ULSTER.

MUNSTER.

LEINSTER.

ABSTRACT, taken from the Census Returns of 1841, showing the Extent and Number of Holdings in the Rural Districts in Ireland (given in Appendix to Land Commission Evidence, No. 90).

ts er

CONNAUGHT.

TABLE, condensed from the Census Report, showing the proportion in the Hundred, of Holdings of each size in each of the four Provinces.

2

408.

From the testimony of the witnesses examined, we may 89, Q. 16-p. also infer the general prevalence of very small farms, and the small number of large holdings, tenants of twenty, thirty, or forty acres, being not unfrequently described as large farmers; but any attempt to draw more accurate conclusions from such testimony is obviously idle.

From one of the foregoing tables, taken from the "Census of Ireland for the year 1841," the following result is obtained :

:

The above classification does not include the occupiers of holdings of one acre and under, which, from Appendix, No. 95, would appear to be 135,314, making a total of 820,623.

The gross number of holdings, as derived from the Poor Law Commissioners' Returns (see Appendix 95), appears to be 935,448, of which 42,705 are returned as gardens.

There is a very wide discrepancy here between the conclusions arrived at by the Census and the Poor Law Returns. The latter having been taken with a view to taxation, and being subject to periodical revision for this purpose, are probably nearest to the truth.

The notes appended to the Poor Law Return (Appendix 94), however, exhibit a very lamentable deficiency of information in that department, in reference to some of the most important principles in operation throughout the country, as affecting injuriously the condition of the labouring classes; for example, the numbers who hold land in joint tenancy—one of the most serious impediments to the well-being of persons so situated that could be imagined. And as the poor law administration have to provide for the families reduced to destitution, it is reasonable to expect from this widely-ramified department, that the fullest information on all those points which have a tendency to create destitution should be sedulously sought and promulgated.

The number of each distinct class of persons, whether landholders, labourers, or artizans, that may be considered

depending on precarious or inadequate means for their existence, in each electoral district throughout Ireland, could be easily ascertained by the Poor Law Commission; and it is difficult to apply a general and judicious remedy to this evil until its precise nature and extent in each locality be first ascertained.

Perhaps the most important subject now open for investigation in Ireland, is that which we are at present considering in reference to the question, Whether the existing distribution of the agricultural population is such as to afford the possibility of their deriving an adequate subsistence for their families; or, if not, what modifications would enable them to accomplish this essential result, upon which their existence and the tranquillity of the country depend?

The three broad questions to be solved, with this view,

are

First. What is the quantity of land which will enable its occupier to support his family, when entirely dependent on his own holding?

Second. What is the number of land-occupiers in Ireland entirely dependent on their own land, whose holdings are below this minimum size?

Thirdly. What are the unapplied or available means for removing or diminishing the extensive suffering which at present exists from the disproportion between the wants and the applied resources of the population?

The Commissioners appear to have questioned a vast number of witnesses as to the quantity of land which would support a family; but the answers are for the most part of a vague and inconclusive character, and do not take into account the various considerations essential to the subject, such as the quality of the land; its state of preparation by permanent improvements; the nature of the tillage applied; the degree of intelligence of the occupier; the size of the family; and a variety of other points, all of which are essential to this inquiry.

We find, however, in Appendix, No. 15 B, that the form of farm report, with a detailed valuation, established some years since for the guidance and training of the agricultural pupils at Loughash and Cloghan Schools, embraces these particu

e

lars; and brings out as one of its results the class of information here required, with a general rule applicable to each case, under any modification that the circumstances demand. The following are the two first and three last columns, taken from the above return, which was tendered as a practical application of this principle. The whole return is given in chapter, Valuation, infra.

Cols. 74, 75, 76.--It is assumed that £5 per head, per annum, is the smallest sum that should be estimated for maintenance, making for a family of five, £25. The sum of the first four columns under each view, offered in the return of the cost of cultivation of each lot, shows the proportion of produce applicable to the farmer's own use, being the charge for superintendence; the charge for labour, which in these small farms, is all executed by his own family; the charge for interest of capital; and the charge for repairs. The acreable amount of the sum of these four charges being taken as a divisor, and £25 as a dividend, the quotient will be the sinallest number of acres that would suffice on this scale.

We find that in one of those particular qualities of land, ten and a half acres would be required to support a family of five individuals such as the present ignorant occupiers, enabling them to meet all their obligations, and to have a support equal to £25 for themselves. That eight acres of the same land would accomplish the same if the occupier were better instructed in his art; and that six and a quarter acres of the same land would give an equal return to the well-instructed occupier if all the requisite permanent improvements were effected on the land.

We perceive then that no general area can be given as to the quantity of land that would support a family; but that, in