§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, at the recent sitting of the Land Commission in Cork on' the 3rd inst., Mr. Commissioner Wrench is correctly reported to have said, while hearing a fair rent appeal in the case of M'Grath, tenant, and Bullen, landlord, addressing the tenant— 732
You are a very wise man to get your grass seeds from England. If more tenants did that they would have better grass. It will pay you well to get your seeds from England;and whether intimation will be conveyed to Mr. Wrench that language such as that quoted is likely to do great mischief to the Irish seed trade?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Land Commissioners report that the tenant in the case referred to stated in the course of his examination at the recent sitting of the Court of Appeal at Cork that he was in the habit of getting his grass seeds from Messrs. Sutton, of Reading. Mr. Wrench then observed that the tenant was "a wise man, and that it would pay him well to do so, and that if other tenants followed his example they would have better pastures." Mr. Wrench being aware from practical experience that the grass seeds obtained from firms who have made the laying down of grass lands a special feature of their trade have given particularly good results, he considered it his duty to call public attention to the fact, as he knows many Irish farmers suffer by obtaining inferior and unsuitable grass seeds from unreliable sources, instead of going to the best houses, of which there are plenty in Ireland, where they would be supplied with seed to suit the quality of their soil. It is needless to say that Mr. Wrench did not mean to convey any slight on the respectable Irish seed merchants.