Ireland, admirably adapted to the production of meat, does not produce meat, but only the raw material of it, store cattle.

Is this state of things immutable?
Or is a remedy for it to be found, say, in a redistribution of the incidence of local taxation so as to favour well-used land as against ill-used land?
Is the decline in the area under flax to be applauded or deplored?
Can Irish-grown wool be improved up to the fineness of the Australian article?
And so on, and so on.

It is to be noted that of the statistics which we do possess many of the most important are, to say the least, involved in doubt.

The Export and Import figures are little better than volunteer estimates; there is no compulsion to accuracy.

As to the yield of crops, all that can be said is that our present information is not as bad as it used to be.