THE IRISH POLLING INDUSTRY. 405 



does not fall far short of the quantity of flour produced by the twenty- 

 seven mills at the earlier period ; but we must remember that once a mill 

 is shut down it is very rarely ever turned to account again for milling or for 

 any other industry, so that there has been a very serious loss of the national 

 capital in the shape of the buildings of those derelict mills, and the valuable 

 machinery with which they were equipped. As against the decline in flour 

 milling, however, it is only right to set the increase in the quantity of maize 

 ground. Indian meal as a cheap and good food for cattle has rapidly grown 

 in favour within the last twenty years, and the increase in our cattle trade 

 has naturally increased the demand for meal. This does not, however, com- 

 pensate the miller for the dechne m the demand for his flour, the machinery 

 used for grinding meal being less elaborate and considerably less costly 

 than that required for the manufacture of flour, has made competition in 

 this branch of the business very keen, and his profits in this case leave 

 him nothing to compensate him for the interest on the capital which he has 

 sunk in his flour plant. 



Complete returns showing the total quantities of wheat and flour im- 

 ported into Ireland are difficult to obtain ; but perhaps it may be permis- 

 sible to take the figures of the importations into one port as a typical 

 example. The quantity of W'heat grown at home being so small may, for 

 practical purposes, be disregarded, and the figures showing the imports of 

 flour and wheat into the port of Cork for twenty years since i88i are 

 eloquent in showing how the industry has declined in the South of Ireland, 

 Taking Cork and Kerry as the two counties which are principally served 

 from the port of Cork, let us first examine the variation in the populations 

 of these counties. The figures as given in " Thorn's Directory " for 1902; 

 are : — 



696,646 617,568 570,144 126,502 



The decrease in the population of these two counties for the twenty years 

 since 188 1 amounts to 126,502, or over 18 per cent. 



Now taking the figures of the importations of wheat and flour into Cork^ 

 taking them on an average of ten years, we find that between the years 1881 

 and 1 89 1 the average annual imports of wheat were 80,971 tons, and flour 

 14,063 tons, while from 1891 to 1901 the averages were — wheat, 63,708 

 tons, flour 22,502 tons. These figures show that while the populations of 

 the two counties have been decreasing the importations of flour have been 

 increasing. The average annual importation of wheat shows a falling off 

 of 17,263 tons, while flour importations have increased 8,439 tc>J^s per 

 annum. No mere words could give a better picture of the decline in the 

 milling trade than these figures. In the first ten years under consideration 

 wheat was 85.2 per cent., flour 14.8 per cent, of the total quantity of the two 

 articles imported, and in the second ten years wheat had fallen to 73.9 per 

 cent, while flour had increased to 26.1 per cent. The following Tables 

 show the importations of corn into Dublin and Belfast respectively in the 

 years 1896- 1900. 



