146 COMPAEED WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 



50,000 agricultural labourers, for whom employment 

 would still haye to be found. 



The following table, compiled from the returns of the 

 census of 1841, shows the relative proportions of popu- 

 lation to arable land in Scotland, England, and Con- 

 naught : — 



Making every allowance for the land to be made 

 arable by the arterial drainage, (which may add one- 

 twentieth to the available land,) there still remains 

 an alarming disproportion between the West of Ireland 

 and Great Britain. And an immense influx of capital 

 must take place, before Connaught is put on a level with 

 this country in the materiel necessary for an equal 

 development of her agricultural resources. 



But, in effecting the preliminary steps for that pur- 

 pose, there will be a great demand for labour — less or 

 more, of course, in proportion to the comprehensiveness, 

 or otherwise, of the scale on which it is carried on. It 



population. I do not, however, wish to contend for the entire adoption of 

 the large-farm system in the West of Ireland. It led to great results in Scot- 

 land, and the east and north of England, while prices of corn were high. 

 But large farms, with corn for their main staple, are not now found profit- 

 able. Green crops and stock have become of, at least, equal importance ; and 

 the more elaborate cultivation and management required by them, as well 

 as the greater capital necessary, have a sure tendency to lessen the demand 

 for large farms, and gradually to lead to their subdivision into an extent more 

 in proportion with the capital of their occupants. 



