96 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



system which may, of course, be made available as an outlet for 

 many rural industries not immediately connected with agricul- 

 ture, but scarcely less valuable as a means of providing occupation 

 for labourers and their families during the winter. 



Registered as a limited liability company, the Association 

 started with a capital of 50,000. At first the raising of 

 250,000, to allow of operations being carried out on a much 

 larger scale, was contemplated ; but the original plans were 

 modified for reasons thus explained in an article on " A 

 British Produce Supply Association," which I was privileged 

 to contribute to The Times of March i6th, 1896 : 



The reason for this limitation is the idea that, inasmuch as the 

 initial efforts will be largely experimental, it would be better not 

 to attempt too much at once, and to keep in the background for 

 a time a much more ambitious scheme which might be developed 

 all the better later on, if the promoters had from the first gained 

 experience from actual working on a smaller scale. But the 

 Association will, none the less, start under favourable auspices. 

 The directors are the Earl of Winchilsea (President of the National 

 Agricultural Union), Lord Kesteven, Mr. R. R. B. Orlebar, Mr. 

 R. H. Rew (secretary of the Central Chambers of Agriculture), 

 and Mr. Cornelius Thompson (late chairman of the committee 

 of the Civil Service Supply Association), while the following, 

 among others, have expressed approval of the objects in view : 

 The Duke of Portland, the Marquis of Huntly, Earl Brownlow, 

 the Earl of Denbigh, the Earl of Jersey, Earl Stanhope, Lord 

 Herries, Lord Wantage, the Marquis of Hertford, Mr. James 

 Lowther, M.P., Mr. J. K. W. Digby, M.P., Mr. M. D'Arcy Wyvill, 

 M.P., Mr. Alexander Henderson, Mr. W. More Molyneux, Mr. 

 R. H. Wood, Mr. James Rankin, M.P., Mr. W. H. Hall, and Mr. 

 R. A. Yerburgh, M.P. The secretary is Mr. William Broomhall, 

 and the offices (pro tern.} are at 30, Fleet Street. As we under- 

 stand, the public is not to be asked to subscribe until experience 

 has proved the practicability of the scheme. 



For the collection of produce in the country, an agent of 

 the Association was to be stationed at some convenient 

 market town where, with funds provided weekly by the 

 Association, he would purchase supplies direct from the 

 farmers, who were to be guaranteed better prices than they 

 would be likely otherwise to obtain locally, and be saved the 

 trouble of themselves sending their produce away. The 

 agent would have a depot at the local railway station, and 

 he would there bulk the consignments and get the advantage 



