THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 57 



possess neither cattle nor sufficient pasture. 

 On other Irish holdings too the kernel of the 

 farm consists in the potato patch ; it is not 

 very different from the deficit farms, only that 

 the soil is better, that a more or less sufficient 

 quantity of pasture is round about the potato 

 patch, and that a certain amount of energy and 

 technical skill are present. There is doubtless 

 a certain tendency to increase the number of 

 deficit farms. Just because the owners of the 

 smallest holdings do not regard them as a 

 farming concern, they are inclined to divide 

 them up amongst their children or perhaps 

 to sub-let them. The farm is expected to 

 supply as many persons as possible with 

 potatoes, milk and lodging, but not to afford 

 facility for carrying on a proper farming 

 business. Legislation has interposed great 

 obstacles in the way of the sub-division of 

 farms. On the large farms where farmers are by 

 degrees beginning to work on economic princi- 

 ples this has not been completely in vain ; on 

 the deficit farms the tendency to sub-division 

 will long continue.^ 



Agriculture then is the main industry of ^ 

 Ireland. To a great extent it is moving | 

 in wrong directions : the working system is j 

 * extensive,' the technical method faulty. The j 

 farmer's money is in the bank and not in his 

 farm. One who has an accurate knowledge of 



^ Fry Commission, Nos. 25,055, 8,737, 28,791. 



