UNIVER8 TY J 



DIVISION I, 



AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY HISTORY. 



RECENT investigations among the tombs and monuments of 

 antiquity disclose the fact that, as far back as 700 B.C., trades- 

 unions existed in great numbers. History also reveals the fact 

 that these trades-unions have continued to exist until the present 

 time. Their methods, purposes, and results have differed, and 

 their seasons of prosperity and adversity have alternated ; yet, 

 in some manner and in some form, the ideas, of trades-unionism 

 have been preserved. Not so with organizations relating to 

 agriculture. C. Osborne Ward, 1 in his researches touching this 

 subject, has found indisputable evidence that agricultural organ- 

 izations existed in great numbers at this time, and actually con- 

 federated with the trades-unions in matters of mutual benefit. 

 The number of inscriptions found on the old tombs and tablets 

 confirms the idea that these organizations among farmers were 

 not only numerous but important. Of course nothing of detail 

 can be found, but the fact of their existence at this early 

 period, and their subsequent extinction, is an indication that 

 the ancients were, after all, far in advance of the recent past in 

 some respects. It is a fact worthy of notice that, from the 

 beginning of the Christian era to the present century, no trace 

 of agricultural organizations can be found. 



After the fall of Rome, and during the Dark Ages, nothing 

 is known of special interest concerning agriculture, save what 

 has been handed down through the records of the Church, and 



1 " The Ancient Lowly," C. Osborne Ward. 



