The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-20
IRELAND's TRADE ANALYzED.
Farming and Stock Raising Are Lead
ing Industries.

Ireland 5 future prosperity lies pTi-
marily in supplying food to the great
industrial centres and consuming mar
kets of Great Britain and the continent,
says bulletin of the National Bank of
Commerce on Irish trade. Ireland s
advantage is in agriculture, and the
greatest possibilities for industrial de-
yelopmcnt lie in the manufacture of
foodstutis from home grown material
he performance OF agriculture is in
dIcated by the fact that in 1913, the last
year Tor which values of Irish exports
aie available, 81 per cent of the total
was made up OF articles of an agricul-
| tural character, while agricultural prod
nets of indubtable domestic origin
! formed approximately half the total.
Live stock raising is by far the most
| important industry and live animals the
greatest single item of export, - contin-
ues the bulletin - For the most part
| the stock are raised for the English
market and are exported alive. But it
| should be possible to export cattle in
a much more profitable form than that
| of animals on the hoof The fact that
all this live stock is slaughtered abroad
means the loss to Ireland of the profits
| OF the Strengthening, packing and related
industries, and of the important indus
! tries, such as tanning, which depend upon
the meat industry for their raw mater
| ial.
There has recently been an attempt
| to develop an Irish meat trade, but
| through lack of sufficient capital it has
| not been able to continue. As far as
! operations were carried on, there was
every indication that the meat aud by
products OF cattle slaughtered in Ireland
could be sold proiitably in Great Britain
and other markets. The situation in
the sheep trade Is much the same In
the case of pork products the develop
| Inent OF meat trade has proceeded much
farther: Concerted action by the bacon
| curers IL now of excellent quality
| Dairying is another favorable field
for development. Much has already been
| accomplished IN organizing the butter
| trade, but there Is still opportunity for
great Improvement. The growth of the
cheese trade IN the latter years of the
! war was also an encouraging feature
In the field of industrial activity
| Ireland is severely handicapped by the
/ lack of cheap power. The annual pro-
| duction of about 10000 tons of coal must
he supplemented by imports from Great
Britain, averaging 100000 tons a year
| The high moisture content makes diff.
| ticult the successful application of peat
| TO power production and the methods
! OF winning peat must be greatly i'm.
! proved before it can compete success
fully with imported coal for industrial
/ use.
Not only must coal be imported lint
a very large proportion of the raw ma
terials used in the princinal Irish in
ddustries is of foreign origin. In The
linen industry much of the flax is i'm
norted and practically all thu steel useC
I IN Belfast shipyards comes from Great
Britain. Although part of the WOO
|. manufactured in Ireland is of domestic
). origin even this has usually been spuF
III English mills and there Is aAlarge i'm
Portation of foreign woods and warns
Ib" tobacco and rome manufactures o,
FAltast are entirely dependent upon for
elgn materials, and the great breweries
!, and distilleries of Dublin use IarSS
proportion of foreign Grain. In some
except for The manufacture of food
products; as in meat packing and dairy
countries for both fuel and raw mater,
ials. as VOL as fer markets for the III
! 1.-The trade figures suggest second