50 State Aid to Agriculture in Ireland. 



Closely associated with work of the itinerant instructor is 

 the scheme for awarding prizes given by the County Com- 

 mittees to cottagers and occupiers of small farms for cleanliness 

 and tidyness in their premises ; for the cultivation of their 

 gardens, and the general management of their farms in accor- 

 dance with the recommendations of the agricultural or other 

 instructor. This scheme has gradually grown in popularity. 

 Accurate figures cannot be given for the year in which the 

 scheme was first put into operation (1901), nor for the two 

 subsequent years, but the number of entries rose from 3,065 in 

 1904 to 4,069 in 1910, and the improvement in the work done 

 by the competitors is shown by the fact that the number of 

 prizes awarded rose from 1,534 in the former year to 2,486 

 in the latter, and their value from 2,837?. to 4,476?. The 

 scheme was in operation during 1910 in twenty-seven counties. 

 The details of these prizes are drawn up by each County Com- 

 mittee in consultation with the Department's officers, except 

 in one case where the local authority has delegated the work 

 to another body since 1905. The Department pay the whole 

 cost of the judging, utilising the time of their agricultural 

 instructors, but not allowing them to adjudicate in their own 

 counties. The fact that the county instructor, while he is 

 occupied with this duty, is in the direct employment of the 

 Department, is one of the chief reasons why his whole 

 salary is paid direct by the Depai-tment, and not out of the 

 joint fund. 



A very considerable part of the income of farmers, 

 particularly of small farmers, cottagers, and labourers, is 

 derived from the sale of eggs and poultry. The value of 

 these commodities exported in 1910 amounted to 3,671, 168Z. 

 Poultry-keeping is an industry which is capable of still 

 greater development in Ireland, where the holdings are small. 

 The problem of developing the industry is, however, a com- 

 plicated one, as experience proves that the improvement being 

 attained by the Department's work in this branch of agriculture 

 is not followed, pari jmssu, by an equal improvement in the 

 price received by the producer for his produce. The fact is 

 that this result can only be attained through the spread of the 

 policy of co-operative marketing, a policy unpojiular with 

 many of the members of the County Committees through whom 

 the county schemes are run. It thus comes about that the 

 instructors, with the best will in the world, are unable to 

 guide the poultry-keepers, in many cases, towards the solution 

 of the marketing problem. This, those most competent to 

 judge agree, is indispensable for the obtaining of that enhanced 

 price for produce which is the ultimate stimulus to improved 

 production. 



