§ MR. WILLIAM O'BRIENI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Local Government Board will make advances to Boards of Guardians for the purpose of purchasing spraying machines for the protection of the potato crop; and whether he will advise the Board of Works to make loans on the same terms as for reclamation, &c., to enable small farmers to purchase spraying machines and hand separators for the improved manufacture of butter?
*MR. JOHN MORLEYI am informed that neither the Local Government Board, nor the Board of Works, nor the Congested Districts Board, has power to make advances to Boards of Guardians, or to individuals, for the purpose mentioned by my hon. Friend. Experiments have been made by the Irish Land Commission in recent years for the purpose of testing the value of certain applications as preventatives of the spread of potato disease. The results of these experiments have been most successful, and directions, in leaflet form, have been widely circulated throughout the country by the aid of Boards of Guardians, the Constabulary, and local persons. The Congested Districts Board have also supplied spraying mixture to persons in possession of spraying machines, and this season it is proposed to expend a sum of £1,200, or perhaps more, in the purchase and distribution of spraying mixture. I make these observations in order to show that the Government 1332 has been alive to the importance of a matter which so largely concerns the interests of the Irish farmer, and I would add that it appears to me that landlords have it in their power to supplement the efforts of the Government very considerably in this direction, as well as to further their own interests by corning to the assistance of their poorer tenants and supplying them with the appliances which have been found by experience to be so valuable in checking the ravages of the potato disease. I am glad to see it stated in the Press that one landlord, Lord De Freyne, has ordered as many as 75 spraying machines, which he intends to present to his tenantry as a gift.