RISE AND DEVELOPMENT 3 



the earliest developments of that Spirit of Association 

 which, in this age of societies, leagues, unions and federa- 

 tions of every class and description, may be considered 

 one of the characteristics of present-day Society. 



In France, for instance, agricultural combinations began 

 in the time of the Romans and were continued through 

 the mediaeval ages, leading up to the present widespread 

 form of legal association regulated by special statute. These 

 early combinations were brought about mainly by land- 

 owners who joined together, at different periods, for the 

 collective cultivation of their properties, for mutual defence 

 against drought or inundation, for the drainage of bogs or 

 swamps, for the organisation of mutual insurance, or for 

 the furthering of their general interests by the holding of 

 shows, the study of agricultural questions, and so on. 



In Portugal the institution known as the Misericordia, 

 which, among other beneficent purposes — and on the basis 

 of fixed subscriptions — granted loans to farmers at a 

 certain interest, dates back to 1498 ; but it was the 

 Celleiros, of which the first was founded in 1576, that — 

 operated as benevolent institutions — more especially sought 

 to afford help to small cultivators by advancing them seed 

 at a fixed rate of interest, to be repaid in kind by the end 

 of the year. 



In Austria associations of agriculturists, consisting 

 mostly of large landowners, began to be formed in the 

 second half of the eighteenth century with the object of 

 contributing to the progress of agriculture by means of 

 research, instruction, conferences, shows and the influencing 

 of legislation. 



In the United Kingdom the Royal Dublin Society dates 

 from 1731, the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland from 1784, the Smithfield Club from 1798; and the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England from 1838 ; and 

 these organisations have, in turn, been supplemented by 

 many county or local agricultural societies, live-stock 

 societies and other bodies for the promotion or the pro* 

 tection of farmers' interests in general. 



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