The Irish Land Acts/Tendency of Irish Agriculture
SECTION IV.
The Tendency of Irish Agriculture.
The change in the size of Irish farms within the last sixty years has been very remarkable. In 1841, holdings between one and fifteen acres comprised over 81 per cent, of all the farms above one acre in the country. Ten years later (1851) holdings of this size were only 49 per cent, of the total, while in 1911 they were further reduced to 42 per cent. Farms between 15 acres and 30 acres were 11·5 per cent, of the total of agricultural holdings above one acre in 1841; they were 25 per cent, in 1851; and 26 per cent, in 1911. Farms of over 30 acres were only 7 per cent, of the total in 1841. They rose to 26 per cent, in 1851, and to 32 per cent, in 1911. The increase in the size of the holdings is, of course, coincident with the change from tillage to pasture. And we may assume that it would have been still greater, but that much of the land—in Ulster especially—could be made most productive by being kept in cultivation. In France, where tillage is very largely practised, the average size of the farms is about 22 acres, while upwards of 85 per cent, of the farms in the country are under 25 acres. Belgium, the area of which is about one-third that of Ireland—11,373 square miles to 32,531—and with a population of over six and a-half millions, in 1896 possessed 829,625 farms of an average size of about eight acres.[1]
The economic revolution that took place in Ireland after the Famine is shown by the relative movements in the number of the people and of the live stock. Between 1851 and 1911 the number of persons on each 1,000 acres of land diminished by[2] over 30 per cent., while the number of cattle increased by over 60 per cent., and sheep and swine increased over 88 per cent, and 35 per cent, respectively. The number of milch cows in 1854 represented 43 per cent, of the horned cattle in the country. In 1911, they were 32 per cent., and in number 1,565,418. As the total number of horned cattle in Ireland in 1911 was 4,711,720, it is evident that the rearing of stores and fattening constitute the most considerable part of the cattle industry. A very large proportion of the cattle exported to Great Britain are stores. In 1911 the numbers were 269,527 fat cattle to 390,041 stores. This export trade in stores enables English and Scotch farmers to devote their land to the production of food for fattening the cattle brought from Ireland. At the same time, this trade in young stock is a considerable drain on Irish land, taking much out of the soil without any corresponding return.
Ireland at present occupies a position of great advantage in having almost a monopoly in the supplying of store cattle to the English and Scotch farmers, but the position is one of considerable danger. Should the restrictions on the import of live stock from Canada and the Argentine Republic be removed, as doubtless they would be, were it shown that the introduction of disease was no longer to be feared, a serious blow would be struck at the prosperity of the Irish cattle industry, and new economic conditions would have to be faced. Such a consideration would point to the desirability of resting the agricultural industry of the country on a wider and sounder basis than the mere breeding of cattle. It shows the necessity for advisory and fostering bodies such as the Department of Agriculture and the Congested Districts Board, which help to develop and encourage a variety of suitable industries, and so prevent the people from keeping too many of their eggs in one basket, an error frequently disastrous to nations as well as to individuals. It must also be remembered that often a larger return, both in the number and value of the animals, can be obtained from stock-rearing in conjunction with tillage, than by a sole dependence on natural pasture. Scotch and English farmers have proved this, and it is one of the great advantages claimed for a system of mixed farming in other countries. It appears that, while the area under meadow and pasture in Ireland is over eleven times the similar area in Belgium, the number of our cattle is only three times greater. This remarkable difference is explained' by the "small farming" system carried on in Belgium, which enables a much larger number of cattle to be raised per acre, under a system of tillage and house-feeding, than is possible by field grazing alone.
- ↑ See the Statistical Survey of Irish Agriculture in the admirable work on—"Ireland: Industrial and Agricultural," published by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, and edited by Mr. W. P. Coyne. It must be remembered that Belgium and a great part of France are devoted to small farming, carried on under the pressure of a strong competition and land hunger, and with, as a rule, a low standard of comfort. The competition for farms is very great. A professor in Louvain University related to me an instance in his own experience where the occupier of a holding happened to got a cold, and immediately over 30 of his neighbours took the first train to the town in which the landowner lived to put in applications for the farm.
- ↑ Agricultural Statistics of Ireland, 1911.