May, 1904.] Poultry Societies in Ireland. 



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men, farmers, and others, who worked together on a strictly non- 

 political and non-sectarian basis ; and that the main object of 

 the society thus formed was to organise and establish co- 

 operative productive societies throughout Ireland. Some 800 

 co-operative societies have been formed, covering a wide and 

 varied field. The same principles govern the organisation and 

 the work of all our societies, viz., loyalty, trust, and mutual 

 self-help. Amongst the industries which they embrace are 

 dairying, agriculture, poultry-keeping, gardening, fruit-culture, 

 bee-keeping, home industries, parish banks, boot-making, shirt- 

 making, &c. 



Special experts were employed by the I.A.O.S. to organise 

 and launch these various forms of co-operative societies, and after 

 the I.A.O.S. had been engaged for some years in the formation 

 of societies of different kinds, its attention was attracted by 

 the possibilities of the poultry industry. It was seen that in 

 addition to the home supply, the people of Great Britain 

 imported upwards of six million pounds' worth of eggs annually 

 from foreign countries. The Irish supply was only valued at 

 £2,000,000, and they were handled so badly and kept so long 

 before being exposed for sale, that the mere name of an Irish 

 egg was something to sniff at, and many of the eggs themselves 

 were used for manufacturing purposes and not for food. The 

 I.A.O.S. has done much within recent years to increase the 

 output of Irish eggs and to improve the quality, and, after 

 English and French eggs, Irish eggs are now much sought 

 after. 



The increase in the output of eggs and the improvement 

 in quality have been brought about through the medium of 

 co-operative poultry societies, but it must not be supposed that 

 the work of the societies ends here. As a matter of fact, it 

 neither begins nor ends with that branch of the business which 

 consists in handling and marketing eggs, but the operations of 

 societies are extended to the improvement of breeds of poultry, 

 instruction to members through leaflets, lectures and other 

 means in the best methods of breeding, rearing and feeding 

 poultry, and also to the fattening, handling and marketing of 

 all classes of poultry. In a word, I may say that anything which 

 can be done to improve the condition of the Irish poultry 



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