Farmers' Co-operative Societies. 



35 



for export, and there are also instances abroad of agricul- 

 turists having combined with satisfactory results for the 

 prosecution of such businesses as milling, baking, distilling, 

 the preservation of fruit and vegetables, sugar refining and 

 the manufacture of starch. 



Co-operation in the sale of general agricultural produce 

 presents difficulties which have not yet been successfully 

 overcome. When it is remembered that corn, vegetables, 

 and meat are usually sold wholesale in separate markets 

 under entirely different conditions, it is not surprising that 

 comparatively few farmers' associations have attempted to 

 undertake the sale of all these articles on a large scale. These 

 difficulties are less operative in cases where the societies 

 have confined their business to a single class of produce, 

 such as butter and eggs, and the wholesale disposal of 

 these products on co-operative lines has been organised 

 with success. Though where this business has assumed 

 large dimensions, as in the case of the sale of butter 

 manufactured in the Danish and Irish dairies, the work 

 of distribution is undertaken by special agencies formed 

 solely for that purpose, to which the dairies consign their 

 produce. This form of co-operative distribution is one which 

 offers great possibilities in connection with the question of 

 the economic carriage by rail of agricultural produce. Many 

 of the complaints made by farmers of excessive and preferen- 

 tial railway charges arise from the fact that the consign- 

 ments concerned are not sufficient in bulk to enable the 

 companies to handle them with profit at the lower charges 

 at which they convey larger consignments. In such cases 

 the remedy would frequently be found in the formation of a 

 co-operative distributing agency which would undertake the 

 collection and packing of small consignments to make up 

 truck-loads for dispatch at regular intervals. 



Retail trading has been taken up by some co-opera- 

 tive societies in dairying districts on the Continent,, 

 through the medium of the parcels post, and this means of 

 reaching the consumer direct has also been employed for the 

 distribution of fancy cheeses, honey, eggs and fruit. 



Among the other co-operative institutions established by 



C 2 



