THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 49 



From this table it follows that 68*5 per cent, 

 of all holdings which do not exceed the value of 

 £i<^ occupy 6' 12 million acres, or one-third of 

 the total cultivated surface. Two-thirds of 

 all the holdings occupy one-third of the land. 

 15-6 per cent, of all the holdings are valued at 

 more than £'^0 ; they occupy g'2 million acres or 

 almost 50 per cent, of the total superficial area. 

 The preponderance of holdings of small value is 

 greatest in the West. In Connaught there 

 were, out of 109,359 holdings, 41,439 of the value 

 of ^^4, and in Mayo 15,867 out of 32,732. These 

 15,867 holdings occupied 214,000 acres of the 

 Co. Mayo, which contains more than a million 

 acres. The holdings of over ^50, numbering 

 about 700, alone covered an area of nearly 

 250,000 acres. 



When we remember that the yearly valuation, 

 as contained in the taxation assessment, was 

 fixed on the basis of high prices for products, 

 the picture of poverty shown by the number 

 of small holdings is intensified.^ We may 

 assume that all holdings under £4. and a large 

 number of holdings up to ^15 are uneconomic 

 holdings. If we combine the size of the holdings 

 with their valuation, we may well conclude that 

 200,000 Irish farm holdings are uneconomic. 

 That is to say, with the existing technical 

 methods, the available capital and the prevailing 

 market conditions, about 200,000 Irish farms 



1 Final Report on Local Taxation, p. i, 



