Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1911 — POULTRY IN IRELAND [ARTICLE]

POULTRY IN IRELAND

Great Wealth in Industry. Says Official Report Chlokons Supplied to England Excood In Amount That Which Cornea From AH Othor Countries of Europe Combined. Dublin, Ireland. —The opinions of experts given at a conference on the poultry Industry, held in Dublin recently, confirm the views expressed on the report of the department of agriculture and technical instruction for Ireland. Sir Horace Plunkett, a former vice-president of the department, declared that there was a mine of wealth In the poultry Industry awaiting development The present vice-president, T. W. Russell, gave figures showing the development of the industry in the last five years, and said that the export of butter alone almost equaled the export of whisky and porter combined, and that when eggs were added to butter the two combined almost doubled the alcoholic export; this in spite of the fact that the export, of whisky and porter is commonly believed almost to equal linen, which was of course easily first. The poultry supplied by Ireland at the present time to Great Britain exceeds In amount that which is being supplied by all the other countries of Europe. Diagrams and maps exhibited at the conference showed side by side the growth of the system of instruction and organization and the growth of the export of eggs and poultry. The correspondence between the two sets of charts was remarkable. The value of the export now amounts to $20,000,000 a year and a prophecy that in the near future the amount of money earned by Ireland from eggs and poultry would be nearer to $100,000,000 than to $20,000,000 was made by T. P. Gill, secretary of the department and formerly the nationalist member of parliament, who was on an Irish mission in the United States with Mr. John Dillon and the late Timothy Harrington when the Parnell crisis occurred. The wealth from this industry mainly goes to the small farmers and labor-

ers and their wives. Therterjs no form of wealth that can be more thoroughly or more minutely distributed in a rural population than this, it is said that in-many cases the receipts from eggs are sufficient to pay the rent The industry gives employment to farmers’ wives and daughters, yielding returns on small farms of from SIOO to S3OO per annum. The conference was attended by officials and representatives of the Irish county committees which work the poultry schemes, and by experts and public representatives from England and Scotland. The practical manner In which the business was conducted made a deep impression on the visitors. One delegate, from Bristol, gave a

dramatic touch to the proceedings just before the close. He stood up In his place and said: “I was all my life an anti-home ruler, but the way this conference has been conducted may lead me to alter my views.” A delegate from Armagh protested against this observation, but he was quickly answered by Mr. O’Conner, a delegate from Cork, who said: "And as representing Cork, I applaud it" The incident passed off with this observation. Slight as it was, it summed up the Irish situation admirably. The proceedings of this conference opened the eyes of the 'visitors from England and Scotland by showing what Irishmen could do to develop this country if they were permitted to do so.