ORGANIZATION AND THE TRADERS 375 



The actual extent to which the German farmer 

 has availed himself of the opportunity thus 

 offered is sufficiently indicated by the follow- 

 ing figures, which Mr. Douglas gives as showing 

 how the use of fertilizers increased in Germany 

 between 1880 and 1902 :— 



Basic slag from 200,000 to 1,100,000 tons. 

 Superphosphate from 400,000 to 900,000 tons. 

 Potash „ 150,000 „ 350,000 „ 



Nitre „ 100,000 „ 400,000 „ 



These facts and figures should, I think, relieve 

 the farmers of any lingering doubt as to the 

 course they should adopt, and the manufacturers 

 of any reluctance to welcome an innovation that 

 evidently means a big increase of business for 

 somebody ! 



So I place in the forefront my recommenda- 

 tions that every encouragement should be given 

 to the efforts already being made to promote 

 combination among the British farmers. But 

 experience has already shown that no really 

 effective scheme of agricultural organization on 

 a widespread basis can be carried out, even in 

 Great Britain, unless supplemented by some 

 practical system of co-operative agricultural 

 credit banks, arranged on so comprehensive a 

 scale as to meet the varying wants of all our 

 agricultural classes. There may not be in 



