June 1895.] CO-OPERATION AMONGST IRISH FARMERS. 



. CO-OPERATION AMONGST IRISH FARMERS. 



xhe Board o£ j&griculture have recently received from the 

 Secretary oi the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society some 

 information relating to the progress of co-operation amongst 

 Irish farmers. 



The co-operative movement in the rural districts of Ireland 

 may be said to have sprung into existence in 1890. In that year, 

 the Hon. Horace Plunkett read a paper at the Co-operative Con- 

 gress in Glasgow advocating the application of co-operative 

 principles to Irish industries, and a resolution was subsequently 

 passed authorising the Co-operative Union to spend a sum of 

 money in aid of the promotion of co-operation in Ireland. As 

 a beginning of this work, farmers in the dairying districts of 

 Munster were invited to furnish a practical example of the 

 benefits of co-operation by associating in the establishment of 

 creameries, and an organising agent, appointed by the tTnion, 

 visited Ireland to demonstrate by lectures and otherwise the 

 advantages connected with the formation of such co-operative 

 societies, and to afford advice and information to 'persons in- 

 terested in the movement. By the end of 1893, twenty-five 

 co-operative dairy societies were in existence. In the same year, 

 a conference was held at Limerick, at which it was decided to 

 form a federation of these associations for the joint sale of their 

 produce under the name of the Irish Co-operative Agency. In 

 1894, the co-operative movement received a further stimulus 

 by the establishment of the Irish Agricultural Organisation 

 Society. 



One of the great preliminary difficulties experienced by the 

 promoters of the co-operative movement in Ireland was the 

 reluctance of farmers to invest their capital in the erection of 

 creameries. Few of the dairy societies started with sufficient 

 share capital to cover all their outlay in buildings and machinery. 

 In many instances, credit was obtained from the contractors, 

 or the extra capital required was raised by means of a loan from 

 a local bank. 



The shares in the Irish co-operative creameries are owned, for 

 the most part, by the members. In some cases, persons who do 

 not keep cows hold shares, but they have become shareholders to 

 help the associations as local institutions rather than for the pur- 

 pose of investment. Shares are usually taken up by farmers in 

 proportion to the number of cows they keep, at the rate of for 

 each animal. This arrangement, however, is not uniform in all 

 the societies. It is the practice to pay for the shares by instal- 

 ments, generally of five shillings at a time. After the creamery 

 has been started, these instalments are frequently paid in 



