The Consumers' Interest. 105 



would then be in a position to fix the price to be paid to the 

 producer having their own experience to guide them. 

 Farmers ought not to object to this. They are fond of 

 asserting that public bodies cannot farm successfully and 

 they need not fear the competition of the municipalities or 

 to accept the producers' price according to the municipal 

 experience if they really believe that municipalities cannot 

 farm properly. 



In other agricultural commodities the consumers' co- 

 operative societies offer the best means of organising the 

 markets. These societies now control a very large share 

 of the retail trade in food stuffs and their wholesale sections 

 are also very large dealers. 



In recent years they have been entering into farming and 

 we are likely to see an extension in this direction. It 

 cannot be said that the co-operative societies have as yet 

 shown any advance in ordinary farm practice. Their 

 farming has not been outstanding in any way, either from 

 the point of view of scientific production, or in the 

 conditions of the workers. The reason is probably to be 

 found in the fact that they have taken up farming as a 

 side line, and have made no attempt to enter into the 

 business as seriously as they have taken up such industries 

 as boot-making, clothing, milling, and so on. Generally 

 they have been content to put their farms into the hands 

 •of bailiffs or grieves with no training beyond what an 

 intelligent workman may pick up as ploughman on a farm. 

 They do not seem to realise that modern farming is not 

 a rule-of-thumb business and that a salary of about ;^2oo 

 3. year will not attract an efficient manager to-day. Any 



