A Practical Viczu of tJic Irish Land Question 



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man — and, in regard to improvements effected 

 by this class, I put any attempt at materiallegisla- 

 iiou for the good of the community altogether 

 beyond consideration. Much has been said and 

 •written, from time to time, upon the small 

 holding system, and some of the tenant- 

 right champions have been warm advo- 

 cates for it. The R. C. Bishop of Cloyne, 

 before a committee of the House, gives his 

 opinion that farms of from 15 to 30 acres 

 would be the proper size ; but upon what 

 grounds I am at a loss to conceive. The 

 people themselves occupying such holdings 

 have given a practical answer by their steady 

 diminution, their poverty, their inability to pay 

 rent, and their emigration ; neither a spirit of 

 agitation nor attachment to the land could 

 keep them at home when poverty was always 

 at the door. Let us look at the small system 

 practically ; suppose the country were divided 

 into 30-acre lots to-morrow, what would the 

 next generation do ? Thirty acres is a fixed 

 quantity, but the number of mouths to be 

 fed would be steadily increasing. Again, put 

 a fair rental upon 30 acres of ai'erage tillage 

 land, does any one believe it possible to pro- 

 duce ^50 annually, over and above all ex- 

 penses ? Yet that is a sum small enough for a 

 family to procure the common necessaries of 

 life, and could be earned by a labourer's 

 family either by farming or any other avoca- 

 tion. The system of small holdings would 

 maintain the flail and the spade against the 

 plough and thrashing-machine. You might 

 as well expect the old stage coach to compete 

 with the express train. It is open to every ob- 

 jection as opposed to progress. With the small 

 man, his eggs are all in one basket ; a season 

 unsuited to his crop, the loss of a cov/ or 

 sheep prostrates him utterly. With the larger 

 holder the risk is more divided ; occupying a 

 larger area he has greater variety of soil, some 

 sheltered, some exposed, some suited to a dry 

 season, some to a wet— the contingencies are 

 calculated, and an average and comparatively 

 even result is obtained. But with the small man 

 his little lot may all be exposed, it may be all 

 dry or all wet, thus reducing his chance of a 

 crop in even greater proportion than the area 

 he occupies. Again, water power, roadways, 



drainage, could never be properly executed 

 upon a sufficiently broad and comprehensive 

 plan to be economical and permanent under 

 the small system. Many operations in agri- 

 culture require to be continuous to be 

 effectively performed, and a large staff 

 brought to bear upon a certain point will 

 save a crop by snatching an opportunity 

 where the small man loses it. Upon the large 

 system, too, the agricultural operations can 

 be carried on continuously; there is steady 

 yearly employment for all seasons and 

 all weathers ; but with the small system the 

 holder is overpowered to-day to accomplish 

 what ought to be done, and to-morrow he 

 may be idle, having but the one crop to 

 secure, and that unfit from the weather. 

 Apart from the question of economy, of re- • 

 sources, and labour, there is that of capital. 

 \\& are told that the small holder has his 

 capital in his labour and family, and pretty 

 pictures are drawn how each and all find em- 

 ployment suited to them ; how their little 

 farms could be tilled, weeded, and stoned. 

 But how different is the reality I just in pro- 

 portion as the small system abounds do we 

 find bad cultivation, bad crops, and bad 

 stock. How could it be otherwise? How 

 can the occupier of 15 acres purchase good 

 implements ? Aye, implements of any kind ? 

 What scope has he upon 15 acres to use 

 them ? Fancy a thrashing-machine upon 

 every 15 acres, when one will do for a farm 

 of 500 acres ? Fancy a small holder invest- 

 ing ^50 in a bull-calf of superior breeding 

 for his dairy of one cow, or a proportionately 

 large sum in a ram for his flock of two ewes 

 Progress from such a source is simply hope- 

 less and impossible. The champions of the 

 small system clearly do not understand agri- 

 cultural processes. Suppose small holdings 

 to be established with a large measure of 

 tenant right. Imagine a 30-acre field divided 

 into 20 fields of one and a-half acres each ; to 

 say nothing of the miles of fencing that would 

 come under the head of improvements, instead 

 of the one gate and piers (say £2), twenty 

 gates and piers would be required. The 

 expenditure under the small system would 

 be in the inverse ratio of the size of the farms — 



