528 
Cow-Keeping hy Farm Labourers. 
tions have been a source of great strength to the club. At the present time, 
however, its finances are so good that the honorary subscriptions are not 
asked for. 
" The following Eules are suggested as the result of some years' experience : — 
" 1. The district to comprise — [State names of parishes, &c.] 
" 2. The officers (to be elected at a general meeting of the Society) to be a 
President, Secretary, three Trustees, and one or more Markers, who will pass 
the cows to be insin-ed, and mark them on the horn with the club's brand. 
" 3. The moneys to be deposited in the Savings Bank. 
" 4. Two classes of members. 
" Honorary Memhtrs, paying a subscription of 5s. per annum. 
" Ordinary Memhers, paying an entrance-fee of 10s. for each cowinsured, 
and a premium of 2s. half-yearly. 
" The cows to be insured for 121. each. 
" 5. Any member withdrawing a cow from the club shall receive his entrance- 
fee back, or such proix)rtion of it as the funds of the club warrant; but in no 
case shall he receive more than the amount of his entrance-fee. 
" 6. Xo member shall insure more than two cows. 
" 7. The premiums shall be paid at the general meetings of the club, on 
the first Mondays in January and July, when a statement of the club's 
finances shall be laid before the members. 
" 8. If at any time the club be dissolved, the money in hand, after repaying 
the entrance-fees to existing members, to be handed over to the nearest 
Agricultural Society. 
"The above rules require very little explanation. The farmers would 
probably be glad to fulfil the duty of marking the cows, after having satisfied 
themselves of their soimdness and value. Eule 6 confines the benefits of the 
club to hona fide cottagers only. Eule 8 is intended to check the tendency of 
country clubs to dissolve, when their numbers get low, and divide the spoiL 
" The advantages of a local insurance club, such as is described above, can- 
not be easily overrated. It brings insurance home to the very doors of the 
cottagers, without the routine of forms of application and attendance at 
offices. It fosters a spirit of thrift and independence, and cuts at the root of 
the demoralising habit of carrying 'briefs' wherever a loss occurs. It is one 
of the links which still bind together the labourer and his employer or 
landlord. The chief requisites for success are energetic officers, in whom the 
members will have confidence, and a set of short, simple, and workable rules, 
such as those suggested above." 
Answering mv queries seriatim, Professor Sheldon, Sheen, 
Ashbourne, says : — 
" I think it is best, as a rule, that the cow should be kept by the eipployer, 
as this does away with sub-letting or apportioning land to the labourer; a 
practice which landlords, as a rule, do not like their tenants to follow. Yet 
the labourer feels complimented by being allowed to hold a portion of land, 
when he is tenant of it ; and this is best where it can be had. 
" If a labourer keeps a cow in this district, he either iiastures her on his 
employer's land, or on some one else's in the locality who may offer him 
better facilities. But it is only few labourers who keep cows in these parts, 
and some of them happen to have a few acres of land of which they are bona 
fide tenants. 
"What food the cottager may purchase during the year for his cow will 
depend on what his land will do. In some ca<es a cottager has enough land 
to provide forage in winter, in which case he pastures his cow elsewhere, and 
mows bis own land, as this is found more convenient than grazing his land 
