Parliamen tary P u blication s. 



121 



Appendix to the 62nd Annual Report of the Commissioners 

 of National Education in Ireland for the year 1895. 

 [C— 8185.] Price is. lod. 



The Report of the Superintendent of the Agricultural 

 Department to the Commissioners of National Education in 

 Ireland states that the Albert Agricultural Institution at 

 Glasnevin and the Munster Dairy School at Cork have 

 had a full attendance in all their departments, progress 

 being especially marked in the dairy schools. Apart from 

 these two establishments, there were also 46 school farms 

 and 43 school gardens in connection with the Agricultural 

 Department. 



Instruction in dairy management has been largely 

 developed during 1895, and is now given (1) to children in 

 National Schools where practicable, and {2) to adults at 

 Glasnevin and Cork, apart from itinerant dairy instruction. 

 There are special classes for creamery managers — young 

 men already engaged in creameries, or who have a prospect 

 of immediate employment in them. It is stated that the 

 creamery system has made rapid strides in Ireland, a.nd 

 the number of such establishments in operation at the 

 end of 1895 is given approximately as follows : — Co-operative 

 creameries, 46 ; joint-stock creameries, 5 1 ; private venture, 

 136; and butter-blending establishments, 18; total, 251. 



At many of the school-farms and gardens, as well as at 

 Glasnevin and Cork, various agricultural experiments have 

 been undertaken, of which the following are among the more 

 interesting. 



"With the view of testing whether potato haulm and 

 vegetables which had been sprayed with sulphate of copper 

 solutions were deleterious to stock, a few cattle and sheep 

 were supplied with such fodder ; none of the animals exhi- 

 bited any unhealthy symptoms. 



Experiments upon the use of manures on pasture seem 

 to show that farmyard manure causes the largest yield of 

 grass upon such soil as that of Glasnevin (a heavy 

 calcareous loam), and that among artificial manures the 

 best are those whose composition appears to be nearest 



