360 Co-operation in Tenure of Small Holdings, [aug., 



Councils should obtain satisfactory assurances from the com- 

 mittee of the society that their members have sufficient farm- 

 ing capital, and for this purpose it will usually be desirable 

 that the committee should be interviewed on behalf of the 

 Council. 



I now come to the last part of my paper, and propose to 

 give a brief description of a co-operative small-holdings 

 society holding land from a County Council under the Small 

 Holdings Act, 1907. I shall take for this purpose the Mere 

 and District Small Holders, Limited, the first one to obtain 

 land in this way. This society is already in possession of a 

 farm of 452 acres, on which 28 small holders are installed. 

 Mere is situated on the borders of Wiltshire and Dorset, four 

 miles from Gillingham, on the L. and S.W. Railway. There 

 were already a certain number of small holders in the district, 

 who, with 20 to 40 acres of land, kept milking cows and dis- 

 posed of their produce to two milk factories at Mere and 

 Gillingham. Some of these men were anxious to enlarge 

 their holdings, and other applicants required land to work in 

 conjunction with their present occupations. The movement 

 was started in the first instance by the circular letter addressed 

 to the Parish Council by the County Council, sent out on the 

 advice of the Board of Agriculture, inquiring as to the demand 

 for land in the parish. In response to this, 17 applicants sent 

 in their names. At a subsequent meeting it was suggested 

 that the applicants should form themselves into a co-operative 

 society for the purpose of acquiring land, and the men 

 appeared at once to realise the advantages of this course. 

 Model rules were sent down from the Agricultural Organisa- 

 tion Society, and the society was duly formed and registered 

 in May, 1908. A committee was appointed to conduct negotia- 

 tions. There was reason to believe that a farm belonging to 

 the Duchy of Cornwall immediately adjoining Mere might 

 be available if an application were made. This farm was ulti- 

 mately acquired by the County Council, and let as a whole 

 to the society for a term of twenty-one years, with the option 

 of continuing the lease for thirty. 



The society pays rates and undertakes repairs. The rent 

 charged to the small holder is inclusive of everything, and 

 works out at from 22s. to 445. per acre. 



