Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

B609/7/B/21 Cereal Station Statements and correspondence, 1972-83. File containing correspondence relating to the Cereal Station, grouped by year in reverse chronological order. The letters mainly relate to administrative and financial matters, and the main correspondents are AGS and DoA. The file also contains a section on Plant and Machinery purchased by the Station through JHB, 1974-83. There are also some letters regarding farm costs, 1972-76.

B609/7/B/22 Department of Agriculture, 1981-96; 1997-2004. Two files of

correspondence with DoA, mainly on financial and administrative matters. Some letters on the winding up of the Cereal Station present. Many letters

relate to monthly claims [see B609/7/C/9, below].

B609/7/C

Cereal Station Administrative Records, 1901-2003

Cereal Station Administrative Records, 1901-2003. This sub-section contains records relating directly to administration of the Cereal Station. One minute book is present for the years 1901-07, although it is more of a summary of activities rather than a set of formal minutes. The sub-section mainly consists of Cereal Account Books, which note reference number, variety, where grown, raw weight, kiln-dried weight, quantity sold, quantity used in experiments, cash received, balances due, and remarks. Labour accounts also occur in some volumes. An accounts file, 1918-22, is present (B609/7/C/7), as are accounts with the Department of Agriculture. The sub-section also contains small files on brewers’ visits to the Station in 1931, 1933, and 1957. B609/7/C/1 Cereal Station Minute Book and Record Book, 1901-07. Inside the front cover, the volume is given the title ‘Department of Agriculture Minute Book, Account of Experimental Cultivations, and of Mr HC Sheringham’s investigations into the General Cultivation of the Barley Crop in Co Cork. March 1901’. Initially written by John H Bennett. On the first page he records a conference between AGS and the Vice-President of DoA ‘at which it was agreed that an Expert be appointed to devote his whole time to instructing, experimenting, and procuring statistics concerning the cultivation of Barley in the County of Cork and County of Tipperary – Statistics to be confined at first to the Cloyne district of Co Cork’. It is also noted that experiments are to be extended beyond the quarter acre plots grown the last two years. Much of the remainder of the book is written in diary form, noting HC Sheringham’s appointment as the expert on 14 February, his work, and visits by him and Bennett to inspect experimental plots, as well as ongoing meetings and correspondence with the Department. This record is broken up in places by statistical tables and notes of lectures

153