British Agriculture. 
295 = 29 
hip and cultivation of the soil. When reckoned as heads of 
amilies they comprise more than one-fifth of the total male 
ult population ; and it is thence not unreasonable to infer 
at, in that proportion, the people of this country are more or 
ess interested in the preservation of landed property. 
When we come more closely to analyse the landowning class, 
e aggregation of land amongst small numbers becomes very 
nspicuous. One-fourth of the whole territory, excluding those 
nder one acre, is held by 1200 persons, at an average for each 
16,200 acres ; another fourth by 6200 persons, at an average 
' each of 3150 acres ; another fourth by 50,770 persons, at 
average for each of 380 acres ; whilst the remaining fourth 
held by 261,830 persons, at an average for each of 70 acres. 
lU interesting compilation from the Domesday Books by the 
Scotsman ' newspaper, shows that the Peerage of the United One-fifth of 
ingdom, about 600 in number, possess among them rather more ^''^^^^"p ^^^^^ 
lan a fifth of all the land, and between a tenth and an eleventh ^ e e rag . 
[ its annual income. 
The great bulk of the land in the United Kingdom is not cul- Not cultivated 
vated by the owners, but by tenant-occupiers. Of these there ^1 owners but 
-e 561,000 in Great Britain, and 600,000 in Ireland. Ex- fj^mTrsT 
uding the mountains, wastes, and water, the cultivated land 
held by these at an average of 56 acres each in Great Britain, relative extent 
id 26 acres in Ireland. But the proportion of large and small of their hold- 
rms in the two countries is very different, nearly half the land and^ Ireland!"^ 
1 Ireland being held in small farms under 15 acres each, while 
ss than a fifth of Great Britain is so occupied. 86 per cent, 
the farmers in Ireland hold nearly half the land, while 70 per 
;nt. in Great Britain hold less than a fifth. Agriculture is the 
incipal occupation of the people of Ireland, the revenue from 
e land there forming twice as much as that from all other 
urces, whilst in Great Britain it is but a seventh of the whole, 
ence in Ireland the possession and occupancy of land is the 
eat political question, while in Great Britain it has ceased to 
ive prominence. 
This country, from its insular position and the great resources Trade and 
possesses in minerals of iron and coal, and the outlet it finds Colonies enable 
extensive colonies, has advantages which have hitherto ^j^j^ 
labled it to disregard those prudential considerations which, checks on in- 
some other countries, have checked the rapid increase of urease of 
)pulation. Where full employment and the means of sub- P°P'^'''^'°"- 
stence are abundant, population increases in geometrical pro- 
ession, and therefore in a far more rapid proportion than 
e increased productiveness of the soil, which, after a certain 
)int, is stationary. The population of England increases more 
pidly than that of France, because our enormous foreign trade. 
