THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 45 



consequently almost 50,000 farmers have double 

 holdings/ 



A certain number of the holdings under one 

 acre are potato plots held by town labourers, &c.; 

 there may even be a number of these included 

 among the live-acre farms. From 5 to 30 acres 

 we have 258,105 proprietors, who constitute 47*5 

 per cent, of all the farmers ; from i to 30 acres, 

 310,000 farmers, or 57-8 per cent. The total area 

 held by these 47*5 per cent, is 22*4 per cent, of 

 the land of Ireland ; 57*8 per cent, hold only 23*3 

 per cent, of the superficial area of Ireland ; that 

 is to say more than 75 per cent, of the super- 

 ficial area of Ireland is in the hands of the larger 

 farmers, men working over 30 acres. If we con- 

 sider that the small farms are to a great extent 

 on bad soil, we shall easily perceive that the 

 small farmer in Ireland does not lie upon a bed 

 of roses. Matters are comparatively prosperous 

 in the North. There the holdings are certainly 

 small. In Armagh almost 70 per cent, of them 

 are between five and ten acres ; but the more 

 advanced technical methods and the industrial 

 character of the country render this smallness 

 comparatively harmless.^ The number and size 

 of the holdings have altered very much since the 



^ Ibid., p. 26, note. If we. find among the larger holdings 

 more owners than holdings, this is owing to certain statistical 

 double counts. [The figures for 1904 show 591,224 holdings 

 to 545,202 occupiers. Transl^ 



^Agricultural Statistics, 1902, p. 34, 



