Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/235

AGKICULTUKE.] IRELAND 219 rainfall at the period of ripening. In regard to tlie natural fertility of the soil, and the ease with which it can be cultivated, Ireland as a whole has great advantages over Great Britain. Strong retentive clay soils, sandy soils, chalky and gravelly soils, are almost wholly absent, and the mixture of soils resulting from the great variety of stratification, as well as from the detritus carried down to the plains, has created many extensive districts of remark able richness. The most fertile part of the country is the tract in Munster known as the " Golden Vein," stretching from Cashel in Tipperary to near Limerick. Along the banks of the Shannon there are long stretches of flat lands formed by deposits chiefly of calcareous and peaty matter carried down by floods, and at the estuary of the river this matter has been largely mixed with blue silt deposited by the sea. Extensive districts of similar formation are connected with the Suir, N"ore, and Barrow, and with the Bann. In other parts of the limestone plain a rich soil has been formed by the decomposition of drift accumulated by the Esker Sea, mingled in some cases with the remains of granite ; and a mixture of a variety of rocks has also greatly benefited many of the other limestone soils. The red bogs contain underneath them abundant marl admirably adapted for use in reclaiming the land. In many of the mountain districts the soil above the hard rocks consists of a thin stratum of vegetable matter. On the clay slate formations in Louth, Down, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry, the soil is generally poor, except in the hollows, where rich patches have frequently been formed by rocky deposits. Similar remarks apply to the soils above mica slate. In the dis tricts of the Old and New Red Sandstone, including the greater part of Cork, and portions of Kerry, Waterford, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Mayo, and Tipperary, the soil in the hollows is generally of remarkable fertility. Where gneiss and schist rocks prevail a finely productive soil frequently occurs, resting on inliers of limestone and other cilcareous rocks. Indeed, Ireland contains compara tively little irreclaimable land, and even in the mountainous districts which are unsuitable for tillage there is often soil sufficient, with the aid of the moist climate, to yield pasturage of superior quality in great abundance; and more than two-thirds of the surface of the country, being less than 500 feet above sea-level, possesses a temperature well adapted to all the usual kinds of crop. But, although enjoying such favourable natural condi tions, Ireland as a whole lags far behind most other por tions of the United Kingdom in agricultural progress, both as regards the circumstances of the peasantry and the development of the capabilities of the soil for pro ducing food. The causes of this state of things are some what complex ; and, having their chief connexion either directly or indirectly with the procedure of the legislature, they have been in operation for several centuries, during which, instead of diminishing in influence, they have apparently gained strength by intermixing and entangling with each other. Until a comparatively recent period the system of kndholding in Ireland was the tanistry or communal, governed by the ancient Brehon code. Accord ing to this code the land belonged primarily to the tribe or commune, and was vested in the chief or tanist, who, from his rank as a noble, held a portion of it as his own property, had a life interest in a second portion from the office to which he had been elected, and possessed juris diction over a third portion, the commonal land, which was divided annually. The nobles from among whom the tanist was chosen had the right of ownership of land, and another class had the right of ownership of chattels, which went to their sons by gavelkind. Only certain classes of the tribe the Saer Ccili or "free tenants," and Daer Ce"ili or "base tenants" could obtain security of tenure for life, the others being either yearly tenants, free labourers, or slaves. The interests even of the yearly tenant were preserved by stringent regulations, and in the course of generations it was possible to rise from the lowest social grade to the rank of a "free tenant." The lands of the tenants went to their male descendants by gavel- kind. ^ Even the free labourers and the slaves, with the exception of those who were convicts or prisoners, had the right of sustenance and shelter on the estate of their lord. Unlike those of Great Britain, the ancient laws of Ireland remained uninfluenced by Roman legislation- and, although the Danish invasions caused some disturbance of the ^old order of things, the regulations so far as the possession and tenure of land were concerned remained practically unmodified until the invasion of Henry II. The natural consequence was that the pastoral mode of life associated from the beginning with the Brehon code should also remain unchanged, the more especially as soil and climate alike were favourable to the growth of luxuriant pasturage ; but, as pastoral employment is that which is least able to support a dense population, a large proportion of the servant class gradually sank into a condition of Idleness and wretched poverty. Unhappily the result of the Anglo-Norman invasion was not to improve this state of things by the gradual influence of other laws and customs, but to introduce into the social system disturbing and irritating elements, which kept alive all the old evils in a more aggravated form. Henry IT. nominally bestowed the entire land of Ireland upon ten of his followers, but practically, with the exception of the small district of the Pale, it remained in the possession of its ancient lords. Confiscations became more frequent as the power of the English increased, and within that portion of the territory over which English rule did not extend the tenants and labourers, in the unsettled condition of society, suffered severely from the irresponsible authority of the nobles. Henry VIII., the first English sovereign who really held sway over the whole island, induced the nobles to acknow ledge him on condition that their ancient rights and privi leges were left intact ; but this arrangement was set aside by Elizabeth, whose reign was signalized by the great wars, resulting in the composition of Connaught and the planting of Munster. By the former of these, while possession was secured to the nobles in their estates, the lands in the province were alienated from the clan to the chief, and the free tenants became virtually proprietors of their farms ; and by the latter 574,628 acres, the estate of the earl of Desmond, were parcelled out to be peopled according to a plan founded wholly on English customs. Soon after the accession of James I. in 1G03, tanistry and gavelkind were abolished by decision of Queen s Bench, and the estates of the Ulster nobles 511,465 acres in extent were forfeited to the crown, to make way for the great plantation of Ulster. The custom of gavelkind was, however, revived by the Act of Queen Anne against the Catholics, and the statute was not repealed till the reign of George III. The confiscations were repeated on a larger scale during the Stuart and Cromwellian periods, from which time may be dated the complete practical overthrow of the Brehon system except in Ulster and a few isolated districts where the shadow of it still lingers in the custom known as tenant- right. Even, however, after the subjugation of Ireland by Cromwell, Sir William Petty, in his Political Anatomy, written in 1672, estimated the value of the tenant s claims for improvements and benefit of leases at one-third of his annual rental. The same writer calculated that, whereas in 1641 about two-thirds of the good land belonged to the Irish or Catholics, at the time he was writing the proportion was as nearly as possible reversed, the figures