ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 103 



and tinned meat for export purposes. Besides, livers are sent to 

 Germany to be transformed into liver sausages, and sweetbreads 

 are used by chemists in the making of pepsine. 



Co-operation 



There are now fifty-seven curing establishments in Ireland, some 

 of them as good and as well equipped as you will find anywhere, 

 but there is not one of them run on co-operative lines. Some 

 years ago an attempt was made to establish co-operative factories 

 in Roscommon and Galway. Both schemes failed. The curing- 

 houses offered tempting prices for the farmers' pigs. The farmers 

 withdrew their supplies from their own factories, which had to 

 be closed down. Now, the farmers, and not the curers, were to 

 blame for the failure. The farmers had started the factories. 

 They had pledged themselves to support the factories, and they 

 had proved disloyal. The curers were fighting for their existence, 

 employing methods common enough in such circumstances, fighting 

 not only the farmers, but the farmers backed up by the I.A.O.S. 

 The curers, however, were well able to stand alone. They had 

 money at their back. Money was their most powerful weapon, 

 and they used it to some effect. They would not, however, have 

 given fancy prices if they had not good reason to believe that 

 co-operative bacon-curing establishments would injure their trade. 

 Their fighting was a confession that a co-operative factory would 

 be a serious competitor. The curers' very fear lest they should 

 lose their trade may have suggested to the farmer, in the first 

 place, that it was possible to gain that trade, and, in the second 

 place, that it would be well worth gaining. In any case, a very 

 determined attempt is now being made to start a co-operative 

 bacon-curing establishment in Ireland. The fight this time is 

 to be in the very citadel of the bacon-curing trade. It is proposed 

 to start the factory at Eoscrea. A local organiser is scouring 

 twenty parishes in the interest of the scheme. The I.A.O.S. has 

 issued a very outspoken leaflet on the subject. Matters are not 

 minced in that leaflet. The farmers are told plainly what their 

 duty is. In the first place, it is pointed out that the great factor 

 upon which the success or the failure of the enterprise will depend 

 is a guaranteed supply of suitable pigs all the year round. The 

 leaflet does not say so, but every one of the members pledges 

 himself to supply all his pigs to the factory for five years under 

 a penalty of 10s. per pig. The temptation which will be offered 

 them to break through this arrangement is clearly stated. It is 

 pointed out that the present curing establishments will rait>e 

 prices to kill the competition, and that the farmers who join the 

 co-operative factory may find that they will be able to get 5s., 

 or even 10s., more from these curing establishments than from 

 their own factory. But the leaflet proceeds to state that the 

 committee of the factory should be able to adjust their working 

 so that they can allow the ordinary bacon-curing to stand over 

 while these fictitious prices are being paid. In any case, it is 



