184 PRODUCTION 



are especially adapted to co-operative methods. Moreover, the 

 successful adoption of intensive methods, which must be prominent 

 in the future, depends in no small measure upon intelligent co- 

 operation in production and marketing. 



Though little has so far been done in the direction of organised 

 co-operative production of animal foodstuffs in England and the 

 United States, this form of the movement is very much alive 

 throughout continental Europe including even Russia, in Aus- 

 tralasia, and in Ireland. In certain countries, particularly Den- 

 mark, Germany and New Zealand, co-operative production and 

 co-operative wholesale marketing have developed remarkably, so 

 that a majority of the live-stock farmers in each country are 

 members of some co-operative organisation. The results as 

 judged, whether by the standard of the produce or the general 

 prosperity of the producers, are such as to justify the belief that 

 much greater progress will be made throughout the world in this 

 direction in the future. There is no doubt that the adoption of 

 co-operative methods of production and marketing has the effect 

 of increasing the output of animal foodstuffs relative to the popula- 

 tion employed, and the progress of these methods is therefore of 

 great moment in connection with the supplies of these foodstuffs, 

 the production of which is apt to be restricted by the difficulty of 

 obtaining sufficient labour. Under active government encourage- 

 ment, the time may not be very distant when agricultural 

 communities in many lands will produce and market a large part 

 of their surplus animal foodstuffs and of certain other produce also, 

 under co-of>erative methods. 1 



^ Extensions of co-operation, such as are probable in the future, 

 will tend towards reducing the costs of production and distribution 

 and towards increasing the output per acre and per capita, thus 

 counteracting to some extent the movements in the opposite direc- 

 tion discussed in the preceding paragraphs. Animal industries 

 are all the more likely to be influenced by co-operative methods of 

 production in the future, because of the rapid disappearance of 

 the large-scale ranching S3^stem except in certain parts of the 

 Southern Hemisphere and in the tropical highlands. It is pre- 

 cisely among holders of small and medium-sized farms (that is, 

 those devoted to mixed farming with predominant animal indus- 

 tries) , that co-operation is most fruitful of economies. 



Agricultural co-operation in its completely developed form 

 implies a kind of monopoly within a country. On the selling side 

 however, co-operation has scarcely anywhere advanced beyond 



1 The production of cereals and other food crops seems generally better 

 suited to large-scale methods, and, therefore, to areas of comparatively 

 sparse population. The producers are usually somewhat scattered and their 

 farms self-contained ; their produce is easily graded, and their outlay for stock 

 and equipment relatively small. It follows, therefore, that co-operative 

 methods cannot be used as affectively in this industry as in animal industries 

 of the more intensive type. Large-scale cereal production resembles manu- 

 facturing industries in some ways. 



