AGRICULTURE. As a result of natural and historical conditions, the industrial activity of Ireland is largely confined to agriculture. Few countries have so large a percentage of area adaptable for cultivation. Most of the waste lands are in the mountains of Western and Southern Ireland, though there is still much unreclaimed boggy area in the lowlands. The low land region is naturally of a high degree of fer tility. The climate is warm and humid, and consequently favorable to the growth of most plants, though the humidity is too great in some regions to allow wheat to ripen properly. While the country is favored by nature, the Irish sys tem of agriculture does not result in the general welfare of the people, as may be understood in a study of Irish history. One of the features of the English subjugation of Ireland was the confiscation of the greater portion of the land, and the granting of it in large dimensions to English citizens. These in many instances were non-residents, and even when residents they did not always succeed in establishing cordial rela tions with the tenantry, who were not forget ful of the manner in which the landlord (as a class) came to his possession. During the eigh teenth century Ireland was placed under the ban of the English commercial and colonial pol icy, and Irish agricultural products were ex cluded from the English markets. Later these restrictions were removed, and the high prices of the Napoleonic war period gave a decided im petus to agriculture. During the first part of the nineteenth century there was a general move ment toward the division of the farms into small holdings—the result largely of the landlords' desire to secure greater political strength through the increase in the number of ballots, and of the extensive practice of subletting in dulged in by the middlemen.
The potato blight of 1S45 precipitated a crisis, and important changes date from this event. In great measure it marked the beginning of the end of the small holding. and the change from tillage to pasturage. The repeal of the Corn Laws aided in the relief of the Irish. hut later so diminished the value of Irish cereals in the English markets that the landholders in the low land regions evicted their tenants and turned the lands into pasture-fields. The evicted tenants had to seek a location in the less desirable re the privileges of the landlord. The great dimi nution of the population through emigration had the effect of providing more labor for those who remained, though too often the location of the laborer was remote from the labor. On the
whole the condition of the peasantry improved. But the fact that tenant and landlord were of different race and religion still prevented the uevelopment of sympathetic and harmonious re lations between the two, and the prevalence of tenantry at will resulted in an aggravating un certainty of tenure, and prevented the discour aged tenant from making such effort to improve his holding as his interests demanded. Accord ingly the land question persisted and became more serious. Relief was sought through the legislative act of 1870, granting compensation for improvements and for the disturbance occa sioned by removal, and through the act of 1881, which provided for a fair rent, fixity of tenure. and free sale.
The period for which rent might be fixed ac cording to the law of 1881 was fifteen years, at the conclusion of which time it might be fixed again for another fifteen years. From 1881 to 1900 the number of holdings for which the rent was fixed for the first fifteen years was 328.720, embracing 9,859,970 acres. the per cent. of the reduction in rent being 20.8. Those upon which rent was fixed for the second fifteen-year period during that time was 52,396, embracing 1,432. 615 acres, upon which there was an additional rent reduction of 22 per cent.
A still more radical move was represented by the policy of enabling the peasant to purchase land. The Government advances money for the purchase of the lands, and the peasant pays the Government in annual installments for a term of years. In accordance with the act of 1SS5 and its amendment of 18,88. there had been, prior to April. 1900. 25,368 loans, or a total of £9,992,640. issued to tenants to assist them in purchasing their holdings. Laws passed in 1891 and 1896 provided for the further purchase of land, and under these acts 19.227 loans of £6.084,217 were issued. The total number of loans issued in 'Ulster was more than twice as great as in any other, province, although the amount did not very greatly exceed that of Munster. Less than one-fourteenth of the total amount went to the Province of Connaught. Under the land-improvement acts loans were issued between 1847 and 1900 amounting to 15.239.220.