Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 288 



[September, 1910. 



produce. That institution, however, 

 attempted an impossible task, It pro- 

 posed to regulate distribution without 

 any organisation of production. It 

 would have requited for its success a 

 degree of local co-operation which, if 

 it had existed, might even have ren- 

 dered unnecessary the elaborate central 

 arrangements that were created. Five 

 years later, in 1901, the various efforts 

 that were in existence became con- 

 centrated in the formation of the Agri- 

 cultural Organisation Society, under 

 whose guidance and inspiration great 

 progress has been made, while a united 

 and continuous effort, on lines which 

 experience has proved to be successful 

 elsewhere, promises to bring about a 

 steady growth of co-operative organi- 

 sation. This Society has now affiliated to 

 it 3054 agricultural co-operative societies 

 of various kinds, with a membership of 

 15,000 and an annual turnover which 

 has increased in seven years from £9,467 

 to £850,000. 



Scotland. 

 The attempt to introduce co-operative 

 organisation in Scotland dates only 

 from five years ago. There had pre- 

 viously been local co-operative societies 

 in a few districts ; and for twenty 

 years the Farmers' Supply Association 

 had done good service to its members 

 in securing for them reliable materials 

 at a moderate cost of administration. 



It has always been co-operative in 

 principle, and its services have been, 

 and continue to be, highly valued. But 

 it was evident, in 1905, that whatever 

 degree of benefit this Association might 

 confer on its members, and whatever 

 gradual increase of its membership it 

 might thus effect, it did not contain 

 within itself the promise of a widespread 

 extension of co-operative trading, and 

 especially that it was not fitted to serve 

 the purposes of the smaller farmers, 



In order to be adopted by the agri- 

 cultural community generally, and pai- 

 ticularly by smallholders, co-operation 

 must have local organisation. It can 

 only be carried out on an adequate scale 

 by the formation of a large number of 

 local associations acting within small 

 and well-defined areas, each serving the 

 special purpose of its own district, and 

 combining with others for objects of 

 common interest. • 



This type of organisation, rather than 

 the direct relation of isolated indivi- 

 duals to large and centralised institu- 

 tions, has proved itself the effective 

 means of developing agricultural co- 

 operation. 



In 1905 the Scottish Agricultural Or- 

 ganisation Society was founded to carry 



on propagandist work and assist in the 

 formation and guidance of local co-oper- 

 ative societies. Its progress at first was 

 slow ; but during the last two years 

 considerable advance has been made, 

 and forty local societies, six of which 

 are Dairy Associations, are now affili- 

 ated to it. 



Organisation and Small Holdings. 



It will be realised from what has gone 

 before that it is in relation to the smaller 

 holdings that agricultural organisation is 

 most urgently required. Large farmers 

 may and do profit largely through 

 combined action ; and in future they will 

 find co-operation increasingly necessary. 

 But the case of the small holder is the 

 most urgent. His purchases are smaller ; 

 his production is less ; and it is more 

 essential tor him, therefore, than for his 

 larger neighbour to secure the advant- 

 ages of common action. His farming also, 

 if he is to haye an adequate return from 

 a small area of land, must be of an inten- 

 sive kind, such as involves relatively the 

 largest portions of bought material. It 

 must be added that his products are pre- 

 cisely those which, as has been shown 

 above, can be most advantageously dealt 

 with co-operatively. Milk, eggs, bacon 

 and fruit are, speaking generally, his sta- 

 ple products, and these are the products 

 to whose disposal his foreign rivals 

 chiefly devote their splendid co-oper- 

 ative organisation. 



Combination is essential to the future 

 prosperity of small farms ; and no 

 attempt to increase, or even to maintain, 

 the number of such farms can have the 

 faintest prospect of success unless it is 

 accompanied and fostered by the de- 

 velopment of a well-organised system 

 of co-operation. 



It is this which lends to agricultural 

 organisation its peculiar national im- 

 portance. It is generally recognised, as 

 an object of paramount interest, that we 

 should retain a larger proportion of our 

 population upon the land : the nation 

 which abandons agriculture and the land 

 is lost. It does not admit of dispute 

 that the maintenance of a larger rural 

 population demands an increase of the 

 profits of agriculture ; and organisation 

 to secure that end is more essential 

 than any other improvement in farming. 

 But it is further recognised that the 

 development of rural life requires some- 

 thing more than a mere increase in the 

 economic results of agriculture. If 

 farming were to follow the drift of 

 other industries and pass into larger 

 and larger concerns, eliminating the 

 smaller holder and falling into the 

 hands of a limited class, then employ- 



