ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 6^ 



Ireland economic ; and the pupils are trained with this object in 

 view from the time they leave the primary school until their 

 education is complete. We have dealt with this part of the 

 subject in the article on "Domestic Economy and Rural 

 Industries." 



Special Investigations 



The special investigations of the Department are intimately 

 connected with, if indeed they are not an actual part, of its 

 educational work. Foremost among them are the experimental 

 plots. These plots are situated in different parts of the country, 

 and are meant as object lessons to the farmers. They constitute 

 part of the work of the itinerant instructor. They are the 

 demonstration plots in connection with his lectures, and show ta 

 the farmer more clearly than any lecture could show the 

 advantage of good seed and the proper cultivation of the soil. 

 Experiments have also been carried out with marked success in 

 the production of early potatoes; in fruit-growing and fruit and 

 vegetable preserving ; in tobacco culture, for which it is believed 

 the soil and climate of Ireland are suitable ; in the growing of 

 flax, linen being one of the staple trades of the country ; in seed- 

 testing ; cheese-making ; afforestation, etc. 



Improvement and Preservation of Live Stock 



Less- closely, but still to some extent connected with the 

 educational schemes of the Department, is the scheme for the 

 improvement of live stock, a scheme of the utmost importance 

 in Ireland, and one on which vast sums of money have been spent. 

 The Department provides sires, sometimes for nothing — always on 

 easy terms — for the improvement of live stock, thus teaching the 

 farmers the good points in farm animals and the value and import- 

 ance of them, and at the same time improving the breed of stock 

 throughout tlie country, and adding materially to the national 

 wealth. Intimately connected with the improvement is the preserva- 

 tion of live stock. This is entrusted to the Veterinary Department, 

 which prepares the necessary Orders under the Diseases of 

 Animals Acts, sees that the Acts and the Orders are enforced 

 throughout the country, doing the work which falls to the Veter- 

 inary Department itself to do, and seeing that the work falling to 

 the Local Authorities is done by them. 



Fisheries 



The Department takes to do with fisheries for the same reason 

 that it takes to do with rural industries. The fisheries of Ireland 

 are as necessary to agriculture on the seaboard as rural industries 

 are to agriculture inland. They help to make the uneconomic 

 holdings on the seaboard economic. The Department has, there- 

 fore, helped to develop them. It has, for example, taught the men 



