CENTRAL AND EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 69 



regard to a site, and he would also, if desired, contribute 

 towards the cost. But wherever and under whatsoever 

 conditions central experimental farms might be estab- 

 lished, he held that they were imperatively necessary in 

 the best interests of the fruit and kindred industries. 



Although himself engaged in operations of such con- 

 siderable magnitude, Mr. Andrews is a firm believer in 

 agricultural combination. He is an active supporter of 

 the Winchcombe, Toddington and District Agricultural 

 Co-operative Association, which, like the Beckford 

 Farmers' Association, Limited, has been formed for the 

 joint purchase of farmers' necessaries, both being 

 affiliated to the Agricultural Organization Society. He 

 was also one of the founders of the Winchcombe Co- 

 operative Auction Mart, Limited, which started opera- 

 tions, in 1904, on a site immediately adjoining Winch- 

 combe Railway-station, and did so well in the sale of 

 cattle, sheep and pigs during the first year that it was 

 able to pay to the tenants and other shareholders a 

 dividend of 5 per cent. (This third society is also 

 connected with the Agricultural Organization Society.) 



So the Toddington Fruit Farm is being conducted 

 under conditions that are essentially progressive, and 

 foreshadow important possibilities in the future. One 

 feels in visiting the district, that, however great the 

 results already attained, they are only in an adolescent 

 stage, and that still greater results must come, especially 

 if competent but despairing workers, who now think 

 their only hope of economic salvation lies in settling in 

 some country beyond our shores, could be enabled, under 

 suitable conditions, to establish their homes, instead, 

 amid the picturesque surroundings of this very promis- 

 ing corner of Gloucestershire. 



