State Aid to Agriculture in Ireland. 61 



be developed. In the case of "■ settled '' estates, that is, estates 

 newly purchased for tenant owners and taken over by them 

 under the Land Acts, the Board state : " We have been most 

 "anxious to have agricultural instructors placed in the neigh- 

 " bourhood of colonies of migrants provided with holdings on 

 " lands that had been for many years used as grass farms. 



" We have recently arranged with the Department 



" of Agriculture and Technical Instruction that they will rent 

 " or purchase from us an ordinary type of holding with 

 " buildings thereon in some of the districts where the colonies 

 " of migrants have been placed, so that an Instructor living 

 " among them would be in a position to give instruction and 

 '* advice to such migrants in approved methods of farming." 



Besides the instruction and aid given to agriculture in 

 Ireland by the Department of Agriculture and the Congested 

 Districts Board, there is one other public department which 

 employs some at least of its resources in the interests of 

 Irish agriculture. The Board of Works has for a number of 

 years been granting loans for the drainage of farm land, the 

 planting of trees as shelter belts, the erection of farm buildings, 

 the fencing of land, and the construction of farm roads. These 

 loans have since 1881 been available for tenant farmers. 

 Previous to then they were applicable to landowners only. 

 They are repayable, principal and interest, in annual instal- 

 ments, in twenty-two years at 6^ per cent. Including in the 

 loans granted for these purposes both those given to tenants 

 and those given to land owners, the latter, of course, now 

 including tenant owners, a sum of over 6,221,0001. has been 

 lent out by the Board in these ways during the course of its 

 operations. 



The story of State Aid to Agriculture in IrelantI, as has 

 been seen, consists of two very different phases, one during 

 which the theory of laissez /aire was allowed to jeopardise the 

 future of Irish farming to a dangerous degree, and one during 

 which State aid has l)een freely drawn upon for the improve- 

 ment of the greatest Irish Industry. What the future may 

 hold for agriculture in its relations with the State it would be 

 unwise to forecast, but there is no doubt in the minds of the 

 well informed that our farming will depend for its success 

 mainly upon the degree in which self help and State aid work 

 hand in hand. 



Horace Plunkbtt. 



