September, 1910.] 



239 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation, 



ment in agricultural labour would 

 not hold out the prospect of independ- 

 ence which has always been an essential 

 attraction to the best men engaged in it. 

 It is therefore of the greatest import- 

 ance not to allow to diminish, but to 

 increase and open Up, this prospect, — to 

 make the conditions of small farming 

 easier and more favourable than they 

 now are. It is to this end that co-oper- 

 ation is essential. Only by combination 

 is it possible to secure for the small 

 holder that degree of equality with the 

 large concern which is essential to his 

 economic existence. He possesses, in the 

 working of his farm, substantial advant- 

 ages over his rivals who employ only 

 wage labour. He may well hold his own 

 if he can learn to combine with his 

 neighbours. 



General Effects of Organisation. 

 In the foregoing account of Agricul- 

 tural Organisation, attention has been 

 directed almost exclusively to its busi- 

 ness side ; and this has been done deli- 

 berately, because it is as a business 

 method that co-operation must be 

 judged. If it fails in this respect, it fails 

 wholly ; it can never be accepted by 

 farmers, it can never succeed at all, 

 unless it proves itself to be directly 

 profitable. Its advocates must there- 

 tore challenge judgment on this aspect 

 of it ; and in the light of all experience 

 they may safely do so. 



Yet when it has been defended on this 

 ground, it may be permissible to point 

 out that there arise from it indirectly 

 other, and perhaps ultimately even 

 larger, results than those money profits 

 which are the first ground for its accept- 

 ance. 



No force makes more strongly in the 

 direction of education an'd agricultural 

 improvement generally than does co- 

 operation. It brings contact with a 

 larger world which for the separate 

 individual might well be inaccessible. 

 It brings new ideas and methods. It 

 gives the stimulus of better profit to the 

 effort to obtain a larger production 

 from the land. 



The cases of Prance and Italy have 

 been mentioned, in which the Co-oper- 

 ative Syndicates have been the propa- 

 gandists of agricultural improvement. 

 But the result is everywhere the same. 

 Co-operative dairying leads to interest 

 in milk records, and to an upward 

 tendency in the management of cows 

 and milk. Co-operative egg societies 

 lead to the improvement of breeds of 

 poultry. Co-operative purchase brings 

 knowledge of improved methods of culti- 

 vation, as well as access to new materials, 



Not less real, and not less important 

 in its ultimate result, is the social in- 

 fluence of co-operation. Its effect in 

 other countries have been to stimulate 

 and revive rural life on its social no less 

 than on its economic side, and to check 

 the drift towards the towns, which is 

 largely due to the decline of social 

 relations in the country, 



In our own agricultural system an 

 interesting result of co-operative organi- 

 sation is its tendency to bring landlord 

 and tenant into those closer personal 

 relations which are so essential to the 

 proper working of the system itself. It 

 is sometimes said that agricultural 

 organisation is a landlord's interest ; and 

 that is neither less true nor more true of 

 organisation than it is of any other 

 means of improving the profits of farm- 

 ing. But it is certain that joint action 

 in co-operative societies helps to bring 

 landlord and tenant to a better under- 

 standing; of their mutual relations and a 

 stronger sense of their large common 

 interests. 



After all, organised combination, as a 

 factor in rural life, is only a definite 

 development in clear practical and pro- 

 fitable directions, of that spirit of 

 neighbourliness which has always been 

 the foundation virtue of life on the land 



SCOTTISH AGRICULTURAL 

 ORGANISATION SOCIETY. 



(Prom the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture, Vol. XVIII., No. 2, 

 May, 1910.) 



Although the Scottish Agricultural 

 Organisation Society was started at a 

 later date than its sister society in 

 England, it has in the four years during 

 which it has been in existence made 

 equally rapid progress. Up to the end 

 of 1908, twenty-three societies had affili- 

 ated to it, and during 1909 sixteen more 

 were formed, making a total of thirty- 

 nine. 



The milk dep6ts are, it is stated, not- 

 ably successful, and interest in this 

 department of agricultural organisation 

 is growing rapidly. The Lugton and 

 Duulop Associations, formed under the 

 Society's guidance, have substantially 

 improved the price of milk in their 

 respective districts ; and their first year's 

 operations show highly satisfactory pro- 

 fits after the cost of working and 

 interest on capital have been met. Simi- 

 lar depots have been completed at 

 Rowallan, Fy vie, and Laurencekirk, and 

 their progress is such as to offer every 

 prospect of successful development! 



