w to make the best use of his land, and that he does not
till and cultivate it as he ought to make it really fruitful. Besides
the Creamery system there are other forms of co-operation which have
exercised a most beneficent influence amongst the peasantry. These
include agricultural societies for the improvement of the breed of
cattle, a number of country banks, mostly of the Raiffeisen type,
co-operative associations of rural industries, principally lace, and
societies for the sale of eggs and fowls, the dressing of flax, and
general agriculture.

A direct outcome of the Co-operative Movement was the creation by Act
of Parliament in 1899 of the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction in Ireland--a Department which, though it possesses many
faults of administration and of policy, has nevertheless had a
distinctly wholesome influence on Irish life. In relation to the
Co-operative Movement the judgment of Mr Dillon was once again
signally at fault. He gave it vehement opposition at every point and
threw the whole weight of his personal following into the effort to
arrest its growth and expansion. Happily, however, the practical good
sense of the people saved them from becoming the dupes of parties who
had axes of their own, political or personal, to grind, and thus
co-operation and self-help have won, in spite of all obstacles and
objections, a very fair measure of success.

Meanwhile a remarkable development was taking place in the matter of
bringing popular and educative literature within reach of the masses.
Public and parish libraries and village halls were widely established.
These were supplementary to the greater movements to which reference
has been made, but they were indicative of the steady bent of the
national mind towards enlightenment and education, and of a desire in
all things appertaining to the national life for more and better
instruction. Another important movement there was to which little
reference is made in publications dealing with the period--namely, the
organisation of the town and country labourers for their political and
social improvement. It was first known as the Irish Democratic Trade
and Labour Federation, but this went to pieces in the general
confusion of the Split. It was resurrected subsequently under the
title of the Irish Land and Labour Association. I mention it here as
an additional instance of the regenerative agencies that were at work
in every domain of Irish life