TILLAGE IN IRELAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6490, 9 April 1908, Page 3

TILLAGE IN IRELAND

Tho return-just issued by tho Irish Department of Agriculture, containing tho revised figures of tho acreage under crops, tho estimated yield of the several crops, and tho revised figures of live stock in Ireland in the year 1907, is a document of very "live” interest at the present moment. It touch os questions or national importance in .so direct and practical a way as to supply fresh tests for all who need them. .No hope is held out to those who have viewed with dismay the lessening of tho area under crops, or to those who have pleaded for the larger cultivation of certain crops ms a means of strengthening tho agricultural industry and benefiting other industries and tho country generally .Tho figures to be quoted will make this clear. Finally tho information as to yield and quality in 1907 rounds off tho dismal character of this report. Taking the outstanding facts first, a decrease of 93.766 acres as compared with the year 190 G is recorded in connection with the acreage of corn and green crops, flax, hay, and fruit. Hay accounts for 43,698 acres, and tho total not decrease in the area under corn and green crops and flax amounted to 10,598 acres. This reduction in the tillage area took place in Ulster, which has the largest such area, and in Connaught, which lias the smallest, and it relates almost wholly to corn crops, in which there was o. aron of 14.952 acres, and green crops showing a reduction of 30,716 acres. Leinster and Munster nearly hold their own last year, but the falling off is appreciable—a not decrease of 2509 acres in the former province, and of 1719 acres in the latter. Two increases are recorded in tho general summary—namely, 4470 acres of flax, nil practically in tflstor, and 847 acres under fruit.