36 THE CLIMATE OF IRELAND. 



THE CLIMATE OF IRELAND. 



All who are concerned in the material interests of Ireland realize what 

 an important place circumstances of climate hold in connection with the 

 prosperity of the country. No class can appreciate better than agricul- 

 turists, the manner in which their industry is affected by the characteristic 

 features of our climate ; — to wit, fickleness and unusual humidity, with a 

 degree of mildness in temperature, which surpasses that of other countries of 

 the same latitude. Taken in conjunction, these characteristics are not un- 

 favourable to health, and are particularly suited to the stock-feeding 

 branches of our main industry. Crop-raising, especially in the case of 

 cereals, is affected by both humidity and the frequency of weather changes ; 

 notwithstanding this, a high degree of success in cultivation was realized 

 before prices were brought down to their present level ; and the climate 

 did not hinder the successful growth of wheat, though, perhaps, this is the 

 crop which is most sensitive to its unfavourable influences. 



There can be little doubt that the clearing away of forests, the lessening 

 of water areas, and the carrying out of extensive schemes of arterial drain- 

 age, in the first half of the last century, have tended to bring about changes 

 in the climatic conditions. These have been, probably, more in the way of 

 greater drought and increased light and heat in summer, and greater cold in 

 winter, than in the alteration of the mean annual temperature of the island* : 

 but even if alteration in the former respects have taken place, it must have 

 been to a very slight degree, as it would be over-ridden by the effects of 

 much stronger outside influences, which no changes within would affect, and 

 which have operated uniformly, probably, for many centuries. One great 

 disadvantage attendant upon the clearing of forests is the lack of the shelter 

 which their presence would afford, an element of no mean importance where 

 stock feeding in the open is so much practised as it is in Ireland. 



We may, at the outset, distinguish between climate and weather. The 

 former is chiefly dependent upon the geographical position of our island 

 with reference to latitude ; and, relatively, to the neighbouring Continent of 

 Europe, as well as in a less degree, upon the altitude of its mountain groups. 

 The weather, on the other hand, depends upon the seasons and the change- 

 ability of the wind direction, or, in more scientific language, the movements 

 of aerial currents. It is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between 

 conditions which constitute climate, and those which constitute weather : 

 they are both dependent upon natural laws which mutually interact, and 



* The importance of such considerations in regard to cUmate is emphasised by an instance 

 given by Mr. John Knox Laughton, M.A., F.R.A.S., who points out "that a mere knowledge 

 of the mean temperature of a place gives little or no idea of its climate, or of the forms of life 

 — animal or vegetable — for which it is fitted. The mean temperature for the year is almost 

 the same in the Hebrides, and on the north shore of the Caspian, or of the Sea of Aral ; but 

 there are perhaps no places, between which a comparison can be made at all, where the climate 

 is so different." 



