M.— AGRICULTURE. 



225 



administered under the auspices of the Royal Dublin Society who adopted 

 the method of subsidising pedigree sires, and thus Ireland^ was the 

 pioneer country in the British Empire to undertake live stock improvement 

 with the help of a State grant. 



Since 1914, Parliamentary grants for the improvement of live stock 

 have been made to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and to the 

 Board of Agriculture for Scotland, and each of these Departments put into 

 operation schemes somewhat similar to those in Ireland. 



The live stock schemes originally devised by the Royal Dublin Society 

 were continued and developed by the Irish Department of Agriculture 

 which was established in 1900, and on the formation in 1922 of separate 

 Parliaments for Northern Ireland and for the Irish Free State still further 

 extensions of the schemes were made by the Agricultural Departments of 

 these two Governments. 



The latest published figures for each part of the United Kingdom and 

 for the Irish Free State show the total number of breeding stock, the 

 total number of bulls and the number of these sires subsidised to be as 

 follows : — 



From these figures it will be seen that the proportion of subsidised to 

 non-subsidised bulls and the number of breeding stock per subsidised bull 

 vary very considerably in the several parts of the British Isles. 



Turning for a moment to the Dominions — 



In Canada the improvement of live stock is developed chiefly by two 

 methods : — 



1. The Live Stock Branch of the Department of Agriculture of the 

 Dominion Government purchases and loans out pure bred bulls to specially 

 organised associations in newly settled districts and in backward sections 

 in the older Provinces. This system was commenced in 1913 and 4,692 

 bulls had been placed out on loan up to 1926, an average of 361 bulls per 

 annum. By this means the value of pedigree sires has been demonstrated 

 and farmers have been induced to purchase pure bred sires for their own 

 use. 



2. By grading beef cattle, sheep and lambs according to age, quality 

 and weight when they are put on the market and by demonstrations and 



1928 Q 



