CHAPTER XXII 

 IRELAND 



IT was in 1889 that Mr. (now Sir Horace) 

 Plunkett started on his attempt to re- 

 organize the agricultural conditions of Ireland. 

 Returning there after a prolonged residence in 

 the United States, where he had been ranching 

 in the interests of his health, he was struck by 

 the distressed condition of the country, and 

 resolved to do what he could for its improve- 

 ment. He began, however, on lines which he 

 soon found it necessary to abandon. At the 

 Co-operative Congress in England, in 1889, he 

 got the idea that the regeneration of Ireland 

 might be facilitated by the establishment of 

 co-operative stores. The speedy discovery of the 

 fact that such a hope would be entirely delusive 

 led him to think of other possible remedies, and 

 he then evolved in his own mind the idea of a 

 co-operative dairy, not learning until some time 

 afterwards that co-operative dairies were already 

 a well-established institution in Denmark. 



269 



