PRACTICAL LINES AT LAST 295 



to the idea of " agricultural combination " in 

 general. 



Meanwhile the position of the National Agri- 

 cultural Union had not improved, and the time 

 came when this organization, also, was to be re- 

 constructed. On the death of Lord Winchilsea 

 Lord Templetown succeeded to the presidency 

 of the Union. He was followed by Mr. R. A. 

 Yerburgh, M.P., who, in December, 1900, 

 brought before the members a proposal that 

 they should enter upon what he described as 

 " an entirely new field of action — a field of 

 action which the Union had never had in view 

 before." His scheme was, in effect, that the 

 Union should adopt the teaching and the 

 methods of agricultural co-operation already so 

 successfully followed in Continental countries, 

 abandoning both politics and risky experiments, 

 and proceeding upon strictly practical lines. 

 The proposal thus made was approved, and the 

 Union arranged to amalgamate with, and (but 

 for the first word) adopt the title of the 

 "British Agricultural Organization Society," 

 which had been established at Newark. Lin- 

 colnshire, by Mr. W. L. Charleton, as the out- 

 come of a close personal inquiry he had made 

 into the working of the Irish system of agricul- 

 tural combination. 



