194 Large and Small Holdings 



would gladly have acquired it. But it was then too late ; the owner 

 was no longer willing to sell 1 . Mr E. T. Loram, too (the successful 

 owner of the Cathedral steam-dairy at Exeter), told the present writer 

 that the farmers who provided him with milk might themselves have 

 made the growing profits on the business if they had organised. 

 Again, certain dairy-products cannot be produced at all on a small 

 scale, on account of the cost, as e.g. sterilised milk or condensed milk. 

 But the manufacture of these products has greatly increased in 

 England of late years. Unless by means of co-operation, the small 

 and medium holders cannot compete with the capitalist in this sphere. 

 Only by means of co-operation can they get the full profit on their 

 milk instead of selling it at the ordinary price to be re-sold at one 

 much higher. That the profits to be made, where the market 

 conditions are favourable, are very considerable I saw when I visited 

 the co-operative society for the sterilisation of milk founded by 

 Mr W. L. Charleton at Long Bennington, near Newark. This society, 

 in 1903, had twenty members, only one of them being a large farmer. 

 They received for their milk about 4^. per gallon more than they had 

 done before the foundation of the society, and the prices to be 

 obtained for the bottled milk seemed to be steadily improving. 



It is thus proved to be possible for the small holder by means of 

 co-operation to overcome not only his disadvantage in the purchase 

 of goods, but also his disadvantage in production. But his difficulties 

 in marketing his products still remain to be considered. Here too 

 co-operation has a part to play. Co-operative sale can often be very 

 effectively combined with co-operative purchase or production ; more 

 especially is it often included in the activities of an organisation 

 devoted to the latter purpose, as e.g. in the case of the steam-dairies. 

 It has to abolish two main disabilities of the small holding; in the 

 first place, the impossibility of selling large quantities, and in the 

 second place, the impossibility of guaranteeing uniform quality. 

 Where the small holder has not the command of some local centre of 

 distribution, or some private list of customers, or a stand of his own 

 in some market-place, this double disability makes him inferior to the 

 large farmer, excludes him from the great central markets or delivers 

 him over to the tender mercies of the middleman. Nor does it only 

 put him at a disadvantage in competition with the large farmer at 

 home, as e.g. in the milk trade, but also in competition with those 



1 See Graham, The Revival of English Agriculture, pp. 49 f. A similar example is 

 provided by the success of the Wensleydale Pure Milk Society : for which see E. A. Pratt, 

 The Transition in Agriculture, 1906, pp. 15 f. 



