Jan. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 73 



Springside. 



A well- attended meeting of this branch was held on 4th November, when 

 a lecture was given by Mr. John Swan on orchard pests and their remedies. 



Mr. Swan dealt with the history and habits of the more widely known 

 pests and methods of dealing with them, and replied to numerous questions. 



Stratford. 



The monthly meeting of this branch was held on 8th November, when 

 twenty members attended, and two additional ones were enrolled. 



Following general business, Mr. T. Ninnes, of Craven, gave a very inc^^uctive 

 lecture on first aid. The discussion lasted a couple of hours, during which 

 time Mr. Ninnes answered a number of questions asked by members. 



Tallawang. 



At a meeting held on 14th October, a lecture was delivered by Rev. G. Nelson 

 Bensley on -co-operation and co-partnership. A summary of the paper 

 follows. 



Co-operation and Co-partnership. 



At the end of this great war they must adopt a policy of reconstruction, said the speaker. 

 Individual effort of every character must have an effect on the community, and each 

 action of the community must leave its mark on the nation, and so each part contri- 

 bute to the advancement or retrogression of its whole. If Australia was to take her 

 proper place as the v/orld advanced, they, as individuals, must not shirk their duties 

 towards her progress. Through co-operation they could make their best individual 

 effort's one great combined effort. 



The Agricultural Bureau undoubtedly made for individual and communal benefit, 

 and other such farmers' unions and associations as were in existence— provided they 

 carried the jjrinciples of co-operation right through and were not swayed by jjolitical 

 considerations — could go far to raise the status of the primary jjroducer to its jiroper 

 plane. Decline of rural population, caused by the lure of tlie citj^ with its aj^parent 

 social advantages, could be more effectively remedied bj^ social co-operation and the 

 improving of rural social life, than by inducing the city clerk to become a farmer. 



The banding together of farmers and graziers for the purpose of owning their own 

 plants, for treating and marketing their products, and even for the manufacturing of 

 implements for their production, was not only within the realms of possibility, but in 

 some countries was an accomplished fact. The advantages of such a system were obvious. 

 By selling and marketing in bulk quantities, the co-operative society could get better 

 prices, and by the elimination of the middle man, return a direct profit to the farmer. 

 The supply of implements to its members on the easiest of terms, and the purchase of 

 " co-operative " implements to be used and passed on were other useful spheres of 

 activity. The same principle could also be applied to live stock. 



Conservation of fodder on a co-operative system, the speaker pointed out, enabled 

 the farmer to have a supply of feed in bad years, according to the amount he had suppHed 

 in good years, and if his requirements were in excess of his contribution, he could purchase 

 from his own society at the price ruling in good years. 



Co-operative ownership of water conservation and irrigation schemes would enable 

 the farmer to have a plentiful supply of water at cheap rates ; under present conditions 

 the 26-inch rainfall of the district was practically allowed to go to waste. 



References to the success with which insurance of stock, crops and property, on co- 

 operative principles, had been carried out, and the advantages to be gained by having a 

 co-ox)erative agricultural credit bank behind the farmers of the district, concluded an 

 interesting lecture. 



The principal feature of the meeting held on 5th November was a lecture 

 by Mr. F. Whitehouse, of the Stock Branch, on the farm horse. 



Mr. Whitehouse dealt in detail with the various types of farm horse, describing their 

 conformation ; and by means of blackboard sketches he illustrated what unsoundnesses 

 were, and how they could be immediately detected. He also explained the symptoms 



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