AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN IRELAND. 229 



has been at work now for some years and is steadily proving its utility to 

 the Societies. As in the case of the Agency Society its earlier stage has 

 been attended by some difficulties ; but there is every confidence that, like 

 the Agency Society, when it has bought its experience, it will overcome all 

 its difficulties and occupy a position of great importance in the development 

 of the commercial side of the Agricultural industry. Its chief difficulty for 

 some time to come will be finance, and it is necessary to impress upon local 

 Agricultural Societies the necessity for providing sufficient capital either 

 by shares or loan, or through a system of cash payments by their members, 

 to enable them to deal on a cash basis with the Agricultural Wholesale 

 Society, and thus secure the fullest benefit in price and quality which a 

 cash system of trading alone can render possible. 



The trade turnover of the Wholesale Society for 1900 amounted to 

 ^36,763. It has secured new and commodious premises at 151 Thomas 

 Street, Dublin, and the business management of the Society is under the 

 charge of Mr. A. O. Watkins, whose reputation in the agricultural trade is 

 well known. 



Side by side with its programme of organisation the Society has found 



The Educational ^^ necessary to undertake a good deal of directly 

 educational work, including a considerable system or 

 01 tne Technical Instruction, in order that the Societies which 

 MoYement. [^ organises may be properly able to fulfil the indus- 



trial purposes for which they have been formed. 



This fact will have been made sufficiently apparent from various par- 

 ticulars mentioned in the preceding portions of this article, but it is desirable 

 to make a more direct reference to this branch of the work here. 



The purposes of these Societies, we may recapitulate, are the manufacture 

 of their butter on the best and most scientific principles in creameries ; 

 joint purchase of their Agricultural requirements and the sale of their pro- 

 duce ; the improvement of their live-stock, including cattle, horses, sheep, 

 swine, and poultry ; the acquisition of machinery, such as steam-threshers, 

 potato sprayers, etc., for the joint use of their members ; the improvement 

 of their methods of tillage ; the development of early market gardening ; 

 the introduction of the Continental system of collecting, grading, and pack- 

 ing eggs for high-class English markets ; the establishment of experimental 

 farms under the direction of the Organisation Society's expert instructors ; 

 the formation of Co-operative Rural Banks on the Raiffeisen principle ; the 

 promotion of rural industries, such as lace-making, weaving, crochet, em- 

 broidery, and needlework generally, for the employment of women in rural 

 districts when not otherwise engaged. To forward these aims the Society 

 employs a number of expert instructors, and carries out a regular system of 

 technical instruction in addition to its work of organising. 



Even in the early stages of the movement it was seen that the mere organ- 

 isation of a certain number of farmers into Societies, the framing of an 

 equitable constitution for these bodies, the drafting of rules which would 

 provide for every contingency which might arise, were but the first and 

 easiest steps. Once a Society is organised, the technical instruction begins 

 with the teaching of business methods and the keeping of accounts, and 

 extends through every phase and detail of the industry for which the 

 Society is formed. 



So much for the statistical and technical sides of this great co-operative 

 agricultural movement. To understand its inner spirit — its philosophy, so 



