the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President . Plunkett was appointed vice-president, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the vice-president should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics was more important than politics for