AGRICULTURE IN IRISH CONGESTED DISTRICTS. 215 


AGRICULTURE IN THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS OF IRELAND. 
The ninth annual report of the Congested Districts Board’ 
for Ireland states that during the year ending March 31st, 1900, 
seven agricultural instructors were employed in various 
districts of three counties, viz.. Donegal, Mayo, and Galway. 
In accordance with their duties, they advised small land- 
holders as to the management and improvement of their 
land and stock, they lent farm implements, they inspected 
animals supplied by the Board, and they had charge of 
thirty-one example holdings, and about 500 experimental 
and example plots. The work on some example holdings 
chiefly consists of permanent improvements, draining, 
levelling, and clearing away rocks; in others small grants 
of seeds and manures are made in order to induce the occu- 
piers to adopt a better rotation, or to grow crops such as 
mangolds, or new varieties of potatoes which may not be 
sufficiently known in the district. Free grants of vegetable 
and garden seeds were also made to 320 plot-holders, many 
of whom never grow any vegetables other than potatoes and 
cabbage. 
The report states that the board had 26 stallions standing 
in the congested districts, viz., four thoroughbreds, fifteen 
hackneys, four Welsh cobs, one pony, and two cart-horses. 
The demand for the use of these horses was never so keen 
as in 1899, owing to the increased prices which have in recent 
years been realised for young stock. A large number of 
half-bred hackneys in the hands of private owners in the 
United Kingdom have been carefully watched with a view of 
ascertaining their merits, and almost without exception the 
reports have been satisfactory, while in no case has any want 
of staying power in the half-bred hackney been alleged. Good 
prices have frequently been obtained for horses bred and 
broken to harness in the congested districts, and the nume- 
rous inquiries made by dealers and other buyers regarding — 
the districts in which the Board’s horses are stationed point 
to an even keener demand in the future. 
Seventy bulls were sold to farmers during the year on the 
instalment system, the total number now held by farmers 
