EVOLUTION OF THE A.O.S. 89 



or Club to enable all the members to secure the benefits of 

 membership of that Association. 



Your Committee are of opinion that the basis of " Cash with 

 Order " is essential to the success of any scheme for co-operative 

 purchase, and that an annual subscription per member of 55. is 

 all that is needed. The articles in regard to which co-operative 

 purchase can be most advantageously adopted are manures, 

 feeding stuffs, seeds and implements. 



Your Committee have been strongly impressed by the infor- 

 mation laid before them, with the advantages which may accrue 

 to farmers by the adoption of the principle of co-operation. It is 

 evident that with careful management the risk of failure is small, 

 as is proved by the fact that, so far as they have been informed, 

 no agricultural co-operative association formed for the purpose 

 of purchasing farming requisites has failed. Your Committee, 

 therefore, very strongly urge the consideration of this subject on 

 the members of the Central and Associated Chambers of Agricul- 

 ture, in the belief that not only might articles of guaranteed 

 quality be procured at prices less than individual purchasers can 

 as a rule be charged, but that by incorporating this object among 

 the primary functions of farmers' associations an incentive to 

 combination will be provided, and a greater union of the agricul- 

 tural community will be secured. 



Your Committee recommend that they be re-appointed, so as 

 to enable them to give further consideration to the subject when 

 the views of associated bodies have been more fully expressed. 

 They are further of opinion that, if successful in the establishment 

 of co-operative associations for the purposes of purchase, such 

 organisations would almost certainly conduce to their utilisation 

 for purposes of sale, especially of those products for which the 

 price now paid by the consumer is so strikingly in advance of that 

 received by the farmer. 



These recommendations attracted some degree of attention 

 among the Associated Chambers and Farmers' Clubs, but 

 the Committee was not re-appointed, and the matter re- 

 mained practically in abeyance, as far as the Central Chamber 

 was concerned, until March 3rd, 1896, when, as will be shown 

 later on, further action was taken. Meanwhile there had 

 been important developments in other directions. 



NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL UNION. 



On December 7th, 1892, there was held in St. James' Hall, 

 Piccadilly, a " National Agricultural Conference " which 

 was described in The Times as the outcome of " perhaps the 



