Fifty years of Irish agriculture

Abstract

In 1847, the year of the famine, the Government first collected for the information of Parliament very ample Irish Agricultural Statistics. Similar returns have been annually published ever since. The result of these compilations extending over half a century is to furnish official figures from which the general condition of Agricultural Ireland may be fairly diagnosed, in most vital respects, except, perhaps, that of values. Amongst the results most worthy of examination and of comparison at different periods are :? (1) The area under cultivation ; (2) The total yield of crops, and numbers of live stock ; (3) The number of people employed upon the land ; (4) The cost of transporting produce to market; (5) The distribution and ownership of the land ; (6) The amount of income derived from the land.