76 SMALL HOLDINGS 



Agricultural Organisation Society a grant 

 from the Development Fund. There are at 

 present 955 societies with a membership of 

 97,000. The great majority of them are 

 engaged in dairy farming, which lends itself 

 with peculiar readiness to co-operative effort 

 in the form of creameries, but there are also 

 a considerable number of societies engaged 

 in arable farming and in poultry-keeping. 

 Another important feature is the establish- 

 ment and growth of credit societies on the 

 German model, so far as the English law 

 permits. Under the influence of co-operation 

 and land purchase the area of cultivated land 

 in Ireland has been steadily increasing, while 

 that of Great Britain has been steadily 

 diminishing. Between 1909 and 191 1 the 

 former increased by 127,666 acres and the 

 latter decreased by 88,415 acres. 



With regard to Denmark, we can only refer 

 readers to the graphic and interesting account 

 given by Sir H. Rider Haggard in his recently 

 published book Rural Denmark and Its 

 Lessons. Co-operation has been the efficient 

 agent in placing Denmark in that unique 

 position with regard to the agricultural 

 population to which attention has been 

 drawn in a previous chapter. 



