ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 115 



These figures work out at £41 per acre. After deducting all the 

 expenses in connection with the marketing and without taking into 

 account the cost of labour, manure, seed, and carting, the nett 

 return per acre was £33. In 1903 it was £45. The difference in 

 price was due to early frosts which put back the crop, and prevented 

 the potatoes reaching the market ahead of the Ayrshire consignments. 



2. Fruit-growing 



The total area under fruit in Ireland is 10,588 acres. The prin- 

 cipal district is the Loughgall district in Ulster, which stretches from 

 Richhill to Anaghmore. It has been a fruit district beyond the 

 memory of man. The fruit grown until recently has been tree 

 fruit, — pears, damsons, plums, and apples, — but the tree fruit most 

 favoured has been apples. In fact, the district is best known as an 

 apple district. It is too cold, both in soil and climate, for either the 

 plum or the pear. During the last ten or fifteen years, part of the 

 district in the vicinity of Anaghmore has become an important 

 centre for small fruit culture. Raspberries, strawberries, goose- 

 berries, black and red currants are all grown, sometime in open 

 fields as they are in Scotland, sometimes under tree fruit as they are 

 in Worcestershire. It is estimated that there are about 3000 acres 

 under fruit cultivation in the Loughgall district, and of this there 

 are about 1000 acres devoted to small fruit. Strawberries used to 

 be grown extensively and marketed in Belfast, both in punnets and 

 in tubs. Sir Horace Plunkett, at a Horticultural Show in Dublin, 

 in October 1904, pointed out that the consignments of strawberries 

 railed at Anaghmore had risen from 100 tons in 1898 to 700 tons in 

 1904, the money return for which in 1904 he estimated at £14,000. 

 Meantime, it looks as if the raspberry were to become first favourite. 

 The acreage under this fruit is extending every year. Different 

 varieties have been tried. The Falstalf was for a time popular, but 

 it has fallen into disrepute. The Superlative meantime has taken 

 first place, and will bear good crops, for it is a gross feeder, delighting 

 in good soil, and the soil in this part of Ireland is good soil. It is, 

 however, too dark in colour ever to become a favourite with the jam 

 preserver. 



The success of fruit-growing in the Loughgall district arrested 

 the attention of the Department of Agriculture when it was created, 

 and at once it began to make enquiries on the subject. Experts 

 visited the district and bore testimony to the enterprise, industry, 

 and success of the Northern farmers. Then the Department turned 

 its attention to the inspection of different districts throughout the 

 country where fruit might be grown. It was soon convinced that 

 different varieties of fruit could be grown in different parts of Ireland. 

 It was no doubt also convinced that a few acres of fruit would make 

 many a holding of less than thirty acres capable of supporting a man 

 and his family in comfort. But it had to prove this to the Irish 

 farmer. It is proving it now. It arranged to carry out experiments 

 in eight districts in Ireland, at Broadway, County Wexford ; Pill- 

 town, County Kilkenny ; Dungarvan, County Waterford ; CI on- 



