204 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
members. There could be no better statement of the funda- 
mental object for which this league stands than the third 
article of its statutes : " The Agricultural League has as its 
object the promotion of religious, intellectual and social 
progress among its members and the safeguarding of their 
material interests in order to establish a class of strong 
Christian agriculturists.” 
To judge how the several departments have grown, one 
needs only to examine the development of the dairy business. 
At first cooperative dairies formed an insignificant branch of 
the work ; and yet, although in 1891 there were only eleven 
dairies, in 1905 there were in operation four hundred ninety- 
eight. Postcamp and Antwerp, moreover, set up cooperative 
mills ; at present they raise seeds and manufacture oil cake. 
Warehouses have been established everywhere. 
One after another the troubles arising from all these long 
years of ignorance and misunderstanding have been over- 
come. The cooperative buying of fertilizers, machines, and 
other supplies was comparatively easy to manage ; but the 
marketing of produce on a grand scale is a difficult matter 
and in every case has proved a severe test of loyalty to the 
federation. Within two years this last upward step has been 
triumphantly taken : namely, that of selling members’ prod- 
ucts to an outside market. 
The federation provides that all the fertilizers bought by 
the little associations shall be carefully tested by expert 
chemists. This is but an instance of how, as one authority^ 
puts it, ” cooperation grown strong puts the man of science 
in the field.” 
The local associations not only employ scientists to test 
and purchase manure and feeding stuffs, but they organize 
agricultural credit, mutual insurance, and all forms of banking 
1 John Graham Brooks. 
