§ MR. WILLIAM ABRAHAM (Cork County, N.E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Irish Agricultural Department, when refusing to accept from Mr. Williamson one ton of the "Duchess of Cornwall" potato, free of cost, offered to purchase from that gentleman one ton at the rate of £10, being one-tenth of the market price at which selected seed could be bought; and whether the Department now intend to carry out trials of this variety of potato in nineteen counties and on their own farms as originally decided upon; and if he will state the source from which the supply has been obtained, the price paid, and the quantity required for these trials this year.
§ MR. WALTER LONGSeed of the variety mentioned was originally purchased from a Scotch grower. It has been tested for the past three years on the Department's experimental farms, and the supply to be utilised this year is the produce of the original supply. The Department did offer to purchase a ton at the cost stated. The trials which it was intended to carry out in nineteen counties will not now be made.