40 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



2. Farms which rear calves and either sell them 

 soon or feed them until they can be sent out as 

 young cattle. These farms sometimes produce 

 not inconsiderable quantities of butter as well ; 

 they are to a large extent western farms, the 

 small owners of which follow this occupation. 



3. Farmers of this class buy young cattle and 

 allow them to graze until they are nearly fit 

 for market. These are called store cattle. 

 These also are raised largely in the western 

 counties. A large number of beasts so fattened 

 are sent to England and Scotland to be finished 

 for the market by rational feeding within a short 

 time. In igoi 344,954 head of store cattle were 

 exported.^ 



4. The next class is that of the rearers of fat 

 cattle, who are settled in the rich grass counties 

 of Meath, Dublin and Kildare, and who buy 

 store cattle and within a comparatively short 

 time finish them for market on their great 

 ' ranches,' and send them to Dublin and to the 

 English markets as fat cattle. In igoi 261,690 

 head of fat cattle were exported.^ 



There is an intimate economic connection 

 between these three forms of cattle-breeding. 

 If the wide cattle ranches of Meath were ploughed 



^ Journal, Dept. of Agric, September, 1903, p. 17. " Ireland, 

 Agric. and Ind.," p. 322. [On March 8, 1906, Mr. Lloyd 

 George stated in the House of Commons that the figure for the 

 past five years was, on an average, 476,000 a year. Tra?isL~\ 



^ "Ireland," etc., p. 322. [The figure for the year ending 

 Sept. 30, 1905, is 229,967. Trans/.l 



