176 My Little Farm 



production, as realised in my own case, which is 

 not typical, and let us try to balance for the 

 ordinary peasant his wages of sin against his 

 gain from increased market prices, which are 

 settled for him abroad, quite beyond the range 

 of his politicians. For the United Kingdom 

 as a whole, we have statistics of price by which 

 we could compare 1879 with I 9 I 3? but t ^ ie 7 are 

 based on the British level, ignoring the sub- 

 stantial difference between this and the Irish. 

 I have thought it better to interview a large 

 number of men old enough to remember 1879, to 

 average their estimates, and to check the average 

 by comparison with commercial documents of 

 the time. Worked out in this way, the rise in 

 prices reveals an increase well over 20 per cent. 

 in the Irish farmer's income, while organised 

 crime can no longer offer him 20 per cent, on his 

 rent, which cannot be more than a third of his 

 income. In other words, the man who had 

 .100 a year from farming has it now increased 

 to more than 120 by the advance in prices 

 alone,* and apart from any improvements in his 

 productive economy. 



Take the same man in regard to rent and his 

 gain from reductions in it. What would be the 

 rent of a farm on which the family can live at 

 the rate of 100 a year ? This is a matter in 

 which the farmers themselves will be able to 

 check my calculation. I know that, in the average 

 case, the rent cannot be quite so much as a third 



* Not including the war inflations. 



