Agricultural Organisation 



good work in helping its members with legal 

 advice, even taking up the cudgels for them when 

 necessary. 



Though I think I have made it clear that I 

 welcome the advent of farmers' associations, 

 there is, I must admit, one point that causes me 

 some apprehension. 



The farmers sitting on committees of the 

 Farmers' Union, or any similar body, are for the 

 most part men little versed in public affairs; 

 they may know what they want, and it may be 

 a good plan to claim rather more than one is 

 likely to get, but it is not wise to ask for the 

 impossible, to make demands which no Member 

 of Parliament, however loyal to the cause of 

 agriculture, can take up with any hope of 

 success. 



I have heard as criticism of the Chambers 

 of Agriculture, that the interest of the large 

 farmer predominates and that the rural labourer 

 is unrepresented. The same holds good, I am 

 sorry to say, in the case of the Farmers' Union 

 and kindred bodies. 



Though the qualification for membership of 

 the Farmers' Union is as low as possible, being 

 only two acres for small holders, yet labourers 

 with allotments hardly support it at all. In 

 some districts small farmers have joined, but 

 it is the large farmers who carry weight in the 

 councils. 



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