PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY
63
For the quantities of cereals and live stock imported, see under Commerce.
The live stock in Ireland in 1920 numbered: Horses, 624,300 ; mules mid jennets, 27,100; asses, 226,600; cattle, 5,023,000; sheep, 3,586,000; pigs, 982,000; goats, 245,000 ; poultry (1918), 24,424,000.
The number of holdings in Great Britain (from 1 acre upwards) is given as follows for 1920 : —
Size of Holdings, 1920
England and Wales
Scotland
Great Britain
1— 5 teres 5— 60 „ SO— 300 „ Over 300 acres .
80,737 194,059 129,703
13,492
17,471
23,224 2,525
98,208 226,741 152,937
10,017
Total
417,991
75,902
4'j3,S93
The Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908, makes the County Councils and the Councils of County Boroughs responsible for the pro- vision of small holdings (each covering from one to 50 acres, or even more), and allotments (each up to five acres in area). Up to the end of 1914 the total quantity of land acquired for small holdings by the various local authorities in England and Wales was 198,104 acres, let to 13,327 individual tenants and 5 associations ; and the land acquired for allotments was 33,522 acres, let to 130,526 individual tenants and 52 associations. On the 1st May, 1918, there were estimated to be about 1,400,000 allotments in England and "Wales. Before the war there were about 500,000.
Irxland.
Number and Siie of Holdings in the year 1918 : —
Size of Holdings
Leinster
Munster Ulster
Connaught
Ireland
Not exceeding 1 acre .
3S,soa
33,403 33,895
8,717
- i; -
Above 1 and not exceeding 5 acres
12,752
9,327 1
8,302
46,345
., 5 ,. ii 10 H
10,817
7,983
18,747
64,527
„ 10 ,, ,, 15 „
8,162
6,870 | 24,819
19,411
59,262
„ 15 ,, ,, 30 „
17,906
20,072 48,496
36,498
122,972
>, 30 ,, ,, 50 ,,
13,224
20,486 21,683
14,5'.'4
72,987
„ 50 „ „ 100 „
13,132
22,374 ' 15,540
6,629
„ 100 ,, ,, 200 „
6,929
9,885 4,123
2,338
23,275
„ 200 „ „ 500 ,,
2,947
2,897 1,145
1,161
8,150
Above 500 acres ....
657
472 322
517
1,968
Total Xo. of Holdings.
124,835
133,769 106,467
116,914
571,985
The above figures are not comparable with those published for years prior to 1910. In many cases farms in Ireland extend into two or more townlands, and in former years that portion of a farm in each townland was enumerated as a separate holding. The total number of holdings published was therefore somewhat too large. A change was made in the method of enumeration in 1910, and the present figures are believed to be a very close approximation for the year 1918.
Of the holdings in 1918, 372,815 were owned and 199,170 rented. The 571,985 holdings in 1918 were in the hands of 561,807 separate occupiers.
The Irish Land Acts are of two classes — The Fair Rent Acts, and the Land Purchase Acts. The Fair Kent Acts commenced with Mr. Gladstone's Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, which gave the Irish Tenant the '3 Fs '— Fair Rent, Free Sale and Fixity of Tenure. Under this Act, the great body of agricultural tenants had Fair Rents judicially determined. The rent is fixed by the Land Commission for terms of 15 years, and, on the expiration of each term, a new rent may be fixed for another term. Up to March 31,
