12 The Landed Interest. 



period, though there has been a reduction in the 

 number of sheep, that is much more than com- 

 pensated by an increase in cattle. And as the 

 expenditure on drainage and land improvement. 

 Present and in the building of farm-houses and labourers' 



great agri- 

 cultural cottages, has been greatly increasing, year 



prosperity 



of that by year, the state of agriculture in Ireland, 



country. 



chiefly owing to the high price of live-stock, 

 and the increasing demand for store animals to 

 be fattened in Great Britain, now appears to 

 have attained a position of general progress and 

 prosperity greater than has ever been previously 

 experienced in that portion of the United 

 Kingdom. 



The extent of land under the various crops 

 in the United Kingdom in 1877 was, in wheat, 

 3,321,000 acres; barley, 2,652,000 acres; oats, 

 4,239,000 acres ; potatoes, 1,393,000 acres ; other 

 green crops, 3,566,000 acres; flax, 130,000 

 acres; hops, 70,000 acres; bare fallow, 633,000 

 acres ; grass under rotation, 6,441,000 acres ; 

 permanent pasture, 24,000,000 acres (besides 

 mountain pastures and wastes) ; woods and 

 plantations, 2,511,000. 



