deductions from the Rent.- Landed property in Ireland is placed under what would be considered, in England, very advantageous circumstances. There is neither land tax nor poor's rate to pay: the landlord, as has been seen, rarely lays out a sixpence on farm buildings or repairs: even the agent, instead of receiving a salary, is frequently allowed to indemnify himself by extorting fees from the tenants; so that the rent-roll, and the free income, are identical. But, with the exception of the relief from the land tax, it may well be doubted whether these apparent advantages should not be considered very serious disadvantages. A poor's rate would put a stop to the vagrancy that is so prevalent in Ireland; and it would be signally beneficial to the landlords, by obliging them to take effectual measures for preventing the subdivision of the land, and the increase of cottages. The want of proper farm buildings is, in the end, quite as injurious to the owner of an estate as to the occupiers; and nothing can be imagined so hostile to the interests of all parties, as the payment of agents by fees collected from the tenants: it opens a wide door for oppression and jobbing of all sorts, and puts an end to that confidence which ought always to exist between the tenants and the agent, and the latter and the landlord. So vicious, indeed, is the whole system, as to the occupancy of land, that in many districts no stranger would presume to take a farm, unless, besides agreeing with the landlord, he had secured the good-will of its present occupier! If he neglected this precaution, the chances are ten to one that his property, and, probably, his life, would be endangered. The Price of Land depends on the condition of the district in which it is situated. In some places it is hardly possible, except at the most immin ent risk of personal danger, to eject a tenant from an estate, or to consolidate the small patches into which it may be divided. In such cases, land fetches, of course, a comparatively small price, perhaps not more than 17 or 18 years' purchase; but where good order prevails, and the law is respected, land fetches 28 or 30 years' purchase. Undoubtedly, however, a feeling of insecurity attaches to all investments in Ireland; and this circumstance contributes to keep down the price of land in it, and hinders English capitalists from making loans on the usual terms on most Irish estates. Were the security of property and the empire of the law as well established in Ireland as in Britain, land would certainly sell higher in the former than in the latter. Most Irish estates are, comparatively, in a state of nature; and afford capacities for the profitable outlay of capital that are all but unknown in England. NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE. The following tables, extracted from the parliamentary returns, contain all the existing information on this important subject: Accounts of the Number of Families chiefly employed in Agriculture; and of the Number of Males of Twenty Years of Age and upwards, being Occupiers employing Labourers, Occupiers not employing Labourers, and Labourers engaged in Agriculture, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, specifying those belonging to each Class in each Country. SCOTLAND. Accounts of the Number of Families chiefly employed in Agriculture, &c.—continued. SECT. X. Slow Progress of Agricultural Improvements.- Notices of the Progress and Present State of English and Scotch Agriculture. 1. Slow Progress of Agricultural Improvement — Circumstances which retard it. Considering the wonderful facilities of communication that exist in Great Britain, and the universal diffusion of information by means of the press, the slowness with which agricultural improvements make their way is not a little surprising. Mr. Harte mentions that, when he was a youth, he heard Jethro Tull declare that though he had introduced turnips into the field in King William's reign, with little trouble or expense, and great success, the practice did not travel beyond the hedges of his own estate till after the Peace of Utrecht.— (Essays, ii. p. 223.) It might, one should think, be reasonably enough supposed that improved practices would now be much more rapidly diffused; but experience shows that this is not really the case. "What is well known and systematically practised in one county, is frequently unknown, or utterly disregarded, in the adjacent districts; and what is to every unprejudiced observer evidently erroneous and injurious to the land, is, in some quarters, persisted in most pertinaciously, though a journey of not many miles would open to the view the beneficial effects of a contrary practice." In a large portion of England there is no regular alternation of corn and green crops, and in many counties the drill husbandry has hardly obtained any footing. When speaking of the state of agriculture in Worcestershire, Messrs. Kennedy and Grainger observe, "The mode of farming in this county is generally in itself a very bad one, and is carelessly and negligently conducted. There being no restriction as to rotation or manner of cropping, there is no regular system, but the plan usually adopted is, to sow the land that requires the least work, and barley and oat stubbles are frequently dunged over after harvest, and sown with wheat; a system of farming which certainly does not require much labour, but it is a ruinous one to the land. No pains whatever are taken to relieve the ground from water, nor is a water-furrow to be seen scarcely in any part of the county. The ploughing is, in general, Kennedy and Grainger on the Tenancy of Land, vol. i. introd. p. 8. N N very indifferently performed, and the appearance of the land is sufficient to convince any one that neither master nor man have here any system to act upon." — (Vol. i. p. 358.) The agriculture of Somerset, Oxford, Sussex, Middlesex, Surrey, Berks, and several other counties, is hardly more advanced. In Wales, agriculture is more backward than in the most unimproved of the English counties. In Anglesea, a few years ago, it was not uncommon to take five corn crops in succession; and throughout the principality the arable land is, with few exceptions, wretchedly managed. In fact it "does not produce half what it is capable of doing under proper management.” — (Kennedy and Grainger, vol. i. p. 169.)* Notwithstanding, too, that the best cultivated lands in Northumberland, Norfolk, and the Lothians are all ploughed by 2 horses, nothing is more common, as already stated, than to see in the vicinity of the metropolis, and throughout most parts of the south and west of England, 3, 4, and, still more frequently, 5 horses yoked in line to a plough, even where the soil is light and sandy! And as a driver is always necessary when there are more than 2 horses, at least double the labour is expended on ploughing where this barbarous practice is followed that is required where it is abandoned. It is very difficult to account for this rooted disinclination to leave established practices, even after experience has clearly demonstrated the superiority of others. There is no ground for ascribing it to the influence of tithes, poor rates, or other public burdens; for these press as heavily in Norfolk, Northumberland, Suffolk, and Hampshire, as in Worcestershire, Somerset, or Sussex. The truth is, that there is a much greater aversion to precipitate changes, and a more resolute adherence to whatever has been long practised, among farmers, than amongst any other class of persons. "Improvements, which effect material changes in established customs, have, under all circumstances and in all countries, ever been slowly and reluctantly admitted. It requires no little effort to quit the common routine of practice, and still more to relinquish long maintained opinions. The general circumstances affecting agriculture are, moreover, little favourable to great and, more especially, sudden alterations. The farmer is not so much within reach of information as the merchant and manufacturer; he has not, like those who reside in towns, the means of ready intercourse, and constant communication, with others engaged in the same occupation. He lives retired; his acquaintance is limited, and but little valued; and, unless in the habit of reading, he is little likely to acquire any other knowledge of his art than what is traditionary, what is transmitted from father to son, and limited, in its application, to his own immediate neighbourhood." † The able writer from whom we have borrowed this striking passage thinks that the obstacles to the more rapid diffusion of agricultural improvements will be gradually overcome by the ready access that is now afforded to all sorts of information. We confess, however, that we are by no means sanguine in our expectations on this head; and that we should anticipate ten times more from the efforts of the landlords to enforce a better system, than from any improvement in the knowledge of the farmers. The former have it in their power, by granting leases of a reasonable length, and containing judicious regulations, and by raising their rents to the proper level, speedily to introduce a better system; and by doing so they will at once add largely to their own wealth, and to that of their tenants and of the public. Agricultural clubs, shows, premiums, and essays have done, and can do, but little good. The disease is too deeply seated to be eradicated by such gentle means. Let the tenants have security that they shall be allowed to reap all the advantages resulting from increased outlays of capital, and from additional * See ante, p. 230. Rigby's preface to his translation of Chateauvieux on the Agriculture of Italy. |