Co-operative Farms. 
165 
X. — Co-operative Farim at Assington, Suffolk. 
To THE Editor of the Joukxal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society. 
Dear Sir, Tuubiidge Wells, January 10, 1863. 
WiLli you allow me a space in your valuable Journal for a 
subject most interesting to tlie cultivators, as well as to the lords 
of the soil ? We must all admit that, owina: to the depressed state 
of the labour-market, the former are insufficiently remunerated ; 
the consequence is that poaching and petty thefts are the crying 
evils of the age. About thirty-three years ago I formed a plan to 
raise the labourer in his class, without taking him out of it, by 
giving him a stake in the country, and thus rendering him a 
responsible man, not only to his God, but to his neighbours ; I 
do not add, to be independent of his fellow-creatures, for such a 
principle I detest. Dependence upon God in the first instance, 
and secondly upon our neighbour, is the mainspring of society, 
each forming a link in the human chain. I am for progressing 
with the times ; I like large farms and extended fields ; they 
save the landlord many buildings, they give full scope to 
machinery, and they meet the requirements of the march of 
intellect ; still there must be small, isolated, off-hand farms, 
and such are generally ill-cultivated or neglected : it is to these I 
wish to call your attention. One of this sort, 100 acres more or 
less, becoming vacant in 1839, I called together 20 of the better 
class of labourers in the parish and offered them the farm with 
the loan of the necessary capital (without interest) if they would 
imdertake to cultivate it conformably to my regulations, each 
man paying doAvn 21. as a guarantee. They gladly accepted my 
proposal, and in the course of 10 years or so the capital, 400/., 
was paid back, and they were in complete possession as tenants 
of a well-cultivated and well-stocked farm, I was so fully satis- 
fied with this success, that, upon another isolated farm of 150 acres 
becoming vacant in 1852, I put in 30 men upon the same terms, 
and of the capital then advanced only 50/, remains unpaid — a 
charge which they hope to liquidate during the present year. 
.Simple and inexpensive as my plan is, after so long an experi- 
ence, I can say confidently that it has not one drawback : the 
labourer himself has now something to lose ; his sympathy is 
drawn out towards his master, for, in his calamities, he can feel 
as one who might have been in the same predicament ; physically, 
lie is better fed, and consequently he can do greater justice to 
his employer than heretofore ; the farmer can also put more con- 
fidence in him, as conviction of theft would deprive him of his 
share in the society, which is now worth upwards of 50/. The 
landlord has also his advantages — less marauding, less poaching, 
