I only wish to make one point. Deputy O'Gorman pointed out that a certain proportion of the beet-pulp went to America. That is so. Half of it went to America and half was sold at home. You have the same position in England. They have sugar beet factories there for about 14 years, but nevertheless they are unable to dispose of more than half their supplies in any one year.
In the first year, we disposed of half the amount locally. Each grower was entitled to one cwt. or two cwt. beet-pulp at 5/- per cwt., for every ton of beet supplied to the factory. That was a term of the contract. The sugar manufacturers were anxious to dispose of as much beet-pulp as they could in the country and they gave, not the proportion named in the contract, but any quantity of beet-pulp which the growers wished to buy at this price. Nevertheless, they could only dispose of half of it. So far as the Department of Agriculture is concerned, they arranged for the production of a pamphlet for distribution in four or five of the best feeding counties dealing with the value of beet-pulp. That pamphlet was prepared, examined, and approved by the Department of Agriculture and it has been distributed wholesale. It points out the advantage of beet-pulp as a substitute for roots at the prices at which they are sold. A conference of all the instructors of Laoighis, Wexford, Kilkenny and the feeding counties was held, and they were asked to push the sale of beet-pulp in all the counties and to advertise it amongst the farmers, so as to get it used. They have been doing that. Experiments are going on in the Department's Institutes as to the value of beet-pulp, as compared with roots. When sufficiently reliable data have been obtained on that question, the Department will publish a pamphlet dealing with it.
