200 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



The results thus far accomplished in the co-operative sales 

 of live-stock may be looked upon as encouraging ; yet when 

 one considers the large proportions and the substantial value 

 of the live stock sold off the farms of Great Britain, as 

 shown by the figures given on page 61, it is obvious that in 

 this particular department co-operative effort is still merely 

 at the beginning of things. 



E. SALE OF GRAIN, HAY, SEEDS, ETC. 



A number of the affiliated societies have done useful 

 work for their members by undertaking for them the sale 

 of their grain, hay, seeds, etc. 



The Eastern Counties Farmers' Co-operative Association, 

 to whose sales of members' pigs reference has already been 

 made, undertook, in 1905, to dispose of its members' 

 clover, trefoil, trifolium and other seeds of the same class, 

 disposing of them on Mark Lane or to wholesale seed 

 merchants, and securing prices 55. or 6s. per bushel in 

 advance of those which the members would have secured 

 locally. A cargo of beans sent by sea to a firm in the North 

 of England realised 2s. per quarter above the local market 

 prices. Wheat, barley, oats, and straw were also sold for 

 members by the Association, which, in its report for 1905, 

 said : 



In this branch, although of course there are exceptions, 

 members have, as a rule, obtained very great advantage indeed, 

 and instances can be adduced where clear gains, up to as much 

 as 10, have accrued to members who have placed their seeds 

 with the Association for disposal. 



The example set by the Eastern Counties Association was 

 followed in 1907 by the Southern Counties Agricultural 

 Trading Society, which sent a representative to Mark Lane 

 to sell corn by sample for its members. 



In 1908 there was a steady development of co-operative 

 sale of the commodities mentioned, the other societies taking 

 it in hand, in addition to those mentioned, including the 

 Midland Farmers' Co-operative Association, the Newport 



