The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-07-18

otheI ports IN lSll was Z3,US4, whilst
the Agricultural Department returns
for the same year were only 1878.
This is very serious discrepancy.
The Department is in the hands of
the Irish constabulary. The Regis
trar-General relies upon his port in
spectors. But however widely the
returns differ in results, they all agree
in this-that the number of migra-
tory laborers is, over series of
years, decreasing rapidly. Six years
ago, according to the Registrar-Gen-
eral, the migratory laborers number
ed $4,000 as compared with an esti-
mate of $4,000 last year. Six years
ago the Agricultural Department re-
turns gave the number at $4,000; last
year it was 1867. 1t may therefore
be taken that there is steady reduc-
ton in this annual migration, amount
ing in six years to 80 per cent. This
happy result is, no doubt, to be at
tributed to land purchase in Mayo
and the other Western counties, and
to the work OF the Congested Dis
tricts Board. The migration is still
serious enough to be deplored by all
who are interested in the country.
Fifty-eight per cent of the migrants
from Ireland in 1918 were from Co.
Mayo, Fl per cent from Donegal, 2
per cent from Galway, and 6 per
cent from Roscommon. May has al
ways been the principal source of
migratory farmers, and the union of
Swinford, pre-eminently the union of
small, poor holdings, has always con-
tributed three times as many as any
other union. The figures available
for the different counties and poor
law unions are those of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, and in consider
ing these figures the reader must bear
in mind that their total is little more
than one-third of the total ascertained
by a distinct method of inquiry by
the Registrar-General. The migra-
ton from Swinford Union in 1918
numbered 2,451 out of total from all
ireland of 1867. Other unions in
Mayo contributed to this total-Cas-
tlebar SOS, Claremorris All, Ballina
1868, and Pelmullet 3l2. Castlerea
Union supplied the largest share of
the Roscommon migrants, 512, out
of total for the county of 538. The
migrants from Donegal numbered L.
1871, of whom 1927 were from the
union of Glenties and 436 from Dun
fanaghy.
The serious extent of this migra-
ton from ireland at a time when
harvest work demands attention at
home will be understood from COM
pairing the numbers with the returns
of small holdings in the principal
districts. There are in Swinford
Union 4,514 holdings under fifteen
acres in extent, and the number of
migrants would give more than one
from every two of these holdings.
The land of Swinford is exceptionally
poor. The next classification gives
400 holdings in that union under FIVE
acres in extent. The migrants from
Westport are 845, as compared with
1904 holdings under FIVE acres. Cas-
tlebar Union, with 288 6ve-acre hold
ings, supplied SOS migrants. Castl-
erea is the only other union which
sent out more than FIVE hundred mi
grants. There are ISL holdings of
less than five acres, and the migrants
number 512. The size of the hold
ing is not in every case a sure test
of its economic value, the land vary
ing so much in value. But in gen.
eral way it gives a correct idea of
the conditions of farming in these
districts. Comparing migrants with
holdings, it will be seen that the an
nual exodus deprives the farmers of
a large proportion of the necessary
help during the most valuable months
of the year. The migrants who leave
in June or July do not return until
the harvest is over in October, and
many of them remain until Novem-
Der for the potato-digging. The rem
edy is, of course, the enlargement of
the small poor holdings. These poor
holdings were created by the clear
ances of the middle of the last CEN
fury, and the good lands from which
the tenants were evicted were con-
verified into large grazing ranches,
whilst the evicted tenants settled on
moor and waste patches, and brought
them to state of fertility which re-
quires a constant struggle with ma
ture to prevent them returning to
their original barren condition. The
value of the big grazing tracts has
declined in recent years owing to the
vicissitudes of the cattle trade, and
the settlement of this question of en-
largement by purchase of the unec-
onomic holdings is the most impor-
tant problem of the congested dis
tricts. The annual migration returns
are only one illustration of the hope
less condition of the tenantry of the
poor, uneconomic lands. Orr renort-