226 SECTIONAL ADDEESSES. 



propaganda, attention is drawn to superior beef and mutton. In tliis 

 way a growing demand from the consumer for more tender and juicy 

 joints lias been created. This plan has directly assisted breeders to improve 

 their stock as considerably higher prices can now be obtained for prime 

 beef, mutton or lamb than for coarse joints. The Canadian Government 

 is paying special attention to this side of marketing with remarkably 

 successful results. The home consumption of meat and eggs per head 

 has gone up considerably since this sytem of grading was commenced. 

 Thus, in 1916 the consumption of eggs per head was sixteen dozen. In 

 1927 it had increased to twenty-eight dozen and all exports had ceased. 



Australia (Queensland) in 1925 adopted a scheme by means of which 

 the Department of Agriculture made available to the approved purchaser 

 of a pedigree bull a subsidy of 50 per cent, of the cost price, provided the 

 subsidy did not exceed £50. 



In South Africa a scheme for the distribution of pedigree bulls to 

 farmers in the Transvaal through breed societies came into operation in 

 1924. These animals are sold to selected applicants at reduced prices. 

 Several of the Agricultural Schools throughout this Dominion have stud 

 farms, and young sires raised on these farms are sold and placed out 

 under the Department's bull distribution scheme. 



I have already mentioned that in Ireland the first State-aided live 

 stock breeding schemes were started over forty years ago, and although the 

 value of these schemes was clearly shown in the great improvement in the 

 stock of the country both in quality and in the increased prices obtained, 

 the results achieved were not anything like what they would have been 

 if the widespread use of animals totally unsuitable for breeding purposes 

 had been prohibited. The scrub bull not only inflicted serious damage on 

 the owners of cows but lowered the reputation and value of Irish live 

 stock and to a large extent neutralised the good effect of the live stock 

 schemes. 



These were the chief reasons which induced the Governments of 

 Northern Ireland in 1922 and of the Irish Free State in 1925 to introduce 

 legislation providing that bulls below a certain standard of merit should 

 not be used for breeding purposes and that all suitable bulls should be 

 licensed. By subsidising pedigree sires we have the means of improving 

 and grading up our stock and by permitting the use of none but licensed 

 sires we get rid of the inferior animals and prevent them from doing harm. 

 This ensures that the improvement is continuous and that much quicker 

 results are produced. 



In England and Wales there is only one premium bull to every sixty- 

 nine non-premium bulls and there are 2,168 cows to each premium sire, 

 whereas in Northern Ireland, where more than half the number of bulls 

 are pedigree animals, there is one premium bull to every seven non- 

 premium bulls and 434 cows to each premium sire. Yet after forty years' 

 experience of the premium scheme we have found it absolutely necessary 

 to bring in a licensing system to supplement the former owing to the 

 progress of improvement being so comparatively slow. 



Great Britain has the reputation of having the finest pedigree stock 

 in the world, and yet probably nowhere else in the British Empire is 

 improvement in the cross-bred cattle more urgently needed. It is a 



