Junk, 1910.] 



529 



Miscellaneous. 



Department, and the farm was for a 

 short time retained under the Agricul- 

 tural Department as a temporary seed 

 and cattle depot. In 1885 the latter 

 connection was finally broken up, and 

 about half the old farm estate was 

 attached to the College for teaching 

 purposes, and the remainder was dis- 

 tributed for various public purposes. 



With the history of Saidapeth for 

 the last 25 years I have had no iuti- 

 mate connection, but I have tried to 

 give here a sketch of what was done 

 in connection with what was one of the 

 earliest, if not absolutely the earliest, 

 persistent efforts made in India towards 

 the development of a sound method or 

 policy in the matter of agricultural im- 

 provement and to which effort may 

 easily be traced much of recent de- 

 velopment in the direction. I think 

 that it will be admitted that on the 

 whole the Saidapeth Farm did useful 

 work as the pioneer of agricultural work 

 which we all hope will now be more 

 persistent. 



CO-OPERATION FOR SMALL 

 HOLDERS. 



(From the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture, Vol. XV., No. 8,) 



The following paper on Co-operation 

 was read by Mr. E. J. Cheney, one of 

 the small Holdings Commissioners, at 

 the Conference of Representatives of 

 Local Authorities convened by the 

 President of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries, and held in London on 

 Wednesday, 7th October, 1908 :- 



" I am honoured by being asked to 

 introduce the subject of co-operation to 

 your notice this afternoon, and, having 

 regard to the limited time at our disposal 

 and to the impossibility of dealing 

 adequately with a subject of such im- 

 portance in the course of a few brief 

 remarks, I propose to omit the usual 

 statistics and references to the progress 

 which co-operation has made on the 

 continent of Europe, and to confine my 

 observations to a few salient facts in 

 regard to co-operation as it affects the 

 small holdings movement. 



" Before proceeding further, I should 

 like to emphasise the fact, to which the 

 President referred at a meeting at 

 Norwich on Saturday last, that there 

 are two separate and distinct branches 

 of the farming, market gardening and 

 fruit-growing industries :— (1) The pro- 

 ductive ; (2) the distributive. 



" At the present time the grower or 

 producer attempts to deal with both 

 branches of this business himself, and 

 07 



fails entirely to realise that they are 

 very much more separate and distinct 

 than he is disposed to imagine. The 

 first requires an agricultural training, 

 and the second a business or commercial 

 training. I fear the large majority of 

 the farmers of this country do not 

 appreciate in the least what a very 

 distinct line of demarcation there is 

 between the two, and, however well 

 qualified they may be with regard to 

 the pioductive side, they have a very 

 great deal indeed to learn with regard 

 to the distribucive side. The truth of 

 this must be patent to everyone, if it is 

 considered what a wide commercial 

 kuowledge and experience is required 

 before a man is considered competent to 

 conduct a large merchant's or trader's 

 business with any prospect of success, 

 and yet the farmer, with no commercial 

 knowledge at all in the strict sense of 

 the term, considers that he can compete 

 on equal terms with men who are head 

 and shoulders above him in their know- 

 ledge and experience of their own parti- 

 cular branch of trade. 



" Now, the only way in which farmers 

 can get over this difficulty is by forming 

 themselves into powerful agricultural 

 co-operative societies, and by emplosdng 

 a staff of expert managers to look after 

 the trading side of their business. This 

 has been done with great success in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, where a large 

 society exists, managed by an elected 

 committee of thirty of the leading agri- 

 culturists of the two counties in con- 

 junction with a competent staff of 

 experts. By this means the two branches 

 of the farmers' business are combined. 



"Now, if it is necessary for the large 

 farmers to combine in order that their 

 business may be conducted to the best 

 advantage, how much more is it neces- 

 sary that the small holders should do so, 

 and so be in a position to buy their re- 

 quirements and market their produce ou 

 the best terms possible? The small man 

 will be too busy to attend markets or to 

 study them, all his time will be occupied 

 in tending his crops and his stock, mar- 

 keting must be left more or less to 

 chance, a few flooded markets may 

 cause his ruin, and unless the small men 

 will form themselves into local societies 

 the development of the small holdings 

 movement will be hampered very seri- 

 ously indeed. 



<l To my mind, and I do not speak 

 without experience, the co-operative 

 movement should be developed upon 

 the following lines :— 



'' Firstly, there should be one large 

 society for a county or group of coun- 

 ties ; 



