Agriculture in Ireland.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 204, 21 May 1887, Page 8 (Supplement)

Agriculture in Ireland.

The Irish Agricultural Uet^itm4ov 1886>j«»fcissued, indicates that somettltsng4ike:*Few~ lution in the fanning injgl&stt^ ©f the* Emerald Isle is taking plawp. The -figiwes given in the return show <tfl&# while- tin* , area of land in Ireland underx)oreallouUli>vation has greatly diminished <-o* - late- years, ! the area of meadow land his* enormously ■increased. While potatoes,- again,, have ! ceased to be grown to so greafcian extent a» I formerly, the growth of flax fea,» considerably increased. The averagep.acreags- for ]tfre ten years 1876-85 shows a i decrease of | about a hundred and fifty-five tfteosa-nd acres \q£ cereal crops, thirty-sis* thousand aseres of potatoes, anobi tHirteea thousand acres of turnips. The- aver- . ssge increase in the area undev^ hay oulti--[vafeion, however, during tho i^dfeoade was in* less than a hundred and -foa-ty-seveni fclkmsand three hundred and' mnety^four I acres. The area under flax culiiivation in- • creased by over seven thousands acres,- and ! there was also a slight increase- in the ftscireage under rye. The increase- in the* Jiay acreage of last year comp^rod with ! tbat of 1885 was very nearly sixty-tbkmsand, f and flax also last year showed aa« increase* :of nearly twenty thousand acres. THo re Iturn clearly indicates that *Jie Irish ! farmers are now endeavouring towmake th.& ' best of the altered agricultural condition 'which foreign competition in cei'eals has ' imposed upon them.