has been effected and evictions have been possible. But it so happens that the total number of holdings in Ireland containing 15 acres and upwards has increased enormously since 1841. In fact there are now nearly twice as many small farmers—using the term in what in England would be thought its most modest acceptation—as there were before the famine. This will, undoubtedly, be considered an extraordinary statement, but it is, nevertheless, the fact, that holdings of between 15 and 30 acres have increased by 61,000, or 78 per cent. within the last 20 years, and holdings above 30 acres by 109,000, or 224 per cent., during the same period, while those between 5 and 15 acres have decreased by less than half those amounts;[1]
- ↑
TABLE showing the increase of Holdings in Ireland between fifteen and thirty acres from 1841 to 1861.
Leinster. Munster. Ulster. Connaught. Ireland. 1841 20,688 27,611 25,219 5,824 79,342 1861 24,226 26,805 57,660 32,560 141,251 Increase. 3,538 — 806 32,441 26,736 61,909
Leinster 3,538 being an increase of 17·1 percent. Munster —806 a decrease of 2·9 " Ulster 32,441 an increase of 128·6 " Connaught 26,736 " 459·1 " 62,715—806 806 Ireland 61,909 " 78· "
