Irish Agriculture. 19 
There are certain points brought out in these Tables which 
deserve consideration as illustrating certain features of Irish 
agriculture. (1.) The decrease which has taken place in all the 
cereal crops, even in oats, the staple cereal crop of Ireland. 
(2.) The increase in the cultivation of potatoes, owing to the 
comparative freedom from disease which the crop has shown for 
several years, and to the fact that so large an extent of the land 
in cultivation is in the occupation of holders of small farms 
(as will be shown afterwards), to whom the potato crop is a 
necessity. The Irish Registrar-General includes the potato under 
the general head of " Green Crops," but it cannot be regarded 
as a cattle-feeding crop, like turnips and mangel-wurzel. A 
portion of the crop, no doubt, is employed in feeding pigs and 
poultry, but the bulk of it is used as the food of the people, 
for the exportation of potatoes from Ireland may be regarded 
as confined to the early kinds at the first of the season. (3.) It 
will be seen that the cultivation of turnips and mangel-wurzel 
does not gain ground ; and the important considerations which 
arise out of this fact will be understood when we take into 
account the relation which those crops bear to the rearing and 
feeding of cattle and sheep. In Great Britain, 70 per cent, 
of the " Green Crops " are turnips and mangel ; while in Ireland 
the proportion does not exceed 23^ per cent. In the case of 
potatoes the proportions are reversed, being 71 in Ireland 
against 16 in Great Britain. (4.) But it is not merely the 
extent devoted to the cattle-feeding crops that is unsatisfactory ; 
it will also be seen that the actual produce of these crops has 
decreased, and that from the reduction in the average produce 
per acre, it appears that the condition of the land is not im- 
proving. Thus, the average produce per acre of the two prin- 
cipal cattle-feeding crops — turnips and mangel-wurzel — during 
the first five years given in the foregoing Tables, was as follows : — 
Turnips, 16"1 tons; mangel, 17*8 tons; while in the last-named 
five years the average produce per acre was,^ — Turnips, 11-6 tons ; 
mangel, 12'6 tons. The annual average total produce of turnips 
and mangel during the first five years amounted to 6,396,535 tons ; 
and during the last five years to 4,087,052 tons ; being a decrease 
of 2,309,483 tons per annum in the amount of cattle-food pro- 
duced in Ireland. The practical result of this decrease will be 
better understood when we consider that if a cow or ox gets 
half-a-cwt. of root-food — turnips or mangels — per day, from the 
1st of November to the 31st of March, 75 cwts., or, sav, in 
round numbers, four tons of such food will be consumed during 
that period. Consequently the decrease in the amount of root- 
food produced in Ireland from 1866 to 1870 inclusive, repre- 
c 2 
