THE UNITED KINGDOM. 237 



of their produce (as is evidenced by the complaints in the Irish press against the Irish 

 butter merchants), and their utter inability through want of capital to provide either an 

 improved breed of dairy stock or the pro per appliances for modern dairying, make an 

 unassisted effort to maintain the struggle for existence a simple waste of energy. In 

 other countries the resident nobility and gentry largely aid the schemes of Govern- 

 ment education by maintaining large model dairies on their estate, where Govern- 

 ment teachers instruct the tenantry, by practical dairy experiments, and by the sale 

 of calves off these farms, the breed of the best dairy stock is disseminated amongst 

 the smaller dairymen. By having the center of attraction in London, Irish noblemen 

 and large landed proprietors live out of the country, and even this supplemental as- 

 sistance and education which is given on large estates on the Continent is denied to 

 the Irish farmer. Besides the large endowments given by every State in the Union 

 for agricultural colleges, the American Government spent $4T5,719.26 last year in cir- 

 culating knowledge in agricultural matters amongst the wealthy farmers of the United 

 States. 



What has been done, and is being done by European states to promote scientific 

 dairy-farming has been so often placed before the public of late that I need not re- 

 capitulate it here. A reference to the United States consular reports will reward the 

 inquisitive on the point. I have said enougiu to prove that it is the paramount duty 

 of the state Government to come to the assistance of the Irish dairy farmers, and to 

 do so quickly if they are to be saved from annihilation, and Ireland from overwhelm- 

 ing disaster, the Government must fully recognize that they alone, by neglecting their 

 obvious duty, are responsible for the existing crisis, and half measures of assistance, 

 or feeble experiments will be of no avail. I am not concerned with the general agri- 

 cultural requirements of Ireland, and must therefore only confine myself to such parts 

 of a general agricultural improvement scheme as I think imperatively necessary for 

 the proper development of the manufacture of Irish butter. In the United States the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington looks after the interests of agriculture over 

 their whole territory ; it is presided over by a minister, assisted by a scientific staff. 

 Each separate State, there, has its own agricultural colleges and farms. 



I do not think we need go farther for a model of whut is wanted in Ireland. We 

 want a department of agriculture in Dublin, whose duty (inter alia) should be to 

 direct a system of dairy schools and farms in every county to train teachers for those 

 schools ; to collect and disseminate information on every subject connected with the 

 most improved systems in other countries ; to import and experiment on the best breed 

 of dairy cattle, and distribute them on the state dairy farms of the counties for which 

 each breed was best adapted, to provide Government loans to farmers for the erection 

 of dairy and cow houses, and in every other way to promote the general dairy indus- 

 try of the whole country. There should be a Government dairy college in every 

 county, and, to fulfill its mission properly, a farm of dimensions proportionate to the 

 number of pupils, who, from the agricultural population, might be expected to attend, 

 should be attached to each. The scale of fees charged should bo within the reach 



a grant for each dairy maid equivalent to the difference between the value of her 

 work and her expense on the establishment; she pays nothing for her education. In 

 the Swedish colleges the cost of maintaining a dairymaid for a year is 18, her work 

 is valued at 7, and the Government contributes 11. The produce of the dairy 

 leaves the establishment a profit. In such colleges tho agricultural male pupils pay 

 high fees. On these Irish county farms a herd of pedigree bulls and cows should be 

 maintained, the former should be available to the farmers of the district on payment 

 of a fee, and the latter (of different breeds) should be experimented with to test their 

 milk and butter producing capacities on the difierent kinds of pasturage in each 

 county. 



The importance attached to this point on the Continent may be gathered from the 

 fact that there are different staffs of Government professors employed for eight or ten 

 years consecutively examining with the most accurate scientific precision (even by 

 analysis of the skimmed milk and buttermilk) the produce of all the various breeds 

 of dairy stock on every different section, BO as to decide by what artificial foods the 

 pasture grazing should be supplemented on each farm to maintain a maximum butter 

 produce. The same scientific precision informs the farmer of each district at what 

 temperature the dairy-house, the cow-house, the cellar, and even the drink of the 

 cattle must be maintained for every week of the year; in the same way he is guided 

 as to comparative advantages of the dry tub, water, ice, and separator system of 

 obtaining his cream, and even to the effect which the difference between '2,400 and 

 2,500 revolutions per minute of the separator will cause on the quality of the cream, 

 I digressed to show by what means the perfection of dairy farming has been accom- 

 plished on the Continent. 



The total absence of what may be called any high-milking stock in Ireland is one 

 of the gravest features of the situation. Even amongst those who go in for keeping 



