CHAPTER VI. 



COMBINATION AMONG FARMERS. 1 



The subject may be divided under the traditional 

 three heads. The objects for which agriculturists may 

 combine may be classed as — 



1. Political. 



2. Social and Educational. 



3. Commercial. 



The idea of this division may perhaps be put before 

 many minds in a concrete form by remarking that, for 

 the first object, a chamber of agriculture, for the second 

 a farmers' club, and for the third an agricultural co- 

 operative association, would be respectively the typical 

 form of combination. There is nothing in the nature of 

 things to prevent any chamber, club, or association 

 taking up any two, or, in fact, all three of these objects, 

 and cases might be quoted where this has been done 

 effectively, and with economy of machinery and effort. 

 But the popular distinction between the three classes 

 of bodies mentioned runs very much on the allocation 

 of objects which I have set forth. 



As regards political objects — giving the word, of course, 

 its broad and true meaning — the necessity for combi- 

 nation need hardly be argued. It is a truism that, if 

 agriculturists wish for alterations in the laws or in their 

 administration, whether imperially or locally, the only 

 means of giving effect to their wishes is by combination. 

 And, in these democratic days, it is equally self-evident 

 that the stronger their combination the greater their 



Journal Bath and West of England Society, Vol. IX., 4th series, 

 1899. 



