40 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



Tillage versus Grass 



From the description which we have given of typical Irish 

 farms visited, it will be seen that even the mixed farms of 

 Ireland are largely composed of grass. Ireland has now become 

 practically a grazing country, with a population almost entirely 

 dependent on the land for a livelihood. It is not, therefore, 

 surprising that rural depopulation has been going on in Ireland 

 more than anywhere else in modern times, and Ireland has suf- 

 fered in a way that other countries have not suffered. The cities 

 of refuge for her migrants have not been the industrial centres of 

 the country. There are too lew of them to hold the migrants. 



PREMIUM SPANISH JACKASS, DARRARA FARM SCHOOL, CLONAKILTY 



The cities of refuge for them have been the cities of the Western 

 Eepublic. In this way Ireland has lost, since 1841, 3,'716,349 of 

 her inhabitants. The Department is making strenuous efforts at 

 once to stop the exhaustion of the soil occasioned by the produc- 

 tion of store cattle, and the depopulation of the country occasioned 

 by turning arable land into grass. It is doing this by endeavour- 

 ing to encourage a revival of tillage. It appears to be succeeding, 

 :or the agricultural statistics of 1906 showed that there were 

 75,000 acres less of pasture in the country than in the preceding 

 year. The vital question, however, is the question whether 

 grazing or tillage is the more profitable. The Department has 

 gone into the matter with great thoroughness, and has shown that, 

 as a rule, tillage is not only better for the nation as a whole, which 

 will be admitted, but that it is more profitable for the farmers. Is 

 tillage, however, more profitable for the farmers on the rich grass 



