“ For the most part it is very fertile except in the hilly districts towards the north, and there is some remarkably rich land in the south-east. The acreage under pasture is not quite twice that of tillage. Dairy-farming is extensively practised. Agriculture forms the chief occupation, but the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods is carried on to a small extent. The main line of the Great Southern & Western railway traverses the county from N.E. to S.W. by way of Portarlington and Maryborough ”

“ Clay-ironstone was formerly raised in connexion with the anthracite from the coalfield.
The climate is dry and healthy. Originally a great extent of the surface was occupied with bog, but by draining much of it has been converted into good land. ”

“ The population (63,855 in 1891; 57,417 in 1901) decreases in excess of the average of the Irish counties, and emigration is considerable. Of the total about 88% are Roman Catholic, and almost the whole is rural. Maryborough (the county town, pop. 2957) , Mountmellick (2407) and Mountrath (1304) , with Portarlington (1943, partly in King’s County) , are the principal towns. The county is divided into eleven baronies. Ecclesiastically it is in the Protestant dioceses of Dublin, Killaloe and Ossory, and in the Roman Catholic dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Ossory and Killaloe. ”