Co-operation \ 89 



Every form of agricultural co-operation in England meets at the 



outset with one great difficulty, which is particularly serious in the 



case of corn-growing farms; namely the want of uniformity in the size 



of the individual holdings. Anyone who has travelled through the 



country, and especially through the corn-growing districts in the 



eastern counties, will have remarked this. In one place there may be 



a large farm of perhaps 600 acres, and bordering on it a little holding 



of some 40 acres ; then some allotments, or a farm of a medium size, 



or another large holding, and so the variegated scene goes on. There 



are hardly any districts given up to small or medium farms on which 



corn is the chief product. The Isle of Axholme, so often cited, is in 



this respect an exception, and a very instructive one. For, as has 



been seen above, the agriculturists of that district are said to possess 



a great degree of the co-operative spirit. That spirit is not to be 



found where small holdings lie scattered about among large and 



middle-sized farms. In fact, it is difficult to see how co-operation 



is possible for small and medium holders in such a case. If they 



purchased some machine for their common use, it would be for ever 



on the road : and even if the middleman's profit was got rid of, the 



large farmer, working with his own threshing-machine, would still 



have the advantage owing to economy in transport. As to machinery 



for use on the fields, it is true that association might put the small 



holder in a position to use this, whereas he has not sufficient capital 



to obtain it for himself. But again the advantage remains with the 



large farmer, whose machinery is applied over wide stretches of 



contiguous land, where the work is naturally done more economically 



than on the smaller fields of the scattered small holders. Whether the 



various corn-growing districts contain small holders enough for 



co-operative purchase of seed, food-stuffs and manures to be worth 



their while seems doubtful : and any co-operation of large with small 



holders in this respect is altogether improbable. As Mr Clare Sewell 



Read, a well-known large farmer of the east of England, has pointed 



out, the large farmers of Norfolk have no cause to complain of their 



opportunities for the purchase of manures, tools, etc. " A large 



farmer," as he says, "should be his own co-operator 1 ." In other 



words, large farmers have no interest in ousting the middleman 



or reducing his profits ; they are in a position to dictate terms, 



whereas the small man is dictated to. Thus the large corn-growers 



have no fellowship with their smaller neighbours : and the latter are 



too scattered for any district organisation. Co-operation by small 



1 In the Mark Lane Express, June 8, 1903, p. 721. 



