THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 51 



" congested " and 429 " congested." The total 

 valuation of the 429 districts selected in 1891 

 was, in 1901, £S77^^M ; the population 505,723 ; 

 the rateable value per individual was therefore 

 £1 2s. gd.} 



This designation of particular districts as 

 congested districts is of course an arbitrary one. 

 There may be electoral divisions the condition 

 of which is much worse than in the congested 

 districts, only these poor divisions do not form 

 20 per cent of the population of the county. 

 There are in fact many such districts ; the 

 congested districts therefore contain only a par- 

 ticular section of the Irish population living on 

 uneconomic holdings. The kernel of a deficit 

 farm of this kind is always the potato patch, the 

 dimensions of which vary according to the 

 number of mouths in the family. It supplies 

 the main article of diet ; the surplus, if any, is 

 used for pigs' food. The potatoes are grown 

 in so-called " lazy beds," in broad drills 

 separated from each other by deep trenches. 

 In moist land these trenches serve at the 

 same time for drainage purposes, especially 

 where the potato field is situated on peaty soil. 

 Formerly the tubers were simply laid on the bed 

 and earth out of the trench shovelled over them ; 

 They are now set in the ground. The work is 

 frequently done with the spade, for the fields are 



^ Congested Districts Board Report, 1903, Appendix 25 

 and 26. 



