With all due respect to the Minister, we have to attach some significance to his statements, and, if we are not to attach some significance to the statements of a responsible individual, an intelligent and highly-educated man, if he is to be able to make any kind of wild statement when in opposition and to say later: "Forget about them", where are we? What basis have we to go on? We have to attach great importance to the statements which a person of the Minister's calibre makes, whether in opposition or in Government. In fact, just as much when he is a member of the Opposition as when he is a member of the Government. It would be a bad state of affairs if that should happen to our beet industry. The importance of the beet industry has not been driven home sufficiently to the farmers. This crop supplies us with sugar, but its value as animal food is not appreciated in the country, with the exception of Carlow. According to experts who have gone into the matter, not in this country but across the water, it would take a 20-ton crop of turnips to equal in feeding value the by-products, that is, crowns, tops and pulp, of a ten-ton crop of beet. It has the additional advantage of being a crop that cleans the land of weeds, and because it grows so deep in the soil, it aerates it and makes it friable. When a cereal crop, particularly wheat, is grown on a soil from which beet has been taken, in 95 per cent. of cases you are bound to have a good crop of wheat, provided proper seed is sown. Further, it gives considerable employment.
Therefore, as far as wheat, beet and milk are concerned, we are not imposing too great a burden on our people when we ask them to subsidise them to such an extent that they will give a fair return to those who undertake their production. I think it can be regarded as national insurance.
A good deal has been said about the Live-stock Breeding Act. We have heard various opinions. From what I learn from Deputy P.D. Lehane I gather that he is more in favour of the policy of the ex-Minister than the policy of the present Minister in regard to it, but, as far as we in the West are concerned, while the Livestock Breeding Act did a certain amount of good in giving us a better type of cattle at an early age, it has operated adversely. I do not blame the Department of Agriculture altogether for that because there were a number of people on our committee of agriculture who were all out for the milk strain cattle and some of them would put a finger in your eye if you mentioned a Hereford. I know that the majority of those I represent are out for the beef strain, that will get them the early return. While they can have their Friesians or Ayrshires or double dairy Shorthorns in the South, we would like—I know I would—if permitted, to give premiums for Herefords and Poll-Angus to the same extent, if not to a greater extent, as is permitted in the case of dairy Shorthorns. We are permitted to give only a certain number of premiums for Herefords and Poll-Angus cattle and it must bear relation to the number given for dairy Shorthorns. We should be allowed to give at least 50 per cent., and if the people wish to keep Herefords, their wish should be met, and if it were all Herefords that they want, no barrier should be put in their way.
The same applies to the Horse Breeding Act and the way in which the regulations have been enforced. This, of course, does not come within the ambit of the committee of agriculture but, in our county, premiums are given only to sires of the Irish draught. The Irish draught is a good horse and suitable for the farmer's own use in County Galway, but when he is brought to the fair to be sold it is very hard to cash him until he is at least two and a-half years, while you can bring out a Clydesdale at one and a-half years and get a very fancy price for him, a far better price than you will get for the Irish draught.
All these things have operated against the West for a good many years. When Deputy Madden was speaking last night and making a very fine case for the farmers in the South in regard to the milk price, he was countered by the Minister, who said, "What about the slaughter of the calves? Has not the abandonment of that and its prohibition meant 3d. per gallon extra to the farmers in the South of Ireland?" If it means 3d. a gallon extra to the farmers in the South of Ireland, I do not grudge them, but I disapprove of their being subsidised at the expense of a great many of the farmers in the West of Ireland. There is a type of calf now coming to the West of Ireland which should be slaughtered and which should never be allowed there or which should never be allowed into any fair or market. It is all very well for people to say, why do the farmers buy them, but the Minister knows quite well that in his own home town of Ballaghaderreen when a few farmers meet they will have a few drinks and will come out in the best of good cheer and that they love the idea of having a number of beasts going home the road before them. Here you have this scrub calf and they will get him for £5 or £6, while a good calf is £10. They can get two for the price of one and they will bring them home, and it is the worst money they ever spent. It would be better to give £12 for the good calf than to buy the two scrub calves at £5 or £6 each, because 70 per cent. of them die, and, if they do not die, there is further loss in keeping them. It would be better if they died. Consequently, I am not enamoured at all of the decision to abandon the slaughter of calves. Good calves should not be slaughtered, but the weeds should not be allowed out to the markets or fairs, as they will not be profitable to the farmers who buy them.
Diseases in cattle and sheep have caused great losses to the farmers. While it is a fine thing to have a free health service for the people, it would be tending in that direction, too, if we had a free health service for animals. The Minister, who is anxious to build up a live-stock population, should seriously consider, in relation to farmers under £20 valuation, providing a free veterinary service. That should be done, if possible, for all farmers, even though they may be called upon to pay something annually towards it. At present, farmers who find a beast sick or unwell have to go seven or ten miles to the nearest town and even then may not find the veterinary surgeon at home. If they do find him and take him out, it means a couple of pounds, according to the distance and if there are several visits it would be as well if the animal died at first. A free veterinary service would be very useful to the farmers and to the country in general. It would be good for the health of the people, because when you have to pay fairly high fees, farmers often try to treat the animals themselves.
Maize meal is very important in pig production. I wonder what grades of bacon are required now by the British —are they the same as pre-war? If so, we want something more than maize meal, which is a fat-producing food. If my memory serves me aright, we had, previous to the war, even amongst our own people, a great dislike for fat bacon. People would not take it at all and so the fat portion had to conform to a certain measurement. It gives me a bit of satisfaction to know that the British would be glad to take it now and get it under their tooth and would not despise it. Though that gives me satisfaction, it is only petty satisfaction, as we would like to see pig production increasing.
Barley as a mixture with maize is very essential. The Minister will say he has fixed a fine price for barley, that he has undone a wrong which was perpetrated on the producers. The policy of the Department in keeping down the price of barley during the emergency was not to have it in too hot a competition with wheat. I wonder if the high price for barley is such a sound policy. It is all right for the barley producers for the time being. There is only one cereal crop which should be subsidised, and that is wheat. If you subsidise the others and fix too attractive a price, the tendency of farmers will be to go in for cereals year in and year out—and, no matter what fertilisers they have, they are bound to impoverish the land.
Another industry which should be encouraged is that found in Donegal, part of the Midlands and in Galway— the certified seed potato industry. The Department should arrange for the inspectors to give lessons on its advantage. The people in it, and those residing in close proximity to them, know that the certified seed potato industry has been of great advantage to a large number of farmers in the West of Ireland. It has enabled them, without any form of Government aid, to build houses and good out-offices over the past ten or 15 years. I hope this part of the agreement for sending ware potatoes to England will not interfere with this industry. It would be bad if it did.
It was mentioned yesterday that the question of grass seeds had been handed over to a combine. That was so, but it had to be, as if everyone were allowed to produce grass seeds, turnip and mangold seeds, we would have a very poor type of seed. Grass seed is very important and it is foolish for farmers—many of them well-to-do farmers—not to insist on getting the proper type of grass seed. I know some who, because of the few pounds they would save, will go into a neighbour's loft or stables and take away seeds that are not seeds at all, with all kinds of mixture of weeds and dirt. As a result, it is quite impossible for them to have proper grass or hay. If there is anything which should be made a punishable offence, it is the use of inferior grass seeds. A good deal more attention should be given to this.
