THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY. 39 



Heaven causes the sun to shine and the rain to 1 

 fall, and that Man sends the cattle to the pasture i 

 and gives himself no further trouble about them. 

 Even soils which would yield four times the profit 

 with fodder crops are simply left under grass. 



The following varieties of farming may be 

 distinguished : — 



I. Dairying. The principal product sold, after 

 the local sale of milk, is butter. Dairying is 

 principally carried on in the pasture counties of 

 Munster, namely in Cork, Limerick and Tip- 

 perary, but also in Ulster. Butter-making is 

 nowadays carried on to a large extent in steam 

 factories, the number of which is 609 and the 

 production 479,000 cwt. Amongst them there 

 were in 1900 236 co-operative dairies, with 

 26,477 members. These produced 13^ million 

 lb. of butter to the value of ^703,826 

 sterling.^ The dairy system has prospered 

 greatly through the co-operative movement. As, 

 however, stall-feeding, and the growing of fodder 

 requisite thereto, are only carried on to a slight 

 extent, the winter production of butter, when 

 the prices are highest, is not nearly as large 

 as should be possible. 



The farms which devote themselves to meat- 

 production may be divided into three classes: 



^ "Ireland, Agnc. and Ind.," pp. 220 et seq. [In 1904, 

 according to the Report of the I. A. O. Soc. for that year, 

 there were 328 co-operative creameries, producing over 20 

 million lb. of butter. Trans! r\ 



