402 On Agricultural Statistics 



3. The estimated yield pei' acre. 



4. The hohlinsfs divided into classes accordinsr to size. 



5. The number and ages of live stock. 

 G. The value of live stock. 



7. The area under arable land, plantations, towns, and water ; 

 also the extent not under cultivation. 



It may not be amiss to quote here the concluding paragraph 

 of Mr. Donnelly's Report on the Agricultural Statistics of Ireland 

 for 1865, wherein he says : — 



"I beg to observe that on no former occasion diu-ing the fifteen 

 years in which I have had charge of these statistics, has a more 

 friendly interest been exhibited towards them, or a greater desire 

 shown to learn the residts of the enumeration ; and I have again the 

 gratification to state that, almost without exception, the enumerators 

 did not experience any difficulty, as the required information has 

 been most readily aftbrdcd by the resident landed proprietors and 

 tenant farmers of every class." 



One cannot help feeling that if it be really ti'ue that in dis- 

 contented, unhappy Ireland there is an absence of the blind 

 and ignorant prejudice which has been the bete noir of the 

 Government in its dealings with the agriculturists of England, 

 the comparison tells Avofully against our boasted superiority. 



The general opinion of the Congress was, that whatever objec- 

 tions might be entertained on the first introduction of a compre- 

 hensive svstem of agricultural statistics in Great Britain, on 

 the part of the small tenant farmers, they would soon be as 

 anxious as their more intelligent brethren to avail themselves of 

 its manifest advantages. 



Professor Simonds drew the attention of the Congress to a 

 very important matter in connection with the statistics of cattle, 

 and his observations are too significant to be omitted here : — 



" Every gentleman will admit the necessity of obtaining, if we can, 

 the return of live stock every year ; and not only is it important that 

 the return of live stock should be made every year, but that we should 

 also be enabled, if we could, to ascertain what amount of it was in a 

 fit state to go into the market, and what was the amount of store stock 

 in the possession of every individual. It must be evident to persons 

 here who are acquainted with the subject, that store stock, as we 

 commonly call it, is not fit at once for food ; and the quantity of 

 store stock which an individual will be enabled to keep, and raise, 

 idtimately to come into the market as food, will materially depend on 

 the quantity of grass he has, as well as of other produce. But there 

 is one other thing which it strikes me we must guard against in 

 attempting to obtain a retm-n of this kind, and that is, our not having 

 duplicate returns. We know that into this country we have intro- 

 duced a large quantity of foreign cattle, and a large quantity of sheep 



