Co-operation 1 99 



to become a co-operator. He can already, without any help from 

 associations, buy cheaper than the small holder, sell on better terms, 

 and so forth. He regards the co-operative system as a profitable 

 thing, but not as a means of protecting himself from the competition 

 of some other type of holding. The small holder, on the contrary, 

 sees in it a means of securing certain advantages hitherto peculiar 

 to the large farmer. The question is therefore of much more vital 

 significance in his case. On the other hand it is quite possible, 

 as has been shown, for co-operation to unite various small under- 

 takings in one large business, so that the large farmer finds that he 

 has been brought comparatively speaking into the position of a small 

 producer, and that he cannot do better than join the association 

 himself. The immediate task of co-operation, however, is to increase 

 the superiority of the small holding in stock-farming and market- 

 gardening, by means of abolishing the weaknesses it possessed in 

 buying, selling and production. 



