THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 299 



show was held, by permission of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, in the Kildare street premises. Next year 

 a general agricultural show was held in St. Stephen's 

 Green, Dublin ; this was followed by another un- 

 broken series of provincial shows up to the year 1880. 

 In the year 1 8 8 1 , and in the two succeeding years the 

 disturbed state of the country prevented the Society 

 from holding shows in the provinces. A show was 

 held in Kilkenny in 1884, and one at Londonderry in 

 1885. An attempt was made to organise a show for 

 the year 1886, when Armagh was the only town that 

 could be induced to entertain the proposal ; but as it 

 was found impracticable to raise the necessary local 

 guarantee fund of 500, the project was abandoned. 



One of the modes in which the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of Ireland aided agriculture in the provinces 

 was by granting subsidies to local societies to assist 

 them in holding their shows. This work was con- 

 tinued by the Royal Dublin Society, and gradually 

 expanded, until the expenditure, which in the year 

 1888 amounted to 16, IQS. for one society, ten years 

 later reached the aggregate of ^491, in grants to 

 twenty-five societies of sums varying from 10 to 

 ^40. The system was continued until 1900, when 

 the Council, in its report, pointed out that the 

 Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act 

 enabled local farming societies to obtain aid from the 

 funds of the newly established Department, and from 

 local rates, far in excess of the grants which the 

 Society had been giving from its private resources. 

 The grants were accordingly discontinued. 



Nine years had elapsed since the terms of amalga- 

 mation had been drawn up. The original idea was 

 to form a new association devoted to agriculture ex- 

 clusively; the members of the two societies were to 



