76 
Irish AyricuUure. 
manner in which the transit of cattle is conducted, and this is 
true both of fat and store stock. It is the interest, therefore, of 
English farmers, not less than of Irish breeders, that the transit 
system should be improved. Over-crowding in waggons would 
be prevented by a mileage rate instead of the present mode of 
charging by the truck, and there is no practical difficulty in 
supplying cattle while in the act of travelling, and confined 
in waggons, with water and even with food. That such is 
requisite will be allowed, when it is considered that cattle put 
into trucks at a remote station in the west of Ireland, may not, 
and usually have not, the opportunity of tasting water until they 
reach Norwich, York, or Aberdeen. Watering-troughs may be 
provided at stations, but most of the men employed as drovers of 
Irish cattle are so cruel and careless that they will not give the 
poor animals time to drink. Water in the waggons would of 
course meet this difficulty. The Select Committee of the House 
of Commons, appointed in 1866 to inquire into the manner in 
which the home and foreign trade in animals by sea and railroad 
is conducted, reported " that in Ireland much injury arises to 
cattle from bad treatment received from drovers, and that cattle 
landed from Oporto and Spain arrive in a better state than those 
from Ireland." The Committee also stated that " on the railways 
cattle are often over-crowded and badly treated, especially in 
Ireland" and that such treatment " causes cattle to deteriorate 
in value, makes them feverish, and tends to produce, if it does 
not actually cause, foot-and-mouth disease." The same evils still 
exist, and the value of Irish cattle continues to be deteriorated 
by a system which has been condemned by a Select Committee 
of the British Legislature. It is to be hoped, therefore, that 
public attention will be aroused to this matter, so that some 
radical improvement may be speedily effected in the transit of 
animals from Ireland ; and that a system of watering, and, if 
required, of feeding cattle during transit, similar to that which 
has been recently adopted on the Austrian railways, will be 
enforced throughout the United Kingdom. 
II. — Method of Improving the Labouring Classes by altering the 
conditions of Poor Relief and providing them with a system 
of Insurance through the Post- Office. By the Rev. J. Y. 
Stuatton, Rector of Ditton, Kent. 
The means of dealing with the Benefit Societies of Iabo"urers 
who arc within the verge of pauperism have passed into a more 
hopeful phase tlian existed when the appointment of a Royal 
