ORGANISATION. 165 



are eating the marrow out of our bones — not necessarily 

 malevolently, but by reason of a costly arrangement of 

 business, which multiplies transactions, swells the amount 

 of transport charges, and quite unnecessarily causes addi- 

 tional expense. 



But that is not all. Organisation is not merely an effective 

 weapon for defence against overreaching and waste. It 

 is, besides, an admirable, extremely useful implement for 

 business, even where there is no visible attack made, where 

 the enemy to be defeated is merely waste of time, failure 

 to produce at cheapest rates and in best quality, and in 

 quantities which perforce command a market. 



There is more still, as we now understand Co-operation. 

 But let us stick for the moment to the pure business aspect 

 as a regulator of transactions and as a preventer of 

 waste. 



There is not another productive business in the world 

 the transactions of which are so much subdivided, made 

 up of so many distinct units, as Agriculture. And not only 

 is the business divided up into small, and often infinitesimal 

 fractions, but time and space, sorting and guarantee of 

 quality (where different degrees of quality make a consider- 

 able difference in the determination of the value) play so 

 leading a part in it. Goods are perishable, or at any rate 

 lose much of their value if not brought upon the market 

 fresh. And to produce anything like the bulk which will 

 take a place in which to hold its own, the produce may 

 have to be collected, in small quotas, from a wide area. 



" For the marketing of perishable products," so says 

 Mr. R. W. Hockaday, General Industrial and Agricultural 

 Agent to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company, 

 who has laboured hard in the United States in the interest 

 of farmers' better marketing, " an organisation is absolutely 

 necessary ; for the many questions arising in community 

 shipping (i.e., transport) of such products can only be handled 

 satisfactorily through an organisation." 



This reference at once explains why Co-operation — 

 without which of course Organisation is impossible — has 

 taken a different shape in Agriculture from that which is 



