104 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



has, on the other hand, its tap-root in prejudice. The 

 British farmer has the defects of his qualities. He is, by 

 breeding, training, and habit, conservative, reticent, and, 

 above all, egotistical. He forms in this age of socialist 

 ideas the last bulwark of individualism. His jealousy of 

 his neighbour is almost as strong as his jealousy of foreign 

 competitors. To combine with his neighbours for any 

 purpose whatever is irksome, and to combine for business 

 purposes is repugnant. Nor should superior persons 

 condemn him hastily. Let them reflect that thirty years 

 ago his individualism would have been accounted for 

 righteousness. We were all individualists then, as we are 

 " all socialists now " ; but the agricultural mind is not 

 nimble enough to keep pace with the somersaults of our 

 political economy. 



If he were pressed for something more tangible than a 

 general objection to co-operation, the farmer might 

 possibly confess that he did not clearly understand what 

 it meant. Here, again, let us not be too quick to con- 

 demn. Are we quite sure what we mean by co-operation 

 generally, and by agricultural co-operation particularly ? 

 If we look for a definition of co-operation this is the sort 

 of thing we find : — 



The essential characteristic of co-operation is a union of 

 capital and labour — a certain number of labourers form them- 

 selves into a society, and they supply the capital which their 

 labour requires. Co-operation may thus be regarded as a 

 modified form of socialism ; but as in a co-operative society 

 each member's share of the aggregate wealth produced is appor- 

 tioned to the amount of capital he subscribes to the common 

 fund, as well as the quantity and quality of the labour he 

 supplies, it is evident that an influence is thus brought into 

 operation to stimulate each individual's energy. 1 



Or again : — 



English co-operation is a system of commerce and industry, 

 consisting of societies of working people in which the business 

 profits of a store are given to the purchasers, and the profits 



1 Fawcett, " Manual of Political Economy," 6th edition, p. 103. 



