i40 Co-operative Societies in the U.K. [may, 



content to take advantage of the benefits which the co-operative 

 movement has conferred, without doing anything themselves 

 to strengthen or help the work of organisation. 



The Society has issued 18 leaflets, four of which are in 

 Gaelic. 



Co-operative production and distribution in the United 



Kingdom as applied to agriculture, which until recent years 



had been confined mainly to Ireland, 



• C ?"°P e y a 5 v ? A . has recently made considerable pro- 

 Agricultural Societies _ __• . . 



in the gress in Great Britain, lhe societies 



United Kingdom.* dealt with below are those registered 

 under the Industrial and Provident 

 Societies Acts, and the Friendly Societies Acts. 



Productive and Distributive Societies. — While in the main 

 the industrial co-operative societies are carried on and 

 managed by the members as a means of improving their 

 position as consumers, in the case of agricultural co-operative 

 societies the main object is usually to enable the members 

 more efficiently and profitably to carry on their daily occupa- 

 tion as individual farmers and producers. For this purpose 

 the societies formed are of two kinds, which may conveniently 

 be classed as "Productive" and "Distributive" Societies. 



The "productive" societies take the form mainly of 

 creameries or dairies, which purchase from the members the 

 milk or cream produced by them as individual farmers. This 

 is manufactured by the societies into butter, cheese, &c, by 

 paid employees, and sold in the open markets, the operations 

 of the societies being carried on under the supervision of 

 committees elected by the members. In a few cases these 

 societies have also undertaken the supply of members' re- 

 quirements, to avoid the formation of a separate "distribu- 

 tive " society. 



The "distributive" societies are usually formed for the 

 collective purchase and distribution of the seeds, manures, 

 implements, &c, required by the members, and for the sale 

 in the markets of the cattle, eggs, poultry, and other products 

 of the industry of the members in their capacity of individual 

 farmers. The profits, as stated in the rules of both types of 



* This article, which is based upon Returns made direct to the Board of Trade by 

 the Societies concerned, and upon Returns made to the Chief Registrar of Friendly 

 Societies and to the Agricultural Organisation Societies of England and Ireland, 

 appeared in the Labour Gazette for April, 1910. 



