i 4 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



horses, goats, and poultry. Bee-keepers' societies were 

 likewise formed. 



Co-operation for Sale. 



As a natural sequel to combination for production came 

 co-operation for sale. Men who had joined together in 

 order to produce to the best advantage might, also, well act 

 together to sell to the best advantage. 



There was, in the first place, the fact that good producers 

 are not necessarily good business men — that they may be 

 better employed in doing work on their farm or holding to 

 which they are thoroughly suited than in looking after 

 marketing details which, especially when a number of 

 producers are already acting together, may much more 

 suitably be left to some specially competent and trustworthy 

 person selected for that purpose. 



In the second place combination for sale meant, in the 

 case of foreign producers, at least, that they could make up 

 complete train loads of commodities from a particular dis- 

 trict, and obtain the lowest rates for transport because the 

 railway people had less trouble in handling large grouped 

 consignments sent under what were, for them, the most 

 favourable conditions in regard to loading, etc., than they 

 would have had in dealing with a large number of growers 

 each consigning his own particular lot independently of 

 everyone else. Suffice it, in this connection, to speak of the 

 butter and bacon trains in Denmark, the egg trains from 

 Italy, and the fruit and vegetable trains from the South of 

 France, all directed more or less to the English markets. 



In the third place combination for sale offered to the whole- 

 sale and retail dealers a greater assurance of regular supplies 

 of uniform quality ; and in some instances these conditions 

 gave to foreign produce a distinct advantage on our markets 

 over English produce, of varied qualities, and consigned in 

 irregular quantities by wholly independent growers or 

 producers. 



In some countries — and especially in Holland — combina- 

 tion for sale led to the setting up of co-operative auction 



