the less perfect cultivation of 6 acres. In other words, whereas in Ireland it takes four men to raise 15 tons of grain off 24 acres, in England only two men are required to raise 16 tons off 23 acres.[1]
Now, whatever allowance it may be desirable to make for the diversity of conditions under which husbandry is prosecuted in the two countries, or with however light a touch the comparison is applied, it is evident that if the area under cultivation in Ireland were treated with the same skill, energy and intelligence as is employed on the soil of England, a far larger amount of produce might be obtained with a far fewer number of hands. But it is urged that it is unfair to argue that because great economy of labour is practicable on the large farms of England,[2] a similar rule can be applied to the small subdivisions of Ireland. If this were indeed the case, it would be
- ↑ Thanks to the value of our potato and flax crops this disadvantageous proportion in the aereable result of our cereal cropping is not maintained on a comparison of the money-value of the total produce of the two kingdoms taken in globo.—See Appendix. "D'après les chiffres reeueillis par M. Duepetiaux 1,000 agriculteurs nourriraient 4167 personnes dans le Flandre orientale, 3,861 dans la Grande-Bretagne, et 1,511 en Irlande. Ces nombres, ou le voit, sont encore plus favorables à l'agriculture flamande que ceux indiqués ici." De Lavelcye's Econ. Rurale, p. 57.
- ↑ The average size of farms in England is below what is generally supposed;—more than two-thirds of the farms in England are under 100 acres in extent.—See Morton's Handbook of Labour, p. 11
