Land Problems and National Welfare 



Farmers' Union does not speak with so certain a 

 voice. 



In its earliest days one of the chief objects of 

 the Union was to induce farmers to co-operate, 

 and it is regrettable that it should find itself 

 more and more obliged to dismiss the subject. 

 There is not the slightest doubt that co-opera- 

 tion on a large scale would do more for the 

 immediate benefit of agriculture than any- 

 thing else — the farmer would reap advantage 

 in his sales and in his purchases and in a 

 thousand other ways, by belonging to a highly 

 organised instead of an unorganised industry. 



In Denmark, where the average price of farm 

 produce is lower than it is in England, I think 

 it could be proved that a very considerable 

 proportion of the farmer's profits are due to his 

 working entirely in co-operation with his fellow 

 farmers. 



But the theory and practice of co-operation 

 grows slowly in England, owing chiefly, I think, 

 to the following reasons. 



First, the English agriculturist does not wish 

 to co-operate. There is the natural indepen- 

 dence of the Englishman ; he would rather 

 make a little profit entirely by his own effort 

 than a larger one in co-operation with others, — 

 the individualism we hear so much of. But is 

 not this individualism a myth rather than a 

 reality in the case of the majority of smaller 



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