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STATISTICAL SURVEY OF IRISH AGRICULTURE. 



When we come to look into the details of the decline in the area of the 

 cropped lands of Ireland, we find, as was to have 

 been expected, that it is the cereals which have 

 Crop Areas. decreased most seriously. From the strictly economic 



point of view, the yearly increasing scarcity of agri- 

 cultural labour ; the fact that the prices of com crops have fallen since 1870 

 to a much greater extent than the prices of meat-stuffs or dairy produce ; 

 and the splendid natural richness of the pastures of Ireland, point to an 

 explanation of the deca_>- of grain farming in this country. Smce 1855 our 

 wheat area has shrunk from 445,775 acres to 42,934 acres in 1901 ; our oat 

 crop (though still pre-eminently Ireland's great cereal) has decreased by 

 nearly 50 per cent. ; while our barley (an industrial crop for which there is 

 always a ready market at home) has declined from 226,620 acres in 1855 to 

 161,534 acres in igoi. I give herewith a coloured chart, which emphasizes 

 at a glance the tendency just referred to. That the decline of the root 

 crops (including potatoes) has, though serious, not been so marked, will 

 appear from this statement : — 



Acreage under Cereals, Roots, and Meadow in 1855 and 1901. 



The details of the changes for the separate crops are clearly brought out 

 in the subjoined Table, with which the chart may be compared : — 



Restricting our survey to recent years, we find that the area under crops, 

 including meadow and clover, in 1891 was 4,818,381, while in 1901 it was only 

 4,631,051 — a decrease of 3.9 per cent, m the eleven years. Taking 100 



