24 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



those engaged in agriculture is the first essential step towards progress. 

 As to the progress made and likely to be made, it was with pleasurable 

 surprise that I found a number of farmers at practically every place I 

 visited who, from the somewhat meagre writings which so far I have been 

 able to put before the public on the subject, have during the past few 

 years been growing continuous crops, on what they call a small scale and 

 what we in Ireland would call a very large scale. From the information so 

 obtained it is very evident that the system with adaptations is just as sui- 

 table for English as for Irish conditions — in Wales and the south western 

 districts of England even more suitable. 



" Again as regards the co-operative purchase and use of implements, 

 the recent introduction of motor and motor implements into agricultural 

 work has opened up a vast field for development in this direction on 

 the part of the bigger farmer.';. On the other hand the spread of the 

 vSmall Holdings Act calls for — even demands for the success of the Act — 

 a far more extended use of modern machinery, which in the case of the 

 smallholder must be purchased and used conjointly... Already several 

 both large and small implement societies have been formed or are in the 

 process of formation. There are difficulties in the way, the chief one being 

 the extreme difficult}^ which some societies are meeting in the procuring 

 of machinery - a difficulty which I have tried several times to fpcus at- 

 tention upon, and one which it is to be hoped will shortly receive the se- 

 rious attention of the authorities concerned ". 



