June, 1910.] 



531 



Miscellaneous. 



amount of share capital, which is a 

 separate and distinct matter from the 

 amount of capital required to farm the 

 land properly, will impose a sufficient 

 liability upon the members of the Asso- 

 ciation to furnish a gurantee that they 

 will not admit unsuitable persons to 

 membership. When associations are 

 prepared to pay six months' rent in 

 advance, or can provide an outside 

 guarantee, of which the council can ap- 

 prove, that the rent will be paid when 

 it becomes due, a lesser amount of share 

 capital may be considered as being 

 sufficient, but to my mind the first is 

 far and away the best system to adopt, 

 and I am pleased to be able to state that 

 two important societies have been 

 started under it already, one at Mere in 

 Wiltshire, which takes possession of 452 

 acres of land this Michaelmas, and the 

 other at Biggleswade in Bedford, to 

 which land has been let to the extent 

 of 280 acres, also from this Michaelmas. 

 The importance of societies of this kind 

 cannot be overestimated, since their 

 success depends on mutual responsi- 

 bility, which paves the way to credit 

 banking and other important branches 

 of the co-operative movement. 



"The gain to a county council from 

 letting land to an association is ^lso 

 considerable. Only one rent would have 

 to be collected instead of say twenty to 

 thirty, and the committee of the associ- 

 ation would select the tenants and be 

 answerable for the proper cultivation of 

 the land. The gain to the members of 

 the association would also be great, 

 mainly because of the help which it 

 would be to them in their farming 

 operations. An association could invest 

 a portion of its capital in some of the 

 heavier farm implements, such as Camb- 

 ridge rolls, drills, and the like. There 

 is indeed no limit to what can be done 

 by self-help and co-operation. 



"There is another most important 

 factor to consider in connection with 

 the movement, namely, the position of 

 the industrial or distribution societies in 

 relation to it, The turnover of these 

 societies runs into millions, the Leeds 

 society alone deals with produce which 

 it would take from 60,000 to 70,000 acres 

 to grow, not counting beef, mutton, 

 milk, poultry and eggs. 



" I much regret to find that societies 

 of the kind have not shown any serious 

 indication at present of either applying 

 for land or of a desire to establish their 

 members upon it. In my humble judg- 

 ment, schemes of the kind would be 

 bound to succeed owing to the ready 

 market which the industrial societies 



have at their command, and even suppos- 

 ing that the astute business men at the 

 head of the industrial co-operative move- 

 ment cannot seo their way to recom- 

 mend their members to embark in the 

 cultivation of land, I would impress upon 

 them the desirability of forging a bond 

 of union between the agricultural and 

 industrial branches of the movement, 

 whereby the organised producer of the 

 country is brought into direct touch 

 with the organised consumer of the 

 town. 



"There is only one other matter in 

 connection with co-operation to which I 

 will refer : it is the very important one 

 of mutual live stock insurance. In view 

 of the conditions under which the small 

 holders will farm, it is essential to his 

 success that he should run as few risks 

 as possible, and to that end he must be 

 placed in a position to insure his crops 

 and his stock. He would find no diffi- 

 culty in covering them against fire or 

 against hail, b'ut he would find consider- 

 able difficulty at the present time in 

 protecting himself against other risks at 

 anything like a reasonable rate. The 

 death of a horse, a cow, a fat pig and 

 the like would be a very serious matter 

 indeed to the small man, and might 

 mean the loss of a considerable portion 

 of his income for the year, 



"A co-operative insurance society is 

 about to be started in London. I would 

 urge upon the promoters the extreme 

 desirability of putting the insurance of 

 stock before that of fire, and of placing 

 means at the disposal of the small men 

 by which they could extricate them- 

 selves from the serious financial diffi- 

 culty in which the loss of stock would 

 involve them. 



" Before sitting down I wish to make a 

 brief reference to another important 

 subject, namely, that of agricultural 

 education. If the small holdings move- 

 ment is to succeed in the way it can and 

 ought to do, education and co-operation 

 must go hand in hand, and the move- 

 ment opens up a splendid field of use- 

 fulness to your technical instruction 

 committees. 



" I venture to think that the necessity 

 for providing scientific and practical in- 

 struction in agriculture has never been 

 more pressing and I suggest that special 

 efforts should be made to apply the 

 results of scientific research in a practical 

 and business-like way. 



" No one realises more than I do the 

 value of scientific knowledge, but what 

 I feel strongly is that the time has come 

 when the results of research should be 

 applied in a practical way, when the. 



