State Aid to Agriculture in Ireland. 37 



A few years ago, millers believed that no fundamental or 

 chemical change was produced in the tlour by the milling of 

 wheat. To-day a few realise that this belief is no longer true, 

 and that there is ample scope for the chemist in this phase of 

 the world's progress. 



Weybridge. ^- ^' HUMPHEIES. 



November, 1911. 



STATE AID TO AGRICULTURE IN IRELAND. 



State aid is now administered to agriculture in Ireland 

 mainly through the Department of Agriculture and Technical 

 Instruction, and the policy and work of that body, at least as 

 regards agriculture, will naturally form the greater part of this 

 article. But as the Department only began work in 1900, and 

 State aid to agriculture had been known in Ii-eland long liefore 

 then, there must be some survey, however cursory, of what 

 had been done previously. It will be necessary to glance at 

 voluntary effort also, since State aid in former times was often 

 administered through voluntary agencies. This retrospect is 

 the more necessary since the idea of the Department itself was 

 an Irish not a Westminster inspiration, and if we took no 

 thought of the former times the reader might mistakenly 

 suppose that the ambition for agricultural improvement in 

 Ireland was State fostered, not home born. 



No voluntary association has administered more State aid 

 to agriculture in Ireland than the Royal Dublin Society, a body 

 established in 1731 "to promote improvements of all sorts." 

 Arthur Young said that to it belongs " the undisputed merit of 

 being the father of all the similar societies now existing in 

 Europe." It lias for a century and a half administered State 

 funds in varying yearly sums, ranging from 2,000?. to 15,500Z. 

 It was during the latter half of the eighteenth century that the 

 Royal Dul)lin Society began to administer public money. It 

 gave premiums to encourage land reclamation, tillage, planting, 

 fencing, irrigation, and the improvement of bee-keeping, live 

 stock, horses, and so on. Until recently it administered a 

 special grant of 5,000Z. per annum for improvements in horse- 

 breeding. The Society, amongst its many activities, established 

 a College of Science which was eventually taken over by the 

 Government, and became the Roj^al College of Science, where, 

 in time, was instituted a Faculty of Agriculture, of which we 

 shall see more. With the Royal Dublin Society was finally 

 amalgamated the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, founded 

 in 1841. 'i'he Royal Agricultural Societj^ did much in its 

 earlier years to promote better farming in Ireland, notably by 

 a system of travelling instruction in practical agriculture. 



