THE NEW AGRICULTURE 
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and saving. An idea of the business done by the Agricultural 
League may be given by a few figures. In the year 1906, 
for example, the league bought for the use of its affiliated 
societies 28,000,000 kilos of chemical manures, besides more 
than 25,000,000 kilos of cattle foods costing over ^1,000,000. 
The same year its banking business had grown till it reached 
a turnover of more than ^2,000,000. The amount of insur- 
ance and savings handled by it has increased lately to enor- 
mous proportions. Throughout Europe, in the places which 
these societies cover, the material gain has amounted to from 
20 to 40 per cent. What such opportunities for mutual bene- 
fit may mean to a single family is shown by a concrete ex- 
ample : On one farm of twenty acres, for instance, cooperation 
has easily saved a margin of $480 each year. Think what 
this might add to the comfort of living ! 
Great as has been the economic gain, the moral and social 
value, some say, is even higher. This is due to the fact that 
a successful " cooperative ” truly educates its members. This 
should cause no surprise, for it commands applied science, 
it commands honesty, it drives out suspicion of one’s neigh- 
bor, and in its place puts confidence. More than that, " it 
includes the ever-enlarging good of others as a part of 
one’s own welfare,” says Mr. Brooks. In fine, its aim is to 
draw men together and not to separate them or antagonize 
them ; its working hypothesis would seem to be science and 
brotherhood. Once born in a community, the social conscience 
is bound to grow ; new visions flash across the sight ; before 
long the whole spiritual perspective becomes changed. The 
social causes, as opposed to the individual causes, of evil and 
injustice are for the first time shown up. Intolerance, whether 
ecclesiastical or political, appears in all its ugliness. 
The present solidarity of the European farmers, which is 
to-day so remarkable, has, as we have seen, been reached along 
