468 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



fically for children and young folk, it will of course be for 

 the Government to act. Others may demand ; but it is 

 for the Government to give. Let us hope that it will give 

 freely. Dealing with adults is — with possible Government 

 help such as is given, with profit, in the United States and 

 also in European countries, more specifically in Switzerland, 

 Belgium, and the Netherlands — a matter rather for associa- 

 tions of individuals, like the French Syndicats agricoles 

 and their officers, being practical men, who can suit the 

 bait of attractiveness to the trap of designed instruction. 

 Above all things it is more ocular demonstration that we 

 stand in need of. Our agricultural public is in this respect 

 distinctly different from that of the United States. It is 

 not likely that gatherings like the " Farmers' Institutes" 

 would answer among ourselves. But the " demonstration," 

 which is so studiously practised in America, would be likely 

 to make an impression on backward minds. This is not 

 to be done in a hurry. In Ireland Sir Horace Plunkett 

 addressed about fifty farmers' meetings before he succeeded 

 in starting one co-operative society. But in the end his 

 Co-operation proved victorious. L'appetit vieni en man- 

 geant. The prize is worth the effort. 



Our next, and indeed at the present moment our most 

 pressing need is Organisation — Organisation which, as it 

 happens, contains within it the germs of all other improve- 

 ments. Education among the number. For nothing educates 

 like Organisation by co-operative means — Organisation 

 which presents matters from their practical side, not as 

 mere classroom subjects, but as matters appealing to that 

 most sensitive organ of the composite human being, the 

 pocket, as well as to the brain and to reason. However] 

 little educated country folk may be, they have natural I 

 education enough within them to be able to appreciate 

 the value of joining together for an organised service in 

 their calling and to carry through what, however dimly, 

 they after all understand. All round are they faced by 

 organised forces seeking — it may be, in a perfectly natural 

 way, as a consequence of businessHke aims — to prey upon 

 them. It is their sovereign, their shilling, which is coveted 



