264 



Parliamentary Publications. 



Committee to the County Committees for publication, all such stallions to be certified 

 as free from hereditary diseases by a Central authority, and no mares to receive 

 nominations until passed as suitable for breeding. 



6. That registration should be established on the lines of the English breed societies 

 with carefully devised rules, under which approved half-bred mares and approved half- 

 bred sires, not at present eligible for any stud book, could be registered as foundation 

 stock, so as to protect every breeder against any strain of blood to which he might 

 object. 



7. That all horses coming into the United Kingdom from America should be 

 branded, in such a place as not to disfigure the horse, but to be easily distinguishable. 



Congested Districts Board for Ireland, Fifth Report, 1895-6. 

 [C— 8191.] Price fid. 



In the section of this report which relates to agriculture, it 

 is stated that the number of example-holdings has been 

 reduced from twenty to eleven, of which six are in the 

 County Galway and five in the County Mayo, but numerous 

 example-plots and experimental-plots have been substituted. 

 The cost of working an entire farm or holding as an example 

 is very large compared with the expenditure in connection 

 with an experimental plot or portion of a holding ; and it is 

 therefore considered that, while some example - holdings 

 might be continued, more instruction can be given with the 

 same amount of money by means of widely diffused example - 

 plots than through example-holdings. At the same time it 

 is the present intention of the Board to continue to work a 

 few of the latter, as one such farm in a good situation serves 

 as a pattern for a very large district. 



Fifty-nine example-plots are managed by the Board — 

 thirty-six in the County Donegal and twenty-three in the 

 County Galway. The occupier of each plot is supplied by 

 the Board free of cost with sufficient seed and artificial 

 manure on condition that the plot shall be worked at all 

 stages under the direction of the Board's local Instructor. 

 In this way each plot affords a demonstration of the advan- 

 tage gained by the use of good seed and suitable manures 

 in conjunction with improved systems of tillage and cultiva- 

 tion. It is comparatively easy to induce a small occupier to 

 try an experiment on a small plot with one crop, though he 



