298 CENTRAL IRELAND 



protracted harvest, as to introduce green fodder crops 

 rye, vetches, broadcast turnips, rape and kale, which 

 can be fed to the cows and so increase the milk out- 

 put of the holding. An acre of tilled land in green crops 

 will carry twice as much stock as an acre of grass. 

 But, of course, men have to be taught this new kind of 

 farming, and, above all, provided with implements that 

 will make their labour economical. Yet a farm of 

 30 or 40 acres, even if the holder can raise the 

 necessary capital, cannot afford to possess the range of 

 implements necessary a mowing machine for the few 

 acres of hay, a binder for the small acreage of corn, a 

 potato-digger, and the appropriate ploughs, harrows, 

 and cultivators. Small farmers must either share such 

 implements or hire from one another, and we were 

 glad to learn that considerable success had already 

 attended the formation of co-operative societies for the 

 purchase and common use of implements, some of 

 which societies had acquired a considerable stock, even 

 including such expensive plant as a motor-driven 

 threshing-machine, and had paid off all their indebted- 

 ness. We passed several co-operative creameries, and 

 were always meeting the ass carts bringing a few 

 churns of milk along the road to some depot of the 

 kind. In that part of Ireland the spirit of co-operation 

 was certainly abroad, for one successful enterprise of 

 the kind soon leads to other ventures of a similar 

 character. 



