246 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



CHAPTEE XV. 



ON CLIMATE AND THE SUPPLY OF LABOUR AS 

 AFFECTING AGRICULTURE IN IRELAND. 



1872. 



CLIMATE has been well described as the ruling prin- 

 ciple of agriculture. 



The Irish climate is proverbially wet. Mr. Scott, 

 of the Meteorological Office, the highest authority in 

 the kingdom on this subject, informs me that the 

 rainfall of most part of Munster, all Connaught and 

 Donegal, Cornwall, Wales, and the West of Scot- 

 land, resemble each other, all are forty to fifty inches, 

 whilst the rainfall in Essex and the East of England 

 is about twenty inches, over forty inches is the aver- 

 age of County Cork. The rainfall of the West of 

 England, except Cornwall, and of the Eastern part 

 of Ireland does not differ much thirty to thirty-five 

 inches. The rain increases down to Penzance, where 

 it is the same as in Munster. Meteorological ob- 

 servations are kept at very few places in Ireland, 

 and there is reason to believe that the local rainfall 

 in many places is much greater than any that has 

 been registered. It is certain that there is a damp- 



