us population by emigration or
ejectment. "Yet," he continues, "nothing can be more true or more
capable of demonstration than the assertion that there is no real
redundancy of population in Ireland. Nay, that even in the most
distressed and apparently overcrowded districts, a wise and prudent
management of their natural resources might find profitable employment
for all, to the great advantage of the proprietors themselves, and the
still greater benefit of the people and the public, which is so deeply
interested in the result."[256]

The readers of these pages cannot forget that Mayo suffered as much as,
if not more than, any other county, during the Famine; yet here was the
state of its surface at the time of that dreadful visitation: entire
area of the County Mayo, 1,300,000 acres; of these only 500,000 acres
were under cultivation, 800,000 acres being unreclaimed; of which
800,000 acres, Griffith says, nearly 500,000 could be reclaimed with
profit;--that is, just half the county was cultivated. The Dean of
Killala gave the following evidence about the same county before the
Devon Commission: _Quest. 73_. "Is there sufficient employment for the
people in the cultivation of the arable land?" _Answ._ "No; it does not
employ them half the year." _Quest. 74_. "But there would be employment
for them in reclaiming the waste?" _Answ._ "Yes; more than ample, if
there was encouragement given. Where I reside there are many thousands
of acres waste, because it would not be let at a moderate rent." _Quest.
75_. "Is the land with you termed waste, capable of being made
productive?" _Answ._ "Yes; every acre of it."

On this same question of the reclamation of Irish waste lands and
redundant population, Commissary-General Hewetson, one of the principal
assistants of Sir Randal Routh, writes, in the height of the Famine:
"The transition from potatoes to grain requires tillage in the
proportion of _three_ to _one_. It is useless, then, to talk of
emigration, _when so much extra labour_ is indispensable to supply the
extra food. Let that labour be first applied, and it will be seen
whether there is any surplus population. _If the waste lands are taken
into cultivation_, and industrious habits established, it is very
doubtful whether there will be any surplus population, _or even_ whether
it would be equal to the demand." "Providence," he adds, "has given
everything needful, and nothing is wanting but industry to apply it."
"Yes!" to