Munster and Connaught, and that in Down and Antrim, the two Irish counties in which agriculture is supposed to be most advanced, and the average size of the farms smaller than elsewhere,[1] the proportion of cultivators to the acre is considerably less than it is in Cork and Kerry. In fact, the density of the agricultural population over the several areas referred to appears to be in an inverse ratio to the rate of their agricultural produce; and no matter how the calculation is conducted, or what districts are brought into comparison, whether England with Ireland, Ulster with Connaught, or Down with Cork, the same conclusion is evolved, viz.: that in those districts which are worst cultivated, a far larger number of persons are engaged in agriculture than are necessary to obtain the same results as are arrived at in those districts which are better cultivated. [2]
But it is urged that if only the Belgian system could be introduced into Ireland, our present agricultural population would be anything but in excess of the requirements of the country's husbandry.
I shall show, by and bye, how inapplicable to the present circumstances of Ireland is the Belgian system of agriculture, if by Belgian cultivation
- ↑ This is a common statement, but I doubt the accuracy of the latter part of it. If due allowance is made for the land under pasture, it would probably appear that the tillage farms of the best parts of Ulster are larger than the average of those in many parts of the south and west, though exceptional areas in the south and west may contain farms of larger size than are usual in Ulster.
- ↑ See Appendix, pp. 20G— 200.
