September, 1910.] 



-233 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation ; 



worth considering, that more than 

 50,000 co-operative societies organise the 

 business of farmers in Prance, Germauy, 

 Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and 

 Denmark. It is inevitable that the 

 almost unmitigated individualism of 

 British farming should place it at a dis- 

 advantage in relation to so large a 

 development of business combination. 



The operations to which the co-oper- 

 ative principle is applied in agriculture 

 are of the most varied kiuds. 



Combined Purchase. 

 The simplest form in which it presents 

 itself is that of combined purchase of 

 farm requisites. The importance of this 

 appears when it is realised how large a 

 proportion of the proceeds of a farm is 

 spent in buying the materials necessary 

 for its work. The annual expenditure 

 of British farmers on fertilisers alone 

 amounts to not less than £20,000,000. The 

 feeding stuffs, artificial fertilisers, seeds, 

 and implements which must be bought, 

 in order to farm with advantage, entail 

 an always increasing expenditure ; and 

 the more intensive agriculture becomes, 

 the greater is the amount of material 

 purchased and the more important is 

 economy in its cost. Now it is beyond 

 dispute that combination in purchase 

 economises cost. It gives to the buyer 

 of a small quantity the advantages which 

 are now secured only by the largest 

 purchasers. 



The combined small buyers can obtain 

 the concessions in price and terms 

 which a large order can procure. They 

 can buy more cheaply together than 

 separately. They can arrange lower 

 rates of railway carriage for their bulked 

 orders. Above all, they are able collec- 

 tively to take steps to secure the good 

 quality of their materials which they 

 could not attempt separately. It is not 

 easy to estimate, even in a general way, 

 the extent of the saving which can be 

 effected by combined purchase.* But 

 even if it were no more than 10 per 

 cent. —and it is often three times that 

 amount— it would represent a gain 

 which no business could afford, in 

 competition with others, to forfeit, 

 and which certainly cannot be neglected 

 by British farmers competing in an open 

 market. 



Combined Sale. 



Of no less importance is the combin- 

 ation for purposes of sale which plays 

 so large a part in many districts. It 

 may be recognised that this kind of 

 combination has hitherto prevailed in 

 30 



relation rather to some of the smaller 

 products of agriculture than to those 

 which would be regarded as its great 

 staples. 



Eggs. 



Very conspicuous, for example, has 

 been the success which has attended 

 the co-operative sale of eggs. Eggs as 

 a farm product have every characteristic 

 that renders co-operative sale desirable. 

 They are usually produced at each farm 

 in quantities so small as to make the 

 cost of individual marketing dispropor- 

 tionate to the total value. They are 

 perishable, so that quick marketing is 

 necessary in order to obtain the best 

 price. They command a greatly im- 

 proved price when they are properly 

 graded and assorted according to colour 

 and size. 



All these facts point to the necessity 

 of co-operation on the part of egg pro- 

 ducers ; in combination they can secure 

 cheap and efficient marketing, and pro- 

 per grading and quick delivery of their 

 eggs. They are thus able;, more parti- 

 cularly in districts remote from the 

 great markets, to obtain a substantial 

 increase over the prices formerly ob- 

 tained by individual marketing. It is 

 by co-operation, carried on in over 400 

 societies dealing with eggs alone, that 

 Denmark has been able to secure so 

 strong a hold of the British market in 

 competition with British producers, who 

 have had complete equality with their 

 Danish rivals in every other respect, 

 and inferior only in their organisation. 

 Similar results have followed the adop- 

 tion of the same methods in Ireland 

 and in those districts of England and 

 Scotland where co-operative marketing 

 has been introduced. A conspicuous 

 instance of this is found in the Orkney 

 Islands. Orkney eggs bore a few years 

 ago — and bore deservedly — a bad re- 

 putation. The delay in marketing, 

 which in this case was a necessary result 

 of individual trading, made their quality 

 so poor that only the lowest prices 

 were obtained for them. But co-oper- 

 ative organisation has begun to take 

 root in Orkney, and eleven societies for 

 the joint sale of eggs have been formed. 

 These societies are able to deliver the 

 eggs of their members in the town 

 markets so much more rapidly than was 

 formerly possible, that the producers 

 receive an increase of about 30 per cent, 

 on their old prices. It is worth while 

 to note that this increase in price, while 

 partly due to economy in marketing, 

 has its principal cause in the substantial 

 improvement which co-operation has 

 made possible in the quality and the 

 value of the eggs sold. 



