The Express.
London, England, 1865-10-06 00:00:00

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LONDON. FRIDAY. OCTOBER 6.

To the stories hourly arriving from Ireland of
arrests, seizures of arms, plots of wholesale meal
acre, and the other ghastly aerio-comia incidents
of the Fenian conspiracy, the perusal of the Irish
Registrar-General's peaceful returns forms a plea-
sant and reassuring contrast. It is, indeed, diffi-
cult to imagine more conclusive evidence of the
very slight bold this conspiracy has had on the
mind of the Irish people than is furnished by the
unvarnished tale which these tables deliver. It is
not in a country steadily advancing in all the most
important elements of national well-being that
desperate and bloody courses are likely to find
numerous adherent+. Nor is it the results only
of these tables that are instructive. " I beg to
observe," says Mr. DONNELLY, "that on no former
" occasion during the fifteen years in which I have
" had the charge of these statistics has a more
" friendly interest been exhibited towards them,
"or a greater desire shown to learn the
" results of the enumeration . . . the required in-
" formation has been most readily afforded by the
" resident landed proprietors and tenant-farmers
"of every class." This is most satisfactory in-
telligence, and arrives opportunely to confirm all
our impressions of the utterly contemptible cha-
racter of this last Irish rebellion.
The general result of the tables now published
may be stated in a few words : they show a sub-
stantial addition to the cultivated area of Ireland,
coincident with a steady movement towards that
kind of agriculture in which Ireland is fitted by
nature to excel. The area of bog and waste land
has within the last year been diminished by 101,5 4 3
acres, implying a corresponding increase in
the total cultivated surface ; and while this is
the increase in the aggregate area of cultivation,
that under grass has been augmented by a still
greater addition, namely by 127,470 acres, balanced
of course by a decrease in some other quarter.
This at least is the mode of stating the case which
the statistics as they stand suggest, but it does not
correctly repreJent the actual process which is
going on ; the addition in the grans land having no
doubt been principally effected, not from the
101,543 acres just reclaimed, but by means of •
conversion to this purpose of land formerly under
tillage. The increase, however, of the grass land
in excess of that in the total cultivated surface in-
volves, as we have said, a diminution in some
other department, and, as the reader will no doubt
anticipate, the declining department is found to be
tillage ; the item in which the principal diminution
Ina taken place being, in conformity again with ex-
pectation, cereal crops. The amount of the total
decline in tillage is represented by an area of
28,218 acres, brought about mainly through
79,000 acres withdrawn from cereals, and 30,000
from flax, as against 30,000 added to green crops,
and about 68,000 to meadow and clover.
These figure; must be regarded as highly satis-
factory, showing not only progress, but progress in
the right direction—in that direction whither
nature leads. And the tables of live stock fully
sustain the favourable impression derived from the
statistics of cultivation. As the reader will pro-
bably remember, 1859 was a culminating year in
grass farming in Ireland. Down to that year from
1850 Irish agriculture, and especially Irish pas-
toral agriculture, had steadily and rapidly pro-
gressed ; but in 1859 the " hay famine" occurred,
resulting in an extensive destruction of cattle in
the southern and western districts. From the loss
thus inflicted on the grazing interests the first dis-
tinct symptom of recovery was only manifested
teat year, when the returns showed a slight increase
on the previous year in the value of live stock.
The improvement thus commenced has this year
been continued, and with accelerated pace. The
figures in the comparison stand thus :
VALUE OF LIVE MC&
05,368,000
30,050,000
30,729,000
32,772,000
The value here given, it must be remembered,
represents merely the official estimates, calculated
en the assumption of a constant price per head.
We need scarcely remind our readers how the
market price of meat has advanced since 1859.
It is also a material consideration that the quality
of the stock has improved during the same time.
Bearing these conditions of the case in mind, we
should be disposed to say that the real value of
live stock in Ireland at the present moment falls
little, if at all, short of the highest point it has
ever reached. In reference to the recovery
in this department, Mr. DONNELLY remarks :
" It is very satisfactory to observe the continued
" care bestowed on the rearing of young stock
" throughout the country, as appears by the re-
" turns of this year, which exhibit an increase in
" the number of cattle, sheep and pigs, older one
" year old, in each of the provinces, and almost in
" every county—the total increase of cattle under
" that age being 56,147 ; of sheep, 175,441 ; and
" of pigs, 220,285."
These are the salient features of these returns.
On one or two points of detail the reader will pro-'
bably be glad to have information. There has
been this year all increase in the area under
potatoes to the extent of 26,170 acres. In flax,
on the other hand, there has been • decrease to
the extent of 50,159 acres. Neither of these will
be regarded as quite satisfactory indications; but,

1859
1883
1864
1865