OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 165 



best circumstanced Unions, and find that the fearful 

 shortcoming in grain, in the most distressed, is not in the 

 slightest degree counterbalanced by a larger proportion 

 of potatoes per head. 



Again, it has been already shown (p. 130) from these 

 returns, that the average proportion of people to acres 

 of grain, in the four first-mentioned Unions is 114 to 

 100 acres, and in the four last 1345 to 100 acres ; and 

 it might be reasonably inferred that, in the latter, with 

 such an overabundant population, there could be little 

 occasion for horse labour at all. On asking this ques- 

 tion of the returns, we receive the following reply : — 

 The average number of acres in cultivation to each horse 

 in the first four Unions is ...... . 8 



In the last four 4 



So that, while the competition of labourers in the 

 worst is as 12 to 1 in the best, the displacement of 

 horse labour by this competition is only as 2 to 1 ; and 

 even that may be accounted for by the larger propor- 

 tion of potato cultivation, in the worst, requiring more 

 manual labour. 



It appears from these returns, that there is a marked 

 decrease in the number of small holdings, and an increase 

 of the larger ones, showing a decided progress in the 

 consolidation of farms. 



They show also a decrease of 4108 acres of flax, 

 (equal to one-thirteenth of the whole breadth cultivated,) 

 as compared with the previous year. 



The following particulars with regard to stock in 

 Connaught are interesting. Last year, as compared 

 with 1847, shows a decrease of one sixth in the horses, 



