u8 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



1886, gave an account in some detail of their establish- 

 ment and progress. I need only mention one or two facts 

 in connection with the oldest of them, which have been 

 given me by a gentleman who is w r ell acquainted with its 

 history. The Civil Service Supply Association started in 

 1866 at Monkwell Street, E.C., for the sale of groceries. 

 In the first year its takings amounted to £27,000, and in 

 the second year to £56,000. Soon afterwards it removed 

 to more commodious premises, and in its twentieth year its 

 takings were £1,759,000. There were 5,000 shareholders, 

 the shares being £1, of which 10s. was paid, the remainder 

 being paid by the Association out of surplus profits, which 

 were then indivisible. The shares, I believe, are now 

 divided into eighths, and an eighth is worth about £26. 

 A dividend of 12s. for each eighth is paid every half-year. 



Co-operation for purchase has been adopted among 

 farmers to a considerable extent, the articles which they 

 combine to procure being chiefly artificial manures, feeding 

 stuffs, seeds, and implements. 



In 1893 a committee appointed by the Central Chamber 

 of Agriculture to consider and report upon the question 

 of co-operation for the purchase of farming requisites 

 stated that there were then in existence about thirty 

 co-operative societies for supplying farm requisites, some 

 of them, like the Lincolnshire Association, dealing in only 

 one article, and about half dealing in not more than two 

 or three articles. They gave particulars in their report 

 of eight typical societies in different districts. 



In some parts of the country, and notably in Yorkshire, 

 farmers' clubs and chambers of agriculture have made 

 arrangements for the supply of farming requisites to 

 their members, and there seems no reason why the obvious 

 advantages of this plan should not be more generally 

 adopted. 



In France, the agricultural syndicates, which are 

 analogous to our chambers of agriculture and farmers' 

 clubs, have, in the course of ten years, covered the country. 



