and almost identical with the general average for the kingdom. It is true, if we ascend to the next class of farms, viz: those between 5 and 15 acres, or if we take the farms of all sizes which have been extinguished in the four provinces during the last five and twenty years, Ulster—as might have been expected—will show a more favourable percentage, the proportionate decrease being 14·2 per cent in Ulster, against 15·1 per cent in Leinster, 29·9 per cent in Munster, and 22·6 per cent in Connaught; but when it is remembered that the absolute number of extinguished farms represented by these percentages is 33·628 in Ulster, as compared with 20·347 in Leinster, 35·144 in Connaught, and 48·900 in Munster, it will be admitted that even from this point of view the share borne by the prosperous tenantry of Ulster[1] in the general
- ↑ In accounting for the stability of the small Ulster tenant, I must not forget to mention a fact which undoubtedly exercised a very perceptible influence on his destiny, viz.: the prosperity of the sewed-muslin trade, which, though now in abeyance, was maintained for several years subsequent to the potato failure. In almost every farmer's cottage, the daughters of the house busied themselves with this industry. A girl of sixteen could earn from tenpence to a shilling a day,—and the united exertions of the female members of the family amounted to a considerable sum at the end of the week. This circumstance, together with the assistance which a large proportion of the smaller farmers (particularly in Armagh and Antrim) derived from hand-loom weaving, enabled many to hold their ground who otherwise would have been swept away, while the subsequent extension of the flax cultivation (which, in some respects, is very suitable to small farms, and was greatly stimulated by the prosperity of the linen trade) still further invigorated their prosperity.
