36 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



is never touched by plough or spade. Many 

 parts of the country, especially in the counties 

 of Kildare, Meath and Dublin, are nothing but 

 grassy deserts covered with a dense growth of 

 shimmering, almost blue-green, grass and sub- 

 divided into fields by hedges and ditches. There 

 is scarcely a human being to be seen, for the 

 cattle graze without a herdsman in the hedged- 

 in fields, in the centre of which a solitary post 

 or stone against which the animals can rub 

 themselves is almost the only mark of human 

 effort. Hundreds and thousands of ruined cot- 

 tages are scattered about, dwellings in which 

 human beings formerly dwelt. The number of 

 inhabited houses fell, since 185 1 from 1,146,223 

 to 858,158 in 1901, a diminution of 188,065 

 houses. It is these wide "grazing ranches" 

 which have made Ireland into a land of a great 

 silence. 



Both climate and soil favour pasture farming. 

 The soils have, for example, been classified into 



1. Fattening land. 



2. Lowland pasture for dairy farming. 



3. Lowland pasture, second quality. 



4. Mountain pasture. 



5. Bogs and waste lands. ^ 



Coyne, "Ireland, Agric. and Ind.," pp. 29 et seq. Many 

 statements in this essay are extracted from this excellent book, 

 the author of which was till a short time ago head of the 

 Statistical Branch of the Irish Department of Agriculture. An 

 early death has snatched him from a valuable activity. Under 



