Agriculture is hardly pulling its full weight in Ireland to-day and this cuts at the roots of our most cherished ambitions for which our people before us fought and planned. The farms and the inhabitants of the farms of this country are called upon to perform two separate functions. Upon them depend the growth of our distinctive Irish society and, without them, we can hardly bear way. The production of the farms is the salvation of this State.
There are very many problems facing agriculture and, whether it is due to changes in the Ministeries and changes in the forms of Government, we do not seem to have arrived at any permanent solution. Of course, difficulties are continually arising. In my constituency there is the problem ofhill grazing or marginal land. Some people decide to improve the better land and some people want to do something about the hilly land. The people who came down from the Department decided, probably wisely, to strike an even keel. Actually, I, myself, had a small scheme. I did it the hard way. I had one piece of very poor bog and they decided that probably it would not show results and that a try at a slightly better bog, where there was a better fall, would be more successful. However, I am probably sounding my own trumpet and I will make that tune a short one.
There are also these trial plots, which are very good, particularly when they are in an advantageous position, a position in which they can be seen, so that the demonstration can be more effective. As most of us live in the remoter parts, we would like to get a better show.
One of the snags about farming and production is the immense damage being done by the rabbit pest, and, before it assumes alarming proportions, something should be done to cope with it. Last winter, the prices available for rabbits, for some reason or other, were not so good, and the people who go in for that business, to get rid of the pests or to knock out a living for themselves, to help them when they cannot get other employment, did not seem to have the necessary incentive. I hate mentioning subsidies—there has been too much talk about them—but something should be done to encourage the extermination of these pests. It would certainly be money very well spent, because some fine day we will find this menace assuming such proportions that the cost of extermination will be enormous.
I believe that, in Australia, they are using some new virus which has been successful. I understand that the rabbits have to be caught, and it reminds me of the fairy tale about putting salt on a rabbit's tail and catching it. The difficulty, however, has been got over to some extent by the use of a kind of trap in which rabbits are caught, injected with this virus andreleased to spread the disease. I understand that it has a 90 per cent. success. In Wicklow, it is a particular menace, owing to the hilly nature of the country and the forestry plantations, which lend themselves to the spead of these vermin. The young trees are fenced for protection but, when they reach a certain stage, they are no longer liable to damage and the fences are neglected, so that the rabbits can get going and spread all over the place.
Another cause of the spread of these pests is the existence of derelict railways. The old line from Aughrim to Shillelagh is a warren. These lines should be discarded completely, and allowed to go back into the adjacent farms. Along the branch line from Sallins to Tullow, there are three embankments which are great breeding-grounds, and one of these days that line, too, will be a total loss. We have only two cattle trains per month on it, which is very poor. I am sure that line will be closed eventually, although I am not advocating that it should be closed, because many people think that these smaller railway lines should be used for the provision of diesel-operated services.
In Wicklow, also, we have a good deal of trouble from dogs worrying sheep. I do not know whose responsibility that is. I myself lost some sheep recently, but as the farm is a little distance away from the home, I cannot say whether the damage was caused before or after death, although there was no disease in the sheep. It is a source of grave worry. I believe there is a by-law which provides that dogs must be locked in overnight, from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m., and that by-law should be enforced more strictly, because one will have some chance of keeping a check on dogs in daylight. All this has to do with the production drive.
We have had a lot of discussion about wheat, increased tillage and so on and I do not think there is any great point in getting out so much propaganda about increased production, with the use of so many figures. For my own part, I feel that there has been too much advertising by leafletand in the daily and the local Press about the terrific prices available for wheat and beet. I am pretty sure that the prices have not improved at all in the past two years, except so far as paper propaganda is concerned. Farmers were much happier when the price of wheat was 77/6 a barrel, because there is very little doubt that unless it was very inferior stuff altogether, it was possible to get your wheat to the buyers and millers without any delay.
The standard of wheat has now been raised very much and the price increased to 80/- per barrel for propaganda purposes and there was more money spent in advertising and publicity, to the effect that the price was the best in the world, than would have paid the price. I doubt if the people who will gain by the extra 2/6 per barrel will be 5 or 10 per cent., particularly if the weather continues as it has been for the past 12 days. I do not think that kind of thing makes for encouragement down the country because the farmers are not so easilyfooled as to believe all these wonder ful figures.
Beet was even a greater scandal in that respect. Again, the price was advertised as the best in the world. In actual fact, the price of pulp was raised so much—and quite a number of people grow beet for that by-product, which is invaluable—that, when it came to figures, the price you got for the beet was only a few pence, about 6d., a ton extra. Experts in figures have told me that the price of beet was less. We do not grow very much beet and it is not worth my while to go into the actual figures, but all one knows is that one gets a small cheque for the beet. The by-product encourages people to grow it because it takes the place of oats to a great extent.