52 State Aid to Apricuhure ra Ireland. 



As the Irisli fanner's income is derived mainly from live 

 stock, the improvement of this industrj' was one of the chief 

 projects which the Department were at the outset asked to 

 take up. Various methods were suggested by which this 

 might be done, and as there were questions of national impor- 

 tance to be considered, the Department thought it wise 

 to appoint two expert committees to advise them in the matter 

 — one for horse-breeding, and the other for cattle and swine. 

 A yearly vote of 5,000/. of public money, since transferred 

 to the Department, was at first administered by the Royal 

 Dublin Society for the improvement of live stock, and the 

 advisory committees recommended the Department to follow 

 the lines of the Royal Dublin Society's schemes on the ground 

 that they were already understood. Schemes on these lines 

 were prepared and submitted to the Agricultural Board, who 

 approved of them, and voted funds to put them in force. The 

 objects of this scheme are to encourage the improvement of 

 horse-breeding by inducing stallion-owners to keep sound and 

 suitable sires of a high degree of excellence, and by inducing 

 farmers to retain their best young mares for breeding purposes. 

 The work of the scheme is divided between the Department 

 and the County Committees. The Department annually invite 

 applications from owners of high-class stallions to have their 

 animals inspected for suitability and soundness. The breeds 

 subsidised have hitherto been Thoroughbred, Clydesdale, and 

 Shire, and during the last few years, Irish draught and half- 

 bred sires. In the first year, every stallion offered was 

 inspected, and the work entailed was exceedingly heavy. 

 Breeders realise the advantage which the inclusion of their 

 aires on the Department's register confers, and make their 

 purchases subject to the approval of the Department's inspectors, 

 who are sent to any part of the United Kingdom free of cost to 

 the intending purchaser, to examine such animals. 



The Department also give loans for the purchase of high-class 

 sires, and grant subsidies varying from 50/. to 100/. to approved 

 applicants who are prepared to purchase suitable sires, and 

 locate them in districts where registered stallions are not already 

 availaljle. The loan amounts to two-thirds of the purchase 

 price, and is repaid in five annual instalments, with 2| per cent, 

 interest on the outstanding balance. The animal remains the 

 property of the Department for five years — a wise provision, as 

 it often prevents the sale of animals for which other countries 

 are willing to pay much more than they cost the Department, 



Nominations for selected mares are also matle in connection 

 with local exhibitions. In 1910, 219 such exhibitions were 

 held, as a result of which, 3,405 nominations were made on 

 which a sum of 7,170/. was expended ; of 10,804 mares 



