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STATISTICAL SURVEY OF IRISH AGRICULTURE. 



STATISTICAL SURVEY OF IRISH AGRICULTURE. 



The total area of Ireland — according to the figures supplied by the 

 Director-General of the Ordnance Survey to the 

 Division of Land. S^f"^ Commissioners in 1891-was 20,32794; 

 statute acres. Ihe mclusion of 5,397 acres of re- 

 claimed slob in the County Wexford brings the total 

 area to 20,333,344 statute acres. This total — which is that taken in these 

 returns since 1891 — incJades 129,681 acres under water, but excludes close 

 on half-a-million acres (492,252 is the exact number) under the larger 

 rivers, lakes, and tideways. The following statement shows the distribution 

 of this area in 1900 and 1901 : — 



" Hay mown on permanent pasture " and " temporary grasses " when 

 grazed are in the above Table put in the category of " Grass " (though 

 technically, of course, as being under rotation, the latter is a " crop "). The 

 idea is to divide off as far as possible arable land from pasture ; to dis- 

 tinguish, in other words, land under the plough from land directly given 

 over to stock-raising, or, as it may be called, pastoral land. The division as 

 here given is not quite perfect for the reason just alluded to, that " tem- 

 porary pastures " would strictly come under the term arable land, but in 

 view of the fact that such lands are often not broken up in many parts of 

 Ireland for three, five, or even ten years, during which time a large percent- 

 age of them are grazed, the object of the classification adopted is apparent. 



Changes in the use to which the land of a country is put affect its whole 

 social organisation, and of no change can this be said with more truth than 

 of the transfer of land from tillage to pasture. Hence it is important to 

 adopt a classification which throws into bold relief the characteristic 

 features of our rural economy. According to the estimates in the above 



