ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 117 



akilty, County Cork ; Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare ; 

 Mount Bellew, County Galway ; Naas and Nurney, County Kildare, 

 and Moneymore, County Londonderry. At Pilltown, 40 farmers, 

 at Clonakilty, 15 farmers, and in the other districts, 20 farmers, were 

 selected, whose lands were close together and within reasonable 

 distance of a railway station. The farmers undertook to fence and 

 plant with fruit trees one acre each. They bound themselves to 

 cultivate and manure the land, to gather, grade, pack, and sell the 

 fruit, and to keep a record of the receipts and expenditure, and to do 

 all other necessary work, for a period of not less than five years. 

 The Department on the other hand, agreed to provide free of cost, 

 fruit trees, to give the services of an expert, to supply information 

 with regard to the best and most convenient markets, and refund 

 one-half of the cost of the carriage of the fruit to any market in the 

 United Kingdom, during the five years the experiment was to last. 

 Different kinds of fruit are being planted, and when the experiment 

 is complete the Department will have found out, not only whether 

 the districts are suitable for the different kinds of fruit grown, but 

 to what extent the fruit trade is a profitable trade. 



The Department not only thought it was its duty to take in hand 

 the development of the fruit trade, a matter which has been left in 

 Scotland to the fruit-growers themselves. It felt justified in doing 

 very much more. It concerned itself with the marketing of the fruit. 

 It found that it was necessary, in order to get top prices, to pay 

 particular attention to the grading and packing of the fruit, and by 

 leaflet and lecture it impressed this upon the Irish grower. There 

 was much fruit, however, not fit for table use, and the Department 

 also felt justified in finding an outlet for this second-class fruit. 

 There are preserve works in Ireland whose supplies of second-class 

 fruit are got to a considerable extent from abroad. Ireland has 

 therefore an outlet within its own borders if it can get the custom 

 of the Irish preserver. It is also within reasonable distance of the 

 great preserve works in the midlands of England, though the ques- 

 tion of transit will be a difficult question with the Irish grower as 

 it is with the Scotch grower. The Department, paternal to a degree, 

 was not satisfied with these outlets, and it started factories at 

 Portadown and Drogheda for the pulping, drying, and bottling of 

 fruit. The object the Department had in view was to see that these 

 industries were profitable. When that had been done its purpose 

 had been served and the works were to be sold to individuals who 

 would carry them on commercially. The experiment was a success 

 and the Department ceased operations in 1904. Private concerns 

 for the bottling and canning of fruit have since been established at 

 Portadown, Richhill, Drogheda, and Belfast. Thus, the fruit trade 

 in Ireland has had a good start. We hope it will develop, but we 

 cannot forget that its development means keener competition for 

 the Scotch grower, who has to fight for himself, with no Government 

 Department at his back. 



