320 



STATISTICAL SURVEY OF IRISH AGRICULTURE. 



the number for 1900. There was a decrease of 17,271 in the number "two 

 years old and upwards," but an increase of 9,243 in the " one year old and 

 under two," and of 5,966 in those " under one year." The number of Mules 

 was 28,882, or 1,796 less than 1900, and the number of Asses 238,980, 

 being a decrease of 3,267. Horses, Mules, and Asses taken together num- 

 bered 839,903 in 1900, and 832,778 in 1901, being a decrease of 7,125, or 

 0.8 per cent, in the latter year ; compared with the average number for the 

 ten years 1 891-1900, they show a decrease of 28,541, or 3.3 per cent. As 

 bearing on the relative position of Ireland and other countries in regard to 

 the proportion of her flocks and herds to each 1,000 acres of their total 

 areas, the following Table, prepared by Major P. G. Craigie and quoted in a 

 paper read by him as President of the Economic Section of the British 

 Association in 1900, is of interest: — 



On this Table Major Craigie commented as follows : — 

 " Thus Wales bears easily the palm as regards the total stock of sheep 

 carried, while Ireland, with a population practically bearing a similar ratio to 

 that of Scotland to her surface, has more than three times as dense a stock 

 of cattle and more than eight times as many pigs, although not more than half 

 as many sheep, to 1,000 acres. Although beaten as regards the number of 

 pigs maintained in a given area by Denmark and by Hungary, Ireland's cattle 

 are more than twice as numerous, relatively, as those of France, where the 

 population is not so very different in proportion to the soil." 



This is certainly satisfactory so far as the Live Stock columns in the 

 Table are concerned. Taking a wider survey of time, but confining the 

 Table to Ireland, it will be seen that the decline in population has been as 

 continuous as the increase in cattle. 



Per 1,000 Acres of Total Area. 



The number of Sheep in 1901 was 4,378,750, being 8,126 less than the 



