78 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. [Sept. 1894. 



Reports from Perthshire and neighbouring Scotch counties 

 stated that the labourers were all in work. 



No strikes had been reported, though in some cases in Suffolk 

 men had refused the price offered for harvest work. 



It appears that less than the usual number of Irish labourers 

 had arrived, at the date of the report, in English and Scotch 

 agricultural districts to assist in the harvest work. 



According to information furnished by the Midland Great 

 Western Railway, the Irish labourers booked by that railway to 

 England and Scotland were 22,420 in 1894, as compared with 

 23,534 in 1893 and 27,050 in 1892. Statements obtained from 

 the shipping agents show that the total numbers booked by 

 steamer were 22,970 in 1894, 24,269 in 1893, and 28,270 in 

 1892. 



These numbers practically represent all Irish labourers who 

 come from the province of Connaught. Nearly all the other Irish 

 migratory labourers are stated to have come from Ulster, and 

 by far the larger portion of these from Donegal, from the 

 northern parts of which county they go chiefly to Scotland and 

 Northumberland. The Connaught men are reported to go 

 chiefly to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and 

 Warwickshire, while some go to Scotland, Northumberland, and 

 Lincolnshire. Practically all the women go, it is stated, to 

 Scotland, where they find employment in thinning turnips, 

 weeding, harvesting, potato lifting, etc. 



The period of absence for both men and women is said to 

 vary from three to nine months. 



The decrease in the number of migratory labourers from 

 Connaught is attributed partly to improved circumstances of 

 the people in Ireland and partly to diminished demand for 

 labour in England owing to agricultural depression and to the 

 increased use of machinery. This year, however, it was expected 

 that Irish labour in England would be more in demand than for 

 some years past. 



The bulk of the Connaught labourers leave Ireland from 

 June 8th to the end of July, but the Donegal men leave in 

 August for Scotland and Northumberland, where the harvest is 

 later. 



It is stated that the numbers from Mayo who left by rail and 

 boat during the present year up to July 31st were only 18 less 

 than the number for the whole of 1893, without estimating the 

 number of harvesters from Achill who were drowned in the 

 Westport disaster. Thus the decrease has taken place in other 

 counties. 



The total number of those who left Mayo this season is esti- 

 mated at 19,290, which amounts to 37 per cent, of the male 

 population of 20 years of age and upwards in that county, and 

 to no less than 83*9 per cent, of all those who left from Con- 

 naught. 



