628 The Agricultural Organisation Society, [jan. 



The systematic promotion of agricultural co-operative societies 



in Great Britain dates from the formation in 1900 of the British 



Agricultural Organisation Society. Prior 



The AgrPicultural this date a few societies had been inde- 

 Org'anisation 



Society. pendently formed in different parts of the 



country, but it was evident that there was 

 an opening in Great Britain for a society on the same lines 

 as the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society founded by Sir 

 Horace Plunkett. In 1901 an amalgamation was effected 

 between the British Agricultural Organisation Society and the 

 National Agricultural Union, the new society being known as 

 the Agricultural Organisation Society. In the Society's report 

 for the period ending June, 1906, the following figures are given, 

 showing the progress which has been made in the five years of 

 the Society's existence since April, 1901 : — 





1901. 



1905. 



Societies existing 



Number of counties in which there are afiiliated 



societies 



TotsI membership of affiliated societies 

 Total turn-over of affiliated societies ... 



■ 



12 



4 

 517 

 /9>467 



134'' 



41* 

 7,439 



/22I,524 



* June, 190b. 



The 134 societies which were in existence in June, 1906, were 

 made up of 96 societies for the supply of requirements or sale 

 of produce ; 12 dairy societies ; 11 credit societies ; 4 allotment 

 societies ; 3 motor service societies, and 8 miscellaneous societies. 

 Some of the societies, however, engage in more than one kind of 

 business, and might be classified under several of these headings. 



Two central societies, off-shoots of the Agricultural Organisa- 

 tion Society, have recently been formed, one being a trading 

 federation of agricultural co-operative societies and the other a 

 central credit bank. The Agricultural Co-operative Federation, 

 Limited, which was formed in 1905, took over the work pre- 

 viously carried on by the Advisory Business Department, and 

 now has fifty-three societies federated to it. It is a trading body 

 purchasing goods on commission on behalf of its societies, and 

 is, therefore, naturally in a much stronger position to make terms 

 with wholesale firms than any single society would be. This 



