56 POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 



a disadvantage both in buying and selling. When 

 buying he only requires small quantities of materials 

 like fertilizers and feeding stuffs ; he is confined to 

 the local market, freight charges are increased, and 

 he finds it more difficult to insure himself against 

 inferior quality or fraud. His difficulties are in- 

 creased in selling ; as he cannot grade his produce or 

 turn out a large bulk of uniform quality he falls into 

 the hands of dealers and middlemen ; he has to pay 

 excessive freight charges on small lots ; he finds 

 particular difficulties in disposing of the inevitable 

 surplus of inferior quality. The small holder is most 

 successful when he can work up a private connection 

 and use his own labour to deliver, as, for example, 

 when he establishes a milk round in some neighbour- 

 ing town ; but obviously this method of disposal of 

 produce is only open to the minority. 



It is, however, very generally maintained that these 

 disadvantages of the small holding system can be 

 largely if not entirely removed by the adoption of 

 co-operative principles both for cultivation and trade, 

 so that the whole area of a small-holding colony 

 would become a single economic unit, combining the 

 advantages of wholesale management with the indi- 

 vidualism and hard work fostered by separate owner- 

 ship. In practice we do not find that the principle of 

 co-operation has obtained any firm grip in small- 

 holding districts, particularly in those of any standing. 

 Nevertheless, a small-holding colony should be pro- 

 vided with the framework of a co-operative organiza- 

 tion at the time of its settlement, so that from the 

 outset the occupiers may be led to work as units of a 



