154 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



It is just the creation by the Wyndham Act of 

 weak elements in the social structure which will 

 add to this danger. Already the agitator is 

 asking with indignation why the starvation plots 

 on the West of Ireland are to be capitalized at 

 the same number of years' purchase as the large 

 grazing farms of Leinster. From time to time 

 local epidemics of bankruptcy will break out, and 

 then to allay the local disturbances new agrarian 

 legislation will be necessary. 



Already a new agitation is making itself felt 

 in the West, and is turning to account the failure 

 of the potato crop in certain Western districts. 

 Its cry is for partition of the grazing farms 

 and enlargement of holdings. The Congested 

 Districts Board has attempted to carry out this 

 policy on some 44 estates and has done so with 

 gratifying results,^ but in most of these cases it 

 has had but a few holdings to deal with — only in 

 the case of the Dillon estate of 4,500 holdings did 

 it operate on a large scale. The experience of 

 the Board goes to show that this enlargement of 

 holdings is rarely practicable except when carried 

 out at a loss ; it is only practicable where unten- 

 anted land in sufficient quantities is available in 

 the immediate neighbourhood, since all tenants 

 object to being transplanted, and the inhabitants 

 of the new district to which it is proposed to 

 transplant them resist the proposal with all their 

 might. Where the Board has succeeded they 



^ Twelfth Report, App. XXX. 



