2o8 Grants under the Live Stock Scheme, [june. 



the centres are kept in touch with each other and the movement 

 is popularised. County conferences and exhibitions are also 

 held periodical^, while the Third Annua] Exhibition held 

 in London last month attracted widespread interest. 



Women's Institutes are taking their share in the Hfe of the 

 country. They aim at improving the conditions of rural 

 Hfe by stimulating interest in the agricultural industry, 

 developing co-operative enterprise, encouraging home and 

 local industries, studying home economics, and providing 

 centres for educational and social intercourse as well as for 

 ah local activities. 



(Notes on Women's Institutes appeared in this Journal 

 in January, 1917, p. 966, October, 1918, p. 827, and December, 



1919. p. 939-) 



****** 



The Ministry has had^under consideration the advisabiHty 

 of increasing the grants payable to bull, boar, and milk-recording 

 societies. Having satisfied itself that the 

 Increase in the amount of present grants is not adequate to 

 Value of the Grants secure the provision of good pedigree sires 

 payable to Societies , ^ ^ xt. i • i: -n 



under the Live Stock encourage the keeping of milk 



Scheme. records, it has increased, as from the ist 



April, the grant for bulls from ;^I5 to a 

 maximum of £20, the grant for boars from £3 to a maximum of 

 and the milk-recording grant from £2 10s. a herd to £3, 

 except to Societies for their first and second year of operations, 

 when the grant will be £2 los. a herd. 



When the scheme was brought into operation in 1914, the 

 amount of the grant payable to a bull society was fixed at £15, 

 of which £12 was to be paid to the farmer who provided the 

 bull", and the remaining £3 was utilised for defraying the 

 expenses of the society. The subsidy for a boar was £3. In 

 1 9 14 the average price of the bulls provided was £36 and of 

 boars £y, and a subsidy of £12 and £3, respectively, was, there- 

 fore, sufiicient. At the present time, however, the average 

 price of bulls provided under the scheme is approximately £62 

 and that of boars £14, and as pedigree stock, feeding stuft's and 

 labour have increased in price very considerably since 19 14, 

 there are good grounds for increasing the grants. As from the 

 1st April, the amount of the grant to societies will, therefore, 

 be one-third of the value of the bull, until the society has been 

 in operation for five years. Thereafter the rate will be one- 

 quarter the value of the bull, subject to a maximum grant in 

 both cases of /20. The full amount of the grant is to be paid 



