Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/115

 PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY

63

For the quantities of cereals and live stock imported, see under Commerce.

The live stock in Ireland in 1920 numbered: Horses, 624,300 ; mules mid jennets, 27,100; asses, 226,600; cattle, 5,023,000; sheep, 3,586,000; pigs, 982,000; goats, 245,000 ; poultry (1918), 24,424,000.

The number of holdings in Great Britain (from 1 acre upwards) is given as follows for 1920 : —

Size of Holdings, 1920

England and Wales

Scotland

Great Britain

1— 5 teres 5— 60 „ SO— 300 „ Over 300 acres.

80,737 194,059 129,703

13,492

17,471

23,224 2,525

98,208 226,741 152,937

10,017

Total

417,991

75,902

4'j3,S93

The Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908, makes the County Councils and the Councils of County Boroughs responsible for the pro- vision of small holdings (each covering from one to 50 acres, or even more), and allotments (each up to five acres in area). Up to the end of 1914 the total quantity of land acquired for small holdings by the various local authorities in England and Wales was 198,104 acres, let to 13,327 individual tenants and 5 associations ; and the land acquired for allotments was 33,522 acres, let to 130,526 individual tenants and 52 associations. On the 1st May, 1918, there were estimated to be about 1,400,000 allotments in England and "Wales. Before the war there were about 500,000.

Irxland.

Number and Siie of Holdings in the year 1918 : —

Size of Holdings

Leinster

Munster Ulster

Connaught

Ireland

Not exceeding 1 acre.

3S,soa

33,403 33,895

8,717


 * i; -

Above 1 and not exceeding 5 acres

12,752

9,327 1

8,302

46,345

., 5 ,. ii 10 H

10,817

7,983

18,747

64,527

„ 10 ,, ,, 15 „

8,162

6,870 | 24,819

19,411

59,262

„ 15 ,, ,, 30 „

17,906

20,072 48,496

36,498

122,972

>, 30 ,, ,, 50 ,,

13,224

20,486 21,683

14,5'.'4

72,987

„ 50 „ „ 100 „

13,132

22,374 ' 15,540

6,629

„ 100 ,, ,, 200 „

6,929

9,885 4,123

2,338

23,275

„ 200 „ „ 500 ,,

2,947

2,897 1,145

1,161

8,150

Above 500 acres ....

657

472 322

517

1,968

Total Xo. of Holdings.

124,835

133,769 106,467

116,914

571,985

The above figures are not comparable with those published for years prior to 1910. In many cases farms in Ireland extend into two or more townlands, and in former years that portion of a farm in each townland was enumerated as a separate holding. The total number of holdings published was therefore somewhat too large. A change was made in the method of enumeration in 1910, and the present figures are believed to be a very close approximation for the year 1918.

Of the holdings in 1918, 372,815 were owned and 199,170 rented. The 571,985 holdings in 1918 were in the hands of 561,807 separate occupiers.

The Irish Land Acts are of two classes — The Fair Rent Acts, and the Land Purchase Acts. The Fair Kent Acts commenced with Mr. Gladstone's Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, which gave the Irish Tenant the '3 Fs '— Fair Rent, Free Sale and Fixity of Tenure. Under this Act, the great body of agricultural tenants had Fair Rents judicially determined. The rent is fixed by the Land Commission for terms of 15 years, and, on the expiration of each term, a new rent may be fixed for another term. Up to March 31,