148 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



find them fuel, milk and porridge, sometimes potatoes, 

 tea and coffee, and occasionally a little beer. In some 

 cases, chiefly in the north, they are found all their food, 

 particularly during harvest, and occasionally employers 

 give them fresh meat. It is customary in some districts 

 for men to work on the same farms year after year. Some 

 farmers in England write to the men and tell them that 

 they want them, or sometimes they communicate with 

 one of their old hands, and ask him to secure a certain 

 number, sending him money for their fares. By far the 

 greater number of migratory labourers go from the province 

 of Connaught, and the majority of these go from the county 

 of Mayo. Nearly all the other migratory labourers go 

 from the province of Ulster, and most of them go from 

 Donegal (chiefly from the western side of the county). 

 According to the report published by the Department of 

 Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, based 

 upon information obtained at the homes of the migratory 

 labourers by the enumerators of agricultural statistics, 

 13*703 went in one year from the province of Connaught, 

 and of these 70 per cent, were natives of the county of 

 Mayo ; 2950 went from Ulster, and of these 80 per cent, 

 were natives of Donegal; 514 went from the province 

 of Munster, and 692 from the province of Leinster. This 

 makes a total for Ireland of only 17,859 ; of this number it 

 is stated that 71-7 per cent, sought work in England, 20*5 per 

 cent, in Scotland, and 7-8 per cent, in Ireland. But the 

 report gives figures showing that 21,198 migratory labourers 

 were booked on the Midland, Great Western, and Great 

 Southern and Western systems to Dublin. It also shows, 

 on the authority of returns collected from the various 

 provincial ports by the emigration enumerators, that 12,272 

 left certain specified ports between ist January and 3ist 

 ; August in the same year. This number, added to the 

 , returns furnished by the railway companies, makes a total 

 of 33,470 for the whole of Ireland. The report states that 

 this number is very much greater than the number of 

 migratory labourers shown in the tables compiled from the 

 returns made by the enumerators of agricultural statistics. 

 In considering this difference, it must be borne in mind 

 that a large number of the agricultural labourers who 

 migrate annually to Great Britain pay two visits, and 

 this is an element which it is impossible accurately to 

 eliminate from the emigration and railway returns. The 

 men from the west of Ireland generally go to the northern 

 and midland counties of England, but some young women 

 go from Mayo, mainly from the Isle of Achill by sea to 

 Scotland. Very few of the men who go to England go 

 farther south than north Cambridgeshire. Those from 

 Mayo and also from Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, 

 and Cavan chiefly go to Lancashire, Durham, Yorkshire, 

 Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Lincoln- 



