TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 661 



FBI BAY, AUGUST 16, 1878. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Condition of Small Farmers, and their Position with reference to 

 the Land Question* By Mdkrough O'Brien. 



Ireland is a country of large estates and small farms. There are 300,000 farms 

 the annual value of which is less than 10/. each ; and the average size of farms of 

 all kinds is under thirty acres. 



Thirty-three per cent, of the population are engaged in agriculture, while in 

 England the percentage of agriculturists is thirteen. 



Peasant farming in Ireland differs from peasant farming in other parts of 

 Europe, in that the occupiers hold almost universally as tenants from year to year. 

 They are thus subjected to continually increasing rents, the demand for which 

 causes discontent and bad farming, and discourages improvement. 



Tenants in Ireland usually supply all buildings, and make whatever improve- 

 ments are necessary ; yet they frequently have to pay increased rent on account of 

 the additional value they have given to their farms. This system tends to make 

 the interests of landlord and tenant more antagonistic than in England. 



Eents have always been high in Ireland, and the tendency in settling them is 

 steadily against the tenant ; although the increase in the value of land is seldom 

 due to any expenditure of capital by the landlord. 



As a consequence, largely affecting for evil the whole nation, the house accom- 

 modation of the labouring classes is exceedingly bad. In rural districts there are 

 148,200 cabins with only one room each. On small farms it does not pay the 

 landlord to build, and yearly tenants can scarcely be expected to build and improve 

 as they would if they were owners. 



On small plots purchased under the Bright clauses of the Church and Land 

 Acts remarkable improvements have been noticed. Farmers have built or perma- 

 nently improved their homesteads ; labourers have built themselves substantial 

 cottages ; industry has been increased. This points to the settlement of the land 

 question that has universally been recommended by economists, viz., free trade in 

 land, and facilitating occupiers in becoming owners, but " not by means coercive or 

 unjust." Every other solution has involved litigation between landlord and tenant, 

 and has failed to give protection for improvements. It is impossible to reconcile 

 the interests of landlords and tenants ; and as long as ownership and occupation 

 are dissevered it is impossible that the land can be cultivated as it should be and 

 the condition of the people be really improved. 



There are millions of acres to be reclaimed in Ireland, and a want of, and a 

 desire for, better houses throughout the whole country, yet there is a general com- 

 plaint that there is no employment. The wages of ordinary labourers are very low, 

 and insufficiently supply the necessaries of life. The want of employment still exist- 

 ing is largely due to the tenure of land, which is such that the landowner cannot 

 make the necessary improvements, and the tenant, if he makes them, is liable at any 

 time to have the fruit of his expenditure wholly or in part appropriated by an 

 increase of his rent. The position with regard to the land question is this : It 

 is the general custom that small farmers should build and maintain their own 

 houses, make and preserve all improvements. Practically the landlord cannot enter 



* This paper is published in extenso in the ' Joi"->ial of the Statistical and Social 

 Inquiry Society of Ireland.' 



