70 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



on the seaboard how to fish and how to cure fish ; it has given 

 loans for the purchase and repair of boats and gear ; it has erected 

 piers and made harbours ; it has tackled the question of transit ; 

 it has marketed the produce of the sea,^ 



Statistics and Intelligence 



To the successful carrying out of the work of the Department 

 it was necessary that there should be a Statistics and Intelligence 

 branch. Such a branch was formed by the Department, and is of 

 supreme importance in these days of foreign competition. The 

 duties of the branch are twofold, as indicated by the name. The 

 Statistical section prepares and publishes statistics relating to 

 agriculture, fisheries, industries, and trade. The Intelligence 

 section edits the Quarterly Journal of the Department, a periodical 

 of the greatest interest to farmers. It issues numerous Parlia- 

 mentary and other Eeports, bulletins, leaflets, etc. It keeps in 

 touch with State Departments in foreign countries and the 

 colonies, finding out as far as possible the causes and conditions 

 of progress and success abroad. The farmers of Ireland are in 

 this way kept informed of the state of trade in their own 

 country, and of the state of trade in competing countries, and 

 of the best and most up-to-date methods of rearing stock, grow- 

 ing crops, and combating disease. 



Transit and Markets 



To have left transit and markets outside the range of the 

 Department's operations might have been to stop short on the 

 very threshold of success, for it was not less important in Ire- 

 land to facilitate transit and find markets than it was to assist 

 in the production of crops. Transit and markets were not, how- 

 ever, left outside. The Department has to do with the transit 

 of animals ; the carriage and distribution of produce ; railway 

 rates ; the enforcement of the " Sale of Food and Drugs Acts " 

 as regards butter, margarine, and milk; the "Fertilizers and 

 Feeding Stuffs Act"; the "Markets and Fairs (Weighing of 

 Cattle) Acts " ; and the " Merchandise Marks Act," and it dis- 

 charges with ability all the duties imposed on it by the Act 

 which brought it into existence, and by the various Acts just 

 mentioned .2 



1 The work of the Fisheries' Branch of the Department and of the Congested Districts 

 Board are both under the supervision and control of the Rev. W. S. Green, who is the 

 Chief Fishery Officer of the Department, and has always been a member of the Congested 

 Districts Board. It happens that the part of the coast which is scheduled as congested, 

 possesses richer and more neglected fishing-grounds than any other part of Ireland. The 

 Department had neither the funds nor the opportunities for development which are at 

 the disposal of the older institution. 



2 In addition to these statutory functions, a great deal is done much on the lines fol- 

 lowed by foreign and colonial governments, whose farm produce is imported into the 

 British markets, to bring Irish produce under the notice of the large distributing agencies 

 in Great Britain, and to keep Irish producers informed as to the tastes and requirements 

 of British consumers. 



