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hardly be expected that a starving people should continue to rear things so easily 
convertible into food, or into that which would procure food for the owners. These 
facts, which are proved beyond controversy by the inquiries of the Irish government, 
place in a very conspicuous light the disadvantage of peasant holdings, as compared 
with farms which from their extent require to be cultivated by persons who, pos- 
sessing some capital, are not driven, on the occurrence of the first calamitous season, 
to measures destructive of their own future prosperity and injurious to the public at 
large. The question of the advantage, or otherwise, of maintaining a class of peasant 
yee is one upon which it would not be advisable to dilate on this occasion, 
_ but the figures brought forward in the returns under examination appear to be so im- 
portant, as exhibiting the consequences of farming without the needful appliances, 
that it was impossible to pass them by without this one word of comment. The 
table exhibiting the number of acres devoted in 1847 and 1848 respectively to the 
production of the different cereal grains, shows a result for which we could hardly 
have been prepared, There wasa falling off in the breadth of wheat sown of 178,125 
acres, or 24 per cent. upon the quantity in 1847. Of oats there was a lessened 
sowing of 278,464 acres, or 12} percent. Of barley the cultivation was lessened by 
40,352 acres, or nearly 14 per cent. On the other hand, the tendency to continue 
dependent for a great part of their daily food upon potatoes, has been shown by the 
__ Irish peasantry in the marked increase of the land devoted to their growth, which 
amounted to 458,783 acres, or 160 per cent. upon the number of acres so employed 
in 1847! We hear but little of injury sustained by this root at present, and may 
expect that the misery through which that peasantry had to pass, consequent upon 
the destruction of their staple produce, will be forgotten, and that they may be willing 
to remain in dependence upon the success of this lowest description of food, and thus 
be liable at any time to a recurrence of the horrors of famine. We are now for the 
first time in the history of this country enabled to record, with anything approaching 
to accuracy, the actual and comparative result of two consecutive harvests. The 
result is such as to prove—if indeed any proof to that effect could be required—of 
how much, of how vital importance it is to know the truth upon*this most momentous - 
subject. We have seen that the breadth of land devoted in 1848 to the cultivation 
of the cereal grains was much less than in the previous year, and the figures which 
record the result of that cultivation, serve to show that the actual produce of the land 
in all its most impertant objects, was such as greatly to aggravate the evil thence to 
be expected. It appears upon calculation that the produce of the cereal grains in 
_ bushels, and of potatoes in tons, in each of the two years was as follows :— 





e 1847. | 1848. 
Wheat......bushels} 31:4 | 22:0 
Barley ...... g 39:0 | 37:3 
Oats.ise.). mn 418 | 37°6 
Benes, fadeses , Mas 446 | 39-7 
Rye? ss..53.. nt 406 | 39-2 
Potatoes ... tons...| 7°28} 3°87 
If the deficiency here shown were equally great in Great Britain, we can be at no 
Joss to account for the very large importations of foreign grain imported during the 
twelve months from August 1848 to August 1849, and which importations, great as 
they have been, would seem to be in no degree beyond our requirements, The 
‘quantities so entered have been as follows :— 
Wheat.........65. Benaanrs france cee. 4,323,645 quarters. 
Barley........- oro ba cue Ne Wood. Oeg ty. 
Oats .... Seaateies takttcasarss 1,221,883 __,, 
Rye...... ene eee Mr cence. 220,829 ,, 
Gases. tenes dessa niseh FE Sata emaet nce 266,475 
Beans ..... Sa sepeeneane re caer Aen EW Wh toes 
IMBIZE ti. we cevescaass doug creer teat = 2,287: 28a es, 
ze Seaeree 
Wheat Flour, 3,508,375 ewt.= 1,002,393 __,, 
Total...... 11,177,512 quarters, 

