Profit-Sharinrj in Agriculture. 
lib 
but he has to bear the disappointment which results from the fact 
that the advantage to which he has perhaps been looking forward 
for a year beforehand is not forthcoming. 
Now, reason suggests, and experience has proved the sugges- 
)ii to be correct, that, if the profits of a farm are shared ^-ith the 
.:.oourers in such a way as to convince them that their interest 
is bound up in the success of the farm, their labour will show 
extra care and extra energy : there will be a dimiuution of waste 
on the one hand and a more intelligent application of labour 
on the other. 
There are few agricultural experiments which have arrested 
so much attention among educated men outside the agricultural 
world as the very remarkable experiment of iMr. Vandelenr in 
co-operative farming at Ralahine, co. Clare, during the years 
1830-1833. A full account of the Ralahine farm is given in 
Mr. Sedley Taylor's book on " Profit-Sharing," in Mr. Fare's 
-ume on " Co-operative Agriculture." and in a pamphlet by 
- Ir. E. T. Craig, the manager of Ealahine farm, entitled, " A 
Remedy for Ireland." 
The most disturbed district in Ireland, m. one of the most 
disturbed periods of her history, conspicuou= among other portions 
of Ireland for the number of horrible murders and brutal outrages, 
was rendered peaceful and contented in an incredibly short space 
of time by the bold originality and enthusiasm of !Mr. Yandeleur, 
who, an ardent disciple of Robert Owen, resolved in 1830 to 
apply the principle of co-operation to the cultivation of his estate. 
At the time when Mr. Craisf was called over from Lancashire 
to organise the Ralahine farm on the cj-operative principle, the 
condition of that portion of Cocmty Clare in which Ralahine was 
situated was as bad as it was possible to be. The " Terry Alt " 
was in full blast, and the " Lady Clare Boys " were in their 
fiercest and most unrestrained humour. Xo soil coidd have been 
more unpromising for an experiment which depended for its suc- 
cess on mutual trust and goodwill between Mr. Yandeleur, his 
agents, and the agricultural labourers. 
The plan adopted was thus described in a paper read before 
the British Association at Oxford in 1847 : — 
" The plan adopted was the establishment of an association of labourers, 
altogether without capital, to whom a certain quantity of land was entrusted 
in common for cultivation ; the landlord advancing the necessary stock, 
farming implements, and providing dwellings, bams, and farm-buildings. Sac, 
and receiving back the value of the rent of the land, and the interest at the 
rate of 5 and 6 per cent, on the advances made and money expended, in th* 
produce of the farm at the market price, the surplus to go to the common 
benefit. The farm was cultivated by the labourers themselves, who weie 
paid in I.^bour Notes, which were payable in kind at a store on the pro- 
