Number and Extent of Farms In Ireland in 1864.
| (1) Farms not over 1 acre. |
(2) Farms over 1, not over 5 acres. |
(3) Farms over 5, not over 15 acres. |
(4) Farms over 15, not over 30 acres. | ||||
| No. | Acres. | No. | Acres. | No. | Acres. | No. | Acres. |
| 48,653 | 25,394 | 82,037 | 288,916 | 176,368 | 1,836,310 | 136,578 | 3,051,343 |
| (5) Farms over 30, not over 50 acres. |
(6) Farms over 50, not over 100 acres. |
(7) Farms over 100 acres. |
(8) Total area. | |||
| No. | Acres. | No. | Acres. | No. | Acres. | Acres. |
| 71,961 | 2,906,274 | 54,247 | 3,983,880 | 31,927 | 8,227,807 | 26,319,924[1] |
“supernumerary” farmers, and reckoning the families the low average of 4 persons 1,228,232 persons. On the extravagant supposition that, after the agricultural revolution is complete, one-fourth of these are again absorbable, there remain for emigration 921,174 persons. Categories, 4, 5, 6, of over 15 and not over 100 acres, are, as was known long since in England, too small for capitalistic cultivation of corn, and for sheep-breeding are almost vanishing quantities, On the same supposition as before, therefore, there are further 788,761 persons to emigrate; total, 1,709,532. And as l’appétit vient en mangeant, Rent-roll’s eyes will soon discover that Ireland, with 3½ millions, is still always miserable because she is over-populated. Therefore her depopulation must go yet further, that thus she may fulfill her true destiny, that of an English sheep walk and cattle-pasture.[2]
- ↑ The total area includes also peat, bogs, and waste land.
- ↑ How the famine and its consequences have been deliberately made the most of, both by the individual landlords and by the English legislature, to forcibly carry out the agricultural revolution and to thin the population of Ireland down to the proportion satisfactory to the landlords, I shall show more fully in Vol. III. of this work, in the section on landed property. There also I return to the condition of the small farmers and the agricultural labourers. At present, only one quotation, Nassau W. Senior says, with other things, in his posthumous work, “Journals, Conversations and Essays, relating to Ireland.” 2 vols. London 1868; Vol. II., p. 282. “Well,” said Dr. G., “we have got our Poor Law and it is a great instrument for giving the
