Farm Produce Transport in Ireland.
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"DIELELIMINARY figures relating to the recent agricul tural returns 4re contained in a memorandum just issued by the Statistics Branch of the Department of Industry and ComMerce for the Government of the Irish Free State; covering both the Free State and Northern Ireland. , A steady decline is shown in the numbers of horses employed in agriculture. -The number for the whole of Ireland is 404,961. in 1927, as compared with 418,301 in 1926, representing a total decrease of 10,370, or 2.5 per cent: A reduction in the area of ploughed land of 40,248 acres, or 2.6 Per cent., may account for a certain falling ore in the number of agricultural horses, but one has to set against this the increasing amount of produce raised. Agriculture is prospering in Ireland, and as the tendency is to organize and standardize production and marketing for export we find that though production shows a falling off in things requited merely for home consumption, e.g., wheat, barley and turnips, export.produets, with the exception of a slight falling off in potatoes, have increased, in some caSes,•considerably. One branch of farming that has grown tremendously is the pig trade. Mokt of these products have been sent to Britain, where a ready markethas been found 'Since we closed our ports to Continental fresh meat. The Irish pig trade has grown enormously during the past 18 months, especially in Ulster, where the number of pigs has increased by practically 50 per cent. in 12 months, or 37 per cent. for the whole of Ireland.
These facts are m.mtioned to demonstrate the importance of IranSpOrt in Ireland, and to showthat with an increasing amount Of produce and .a decreasing number of horses the motor must be getting rather busy them. This does not moan, however, that the agricultural market in Ireland is being fully exploited. On the contrary, there is plenty of scope for further activity. Much can be done by those who are in a position to help and advise the farmer in the matter of transport as to how this affects his individual needs, and still more by watching developments in the organization of the industry in its various branches.
Many people outside Ireland seem to imagine that the Irish farmer is nothing,more than a glorified smallholder. Farms are smaller, of course, than they are in England, and in some districts people are poor. But these are among • the -points to be watched, because it is the combination among the smaller men which is producing industrial development requiring transport. The Irish farmer is not behind those of England, either as regards business ability or practical and scientific knowledge.