122 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



other countries and the position at home, was also con- 

 sidered to have served a useful purpose. 



Small Holdings Grant. 



Notwithstanding all this wide-spread approval of its 

 objects and work, the Society continued down to 1909 to be 

 entirely dependent on voluntary contributions for the means 

 by which that work could be carried on, and its powers of 

 usefulness were severely restricted by the inadequacy of its 

 finances. At the end of 1908 the A. O. S. was the central 

 body of 281 affiliated societies, viz., societies for the supply 

 of requirements or sale of produce, 121 ; small holdings and 

 allotments societies, in ; dairy societies, 13 ; agricultural 

 credit societies, 20 ; farming societies, 3 ; auction markets, 

 3 ; industrial societies, 2 ; fruit-grading societies, 2 ; together 

 with one motor service society, one milling society, the 

 Agricultural Co-operative Federation, the Central Co- 

 operative Bank, the Agricultural and General Co-operative 

 Insurance Society, and the Scottish Agricultural Organisa- 

 tion Society. These affiliated societies had then a member- 

 ship of about 15,000, and their turnover for the year was 

 estimated at £770,000, while the financial position, in 1908, 

 of the parent Society, which was pioneering the whole move- 

 ment and seeking to establish it on national lines, stood 

 thus : — 



Receipts— £ s. d. £ s. d. 



Subscriptions .. .. 1,22218 o 



Affiliation fees . . . . 78 1 7 



Donations . . . . . . 77 o 1 



Guarantee fund called up . . 670 7 o 



Other receipts . . . . 478 8 10 



Total receipts . . 2,526 15 6 



Total expenditure . . . . 2,477 T1 8 



Balance of receipts over 



expenditure .... 49 3 10 



Some degree of relief, however, was to come to the A. O. S. 

 in the form of a grant from the Board of Agriculture, made 

 under the following circumstances. 



