44 State Aid to Agriculture in Ireland. 



ruling interest. There was, however, one offset to this in 

 the stirring of the desire for better farming brought about 

 by the work of the agricultural co-operative societies, over 

 400 of which were in existence when the Department 

 commenced its work. As it was on the basis of the work 

 of those societies that the new Department was erected, so 

 also it was through their co-operation that the early phases 

 of its work — by no means easy work — were rendered in any 

 degree fruitful ; in some cases indeed, one might say, rendered 

 effectively possible. The farmers who made up the member- 

 ship of these societies, denied real business education, and 

 even instruction in their o wn calling in their youth, learned 

 through the experience gained in carrying on their asssociated 

 industry the value both of business combination and of the 

 technical education which is so essential an element in making 

 such combination financially successfvil. The Department by 

 utilising these organisations, embracing a membership of 

 about 40,000, was thus enabled from the outset to cast the 

 living seed of education into fruitful human soil. The men 

 whom the I.A.O.S. had taught to co-operate for the marketing 

 of butter or the purchase of manures, w^ere swift to see the 

 value of improved instruction in dairying, and to seize the 

 opportunity of studying, through the Department's experi- 

 mental plots (a branch of work which the I.A.O.S. had initiated 

 before tlie Department began its useful career) the increased 

 gain which comes from using the right fertilisers and raising 

 crops from the best seeds. 



The endowment, on which the Department started to work 

 under the Agricultural and Technical Instruction Act of 1899, 

 was an annual income of 166,OOOZ. To this has been added 

 5,00(>^. under the Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act No. 

 2, of 1902 : 19,000/. under the Irish Land Act of 1909 ; and 

 7,O00Z. from the (Ireland) Development Grant. Of the total 

 sum of 197,000/. close on one-third ((52,000/. per annum) has 

 to be set aside for technical instruction (by which instruction 

 in industrial as distinct from agricultural pursuits is meant), 

 and 10,000/. is devoted annually to sea fisheries. Equipped 

 financially, the Department set to work : the agricultural 

 branch starting operation in the autumn of 1900. For the 

 detailed record of the Department's activities which follows I 

 am largely indebted to Mr. J. R. Campbell, the Department's 

 Assistant Secretary in respect of agriculture, to whose valuable 

 memorandum on the Department's work, submitted to the 

 Royal Commission on Congestion (1907), I shall have occasion 

 to refer again. 



The first duty of the staff was to attend meetings of County 

 Councils and explain the provisions of the Act, and the steps 



