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XX. — Tlic Prize System as applied to Small Farmers in Ireland. 
By Professor BALDWIN. 
In most parts of Ireland the agricultural practices of the small 
farmers are very defective. In some places they they are quite 
primitive. Vast numbers of the occupiers are very poor, while 
wide areas of land are not yielding a fourth of the produce which 
could be obtained from them. 
While many large farmers and graziers partake of the general 
progress of the kingdom, little or no improvement has been 
effected in the condition of vast numbers of the occupiers of the 
small holdings. 
The increase in the price of store stock and of butter has 
enabled many of them to pay their way much better than they 
used to do, but in their dwellings and social condition there has 
not been a corresponding improvement. In the more backward 
districts they have not been influenced by the action of Agri- 
cultural Societies. Thousands upon thousands of them have 
never seen a cattle-show ; and as a class they have come to the 
conclusion that cattle-shows are rather inimical to their interests. 
It is wholly unnecessary to discuss this view. It is sufficient for 
my present purpose to state that every person conversant with 
the state of Ireland knows that the feeling has prevailed and 
retarded the progress of the country. Even if this feeling did 
not prevail, it must be borne in mind that the action of the 
existing Agricultural Societies could not reach down to the 
small farmers in remote districts where cattle-shows are never 
held. 
Lord Spencer, K.G., while Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, saw 
all this, and sought some means of creating among this class a 
taste for progress. The scheme he adopted, and the result of 
which I shall set forth in this paper, aims at creating among 
the small farmers of a limited district a spirit of emulation. Lord 
Spencer found in the department with which I am connected a 
ready-formed machinery for carrying out his views. The readers 
of this Journal are aware that there are in Ireland a great many 
small agricultural schools ; that is, National Schools to which 
school-farms are attached. Lord Spencer made eight of these 
schools, two in each province, the centres of eight districts, in 
each of which he gave prizes for the best managed small farms. 
My colleagues and I have been the judges. In each district 
the agricultural teacher has been the local agent or secretary. 
The competition has been limited to farms which did not exceed 
til. valuation ; and, subject to this one condition, every small 
