EVOLUTION OF THE A.O.S. 123 



In April, 1905, the President of the Board of Agriculture 

 appointed a Departmental Committee to enquire into the 

 administration and working of the Small Holdings Act, 

 1892. The members of this Committee included the President 

 of the A. 0. S. (Mr. R. A. Yerburgh, M.P.), and among the 

 witnesses examined were the secretary (Mr. J. Nugent 

 Harris), and the then chief organiser (Mr. W. M. Tod) of 

 the A. O. S., and representatives of some of the affiliated 

 societies. In their report, dated December loth, 1906, the 

 Committee dealt with (among many other matters) the 

 subject of co-operation as applied to small holdings, and 

 said : 



The Committee are of opinion that practical steps should be 

 taken by the Government to promote all forms of agricultural 

 co-operation, and especially to encourage the formation of 

 agricultural credit societies. The Committee have carefully 

 considered the question whether it is desirable that the promotion 

 of co-operation should be undertaken directly by the Government 

 Department, or should be entrusted to a voluntary organisation 

 which should receive a grant from the public funds. The 

 Committee have come to the conclusion that the propagandist 

 work can be more effectively carried out by a voluntary organisa- 

 tion, more particularly if that organisation is of a representative 

 character. They have considered the work which is being done 

 by the Agricultural Organisation Society, and are of opinion that 

 an annual grant should be made to the said society by the Board 

 of Agriculture, under such limitations as the Board may think 

 desirable. 



Following on this report, Parliament passed the Small 

 Holdings Act of 1907, consolidated in the following year by 

 the Act of 1908. Small Holdings Commissioners were to be 

 appointed ; a special account, to be called " The Small 

 Holdings' Account," was created ; and there was placed on 

 County Councils the obligation to provide small holdings for 

 bond fide applicants, compulsory powers for acquiring land 

 being, to this end, given to the Councils and also to the 

 Board of Agriculture in the event of the Councils not per- 

 forming their statutory duty. 



It was further enacted, by Section 49 (4) : 



The Board [i.e., the Board of Agriculture], with the consent of 

 the Treasury, may, out of the Small Holdings Account, make 



