TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 795 



flicts, as presented by extreme Socialists ; (p) it is throwing new light on the 

 whole question of land-ownership and the social relations of this issue; ( f) it 

 has brought to the front the whole body of human and social interests, in such a 

 way that they can now be dealt with far more safely ; as illustrated by the various 

 forms of insurance, and the popularising of higher sanitary standards for the house 

 and school. 



2. The Fsychologir.al Aspect of Agrarian Reform in Ireland. 

 By MoRiTZ Julius Bonn, Ph.D. 



During the last twenty-seven years a thoroughgoing agrarian reform has taken 

 place in Ireland. A radical system of fixing rents was created and supplemented 

 by a very effective machinery for converting tenants into peasant proprietors. 

 Have these reforms effected any of the great changes expected in Irish life ? 



(a) A statistical inquiry to-day shows a certain amount of progress. Irish 

 live-stock, for example, has somewhat increased in numbers. 



(6) Irish agriculture, as contracted with pastoral industries, shows a steady 

 decline. 



(c) The development of live-stock and agriculture is practically the same 

 in those districts where purchase of holdings has been carried out on a large 

 scale aa in those where it has scarcely taken place. The period 1881-1896, when 

 prices were bad and reform was only started, does not differ very much in results 

 from the period 1896-1907, when depression was slowly ceasing and reform was 

 fairly advanced. 



{(J) The character of Irish farming as mainly a pastoral industry has been 

 mentioned. Though tillage and mixed farming are considered profitable by 

 experts, the change in ownership has not induced people to change the ways of 

 production. 



(e) Agrarian reform has brought about a considerable remission of the people's 

 burdens. The income thus made available has been spent on a general rise of the 

 standard of living. It has not been made an excuse for diminishing eflbrts in 

 production, inasmuch as the country's agricultural output has not decreased. The 

 energy of the people has not been sapped by it ; but, on the other hand, there is 

 no evidence that the great chances now within the grasp of the Irish farmer have 

 had much influence on his qualities as a producer. 



.3. The Productivity of English Agriculturists. 

 By Professor James Wilson, M.A., B.Sc. 



In 169G Gregory King estimated the population of England and Wales at 

 5,500,000, and the areas under crop and pasture at 9,000,000 and 12,000,000 

 acres. Assuming that from 70 to 80 per cent, of the population was engaged in 

 agriculture, and that a fourth of that number was operative as agriculturists, then 

 there were about 1,000,000 agriculturists — farmers and workmen and their elder 

 children — in the country. 



King's estimates of crop and pasture were too high. Allowing for that, there 

 were about eight acres of arable land and ten acres of pasture and meadow to each 

 agriculturist. 



Reducing all the grain to wheat, and remembering that tlie bulk of the arable 

 land carried a crop only two yeai-s in three, and the rest of it only four or five 

 years in eight or ten, then the average annual yield was not more than 8 bushels 

 an acre. 



In the same way, reducing all the pasture and meadow to milk, and remem- 

 bering that a cow gave only from 200 to 300 gallons a year, and that, even tliough 

 assisted by straw from the tillage land, three acres of meadow and pasture, 

 unimproved as they were, would barely maintain her, then the annual yield of 

 milk from an acre of meadow and pasture combined was not more than 80 gallons. 



