228 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



to do much for the small holder. In truth, ample experi- 

 ence gathered abroad has shown with great conclusiveness 

 that there is really only one way in which the great want 

 of working credit, generally recognised as it is, can at all 

 be satisfactorily or adequately supplied. And that way is 

 by Co-operation among those standing in need of credit 

 themselves. That method has not only provided very 

 adequate, really astonishingly large assistance, but it has 

 in addition done very much needed good besides, of the 

 very nature that we now admit that we want. It has 

 proved a most useful preparative for other Co-operation in 

 Agriculture, and a most potent stimulus to the advance- 

 ment of Agriculture and of rural well-being. Ahke in 

 Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Switzerland, the 

 Low Countries, Italy, Russia, and the minor Balkan States, 

 Agriculture thrives visibly upon it and, although its begin- 

 nings have in the earhest cases been beset with some 

 difficulties, it has in general proved so easy of appHcation 

 that, to state one instance, British India has within the first 

 twelve years of its existence in that country (up to July, 

 1916), by an unintended tour de force — because it is rather 

 the drag of caution than the whip of stimulation that has 

 been employed — seen its organs, that is, credit societies, 

 multiplying to the number of nearly twenty thousand, 

 with nearly a miUion members, £510,000 paid-up share 

 capital and £1,600,000 business. Our fellow-citizens in 

 Ireland have profited by it to a degree which has evoked ex- 

 pressions of admiration from the late King Edward on his visit 

 to the island. In truth it is only England and Scotland 

 which have thus far remained unaffected by the gilding 

 Midas touch which has extended its sway all over Europe, 

 carrying it eastwards beyond its ancient home into far India, 

 and which now promises to bring fresh wealth also to our 

 cousins in the United States, to the mixed population of the 

 Hawaii Islands and to the Spaniards of Mexico. 



It may occasion surprise that among ourselves, where 

 under another form Co-operation has stood all tests so 

 magnificently and achieved greater successes than in any 

 other country, and where certainly the golden sovereign 



