CHAPTER VIII 

 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



THE facts here narrated will, it may be hoped, have 

 sufficed to prove the following fundamental propositions : 



The need for agricultural organisation was originally 

 brought about by a combination of causes, including (i) the 

 greater application of science to production ; (2) the con- 

 sequent growth of commercial industries for the provision 

 of fertilisers, concentrated feeding stuffs, machinery, etc., 

 which, if the farmer is to produce his crops economically, 

 he should be able to obtain, at the lowest price and of the 

 best quality, without having to pay too much for inter- 

 mediate profits ; (3) the greater influx of food supplies 

 from abroad following on (a) the development of virgin 

 soils in new countries, (b) the increased facilities for ocean 

 transport, and (c) the application of refrigeration to the 

 carriage of perishable commodities ; (4) the effect of the 

 telegraph on commercial relations with distant lands; and 

 (5) the whole tendency of to-day for business matters of 

 every kind, including therein the business of agriculture, 

 to get more and more into the hands of powerful combina- 

 tions against which the isolated producer, and more 

 especially the isolated farmer, cannot hope to protect 

 adequately his own particular interests. 



The chief aim of the agricultural organisation now being 

 resorted to by civilised countries large and small throughout 

 the world is to meet these conditions by the formation of 

 societies operating mainly on the co-operative principle 

 for (i) purchase of agricultural requisites ; (2) provision 

 of greater credit facilities for the cultivator ; (3) the applica- 

 tion to various forms of agricultural production of that 

 *' factory " principle which has done so much to expand 



