CO-OPERATION IN 

 FOOD-SUPPLY 



The general title of this course of lectures was 

 framed to include a wide range of topics, but I am 

 afraid that it is only by a stretch of language that my 

 subject can be brought within its limits. The pro- 

 duction of food-stuffs really depends on the exercise 

 of certain arts the arts of dealing with plants and 

 animals so as to produce food from them and, as in 

 the case of all such arts, which are as old or nearly as 

 old as human history, its practice is based upon the 

 mass of acquired tradition which has been accumu- 

 lated through countless generations, and which is still 

 enormously more important in the actual practice of 

 agriculture, horticulture, and stock-breeding than are 

 the results of scientific research. In food production, 

 i.e. in stock-raising, crop-growing, and so on, as in 

 everything else, however, the results of scientific re- 

 search are becoming more and more potent in actual 

 practice with every year that passes. Then, again, 

 the co-operative organization of food production and 

 food supply, about which I am going to speak, de- 

 mands a considerable knowledge of the psychology 

 of various kinds of human beings, a practical and 

 intimate acquaintance with human nature. Because 

 the material dealt with in the production of food con- 

 sists of living beings, and because the organization of 

 the co-operative production of food means dealing 



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