AGRICULTURE IN IRELAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3643, 16 March 1883, Page 4

AGRICULTURE IN IRELAND.

(Daily Ncavs, Jan. 15.) The Agricultural Statistics of Ireland, which AA-cre published last Aveek, give materials for a more definite estimate than was before possible of the failure of the Irish crops last year, and unfortunately leave no doubt that tho distress must be very considerable. The Registrar-General prints a table of the acreage of the principal crops during- the period 1872-1882, the yield per acre, and the total produce ; and to enable the reader to form a more definite idea of the decrease in the production last year, he adds another table aa.ucli may mislead many who puruse it. The RegistrarGeneral assumes an imaginary price Avhich, for the purpose he has in a dew, he supposes has not changed during the Avholc period, and on this supposition he sets forth the money value of the crops in each of the years. It aa-ill be seen that the estimate is purely arbitrary, and is made solely for the purpose of showing what the proportionate falling off has been. Bearing this in mind, then, we observe that the loss m money value of the crops, compared with 18S1,'amounts to the Aery large sum of £5,815,000, and compared with the average value of the preceding ten years, the loss is somoAvhat oA-er two and a half millions. The production decreased CA'en comparing it with the average for the preceding ten years, bad as most of those years were, and there was likewise a diminution in] the acreage soavu. Tho diminution compared with 1881 Avas nearly 120,000 acres. The money loss last year Avas largest as usual in the potato crop. The loss in value in that one crop alone between 1881 and ISS2 exceeded _ t.vo and a quarter millions sterling. It Avill be urged, no doubt, by many avlio Avrite Avith an affection of wisdom upon Irish affairs that the Irish peasantry ought long ago to have given up the cultivation of the potato, and that their failure to clo so is proof of their incorrigible conservatism. But we need hardly remind the reader that ■a people cannot change their dietary by mere volition. They must first be able to afford the change.' When the material condition of a population is improved, naturally and necessarily there folloAvs a rise in the standard of Ihiiig. But until an improvement in the material condition is effected a population cannot change its clietaiy, for the simple reason that it has not the means of doing so. When the present agricultural depression has passed away, and order is restored in Ireland, the results of tho great change in the Land Laws that has no.v been effected Avill make themselves felt, and iv the course of a fe ay years Aye do not doubt that there will take place a great improA'enicnt in the material condition of the people, and Avith this _ there AA'ill occur a rise in their standard of living. But to time Aye must trust for this improvement. 3leamvhile, avu fear that the result of this failure of the crops will be to stimulate still further the mischicvious agricultural revolution Avhich has been going on in Ireland ever since the great potato famine. Tho fall in the value of .vhoat and the great rise in the price of meat and butter have had the effect of convertingthe greater part of the tillage land of Ireland into pasturage. And tho revolution has been stimulated by the shortsighted and mischicA-ous adA-ice of those aa-lio pretended to superior kno ..dodge. It was declared that Ireland is unfit for tillage, and that the best thing to bo done would be to turn it into pastarage. But, as a matter of fact, there is no comitry in the Avorld better suited to the cultivation of green crops than Ireland, and the wise adA-ice would have been to induce the peasantry to grow more beetroot, turnips, beans, peas, and other green crops; not _to adopt pasturage generally. 3lorcover, it was forgotten that tho greater part of the soil of Ireland has been reclaimed from bog, and that it has a tendency to revert to its original condition unless it is constantly improved by labour and manure. Thrown into pasture and left Avithout cultivation, the soil has been steadily deteriorating, and the loss of capital to Ireland in consequence has been immense. At first the change seemed beneficial. Enormously enhanced prices were obtained for cattle, meat, and butter, AA-hile an immense saA-iug Avas effected in the labour bill. But the saving was effected at the cost of the capital A-alue of the laud, and noav it is obvious to anyone who walked through Ireland that the soil has been very seriously deteriorated.