5 So 



Co-operation for Small Holders. 



[NOV., 



to the limited time at our disposal and to the impossibility of 

 dealing adequately with a subject of such importance in the 

 course of a few brief remarks, I propose to omit the usual 

 statistics and references to the progress which co-operation 

 has made on the continent of Europe, and to confine my 

 observations to a few salient facts in regard to co-operation as 

 it affects the small holdings movement. 



" Before proceeding further, I should like to emphasise the 

 fact, to which the President referred at a meeting at Norwich 

 on Saturday last, that there are two separate and distinct 

 branches of the farming, market gardening and fruit-growing 

 industries : — (i) The productive ; (2) the distributive. 



" At the present time the grower or producer attempts to 

 deal with both branches of this business himself, and fails 

 entirely to realise that they are very much more separate and 

 distinct than he is disposed to imagine. The first requires an 

 agricultural training, and the second a business or commercial 

 training. I fear the large majority of the farmers of this 

 country do not appreciate in the least what a very distinct 

 line of demarcation there is between the two, and, however well 

 qualified they may be with regard to the productive side, they 

 have a very great deal indeed to learn with regard to the dis- 

 tributive side. The truth of this must be patent to everyone, 

 if it is considered what a wide commercial knowledge and 

 experience is required before a man is considered competent 

 to conduct a large merchant's or trader's business with any 

 prospect of success, and yet the farmer, with no commercial 

 knowledge at all in the strict sense of the term, considers that 

 he can compete on equal terms with men who are head and 

 shoulders above him in their knowledge and experience of 

 their own particular branch of trade. 



" Now, the only way in which farmers can get over this 

 difficulty is by forming themselves into powerful agricultural 

 co-operative societies, and by employing a staff of expert 

 managers to look after the trading side of their business. 

 This has been done with great success in Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 where a large society exists, managed by an elected committee 

 of thirty of the leading agriculturists of the two counties in 

 conjunction with a competent staff of experts. By this means 

 the two branches of the farmer's business are combined. 



"Now, if it is necessary for the large farmers to combine 



