COMBINATION AMONG FARMERS. 97 



with each other does not exist now in the same way as it did 

 years ago. There is another drawback to combination and 

 confederation, and that is the loss entirely of our market 

 dinners and teas. A man at market perhaps may snap up a 

 chop somewhere, but he is more likely to get a glass of beer 

 and a bun at a pastrycook's shop, and go home by train. I 

 can remember when fifty or sixty farmers used to sit down at a 

 hotel in Norwich, at three o'clock, and never think of getting 

 up until five. The result was that during those two hours 

 there was an immense amount of information imparted, and a 

 confederation and co-operation resulted among those jolly 

 men which really does not exist now. 



A visitor to a market ordinary nowadays is sure to be 

 confronted by a lament over its decay from the few 

 fanners who still remain faithful to it. Perhaps in some 

 cases the candid observer may mingle other feelings with 

 regret, but at the same time there is indisputably very 

 much shrewdness — as indeed there always is — in Mr. 

 Read's observations. It is not good for man to be alone, 

 and the farmer, by the nature of his calling, is too much 

 alone — too constantly isolated. The plan admirably 

 conceived and carried out by the Newcastle Farmers' 

 Club — to quote the best within my knowledge in the pro- 

 vinces, the London Farmers' Club being of course 

 exceptional — might well be adopted more generally. 

 In that case a club room is provided which is not only 

 well furnished with facilities for writing, reading, tran- 

 sacting business, or conversation, but has also a very 

 useful library of agricultural books. This no doubt 

 means expense, and can only be justified by a considerable 

 membership. But the more common plan of reserving 

 a suitable room, for use as a club room for members to 

 meet in on market days, is, if properly managed, a good 

 one. Some may perhaps object to this on the ground 

 that the room is almost of necessity at a hotel or public 

 house, and if other suitable accommodation were available 

 it might be better to obtain it. But the man who abuses 

 the fact that he meets his neighbours on licensed premises 

 will certainly possess no more self-restraint if he does 



a.f. h 



