768 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



who are intended to derive any benefit ; and in the very few 

 credit syndicates thus far formed it is they alone who do so. 

 The rich men are patrons. Possibly that mode of organization 

 was inevitable, but it is obviously open to objection. It does not 

 represent the purest form of self-help. However this may be, it 

 is impossible not to admire the great good which these institutions 

 have done to French agriculture when one sees it. And one can- 

 not help thinking that from cooperation practised in so striking 

 a variety of forms cooperation not only in every description of 

 supply and of insurance but also in such work as draining and 

 embanking, fumigation to repel the frost from vineyards, exter- 

 minating noxious insects, buying implements for common use, 

 from large steam threshing-machines down to the smallest tools ; 

 cooperation for blending vines from different departments, for 

 arbitration, for settling the proper customs as between incoming 

 and outgoing tenants, and many things more agriculturists in 

 other countries ought to be able to learn something, even though 

 for the ordinary purchase of goods they do not require a new 

 form of association. 



