COMBINATION AMONG FARMERS. 99 



at the Bromsgrove Farmers' Club ; on " Economy in the 

 Production of Farmyard Manure," at the Ecclesfield 

 Farmers' Club ; on " Steam-power and Horse-power in 

 Farming," at the Wakefield Farmers' Club ; on " Guano," 

 at the Ecclesfield Farmers' Club, and so forth. This was 

 in 1845. No doubt similar instances might be found now, 

 but comparatively the farmers of to-day do not appear to 

 discuss these practical subjects to the same extent as 

 formerly. It may be that the wider diffusion of informa- 

 tion in periodicals and newspapers may partly account 

 for this, although there is no doubt that to many persons, 

 but especially to those who are not students by training 

 or habit, word of mouth is more useful and instructive 

 than the printed page. It might be well worth considera- 

 tion whether such practical addresses and discussions 

 could not be advantageously multiplied at meetings of 

 chambers of agriculture and farmers' clubs without 

 interfering with their other functions. 



Another and still more effective kind of educational 

 work for which farmers may, and to some extent do, 

 combine, is the arrangement and organisation of field 

 experiments. The Bath and West and Southern Counties 

 Society has set an admirable example in this direction ; 

 but the very magnitude of its operations tends perhaps to 

 obscure the element of agricultural combination on which 

 it is based. This is more evident in such a case as the 

 field experiments carried out year after year by the 

 Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture. It cannot be too often 

 insisted that a useful scheme of field experiments, or more 

 properly perhaps demonstrations, can be conducted in a 

 very simple way and without heavy outlay if farmers 

 themselves co-operate. Every thoughtful farmer will be 

 frequently making experiments for himself, and it needs 

 only a certain amount of organisation and co-operation to 

 enable a number of farmers in a particular district to 

 agree on some definite method, and thus secure results 

 which may be helpful to all. Nor need this be restricted 



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