Ireland In The New CenturyPlunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
History
Ireland In The New Century
Plunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
Ireland -- Economic conditions; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1901-1910; Irish question
Again for details I must refer the reader to official documents. There
he will find as much information as he can digest about the vast variety
of agricultural activities which originate sometimes with the
Department's officers or with its _Journal_ and leaflets, the
circulation of which has no longer to be stimulated from our Statistics
and Intelligence bureau, and sometimes emanate from the local
committees, whose growing interest in the work naturally leads to the
discovery of fresh needs and hitherto unthought of possibilities of
agricultural and industrial improvement. I may, however, indicate a few
of the subjects which have been gone into even in these years while the
new Department has been trying so far as it might, without sacrifice of
efficiency and sound economic principle, to keep pace with the feverish
anxiety of a genuinely interested people to get to work upon schemes
which they believe to be practical, sound, and of permanent utility.
A question which has troubled administrators of State aid to every
progressive agricultural community, and which each country must settle
for itself, is by what form of object lesson in ordinary agriculture
intelligent local interest can best be aroused We have advocated widely
diffused small experimental plots, and they have done much good.
Probably the most useful of our crop improvement schemes have been
those which have demonstrated the profitableness of artificial manures,
the use of which has been enormously increased. The profits derivable in
many parts of Ireland from the cultivation of early potatoes has been
demonstrated in the most convincing manner. To what may be called the
industrial crops, notably flax and barley, a great deal of time and
thought has been applied and much information disseminated and
illustrated by practical experiments. In many quarters interest has been
aroused in the possibilities of profitable tobacco culture. Many
negative and some positive results have been attained by the Department
in the as yet incomplete experiments upon this crop. Much has been
learned about the functions of central and local agricultural and small
industry shows, those occasional aids to the year's work which
disseminate knowledge and stimulate interest and friendly rivalry among
the different producers. The reduction in the death-rate among young
stock, due to preventible causes such as white scour and blackleg, is
well worthy of the attention of those who wish to study the more
practical work of the Department.
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