SMALL CULTURE 



The Department of Agriculture is devoting a great deal of its time 

 to the development of minor industries, which, along with the pro- 

 duction of roots and grass or other agricaltural crops will make it 

 possible, as it is necessary, for an Irish farmer to live on less than 

 thirty acres of land, which is considered the minimum economic 

 holding when ordinary agricultural crops are grown, We deal with 

 some of these minor industries in other sections of this Report, viz. : 

 Dairying, pig-rearing, and poultry-keeping. In this section we 

 propose to deal with others. 



I. Early Potato Growing 



The production of early potatoes, quite a different thing from the 

 growing of potatoes as part of a rotation rrop, depends largely upon 

 soil and climate. Where conditions are favourable, few agricultural 

 crops pay better. Fortunes have been made in the Channel Islands 

 where it is possible to market the produce in May. The farmers on 

 the seaboard of Ayrshire, saved to some extent from spring frost by 

 the influence of the Gulf Stream, have also done well. Ireland will 

 never rival the Channel Islands, but it may easily compete with 

 Ayrshire, where the crops are not ready till the middle of June. The 

 Department of Agriculture saw that there was money in early 

 potatoes, and they looked about to see whether in their own country 

 they had the soil and the climate essential to success. On the 

 seaboard, at different parts of the coast, they found the soil every- 

 thing that could be desired, — a light, sandy loam, similar to the soil 

 where the earliest potatoes grow in Ayrshire. Moreover, the 

 seaboard of Ireland was more suitable than Ayrshire. Like the Scotch 

 coast, it was influenced by the Gulf Stream, but in addition it had the 

 advantage of being farther south. But the Department of Agri- 

 culture had already proof that early potatoes could be grown in 

 Ireland to advantage. The trade had been carried on for a hundred 

 years or more at Rush, about fourteen miles north from Dublin, 

 where soil and climate are favourable, though the climate is not so 

 favourable as it is in the south of Ireland. In the winter of 1901, 

 the Department arranged for lecturers on early potato growing in 

 four of the most likely potato districts, viz. : Rush, Sligo, Tralee in 

 Kerry, and the South of County Cork. Early in the following spring 

 the Department supplied boxes to the farmers in these localities, 

 boxing having been proved advantageous in securing an earlier as 

 well as a heavier crop, and the experiments began. The varieties 

 used were : — " Puritan," " Duke of York," " Nonesuch," and 

 " Ninety Fold." The earliest crop was reaped at Tralee in the last 

 week of May. The next crop was harvested at Rush. The crops in 



