WORK DONE OR PROJECTED 167 



which are at the present time engaged in the sale of fruit 

 and market garden produce for their members ; and it is 

 evident that those difficulties in the way of inducing British 

 growers to combine for the purposes of sale which once 

 appeared so great are now being steadily overcome. 



NEED FOR FURTHER ACTION. 



The special need to-day for further action being taken 

 in regard to co-operative sale is due to the expansion of 

 the small holder movement. 



Production of fruit and market garden produce must 

 be considered the mainstay of the small holder growing 

 commodities for the market since he will require, by means 

 of a more intensive cultivation, to obtain a larger return 

 per acre from his land than would satisfy the ordinary 

 farmer ; yet the fact is recognised by all who are concerned 

 in agricultural organisation that if more and still more 

 supplies of such produce are merely sent to the existing 

 markets, under existing conditions, the results may be 

 unsatisfactory for producers all round. 



So the small holdings societies affiliated to the A. O. S. 

 have been looking to that body for advice and assistance, 

 and, as a result, the East Anglian Farmers and the 

 Federated Growers, referred to above, have had special 

 attention paid to them in the hope that they would provide 

 outlets for the produce of the small holdings societies. 



The first proposal was that each should act as the central 

 body for societies within its district, those societies being 

 affiliated to it and forwarding to it, for sale, the collected 

 produce of their members, the sum total thereof providing 

 the requisite varieties and quantities for ensuring satis- 

 factory trading. The different societies in each district 

 were invited to fall in with this arrangement. It was 

 further designed that similar central societies should be 

 formed, under like conditions, in other districts. 



Experience has shown, however, that in order to do an 

 adequate business a central society for sale must draw 

 supplies from places beyond its own particular district ; 



