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118 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



learn team-play in their games at school, and the lack 

 follows them throughout life. A spirit of independence 

 is the strength but becomes the weakness of rural life. 

 Bishop Gruntvig's splendid Folk Schools scattered 

 broadcast the seeds of co-operation throughout Den- 

 mark. The Roman Catholic Church, under Leo XIII., 

 deliberately adopted similar methods in the Encyclical 

 " Rerum Novarum," and the fruit is being seen in the 

 " Catholic Workmen's Organizations " of Europe. Is 

 there not a lesson here for us ? 



Co-operation in Canada has so far been found in two 

 classes of farm industry only, dairying and fruit-grow- 

 ing. It is equally applicable to stock-raising and to all 

 forms of farm production. It is the needed agency for 

 securing all the desiderata mentioned in our previous 

 discussions, — transportation, distribution, development 

 of markets, selling by sample, uniform grading of pro- 

 ducts, and excellence of output. 



But co-operation has still another field of operation 

 in the farmer's relation to the financial world. We have 

 a fine example of what can be accomplished in this 

 direction in co-operative insurance in the Grenville 

 Patrons' Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Its office 

 is in the village of Spencerville ; the directors are 

 all farmers of the vicinity. It is now in its twenty-first 

 year of service. Its operations extend over five counties. 

 The policies in force number 4,957, their average 

 amount $1,600; the amount at risk $7,916,460. The 

 business has been carried on with unbroken and in- 

 creasing success from its inception. Such co-operative 

 financial concerns are an earnest of what our farmers 

 will yet accomplish. 



At the beginning of the present session of Parliament 

 the Hon. C. W. White promised that the Bank Act 



