CHAPTER IV 



In the earlier years of the Agricultural Organi- 

 sation Society its main work was directed to 

 the combination of farmers for the joint 

 purchase of feeding stuffs and fertilisers. 

 Every effort naturally takes the line of least 

 resistance, and the gombeen-man of Ireland 

 may have been useful as the awful ex- 

 ample. A distinct success in a minor matter 

 encourages the cautious to venture further, 

 and of late years the larger undertakings, 

 such as whole milk collection and distri- 

 bution, have been set on foot. The farming 

 fraternity which ignored, if it did not oppose, 

 the movement at first has recently been 

 asking, like Rosa Dartle, for information 

 and even for help. The society has now 

 enrolled 570 societies, but the list as given 

 does not quite do justice to the work. It 



stands thus in the Report : 



102 



