AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN IRELAND. 227 



universally adhered to by the trade, it created a considerable sensation 

 among the Irish Egg Shippers, who, realising at last that their methods of 

 doing business had almost destroyed their trade, held several meetings and 

 passed many resolutions pledging themselves to carry out the necessary 

 reforms so as to comply with the requirements of the English and Scotch 

 buyers. Hitherto the practice all over Ireland among farmers' wives had 

 been to hold their eggs until they had a sufficient quantity to make it worth 

 while taking them to market, particularly when prices were going up. The 

 egg buyers' circulars and resolutions made no impression whatever on them, 

 for no guarantee was given that better prices would be paid for fresh, clean 

 eggs, than had been hitherto paid, and so they continued to send their eggs 

 to market as before, where they were dealt with as before. The injury 

 done to the trade by the perpetuation of this abominable system of " holding 

 up " eggs was enormous. The Irish egg — under proper conditions the best 

 in the world — was sold at the lowest -market price, and was difficult to sell 

 even then. Poultry-keepers grumbled at the low prices and threatened to 

 give up the egg business, and the egg buyers seemed equally dissatisfied. 

 Both had contributed to ruin a profitable industry ; neither appeared capable 

 of restoring it to a proper basis. 



It was at this juncture that the Poultry Societies began to be formed with 

 the object of bringing co-operation among the poultry keepers and better 

 methods of trading to bear on the business. They at once started on com- 

 pletely new and improved lines which practically amounted to a revolution — 

 they bought the eggs from their members dy weight instead of by the 

 dozen or score ; they refused to take any but perfectly fresh and perfectly 

 clean eggs, and they packed them in accordance with the instructions given 

 by the expert, Mr. Schwartz, on the Continental plan, in non-returnable 

 cases and in wood-wool. But the mischief wrought by the old system made 

 it hard for the Societies to develop their trade. 



The Societies' business so far has been mainly confined to the collection 

 and sale of eggs, but some are talking up the table poultry trade — a business 

 which is far more difficult and risky, but which can, without doubt, be 

 developed very considerably. The fowls are bought by weight, killed, 

 plucked, properly trussed, and packed for market, instruction being given 

 by experts as in the egg business. The sales of poultry have not been 

 as yet very large, but they are steadily increasing, and profits, hitherto 

 unknown, are being realised. The Newmarket Society reports that on one 

 trial consignment alone a profit of one hundred per cent, over the prices 

 that could be obtained locally was realised. This is, of course, exceptional. 



Attention is being directed at present to the establishment of central egg 

 packing depots to be supplied by local federations of small Poultry 

 Societies, so as to minimise working expenses, and to secure greater effi- 

 ciency in management. The local Societies will thus act merely as collect- 

 ing centres where the eggs and poultry are bought and paid for by weight, 

 and then forwarded in patent returnable cases by cart to the packing depot 

 where the eggs and poultry are again weighed and paid for, and are pre- 

 pared for shipment. At these packing centres poultry fattening will in all 

 probability be carried out in the near future, and a poultry farm will be 

 attached 1*^0 each, where chickens can be artificially hatched and reared, so as 

 to command the top market prices, and from which the members of the local 

 Societies may obtain sittings of eggs, and stock birds of the breeds most 

 suited to their requirements, at moderate prices. These central depots will 



