The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-30 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The Duko of Cambridge, Field-Marshal Commanding-in-
Chief of tho Army, wont down to Woolwich yesterday and
inspected the garrison.
Messrs. Green's ship the Renown, Captain Hight, from
Calcutta and Madras, passed Falmouth on Thursday night,
having on board eight officers and 192 men of the Bth
Regiment of Hussars. She proceeded for Spithead, after
landing a passenger and mail.

Irish Agriculture and Emigration

Statistics for 1863,

A parliamentary return just issued, prepared in

the (Ace of the Irish Register General, reports a
decrease in the extent of land under tillage in 1863,
as compared with 1862, of 91,980 acres. The de-
cream in cereals was 143,531 acres. An increase is
set down, on the other hand, for potatoes (9,302
acres), turnips and msngold wurzel (32,703 acres),
and cabbage (3,582 acres). Meadow also increased
7,714 acres. The important increase, however, was,
as the public know already, in flax, which was
64,029 acres in excess of 1862. Along with these
facts it should also be borne in mind that the acre-
able yield in 1863 was better in all crops, with the
exception of hay, the decrease in which was not to a
serious amount. In the total produce of cereals, for
example, despite the decrease in the acreage devoted
to them, there was an advance of 1,803,641
quarters upon 1862. Potatoes, likewise, with an
increased acreage of only 5,300, produced 1,217,647
tons more than the previous year. The increase in
turnips 390,990 tons. There was a considerable
increase in the yield of flax, 18,388 tons. The late
harvest was, therefore, a tolerably favourable one

a marked improvement upon that of 1862. It
is impossible to say how much greater a total
acrenge of flax may be calculated upon for this
year, but there is no reason to doubt that there
will be a very considerable increase in the land
under that crop, as compared oven with 1863. The
increase, however, will not, we fear, be anything
like as large as sanguine persons have predicted,
and as the public attention lately given to the sub-
ject may have induced many to suppose. The
farmers of Munster and Connaught have special
difficulties to contend with in the cultivation of
flax crop. A table published in the report, for
example, reminds us that of the 1,087 ,scutching
mills in Ireland, Ulster contains no less than 1,060.
There are but three in all the province of Con-
naught, only nine in Munster, and 12 in Leinster.
This return, however, is of a date so far back as
June last, and since then some progress Las cer-
tainly been made in the erection of mills in various
parts of the country. Turning to the emigration
statistics for 1863 we find that the total of 117,820
persons who left Ireland, not intending to return,
was an increase, as compared with 1862, of 45,000
or more than a half more. This emigration seems
to have been of males and females in the normal
proportion. The largest proportion of it was from
Munster, 54,870; against 15,020 from Leinster and
17,815 from Connaught. From Ulster, though the
most prosperous province, 22,497 went forth last
year. There was in fact increased activity in Ulster
in 1863 ; so that this section of the emigration is
not to be accounted for by asserting prevalence of
poverty. Nor does the tenant right of Ulster serve
to keep the people at home, as it should do if the
theory of the agitators were well founded. The
population, apparently, whose natural disposition
most inclines them to try new fields of effort in dis-
tant countries, in preference to the slower growth
of industrial success at home, are the quick, enter-
prising southerners. In 1862, as in 1863, the
emigration from Munster was much more than
double that of Ulster, which also then, as now,
showed the next highest total. In this connection
it will be instructive to state that in the interval
since 1851 the total emigration from Ireland
being 1,431,125, considerably over a third of
that number (541,135) comes under the heading
emigration from Munster, whilst that from
Ulster stands next (394,200). It appears,
too, that during last year the port from
which the greatest number sailed was Queenstown
—including Cork with it, 40,864 took their depar-
ture from theece; the next most favourite pots
being I) abliu, Belfast, and Londonderry. The dis-
appearance almost of the third and fourth class of
ports from the emigration lists probably indicates
that the emigrants are generally of a better class,
being able to remove themselves and their families
to distant places of embarkation, and to pay a rate
of passage money proportionate to the increased
comfort now afforded by the shipping firms. It is
believed that up to the present the emigration for
1864 has been in excess of the same period of 1863,
but that no authenticated statistics for the past
three months are before us.