Many large estates unfortunately illustrate the evils of subdivided tenancies too small to furnish decent subsistence for their holders. In the poor county of Mayo, for example, nine owners hold upwards of 20,000 acres, or together half a million acres, being considerably more than one-third of the county. At the opposite extremity of the social scale, with few intermediate connecting links, are half a million small occupiers, half of whom pay on an average 6/. of annual rent.
The land map of Ireland, officially prepared for the Doomsday Book, and reproduced at the beginning of this volume, presents the number of owners of upwards of one acre in each county, the names of the landlords of the largest domains, with the number of statute acres which they hold in each county.
