Industrial Progress
Above: Industrial Progress
About this time the farmers all through the country, under the encouragement and guidance of Sir Horace Plunkett, began to form themselves into ” Co-operative Societies ” for the improvement of home industries, and especially of agriculture; one general association, founded by Sir H. Plunkett, being at the head of all-the ” Irish Agricultural Organisation Society.” These associations have effected great good by spreading enlightenment and introducing improved methods. Among other benefits many ” Credit Banks ” have been established, in which farmers and others can borrow small sums of money at a reasonable rate of interest, instead of having recourse to private money-lenders, who generally charged enormous and ruinous rates for their loans.
Another good result of this co-operative movement is the spread of ” Creameries,” which began to be formed in many districts about this time. .Hitherto each farmer who kept cows had his butter made in his own home. But in most cases there were bad appliances, and many of the women were more less unskilled in making butter; so that it. was not as good as it might be, and brought low prices. Instead of following this plan, the farmers of a district combined together to form a company, each paying for a number of shares according to his means : or a company for the purpose was funned ill some other way. They had a creamery erected, where butter is made on a large scale by special machinery, and under the management of skilful per- sons. To this all the farmers around send their milk, for which they are paid a good price, and after the butter is made they get back the buttermilk, which they use chiefly in feeding calves. In the creamery the very best butter is made from the milk : the manager sells it at a high price; and the proceeds are divided among the members of the company according to the number of their several shares, giving a good profit. By these creameries, moreover, the credit of Irish butter is kept up-a very important matter. The farmers find this plan of disposing of their milk and butter far more profitable than making the butter in their own homes : and accordingly creameries are spreading more and more over the whole country.
In various parts of Ireland, especially in the west, certain districts had become greatly over-crowded or ” Congested,” i.e. the people were clustered closely in particular spots, living in poor cabins, each family with a little bit of land quite insufficient for support. They paid the rents as best they could, partly by industries outside their farms, such as fishing-, gathering sea-weed, etc.; and in a great many cases the ‘able-bodied men went to England every autumn, where they got work, and returned home with their earnings after the harvest. In all cases, the people of these congested districts were miserably poor, and lived in a very wretched comfortless way, hardly able to support life. To help to remedy this state of things, the ” Congested Districts Board ” was established at the instance of the Chief Secretary, Mr. Arthur Balfour. The Board were empowered to adopt various means to carry out their good work, for which they were furnished with funds by the Government, the money being advanced as a loan at a small rate of interest. In great numbers of cases the Board purchased farms sufficiently large for the support of the several families, to which the cottiers removed, and for which they were to pay reasonable rents. The Board also encouraged local industries among the people, such as fishing, rearing poultry, pig-feeding, and the production of bacon for home use and for exportation, cattle-breeding, and such like; and it made money grants to schools for Technical Instruction in certain Industries suitable to the districts. Most of their enterprises, or those undertaken under their auspices, were attended with very satisfactory results, such, for instance, as the Woolen Industry, established by the nuns at Foxford in the county Mayo. ‘I’ll is gave employment to the cottagers, both young and old, in all that neighborhood, so that the whole district has been altered : instead of half-idle, listless poverty, there is now to be seen everywhere cheerful work, life, and prosperity. Under this Board also, and aided by the generosity of the Baroness Burdett- Coutts, a fishery school was established at Baltimore, county Cork, by the parish priest. Rev. Father Davis, which did, and continues to do, immense good. A year or so later on the Board purchased the whole of Clare Island, outside Clew Bayo in Mayo, which they divided among a number of people, each family having a good-sized comfortable farm at a moderate rent. These are only a few examples of the great good done by this Board. The beneficial work which it initiated is still being carried on.
