12 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



expenditure on drainage and land improvement, 

 Present and in the building of farmhouses and labourers' 



great agri- 

 cultural cottages, has been greatly increasing, year by 



of that vear t h e s t a te O f agriculture in Ireland, chiefly 



country. J 



owing to the high price of live-stock, and 

 the increasing demand for store animals to be 

 fattened in Great Britain, now appears to have 

 attained a position of general progress and 

 prosperity greater than has ever been previously 

 experienced in that portion of the United 

 Kingdom. 



The extent of land under the various crops 

 in the United Kingdom in 1879 was, in wheat, 

 3,056,000 acres; barley, 2,931,000 acres; oats, 

 3,998,000 acres ; potatoes, 1,393,000 acres ; other 

 green crops, 3,478,000 acres ; flax, 135,000 

 acres ; hops, 68,000 acres ; bare fallow, 738,000 

 acres ; grass under rotation, 6,441,000 acres ; 

 permanent pasture, 24,400,000 acres (besides 

 mountain pastures and wastes) ; woods and 

 plantations, 2,5 1 1,000. 



The number of live-stock of various kinds in 

 1879 was > f horses, 2,834,000 ; cattle, 9,993,000 ; 

 sheep, 32,257,000; pigs, 3,164,000. 



