The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-02-10
LANDLORD SYSTEM
CAUSED DEPOPULAT|0N
Annual Report of Department of
Agriculture in Ireland Gives
Interesting Data.
Figures Prove Depopulation to be
Proportional to Decline in
Area Under Tillage.
Of 605,896 Holdings in Ireland at
Present 555,125 Are in Hands
OF the Occupiers

The annual report of the Depart
ment of Agriculture in Ireland, for
the year 1910, of which Thomas w.
Russell, M. P, is e-President, which
has been forwarded to Lord Aberdeen,
is an exceedingly interesting docu-
r1ent, as indicating Ireland's present
industrial condition. 1t states that the
total area is 2O,350,725 statute acres,
exclusive of 4S7,41S acres under the
large rivers. Going on to deal with
the matter of crops, hay, pasture,
woods and plantations, the report calls
attention to the remarkable decline in
the area under cereal crops, as COM
pared with the conditions in previous
decades back to 1851. The figures
given plainly indicate what has been
repeatedly emphasized by the Irish
Nationalist leaders, that the decline in
population has been almost exactly
in relative proportion to the decline
in the area of land under cultivation
in Ireland.
This is one of the most powerful
objections raised to the operation OF
the cooperative scheme introduced
fifteen years ago by Sir Horace Plum
kett, which still further tended to
turn the land from cultivation into
pasture land, and as a consequence
still further led to a decline i'll popu-
lation. The report states that while
there has been decline in the area
devoted to the raising Of wheat in
each of the provinces, it has been
greatest in Leinster and Munster.
Where the area under wheat in Lein-
stcl in 1851 was 2O2,57S acres,. in 1910
ii was only 1858 acres. In Munster
in 1851 there were 1S0,260 acres un-
der wheat, and in 1910 only 1858
acres. In 1851 in Ulster there were
j0,1SS acres growing wheat, and in
1910 Only 1O,7OS acres. Connacht IN
1851 had 1928 acres devoted to wheat,
and in 1910 only 4,492 acres.
Going on to state the number of
holdings throughout the country a
year ago, the figures are given as $685.
s96, of which there are 134,477 in
Leinster, 142,04O in Munster, 204,057 in
Ulster, and 125,322 in Connacht. OF
this number 519.765 are above one
acre in extent, which would substan-
italy mean that the balance of about
$500 holdings would in the main con-
sist of the plots of land attached to
the cottages of the laboring popula-
zion throughout the country. Of
total of 519,765 holdings upwards of
ore acre in extent 352,917 are between
one and thirty acres each, comprising
somewhat less than one-fourth of the
total area of the country.
Three Periods in the Land Question.
The report says: "In general, re-
garding the changes in the size and
distribution of the holdings in Ire
land, three periods may be distin-
guished during the past sixty years.
The first, in which change was Ca
tastrophic, had closed before the GEN.
sus of 1851. The number of holdings
between one and fifteen acres in ex-
tent, amounting in 1841 to 562,235,
was reduced roughly by half to 279,-
937 in 1851, while the number of hold
ings Of an extent exceeding fifteen
acres was greatly increased. Holdings
between fifteen and thirty acres rose
from 79,342 in 1S41 to 141,311 in 1851.
Holdings exceeding thirty acres rose
from 4S625 in 1s41 to $4,000 in 1851.
The second period. extending from
thirty to forty years after 1851. marked
still further decline in the number
of holdings over one and not exceed
ing fifteen acres, with a correspond
ing increase in the larger classes Of
holdings.
I'm the third period, that of the past
twenty years, excluding holdings not
exceeding one acre, there has been a
comparative absence of change. From
year to year fluctuations are seen, but
when the view stretches over series
of years no continuous change can as
yet be discerned. 1t will be observed
from study Of the tables that Ulster