eat, 546,964 acres; oats, 1,981,241; barley,
190,768; rye, 11,470; and beans, 11,038; potatoes, 1,159,707; turnips,
338,202; mangold-wurtzel, 29,547; flax, 91,646; rape, 14,067; and meadow
and clover, 1,424,495 acres. The grass lands of Ireland cover nearly
one-half of the entire surface of the island. These tracts do not
include the land under meadow and clover (or the hay-producing lands),
but merely those returned to the enumerators as used for pasture at
the time of the collection of the statistics. The turf-bog is a very
valuable portion of the land, the turf being used for fuel, and till
coal becomes cheap enough to supersede it, the reclamation of bog will
be but slow in many parts of the island. There were 599,178 holdings in
Ireland in 1858: viz. 38,198 of 1 acre (not exceeding); 83,219 of 1 to 5
acres; 181,267 of 5 to 15 acres; 139,618 of 15 to 30 acres; 71,791 of
30 to 50 acres; 53,544 of 50 to 100 acres; 21,566 of 100 to 200 acres;
8,383 of 200 to 500 acres; and 1,592 of above 500 acres. The holdings
have increased by 4,786. Of the entire 20,259,322 acres forming the area
of Ireland, nearly one-half is in the possession of farmers holding from
15 to 100 acres, of which 1,475,433 acres, or 14#9 in every 100 is waste
or unproductive; about one-third is under farms of 100 to 500 acres, of
which 1,741,956 acres, or 28'5 per cent., is bog or waste, and
one-tenth of which, more than 1,260,535 acres, or nearly one-half, are
unprofitable for tillage, is occupied by farms of above 500 acres; the
remainder, which includes only 189,407 acres of the waste lands, is in
the hands of farmers holding under 15 acres. The following is the return
of live stock for 1858: viz. 630,611 horses and mules, 163,323 asses,
3,667,304 cattle, 3,494,993 sheep, 1,409,883 pigs, 228,351 goats,
and 9,563,185 poultry. The value is computed at L34,977,244. The weed
nuisance is still bitterly complained of by the Irish registrar-general,
who urges the passing of a bill to compel the destruction of weeds with
winged seeds before they are allowed to ripen. Besides the Blue-book
from which the above figures are copied, two small papers have been
printed, giving briefly the statistics for 1859. Last year, then, it
appears that 465,497 acres were under wheat, 1,981,197 under oats,
1,200,144 under potatoes, 322,266 under turnips, 136,329 under flax, and
1,436,680 under meadow and clover. The gross total area under crops
was 5,861,666 acres, against 5,8