Irish Migratory Labourers. 



375 



and 1898 have been published in the Labour Gazette. The 

 figures are based on returns made by the railway and 

 shipping companies, and are stated to be more complete 

 than on previous occasions, as the necessary particulars 

 have now been obtained from all the railway companies con- 

 cerned. The total number of labourers booked this year by 

 rail and sea was 27,866, compared v/ith 25,962 in 1897, 75 per 

 cent, of whom came from the County of Mayo. 



From inquiries made in all parts of the country it is learnt 

 that the men from the West of Ireland generally go to the 

 Northern and Midland counties of England, but a good many 

 young women go from Mayo by sea to Scotland. Very few 

 of the men who travel to England go further 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, Lincolnshire, and North Cam- 

 bridgeshire. Some also go to a few districts in the counties 

 of Cumberland, Nottingham, Shropshire, Rutland, Leicester- 

 shire, Northampton, and Herts. A very few are said to be 

 sometimes found in parts of Worcestershire, Beds, Bucks, 

 Surrey, and Sussex. In former years it is said that they 

 came in considerably larger numbers into some of these coun- 

 ties, and reports from Berks, Oxford, Hants, Kent, and Here- 

 ford, state that they used to come there, but have now ceased 

 to do so, chiefly owing to the introduction of machinery at 

 harvest, and also owing to the smaller acreage of grain crops 

 grown. It is not uncommon to find men going to several 

 counties. For instance, a number go to Derbyshire for 

 temporary employment before the corn is ripe in Lincolnshire 

 and Yorkshire. Others will get two harvests by going further 

 north when they have completed one in. a more southern 

 county. 



Some of the men start as early as February, take part in 

 the ordinary work on farms, and do not return until the late 

 autumn : but the majority do not go until June. They find 

 employment during the summer and autumn at hoeing, hay- 

 making, harvesting, and taking-up potatoes and roots, and 

 on dairy farms in parts of Cheshire they undertake milking. 



