176 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



the^Yoxall (Staffordshire) & District Co-operative Dairy 

 Society, although of later date, are dealing with over a 

 thousand gallons of milk per day during the season and 

 return remunerative prices to their suppliers. 



The operations of the Water Orton Dairy Society, near 

 Birmingham, will be of interest to farmers in the vicinity 

 of large towns. All the members of this society sell their 

 milk to Birmingham retailers, but during the early summer 

 months they found they had a surplus supply of milk 

 which they were not prepared to deal with at home. A 

 room on the farmstead of one of their members was accord- 

 ingly fitted up for cheese-making, and the occupier, Mr. 

 Walley, agreed to make their surplus milk into cheese for 

 a certain sum per gallon. This deals very economically 

 and effectively with the surplus milk problem in the district. 

 During recent years farmers have repeatedly had to meet 

 a series of adverse circumstances, all of which have tended 

 to make farming both onerous and more or less unremune- 

 rative, and it will be unfortunate if agriculturists do not 

 pay more attention to co-operative buying and selling 

 in order to improve their returns. 



The Eastern Counties Dairy Farmers' Co-operative 

 Society, which was established in 1896 as an offshoot of the 

 Eastern Counties Dairy Farmers' Association, has for its 

 special purpose the protection of the interests of dairy 

 farmers in Essex. 



Experience had shown the dairy farmers there that in 

 order to obtain better prices for their milk they required a 

 closer combination ; and this was sought by the formation 

 of a co-operative society with 52 members, each of whom 

 took twenty i shares, on which los. per share was paid up. 

 The society began business by selling its members' milk 

 on commission ; but as it grew stronger it adopted the 

 method of making contracts both with the retail dealers and 

 with its members. At the headquarters in Stratford, E., 

 there is a refrigerating, cold storage, pasteurising and 

 separating plant of the most sanitary and up-to-date type. 

 If, on any one day, there should be a glut in the market, 



