VILLAGE LIFE 33 



above its low economic and social level ; that as 

 a consequence its outlook has been dulled and 

 narrowed, and that it has become the worst 

 organised agricultural population in the world. 



" Our village hfe," says Mr. G. W. Russell, the 

 Irish poet and land reformer, " is dull because it 

 is the life of isolated individuals. Our rural popu- 

 lations are no more closely connected for the most 

 part than the shifting sands on the seashore. There 

 are personal friendships, of course, but few economic 

 or social partnerships. Everyone pursues his own 

 occupation without regard to the occupation of his 

 neighbours. If a man emigrate it does not affect 

 the occupation of those who farm land all about 

 him. They go on ploughing and digging, buying 

 and selling, just as before. They suffer no per- 

 ceptible economic loss by the departure of half a 

 dozen men from the district. A true community 

 would, of course, be affected by the loss of its 

 members. A co-operative society that loses a 

 dozen members, the milk of their cows, their orders 

 for fertilisers, seeds and feeding stuffs, receives 

 serious injury to its prosperity. That is the differ- 

 ence between a community and an unorganised 

 population." 



As for the higher strata, the farmers, small, 

 medium, and large, their response has been slow 

 because in many districts they are few and far 

 between, and co-operation is not practicable nor 

 profitable unless there is a sufficient number of 

 men ready to co-operate ; and fairly generally the 

 farmer has been running a big account with his 

 cake and manure merchant, and either would not, 



