176 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



The explanation is this, that Co-operation, with its usual 

 educating effect, had taught farmers how profitable it is 

 to expend money upon artificial fertilisers, feeding stuffs, 

 and perfected implements benefiting them, whereby the 

 sales of these articles became in the aggregate greatly in- 

 creased and the trade, at any rate at its central points, 

 did appreciably better for Co-operation. It was the smaller 

 fry, the middlemen of whose number Mr. Hall complains, 

 the local dealers who had fattened upon the small business, 

 as flies fatten upon an exposed joint of meat or some sweet 

 dish, who were hit. The productive army was relieved of 

 its host of marauding camp followers. 



However, the farmer's main interest in Co-operation lies, 

 as already stated, in its utility for productive and working 

 purposes. The goods which he has produced out of, let 

 us assume, his co-operatively purchased fertilisers, seeds, 

 feeding- stuffs and so on, and which, if he is a small man — 

 so far as they are cereals — he has thrashed with his co-opera- 

 tively owned machine, want to be brought upon the market, 

 and very possibly first turned into marketable shape. His 

 milk wants to be sold in some near town, or else converted 

 into butter or cheese. His eggs want to be carried fresh 

 to a market which is not prepared for very small lots but 

 deals gladly with quantities. It is the same with fruit, 

 potatoes and the like. They all want to be put into a 

 shape to suit^the market and disposed of so as to cause 

 least outlay and ensure largest returns. Live stock, once 

 more, wants to find its proper outlet ; for the same animal 

 is not of the same value everywhere. 



For all these things to be done to the best advantage, 

 organisation — by means of Co-operation, which can produce 

 bulk, grade and sort, and pack, according to the taste of 

 the market — is wanted. And Co-operation can do them 

 most satisfactorily — far more satisfactorily than an indivi- 

 dual, by his farming on ever so large a scale. There is no 

 occasion to smile condescendingly at the mention of butter 

 and eggs, as if the consideration of these things applied 

 only to small people. There is of course most proportional 

 saving in the collection of the produce for sale, or else for 



