British Agriculture. 297 = 31 
wners. In a few years land to the value of twentj-five millions 
terling was disposed of, twenty-four of which were distributed 
mong creditors. In order to secure the landowners' prompt 
ttention in future to the condition of the people, the incidence 
f the Poor-rates, which had previously been placed wholly on 
le tenant-occupier, was divided equally between him and the 
indowner. In fifteen years, emigration and the sale of encum- 
cri'd estates had removed the most needy class of the population, 
losperity then began again to dawn upon agriculture in Ire- 
ind, works of improvement followed the introduction of capital, 
ipplied partly by Government loans and partly by the new 
ndovvners. Labour having become less plentiful, was better 
nployed and more liberally paid, and the more energetic of the 
nail farmers were ready to enlarge their holdings on every 
vourable opportunity. As time went on, a great change was 
und to have taken place, the old eagerness for the occupancy 
land returned, but not for its subdivision. In less than Decrease of 
irty years, 270,000 of the smallest holdings were merged into f™allest hold- 
Ijoining larger farms, one-half of the small holdings of 1845 rgf^n'^of''^ 
n ing totally disappeared. The tide of emigration began prosperity ia 
turn, extreme poverty ceased, the proportion of paupers to Ireland, 
e population became much lower, and the cost of poor relief 
•arly one-half less, than in either England or Scotland. This 
as accompanied by better wages to the labourer, higher profits 
the farmer, and a rise in the value of land, all fostered by a 
owing demand for the kind of produce which the soil and 
imate of Ireland are specially adapted to yield. But the lesson 
ft by the previous disaster has led to the gravest distrust in the 
stem of very small holdings, in a country producing neither 
ne nor oil, and where the occupier is not the owner of the land. 
It is worthy of note that the strictly rural parishes of Eng- Diminution of 
id exhibit some decline of population. In one-fourth of the ^agricultural 
Jjistration-districts there has been a diminution of the agricul- proportion to 
tral population in the ten years ending 1871, amounting alto- other classes in 
jther to 108,000. And it is quite certain that this continues. England. 
arises from the natural draft to the better-paid labour of the 
ning, manufacturing, and other industrial centres, which are 
sgmented both by this immigration and by natural increase. 
iminished population in the rural districts is followed by a 
1 e of wages ; and this leads to greater economy of labour, both 
I the introduction of labour-saving machinery and the conver- 
>n of arable land to pasture, where the nature of the soil admits. 
le higher price of meat and dairy-produce also contributes to 
s change. But the loss in numbers of the agricultural dis- 
t ts is amply made good by the gain in the rest of the country, 
' population now employed in agriculture being small com- 
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