The Conservative governments between 1886 and 1906 passed a number of other measures in addition to electoral reform, which some hoped would make Home Rule irrelevant. They sought to improve the generous Ashbourne Act of 1885, which advanced tenant purchase of land. An 1891 measure failed to attract the interest of many tenants because of complicated financing terms and it annoyed landlords by giving land stock redeemable after 30 years in place of cash as compensation. An 1896 measure improved the terms. Then the 1903 Wyndham Act started the process of making land purchase nearly universal. This act satisfied the landlord by giving a more generous valuation of the land, while giving the tenant purchaser lower interest rates and a longer term of payment. In addition, where more than three-quarters of a landlord's tenants had agreed to terms, the landlord would be compensated for the entire estate while the land commissioners would act as landlords for those tenants reluctant to purchase. Soon tenants had purchased more than 300,000 farms, leaving only 70,000 not purchased. Immediately after independence the Irish Free State made sale of estate land compulsory. This meant that in less than a generation
Ireland had been transformed into a nation of peasant proprietors. Such may well explain the conservative character independent Ireland would assume.
Another reform was the creation of a Congested Districts Board empowered to subsidize the construction of harbors, establishment of fishing, cottage industries, and implementation of improved agricultural methods in areas determined to be poor or destitute according to per capita valuation of land. It also purchased lands and distributed holdings on them. The financing of these projects came from the funds of the disestablished Church of Ireland. There remains some doubt as to the ultimate gains from these well-intentioned efforts, as many of the projects were of a make work, rather than an economically realistic, character. The land purchases expedited the acquisition of land by existing tenants, but few landless laborers gained holdings.
The cooperative movement advanced by the reforming landlord Horace Plunkett, a mixture of private and public action, was another reform. An Irish Agricultural Organization Society encouraged over 800 cooperative organizations to engage in marketing, securing equipment, and obtaining credit. Plunkett later served as head of a public department promoting agricultural and technical instruction.
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