State Aid to Agriculture in Ireland. 59 



Board is that under the 1909 Act the agricultural work with 

 which the Board was previously concerned has been trans- 

 ferred to the Department of Agriculture and Technical 

 Instruction. Section 47 of the Land Act of 1909 provided that 

 certain powers and duties previously relating to the congested 

 districts would be taken over by the Department, namely, " the 

 provision of seed potatoes or seed oats ; agricultural instruction 

 or practical husbandry ; and the aiding and developing of 

 forestry and the breedings of live stock or poultry." 



The work of the Congested Districts Board, prior to that 

 Act, divided itself into three periods. First came a period from 

 1891 to 1900, in which all the work done by the State towards 

 improving the agricultural conditions of this part of Ireland 

 was that carried out by the Board. (It is perhaps, however, 

 well to point out that the work of the Irish Agricultural 

 Organisation Society, a voluntary association which was em- 

 ployed on the agricultural problem since 1894, penetrated the 

 congested districts, and that the Board, at various times and in 

 various ways, worked in conjunction with and sometimes aided 

 some of the schemes of the I.A.O.S., notably the establishment 

 of agricultural banks.) 



; - The Board's annual income during this period was approxi- 

 mately 54,850?. a year, including payments made directly by the 

 Treasury for the salaries of the permanent official staff and for 

 the travelling expenses of members of the Board. The nett 

 expenditure was from 41,343Z. for the year 1892-3 to 56,954/. 

 for the year 1899-1900. An excess of expenditure over income 

 was incurred but was provided for in the first four years by 

 applying to general current requirements 50,000Z. taken with 

 the consent of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury from 

 the Fishery Funds. In the year 1898-9 the Board borrowed 

 10,000Z. from the Commissioners of Public Works for repay- 

 ment in ten annual instalments, and sold 6,036?. Consols 

 belonging to the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund. During the 

 year between 1st April, 1899 and the 31st March, 1900, when as 

 yet the Department of Agriculture had not got to work, the 

 JBoard administered out of these funds 16,400/. in grants, &c., 

 for agriculture and 1,144Z. were advanced as loans for agri- 

 cultural purposes. The greater part of the Board's income, 

 however, was devoted to the purchase of estates. The 

 agricultural scheme included advice as to the management and 

 improvement of land and stock, lending farm implements, 

 inspecting live stock in connection with various live stock 

 schemes, and looking after example holdings and experimental 

 and example plots. The live stock schemes included horse 

 breeding, cattle breeding, the ei-adicatioii of scab, &c., from sheep, 

 and sheep dipping. Minor schemes were also put into operation 



