78 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



through a conduit lined with cement originally purchased 

 from a person who occupied a farm from which another man 

 had been evicted. 



These early difficulties were overcome in course of time, 

 and the new Society not only gained greater support, but was 

 enabled to broaden out its sphere of operations and take up 

 other important branches of agricultural co-operative action 

 besides the co-operative dairies, and notably so in regard to 

 the formation of agricultural credit societies, which were to 

 render an invaluable service in providing Irish cultivators 

 with a ready means of obtaining small sums for reproductive 

 purposes without having to submit to the merciless exactions 

 of the " gombeen man " or other local moneylender or trader. 



Expansion of the Society's activities followed more 

 especially on the proceedings of a committee of represen- 

 tative men of all parties which Sir Horace Plunkett was the 

 means of constituting in the Parliamentary recess of 1895 

 (hence known as " The Recess Committee "), to consider 

 what measures could best be adopted to promote the 

 development of agriculture and industries in Ireland. The 

 Committee caused inquiries to be made in Continental 

 countries as to the methods by which Ireland's chief foreign 

 rivals had been enabled to compete successfully with Irish 

 producers even in their own markets, and a report on this 

 subject was issued in August, 1896, accompanied by a 

 recommendation that there should be created a Department 

 which, adequately endowed by the Treasury, and having 

 a president directly responsible to Parliament, would 

 administer State aid both to agriculture and to industries in 

 Ireland upon certain specified principles. This recommen- 

 dation was based on what had been found to be a policy 

 adopted in certain Continental countries, while the proposal 

 to amalgamate agriculture and industries under one Depart- 

 ment was, as Sir Horace Plunkett explains in " Ireland in 

 the New Century," " adopted largely on account of the 

 opinion expressed by M. Tisserand, late Director-General 

 of Agriculture in France, one of the highest authorities in 

 Europe upon the administration of State aid to agriculture." 



