196 AWAKENING OF ENGT.AND. 



for Connaught was good also for Leinster, 

 and Ulster, and Munster ; and his crowning 

 success in agricultural organisation on a 

 national scale was the formation of the De- 

 partment of the Board of Agriculture for 

 Ireland. It was surely a great achievement 

 for a race crushed by a century of bitter 

 political disappointment to begin to reorganise 

 a depressed industry by means of a State 

 Department. 



Though the newly formed Department 

 took no part in the trading side of the co- 

 operative creameries, leaving that to the local 

 branch of the I.A.O.S., it helped them by what 

 might be termed its moral support. The 

 Department would assist the local body of 

 farmers with architect's plans of creameries, 

 give advice as to the purchase of materials, 

 and by an arrangement with the Joint Stock 

 Banks the local farmers could, backed by the 

 State, borrow money for the building of the 

 creameries, sometimes costing over £1000 at 

 4 or 5 per cent interest. Here again it is the 

 personal element that forms the basis of the 

 security. 



The Department too would send inspectors, 

 differing from the ordinary factory inspector, 



