14 CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON LANDS, COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



2 GEORGE v., A. 1912 



get more, as a premium on the quality of their butter, bacon and eggs, than is spent 

 on our whole system of rural education in Canada. 



ILLUSTRATION FROM IRELAND. 



I turn for a few minutes to Ireland. I am not going to trench upon the forth- 

 coming report of the Eoyal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Edu- 

 cation or give any information from it in advance. That is reserved for our report 

 to the 'Minister of Labour. Meanwhile in Ireland one could not help observing that 

 there was a change of attitude, a change of front, among the rural population within 

 the last ten or twelve years. The change in the experience of the fanners, in their 

 outlook and expectations, is diie to the extension of local organization among the 

 farmers and to the diffusion among them of the practice of the best methods of the 

 best farmers. I was much interested when the Secretary of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and Technical Institution said to me : ' Will you go to see the Colonists ? ' 

 For a moment I wondered whether the Irish had begun a policy of immigration to 

 make up for the long wide deep drain of emigration to America and Canada. Per- 

 haps I would see on the west coast new settlements of Spaniards taking to farming 

 in Ireland. However, we went to see the Colonists. They were Irish Colonists, 

 who had never left Ireland, becoming settled into a prosperous community of small 

 farmers co-operating for the common good. A large pasturing estate had been taken 

 over under the land legislation and divided into small holdings of from 26 to 35 

 acres each. The Colonists, from a congested district less than 20 miles away, had had 

 little experience in good farming. I was amazed at the character of the crops, the 

 evidence of good farm w'ork, the tidiness of the premises, and general appearance of 

 the Colony. Some 250 holdings were occupied and cultivated; about 50 more were in 

 process of preparation by the erection of buildings, &c. The Colonists become 

 peasant proprietors. I saw them in the third year of transition — some had been 

 there only one year — and, as I have mentioned before 50 more farms were in process 

 of preparation on this estate. There was a demonstration field for the colony on 

 one of the farms. There was a resident farming instructor who spent his whole 

 time on that little colony. That was his parish. He was under one delightful inhi- 

 bition or prohibition — he was not allowed to make speeches. Why? Because the 

 department had learned that if a instructor devoted himself to speechmaking he 

 might be explaining theories and not sticking to his job of instructing and illustrat- 

 ing good farm practice in the growing of crops. Sometimes he would visit as many 

 as twelve farms a day, sometimes three farms; and if a new machine was to be 

 started perhaps only one, when the neighbours would all come and see it. The salary 

 of the instructor and other charges amounted to about £150 a year; and from 

 my own observation, supplemented by some inquiry, I would say that the crops on 

 those 250 farms were worth £3,000 ($15,000) more than would have been the case if 

 there had not been a local instructor, and a local demonstration field. And these 

 Colonists had got more than the increase of crops. They had got knowledge, tliey 

 had developed ability and they had got the farming forces of the locality organized 

 to keep on helping themselves afterwards. That was great. I w^ent, I saw, I was 

 convinced. 



By Mr. Schaffner: 

 Q. Does the labour question give them; any difficulty? 



A. These were small holdings and I did not learn that they had trouble in that 

 regard. 



now CAN LOCAL ABILITY BE APPLIED. 



I come now to the summing up of what I have laid before you this morning. 

 How can the information gathered for the Committee on Lands from a particular 

 locality become effective in that locality, and how can the farming ability discovered 



