42 THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF 



is rented on a twenty-one years' lease from 

 the Wiltshire County Council. Ther^; are 

 twenty-nine holdings, which vary from one 

 to thirty acres in extent. The tenants pay 

 rents varying from 22s. to 44s. per acre, 

 the society paying the rates and doing repairs. 

 The number of stock on the farm includes 

 142 head of cattle, 120 pigs, and 11 horses, 

 showing a very large increase in the course 

 of three years. It will be useful to add that 

 the North Bromsgrove Market Gardeners' 

 Society, which is really a limited company, 

 rents land from the County Council of Worces- 

 tershire for the production of fruit and 

 vegetables, of which the occupiers send 600 

 tons annually to Birmingham, where it is 

 sold by a co-operative society known as the 

 Federated Growers, Limited. We have had 

 the advantage of inspecting several of the 

 Worcestershire holdings, which chiefly extended 

 to five acres, and of witnessing the prosperous 

 character of the work. In one of several 

 instances of a similar character the occupier 

 had sold strawberries grown upon less than 

 an acre of land in the Birmingham market 

 for £80. The fact that so many of these 

 societies based on the co-operative system 

 are working successfully is sufficient evidence 



