GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



AGRICITLTURAL LABOUR IN IRELAND AND THE MIGRATION 

 OF IRISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 



OFFICIAIy SOURCE : 



Report and Tables relating to Irish Agricultural 1,aboui?ers, presented to the I<ord 

 lyieutenant of Ireland by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 for Ireland on 14 October 191 6. 



§ I. The supply of Agricultural Labour. 



For many years there has been a marked scarcity of agricultural la- 

 bourers in Ireland, and this has been intensified because numbers of them 

 have joined the army since the outbreak of war. No statistics are available 

 as to 1915 ; but for the pre-war period we have the census returns. The 

 reports of the Irish Census Commissioners state however that a large pro- 

 portion of the persons returned as general labourers may be assumed to be 

 agricultural labourers ; and therefore the following table gives not only the 

 number of agricultural labourers returned at each census from 1871 to 191 1, 

 btit also the number of general labourers except those in the six county bo- 

 roughs. 



These figures show a very serious decline in the supply of agricultural 

 labour, but they do not show the further and equally serious decline in effi- 

 ciency. It is the best labour which has left the country, and farmers com- 

 plain of the inefficiency of their labourers as much as of the difficulty of 

 getting them. 



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