X*Tf*-Y

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES

7V*7i

**.#***

THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE

THE ORGANIZATION
OF AGRICULTURE

BY EDWIN A. PRATT

11

*>

AUTHOR OF " AMERICAN RAILWAYS
"TRADE UNIONISM AND BRITISH INDUSTRY
LEADING POINTS IN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY
ETC.

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1904

"&S*

■'«

A

CONTENTS

a

t 1

C3

s

Chapter
Ul

ii.

"* III.

IV.
V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

XX.

XXI.

Introduction

The Railways and Agriculture

A Dissertation on Eggs

Agricultural Organization in Denmark

Germany .

France

Belgium

Italy

Holland .

Hungary .

Austria

Switzerland

Sweden and Norway

Finland

Siberia

Servia

Poland

Luxemburg

The United States

Argentina

Canada

Australasia

PAGE

vli

i

12

25
4i
57
88

I25
141

165
170
176

183
197

208

2I5
221

225

236

240

258

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER

XXII. Ireland
XXIII. England and Wales

269
289
XXIV. A German View of English Agriculture 316

XXV. Do the Railways Help the Farmers?
XXVI. Conclusion and Recommendations .

Index . . ,

327
364

393

INTRODUCTION

THE matter contained in the present volume
represents a substantial expansion of a series
of four articles on " The Organization of Agri-
culture," published in The Times at Easter, 1904.
The information then given as to conditions in
Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy,
Holland, Finland, and England and Wales has
been considerably amplified, while the details
contained in the chapters headed "A Dissertation
on Eggs," "Hungary," "Austria," "Switzerland,"
" Sweden and Norway," " Siberia," " Servia,"
"Poland," "Luxemburg," "The United States,"
"Argentina," "Canada," "Australasia," "Ire-
land," and " A German View of English Agri-
culture " are now presented for the first time.

How the work came to be undertaken is
sufficiently explained in the opening chapter.
The inquiry instituted covered so much ground
that the task to be accomplished seemed to be

viii INTRODUCTION

one which called for the combined energies of a
Royal Commission, rather than one that might
legitimately be regarded as within the scope of
an individual investigator. But a Royal Com-
mission would have been difficult to get ; its
inquiry into such a subject would have extended
over a considerable period, and the results would
have been stated in ponderous Blue-books, which
the persons most concerned would probably never
have read. In these circumstances there seemed
to be advantages in the direction of dealing with
the subject at once from a more popular stand-
point, and in such a way as would have a better
chance of reaching the interests affected, even
though the treatment of the matter might be less
exhaustive than that which it would have received
at the hands of official inquirers.

Avowedly, therefore, the present volume at-
tempts to give no more than a general survey of
that movement in favour of agricultural organi-
zation which, as will be seen, is now spreading
practically throughout the civilized world. Severe
compression has had to be adopted in order to
get such a survey within the limits of a single
volume of modest proportions, and much that

INTRODUCTION ix

would have been of interest to the student of
economics has necessarily had to be omitted. In
fact, in many of the countries dealt with the
agricultural revival now proceeding there is so
interesting in itself, and of such importance from
the economic standpoint, that a separate volume
might be devoted to each of them. There is,
indeed, abundant scope to-day for the enterprise
of some twentieth -century Arthur Young, who
would make a tour du monde in order to fully
describe what the following pages can do little
more than indicate — the position, namely, of
" The New Agriculture, " and the effect thereof
on both the material and the social conditions of
the peoples of the world.

Thus the subject has much wider ramifications
than any issue as between railway and agricultural
interests, and I have here sought to deal with it
from the broader as well as from the narrower point
of view. Whether or not the conclusions at which
I have arrived, as set out on pages 390-1, are war-
ranted the reader must say for himself; but in any
case the information here brought together, from
so many different sources, should prove an ac-
ceptable contribution to the available sources of

x INTRODUCTION

knowledge on a subject of world-wide and steadily
increasing interest.

I have now only to add that further develop-
ments, brought about as these pages are passing
through the Press, modify one or two of the
statements made in the body of the work. It is,
for instance, no longer the fact that, as I say on
page 307, England has only local co-operative
agricultural societies, whereas AVales has a
"Welsh Farmers' Federation." This assertion
was true enough when I wrote it, and when the
printers printed it ; but a conference of repre-
sentatives of agricultural co-operative societies in
Worcestershire and neighbouring counties has
since formed a " Midland Agricultural Co-oper-
ative Federation " for the purposes alike of
combined purchase and combined sale. Arrange-
ments, I hear, are also being made to federate
the Yorkshire societies. Then on page 380 I
have suggested that " it may be found desirable
to amalgamate the Agricultural Organization
Society and the Co-operative Banks Association,
so as to give greater force to the efforts that
each is making." The bodies concerned have
not waited for this recommendation to appear

INTRODUCTION xi

in print. They have anticipated it by already
amalgamating. I would further avail myself of
this opportunity to say that the author of Lcs
Associations Agricoles en Belgique, referred to
on pages 95 and 96, should have been given as
M. Max Turmann, and not as M. Victor Le-
coffre, and that, by a slip of the pen, I have, on
page 295, given the town of Newark as in Lin-
colnshire, instead of Nottinghamshire.

EDWIN A. PRATT

London, April, 19(4

THE ORGANIZATION OF
AGRICULTURE

CHAPTER I

THE RAILWAYS AND
AGRICULTURE

BETWEEN the British farmer and the
British railways there has for years past
been a certain amount of friction. The farmer
has alleged a variety of grievances against the
railways, and the railways, in return, have not
hesitated to discuss the shortcomings of the
farmer ; but hitherto there has been little hope
of a common understanding between them, and
meanwhile the condition of British agriculture
has been going from bad to worse.

Representations have been made that the
railways are seeking to cripple British agricul-
ture ; but a moments reflection must suffice to
show how absolutely foolish and short-sighted
such a policy would be. The increased prosperity

2 THE RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE

of a country district means far more to a British
railway company than the carriage of a larger
quantity of agricultural produce therefrom. It
means greater traffic to the district in the shape
of seeds, manures, feeding-stuffs, implements, and
agricultural machinery before the return freight
in the shape of actual produce is ready. It means
that more families will settle in those districts,
and that with every additional family there will
be greater need for the transport of furniture,
food, clothing, and countless other household
necessaries. It means that as the income of the
family increases they will be able to afford
domestic luxuries in the shape of pianos, carriages,
and other such things, which will probably be
bought " in town " and carried on the railway ;
and it means, also, that more individuals will
travel to and from the districts in question, and
thus swell the receipts from passenger traffic. In
these and other ways the British railways have a
direct and very important interest in the welfare
of British agriculture. Indeed, as shown by the
considerations just presented, they have much
more to hope for from carrying a given quantity
of British produce than they have from simply
bringing from the coast to an inland town a
corresponding amount of foreign produce, which
represents, for them, only a single transaction.

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 3

Here, of course, the whole point depends on
the words " corresponding amount," the actual
fact being that the quantities of agricultural
produce coming to this country from abroad,
and carried on our railways, are greatly in excess
of those that our own farmers can, or do, supply.
It is this factor that lies at the bottom of most
of the grievances alleged against the railways
by British agriculturists, who do not always
sufficiently realize the differences which must
necessarily exist, even in regard to railway rates,
between wholesale and retail ; and if only the
British farmer could, under any possible circum-
stances, put himself on the same footing as the
foreign agriculturists in respect alike to quantity
and conditions of particular items of produce, he
would secure the same advantages as they do,
and the railways themselves would also gain,
both directly and indirectly.

In all these circumstances the time would
seem to have come for abandoning any idea
of antagonism or even of want of sympathy
between interests which are so obviously iden-
tical, and for seeing whether some clearer under-
standing in regard to actual facts, conditions
and possibilities cannot be arrived at which will
be good for the farmers, good for the railways,
and good for the country. To this end, on

4 THE RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE

the completion of my book on the subject of
American Railways, I undertook a mission to
make an unprejudiced inquiry into the " ano-
malies " and other grievances alleged in regard
to the operation of British railways — especially
from the agricultural standpoint — and also into
the conditions existing in various Continental
countries.

After investigations carried on in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, I started on my inquiries
abroad with the idea mainly of instituting com-
parisons between English and foreign railway
rates, and I learned how, in most of the foreign
countries where the railways are owned or con-
trolled by the State, the low rates in respect to
goods for export (with which inland railway
rates in this country are so often compared)
are mainly the result — apart from the question
of rivalry between ports — either of the highly
organized condition of trades, and especially of
agriculture, which leads to the consignment of
goods to the railways in waggon -loads, and, in
some cases, even in train-loads ; or of what is
practically a bounty on the export of agricul-
tural produce or manufactured articles in the
interests of the country. I found concerning
Germany that the profits derived from the State
railways are regarded by the Government as a

CONTINENTAL RAILWAY CONDITIONS 5

source of revenue, to the extent of which the
Ministers are independent of Reichstag votes ;
that the development of the State railways, so
as to meet present-day conditions — on the lines
on which an English or an American railway
company would have developed them — has been
retarded because a generous expenditure would
have interfered with the finances of the State ;
and that while the Government have granted
extremely low rates for goods or produce for
export (especially when such traffic might other-
wise go via Belgium or Holland), they have been
far less generous to home traders, who have
found it a matter of extreme difficulty to get
reductions in local rates, either because the con-
dition of the State finances would not allow of
them, or because the State officials were afraid
of arousing the jealousies of rival districts. I
found in Belgium that the rates not only for
export, but also for inland, traffic were distinctly
low ; but I learned, too, that there were very
grave doubts indeed if the railways of that
country could be said to represent in themselves
a commercially sound institution, however use-
ful may be the role which, in various ways, they
play as part of the political machine of the
country. I found in France the same keen
desire as in other Continental countries to

6 THE RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE

facilitate exports — particularly to Great Britain
— by conceding specially low rates for agricul-
tural produce or ordinary merchandise going
abroad, while the rates to inland towns were
substantially higher ; though the great French
railway companies need have less fear about
giving low rates for exports, considering that
their payment of interest is guaranteed by the
State. I found in Holland that the railway
rates are low mainly because inland water com-
petition exists there to an extent unknown in
any other country in Europe. Finally I found
in Denmark that the State reduced the rates
on its lines of railway in 1897 owing to an out-
cry on the part of the agriculturists. They
learned that there was actually a profit of 2 per
cent, being made on the railways, and this
profit, they declared, ought to be returned to
the "people." But under the altered conditions
thus brought about the lines have since barely
paid their way, and the rates had, consequently,
to be raised again, the new tariff' coming into
force on July 1st, 1903.

On these and many other similar points there
is much that might be said as to the absolute
impracticability of making fair comparisons be-
tween British and Continental railways, and I
hope to have the opportunity of discussing them

THE FOREIGNER'S BIG LOADS 7

in greater detail on a future occasion. But
while I was pursuing my inquiries in these direc-
tions, the cardinal fact that was always being
brought to my attention was that the agricul-
turist abroad was not a mere unit, as he is in
this country, but a member of a highly and
skilfully organized combination which could
not only dispose of its production in big loads,
but was also able to purchase its necessary sup-
plies in such large amounts as to secure a
substantial reduction alike in their cost and in
railway rates for their transportation.

This fact led me to make a careful study of
the conditions of agriculture abroad, and to seek
with great minuteness for the answer to the
question constantly before my mind : " How is
it that the foreigners are able to send us such big
loads ? Are there any special advantages they
possess which might be secured by the British
farmer as a means of improving his own posi-
tion ? ' And the more I inquired the more I
was met by this striking fact : That in every one
of the countries now pouring their agricultural
produce into Great Britain there has been an
agricultural revival which has led to the spread-
ing throughout each of them of a more or less
complete network of agricultural organization,
manifesting itself, in varying degrees, in the

8 THE RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE

spread of agricultural education, and in combina-
tions among the agricultural community for an
endless variety of purposes, including the virtual
transformation of farming methods in accord-
ance with the latest developments of agricul-
tural science ; organizations for obtaining agri-
cultural necessaries of reliable qualities at
lesser cost ; the purchase in common of costly
machinery which would otherwise be beyond
the means of a small cultivator ; the formation
of co-operative societies for purposes both of
production and of sale ; the setting up of agri-
cultural credit banks as a means of keeping the
farmer out of the hands of the usurer, and
enabling him to carry on his operations more
successfully ; and the improvement of the indi-
vidual lot of the agriculturist in many different
ways. The special circumstances in which this
network of organization has been developed differ
in each particular country, and it is a funda-
mental principle of the movement, regarded as a
whole, that not only has each of the countries
concerned differed from every other in establish-
ing agricultural organizations suited to its
national conditions, but the greatest degree of
success has been obtained where the associations
have been started on a very small scale in rural
districts to meet local, or even strictly parochial,

RESULTS OF ORGANIZATION ABROAD 9

conditions, and, while maintaining their indi-
vidual entity, have afterwards combined with
other similar bodies to form district, county, or
even national federations for the attainment of
common advantages.

The direct results of these new conditions have
been to cheapen and to increase production in
the countries concerned ; to facilitate, and there-
fore to economise, the despatch of the greater
quantities of produce available for export ; and
to so far improve the general position of the
foreign producers that while Great Britain — the
land whose agriculturists have been the slowest
of any in resorting to all this organized effort —
is still in the throes of agricultural depression,
other countries which have reorganized their
methods are proclaiming that the trials they also
have had to experience have now, more or less,
been surmounted. Further than this, not only
are the said countries gaining or regaining agri-
cultural prosperity, but it is to England — back-
ward as she is in all the things which have
brought them success — that they would seem to
be looking, with one common accord, as a
purchaser of produce from their own super-
abundance.

It is foreign to my purpose here to enter in
any degree whatever into the controversy on

io THE RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE

the fiscal problem, and I wish to remain abso-
lutely impartial and free from prejudice in what
I say. But I do think the country should realise
that, whatever policy may eventually be adopted
on the subject of food imports, there is need for
a serious consideration of the question whether
the methods under which the British farmer
carries on his enterprises do not stand in need
of revision, especially in view of the lines upon
which his foreign competitors are operating. This
problem would, indeed, remain even if the most
generous degree of " protection " for which our
agriculturists could hope were granted to them.

To help in its solution I propose to deal
seriatim, with different countries on the Con-
tinent of Europe, and elsewhere, showing what
is being done there for the organization of
agriculture in respect either to actual co-opera-
tion or to such grouping of consignments as
still leads to the big loads that our railway
companies are called upon to handle. To con-
fine myself, for the time being, to this one aspect
of a very wide subject may, I think, serve a
purpose of greater utility and more immediate
interest than if I entered at once on that more
general discussion of British v. Continental rail-
way rates and conditions which, as I have said,
formed the original object of my inquiries.

THE GENERAL POSITION n

Before, however, commencing this series of
studies of individual countries, I should like to
illustrate the general position in regard to the
aforesaid big loads from the Continent by taking
a single item of produce — that of eggs, which
so many lands combine to send us in quantities
so great — showing by this one example how
such loads may be got together, and what, as
regards the particular item in question, the
position both of British railways and of British
farmers is in relation thereto.

CHAPTER II
A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

THE fact that English railway companies
carry over their lines large quantities of
foreign eggs at lower rates than the British
farmer pays for sending his own eggs to market
is regarded by many people as a striking example
of the " preference " that is alleged to be shown
by them to the foreigners, and the real position
of affairs in regard to this particular matter is
worth examining with some degree of detail.

To begin with, it must be borne in mind that
the conditions of the trade in English eggs are
very different from those of the trade in foreign
eggs. The market value of eggs depends on
the distance they travel before reaching the
hands of the wholesale or retail egg merchant,
each day that has elapsed since they were laid
being assumed to have added to their deteriora-
tion, except in the case of " pickled " eggs, large
quantities of which are imported, not alone for

12

THE BRITISH FARMER'S ADVANTAGE 13

food, but also for use in various industrial pro-
cesses. It is obvious, therefore, that the British
farmer has an almost unassailable position in
providing his home market with those new-laid
varieties which realize the best prices. The only
country that can seriously compete with him in
this respect is France, and it is a curious fact
that ten or fifteen years ago the best quality of
eggs from France had a higher market value in
this country than English " new-laid " eggs, the
reason being that whereas in France the eggs
were " graded " into sizes and qualities, so that
what were described as new-laid could be de-
pended on as such, in England the farmers had
a way of sending to market as " new-laid " all
the eggs they came across on their farms, with-
out troubling to keep back those that had already
been (say) partially hatched. But the British
farmer is improving his methods, and the present
position is that while the importation of the
cheaper kind of eggs from all other countries
has greatly increased, that of the best, as well
as of the other, qualities from France has
steadily declined. Fifteen years ago the value
of French eggs imported into Great Britain
stood at £1,000,000. In 1902 it was less than
£900,000.
It would seem, therefore, that the British

14 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

farmer is now well able to hold his own as
regards the particular branch of the egg
business with which he is most directly con-
cerned. The opportunities open to him are in-
dicated somewhat by the fact that there is one
London company alone which uses 70,000 new-
laid eggs a week in its different refreshment
rooms. This may be exceptional, but any
farmer living within thirty miles of London,
or within fifteen miles of Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, or any other large centre of popula-
tion, will find there a market for all the new-laid
eggs he can send in. The drawback to his
position is that, with his comparatively small
supplies, and the need he is under of sending them
off promptly, so that they will arrive within the
three-day limit, he is obliged to despatch them
in a succession of consignments, day by day, and
cannot keep them back until they will make a
single substantial lot. It is the very essence of
the situation, therefore, that with his present
limited supplies, he simply cannot offer to the
railway companies quantities approaching in any
degree to the magnitude of those coming from
abroad, so that though he may expect to realize
the best price for his particular goods on the
market, he is unable to get his small lots
delivered there at the same proportionately

LIMITATIONS OF BRITISH SUPPLIES i

D

low rate as the big foreign importations secure
by reason of their magnitude.

In districts at a greater distance from towns or
cities combination is especially desirable in order
to secure the grouping of consignments into
larger quantities ; but here again the home
producer can hardly expect to place himself
on exactly the same footing as the foreigner,
until the supply of British-laid eggs assumes
larger proportions. Not long ago the National
Poultry Organization Society asked one of the
English railway companies to reduce its rates
for eggs from a certain agricultural district to
London. At that very time the company was
carrying through the district in question consign-
ments of foreign eggs representing from 25 to 50-
ton lots. But the company wanted to do what
it could for the local residents, seeing that in-
creased prosperity for the district meant increased
prosperity for the railway. So it replied (in
effect) : — " If you will only send us eggs in 4-ton
lots, as against the very much larger quantities
we receive from abroad, we will give you a rate
which will be 25 per cent, lower than we get as
our share of the through rate charged to the
foreigner.'' But the offer had to be declined
simply because the production of the whole
county would not have sufficed to make up a

1 6 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

4-ton lot. In the case of another English
railway company, also operating in an agri-
cultural district, the leading officials, when ques-
tioned on the subject, said they had never heard
of such a consignment as a case of English eggs
— a case representing 1,440 eggs. Whereas a
single steamer arriving at a British port has been
known to bring any number of tons of eggs up
to eighty or ninety, which are earned to their
destination in truck or even in train loads, con-
signments of English eggs would not average
more than a single cwt., picked up at some
wayside station. Yet the farmer who sends
his cwt. expects to get the same rate as the
wholesale dealers who handle their scores of
tons.

The trade in foreign eggs has, indeed, attained
to dimensions which few persons beyond those
concerned therein can adequately realize. There
is one firm alone in London that receives on an
average 20,000 cases of eggs every week all the
year round. The eggs in question come mostly
from Russia, Galicia, Rumania, and Austria.
Between April and August from 10,000 to
15,000 cases will be sent weekly to the firm in
question by way of St. Petersburg or Riga
direct to London by sea. The freight from
port to port represents about 3.9. a case, though,

CONTINENTAL EGG TRAINS 17

as many of the eggs will have come from
different parts of Western Siberia, and may
already have been seven or fourteen days on the
journey before reaching the port of embarkation,
something must be added to the said 3*. in
respect to land freight. From September to
March the firm receive about 10,000 cases weekly,
despatched overland from Lemberg (Galicia) or
other collecting points, whence they are brought
to London via the Thames or Harwich. In
addition to the supplies coming to London in
such quantities as these, very large consignments
go from Hamburg to north-eastern ports for con-
sumption or use in the northern counties. Special
trains made up at Lemberg will run through
to Hamburg in seventy-five hours, and since the
month of September, 1902, a similar train has
been started daily at Podwoloczyska, a station on
the Russo-Rumanian frontier, to take eggs and
other produce to either Hamburg or Bremen.
The train will consist of about 30 waggons, each
holding 10 tons, and while some of the eggs are
destined for consumption in Germany, the bulk
of them will come on to England. The freight
from Galicia to London or to a north-eastern
port works out at 9s. a case, based on the 10-ton
rate, and the time occupied in the transit is
about eight days,
c

18 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

One wonders how it is that eggs can be
collected in such large quantities as these, and
the information given on this point is certainly
not without its interest. Throughout Southern
Russia, Galicia, and Rumania almost every
peasant has his stock of fowls, and not only is
the rearing of them a well-understood art,
ingrained in the people from long experience,
but land costs only a few shillings an acre, and
the abundant maize grown thereon is excellent
feeding -stuff for the fowls, the cost and the
keep of which are thus reduced to very small
proportions indeed. The eggs are purchased
from the peasants by " higglers " — mostly Jews
— who make a business of going round from
farm to farm, or from cottage to cottage, buying
up all the eggs they can get. Certain towns in
Galicia or elsewhere have their recognised egg
markets, and in these towns live the agents of
various English firms. To them the " higglers "
will make the first offer of the eggs they have
gathered in, and, if terms cannot then be
arranged, the eggs will be put on the open
market and disposed of there. In either case
the agents who purchase the eggs re-pack them
for transit by rail and sea, and this is so well
done that only about 2 per cent, of those
despatched to this country are found to be

MAGNITUDE OF FOREIGN SUPPLIES 19

broken on arrival. Of eggs classified as
" Russian " the total number brought to Great
Britain in 1902 was 640,000,000.

Somewhat similar conditions prevail in Italy,
from which country we received 315,000,000
eggs in 1902. The through rate from Porde-
none (Venetia) to London for 10-ton lots is
£43 16,s., the dealers guaranteeing to send 800
of such lots, or a total of 8,000 tons of eggs, in
the course of a year. In Denmark, thanks to
effective organization, the value of the export
trade in eggs rose from about £400,000 in 1895
to over £1,270,000 in 1902, the total number of
eggs imported into great Britain from Denmark
in the latter year being 422,000,000. Bulgaria,
too, has increased her exportation of eggs three-
fold since 1901, and has now become a strong
competitor of Italy in supplying eggs to
Belgium, the quantities she is sending there
representing a value of about £90,000 a year.
Even Egypt is exporting eggs in such quantities
that the price of them for home consumption
has materially advanced in the land of the
Pharaohs, where so recently as 1895 they could
be bought at the rate of 30 for 2%d. In 1897
Egypt exported 14,000,000 eggs of a value
of £12,(383; whereas in 1900 she exported
60,000,000 (of which 49,000,000 came to the

20 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

United Kingdom), representing a value of
£83,000. Eggs now, also, constitute the
principal item of export from Morocco, nearly
50,000,000 having been shipped in the course of
a single season, though the trade has sprung up
only within the last few years. The eggs are
small in size, but they are of good quality, and
large quantities are procurable at a moderate
price.

Much progress has undoubtedly been made in
England and Ireland of late years in regard to
egg production ; but there can be no suggestion
that anything yet done in either country has
rendered unnecessary a large importation of
foreign eggs. If a wholesale dealer in London
wanted 500 cases, he would find it practically
hopeless to get them either in England or in
Ireland, except, perhaps, after going to infinite
trouble, and waiting a long time ; but a tele-
graphed order to his agent at Podwoloczyska
would bring the whole 500 cases to him in little
more than a week.

From this same centre we get an illustration
of the extent to which eggs are used for
purely industrial purposes. There are at
Podwoloczyska three albumen factories, each
of which consumes annually from three to
three and a half million eggs in manufacturing

EGGS AND INDUSTRIES 21

processes, 1 lb. of albumen being extracted
from every 7 lbs. of white of eggs. The albumen
is used for printing textiles, in the making of
porcelain, in sugar factories, and for other
purposes. It is sent to various parts of Austria,
to Germany, France, Great Britain, and to
the United States, in cases of about 2 cwts.,
the value representing from £5 5s. to £5 10,y.
per cwt. The yolks of the eggs are worked up
into a material for dressing glove leather.

A large proportion of the foreign eggs reach-
ing this country travel so long a distance, and
fetch so small a price on the market, that the
through freight charged for their conveyance
must necessarily be low if they are to be carried
at all, and such lowness of freight is held to be
warranted alike by these circumstances and by
the vast quantities in which the eggs come. If
the English railway companies, assuming the
functions of Imperial Parliament, sought to im-
pose a "hostile tariff" on foreign eggs by insist-
ing on a higher rate for transit over their own
lines they might either stop some of the trade
altogether or else simply cause it to reach Lon-
don via the Thames ; but there would not
necessarily be much direct benefit to the British
farmer himself. As already shown, he can have
the monopoly of the market for new-laid eggs

22 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

without fear of the competition of any country
but France, and his great aim should be, by
means of good methods and effective organiza-
tion, to cultivate this particular branch of the
trade, and be in a position to make better terms
with the railways than, as shown above, he is
able to do at present.

To render Great Britain entirely independent
of foreign eggs would require, according to one
trustworthy authority, twenty-five years of per-
sistent effort, and even then it might be a ques-
tion in regard to the cheapest qualities of eggs
(and especially those used for industrial pro-
cesses) whether, in a country of such limited
dimensions as ours, the land could not be more
profitably employed than by devoting it to
poultry-raising on so large a scale, in order to
compete with peasants occupying comparatively
valueless land in Siberia, Galicia, and elsewhere.
With a special market at home offering abundant
scope for his own energies, the British farmer
can, indeed, well look with complacency on the
bulk of the imports of foreign eggs. On the
other hand he ought not to expect any railway
company, conducted on business principles, to
carry retail lots at wholesale prices. When he
is able to send truck-loads he will certainly get
the most favourable truck-load rates ; but if, in

CORNISH V. DANISH METHODS 23

the meantime, he is not in a position to make up
a box of more than 56 lbs. at one time, he can
hardly accuse the English railway companies of
extortion if they charge him Is., or even 1*. dd..
for carrying such a box a distance up to 200
miles, although this sum might be found to work
out at a relatively higher figure than what they
charge for a consignment of from 25 to 50 tons.
The striking difference between British and
Continental methods, and the real need which
exists in this country for effective organization,
are well shown by the following paragraph, which
I take from the Western Daily Mercury of
April 25th, 1903 :—

Within the past few years there has been a marked
falling off in the Cornish egg trade. At one time a large
trader in the Duchy used to supply eggs to the value
of £200 a week to a well-known London shop, and to-day
that shop does not take a single egg from Cornwall.
Eight years ago Cornish dealers were sending eggs to
London to the value of £25,000 a year. To-day the sum
returned for such produce does not amount to £15,000.
The reason of this altered state of things is not, as some
suppose, due to the smaller size of the Cornish egg,
because there is practically no difference between it and
its successful rival from Denmark. Where the Cornish
egg merchant damages his business is through his own
carelessness. He will not study the requirements of the
market. He will give no attention to uniformity, but
will place large and small eggs, and also duck eggs, all in

24 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS

the same box. Whether they are fresh or not is evidently
no concern of his. He will not wash a stained egg. On
the other hand, the farmers of Denmark are most particu-
lar about all these things. They place all the eggs of one
size together. They arrange the different shades, and
they see that every egg is fresh and clean. All that
means saving to the shopman, together with the certainty
of better prices and more trade.

CHAPTER III

AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION
IN DENMARK

IT is in Denmark that the British farmer will
find his most impressive object lessons as to
the benefits to be derived from agricultural co-
operation, and already many deputations have
gone to Denmark to study the Danish system,
and much has been written thereon. But the
whole story of the way in which the Danes, in
their diminutive and, at one time, hardly-pressed
country, overcame the disadvantages of their
position, and boldly met and were made only
the stronger by adverse circumstances, is one
that will bear re-telling, and is, indeed, one that
cannot be told too often to the agriculturists of
other lands who may feel depressed because
their own conditions are not all that they would
like them to be.

As left by the Napoleonic wars. Denmark was
but little more than the wreck of a country, and
even at the beginning of the last half-century

25

26 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

the manufacture of butter, as related by Mr.
Rudolf Schou, in his book Om Landbrugct i
Denmark, was only of secondary importance,
the cows being inferior, the yield of milk small,
and the butter, made in ill-equipped dairies, very
indifferent in quality. In 1860 Professor T. R.
Segelcke began his efforts to place the industry
on a rational and scientific basis ; but close upon
this followed the disastrous war with Prussia
and Austria, as the result of which Denmark
lost two of the fairest and most fertile of her
provinces, and was thus reduced to the narrow
limits of the islands and Jutland. Even of this
area a substantial proportion consisted of moor,
marsh, and dune land, fit, apparently, for nothing
but for the wind and the storms to blow over.
On the top of all this came the fall in the price
of corn, which had hitherto been the staple pro-
duct of Denmark, but the cultivation of which
was found to be no longer remunerative.

Comparing the position of Denmark and of
Great Britain respectively in the era of agricul-
tural depression brought about at this period, it
is evident from the circumstances narrated above
that the former country found herself in much
worse circumstances than the latter ; but this
very fact, perhaps, had a good deal to do with
the greater degree of vigour shown by the Dan-

RETRIEVING NATIONAL DISASTER 27

ish agriculturists. Reduced to the proportions
of a dwarf, Denmark fought against adversity
with the courage of a giant; and, crippled though
she was, she not only regained her strength, but
became a power in the commercial world with
which other nations have had seriously to reckon.
One of the first things done was to secure
such compensation as was possible for the loss of
Schleswig-Holstein by reclaiming and bringing
under cultivation the aforesaid moor, marsh, and
dune land, of which the surface of Jutland then
so largely consisted. In the days of ancient
history there were extensive forests in this part
of Denmark, with good pastures which, together
with the abundant crops of acorns, afforded
ample food for the swine that were kept there.
But in the course of the centuries the trees gave
way to brushwood, the brushwood was succeeded
by heaths, the pastures disappeared, and a pre-
viously fertile district became little better than a
desert waste, where, even so late as 1850, one
could wander for hours without seeing a single
human habitation. At that time the extent of
these Danish landes represented a total of over
5,000 square miles, and the conditions were but
very little improved, if at all, in 1866, when,
following on the war, one of the most practical
of Danish patriots, Colonel Dalgas, started the

28 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

Danish Heath Society, with the idea of bring-
ing the area in question under cultivation. Roads
were made, irrigation schemes were carried out,
colonies were established, railways were con-
structed, and plantations were arranged, the
final outcome of the society's work being that
25,000 acres of sandy land have been converted
into productive soil, 75,000 acres have been
planted with conifers, two experimental stations
have been established, and 400 demonstration
fields have been organized in all parts of the
country where heath land is to be found. All
this good work is still going on, and it has been
taken up in other directions besides.

It was, of course, in the development of the
dairy industry that the Danes mainly found the
means of recovering from the crisis which had
overtaken their economic, and especially their
agricultural, conditions ; but this relief was
secured only as the result of prolonged experi-
ment and much most patient effort. Originally
the butter exported from Denmark came from
what were little more than blending mills, the
supplies produced by the individual farmers, and
representing a variety of qualities and different
degrees of freshness, being bought up and mixed
together with results that were not always
satisfactory to the purchaser, while the expense

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 29

to which each farmer was put in producing his
own particular lot of butter left, as a rule, a
very small margin for profit.

Then there was adopted the system of
creameries, to which the farmers would take
their cream only. This represented a distinct
advance, as it effected a saving alike of time and
of cost to the farmer ; but the greatest degree
of progress began with the perfection of the
centrifugal cream separator, which left the
farmer to do no more than send his milk to
the butter factory, where the cream was taken
from it by the separator, and the skim milk
given back to him for the feeding of his pigs.

In other ways, besides, the researches of a
number of learned professors had placed the
working of the industry on a more scientific
basis, thus facilitating operations, reducing ex-
penses, and allowing of far better and much
more profitable results being obtained than had
been the case before. Then, also, the spread of
an extremely practical scheme of national
education, and especially agricultural education,
had prepared the people to take advantage of
the coming transformation ; while the system of
land tenure in Denmark, which had done so
much to encourage both the creation of agri-
cultural freeholders and the increase of small

3o ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

holdings, had further strengthened the power
of the agricultural community to benefit from
the opportunities opening out to them.

The immediate and most striking outcome of
these various conditions was a resort to co-
operative dairies, so that the agricultural classes
could get a maximum of possible benefit for
themselves. The first co-operative dairy in
Denmark was opened in West Jutland in 1882.
Others followed, and to such an extent has the
movement spread that to-day a co-operative
dairy is to be found in almost every parish.
There are now no fewer than 1,050 of such
dairies in Denmark, with 148,000 members,
owning 750,000 cows out of a total of 1,067,000
milch cows in the country. In 1902 Denmark
exported, mainly to Great Britain, 168,000,000
lbs. of butter, 135,000,000 lbs. of this total
representing home produce, and the remaining
33,000,000 lbs. butter received from Sweden
and Russia. The total value of our imports of
butter from Denmark in 1902 was £9,302,000,
as compared with £8,950,000 in 1901, and
£8,029,000 in 1900. The amount invested in
the erection and equipment of the dairies is
over £1,500,000. The practice usually adopted
is for about 150 farmers in a particular district
to raise, say, £1,200 by subscribing £8 each, this

POLITICS AND BACON FACTORIES 31

sum being sufficient to provide a dairy which
will deal with the milk of 850 cows. The
establishment of the co-operative dairies has
been followed by the founding of societies for
the sale of butter, together with some 200
central unions which employ capable men to
take periodical tests of the milk on the farms of
the members, and see which particular cows
gave the best results according to the quantity
and cost of food consumed.

Next to the co-operative creameries, and now,
indeed, rivalling them in importance, come the
Danish co-operative bacon-curing factories, the
success of which has been, if possible, even more
rapid. It is interesting to find, however, that
these factories were originally the outcome of
political prejudices rather than of patriotic senti-
ment or commercial foresight. In 1872 the
Liberals in Denmark got a majority in the
Folkething, which majority they still retain ;
but the Conservatives remained in power (as
they had been since the concession of the Con-
stitution in 1849), the members of the Govern-
ment being elected from the Landsthing, or
Upper House. The Liberals resented this, and
trouble arose as to the voting of the Budget,
which, under the Constitution, required to be
passed by the Lower House. The Government

32 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

surmounted the difficulty by inducing the King
to ratify " provisional budgets," and this was
done for a succession of years, to the increasing
dissatisfaction of the Liberal party, the members
of which were mostly small farmers in the
country districts, the large farmers and the
wholesale dealers belonging mainly to the Con-
servatives.

The opportunity of the Liberals came in
1887, when Germany closed her ports to live
pigs from Denmark (owing to the fear of a
possible introduction of swine fever from that
country), and the Danish dealers had to think of
converting more of the pigs into bacon, and ex-
porting them in that form instead, mainly to
England, which had begun to be a buyer of
Danish bacon some years previously. The
Liberal farmers rose to the occasion, and said to
the Conservative dealers : " If you will not give
us our political rights we will not let you have
our pigs. We will start bacon-curing factories
on our own account." And this was just what
they did. They opened their first co-operative
bacon-curing establishment at Horsens, Jutland,
in 1887, more with the idea, as it would seem,
of spiting the Conservatives than for purely
commercial reasons ; but the scheme was soon
found to be well worth following up on its own

THE GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY

33

account, apart from any political considera-
tions. The profits gained by the farmers were
so much more substantial than they had been
before that there was every inducement to start
more and more co-operative factories, so that
the growth of the movement became almost
phenomenal, as the following table will show : —

YEAR.

CO-OPERATIVE
FACTORIES.

NO. OF PIGS
KILLED.

VALUE IX £

AVERAGE PRICE
PER PIG.

£

.v.

d.

1888

I

23,407

57,000

0

9

0

1889

8

131,548

327,000

0

18

0

1890

10

147,455

434,000

0

19

0

1891

1 1-

269,74:;

755,000

2

IS

0

1 892

14

297,641

<)6l, 000

0
• >

5

0

1 893

1 1

317,785

l.()6l,000

3

5

0

1 89 1-

15

385,7:: 1

1.11 k000

0

18

0

1893

17

528,811

1,273,000

0

8

0

1896

20

626,854

1,400,000

0

:>

0

1 897

25

583,420

1,618,000

0

15

0

1898

2.1

601,039

1,625,000

2

14

0

1899

25

729,171

1,733,000

0

5

0

1900

26

660,000

1,918,000

2

16

0

1901

26

651,261

2,111,000

3

0

0

1902

27

777,232

2,500,000

3

4

6

—

—

6,731,048

18,900,000

In addition to these twenty-seven co-operative
bacon factories, which have a total membership
of G5,800, there are also in Denmark twenty-
four private factories.

In the organization of the co-operative fac-

D

34 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

tories no capital is subscribed by the farmers,
whose joint guarantees are sufficient to enable
them to secure from the banking institutions of
the country the loans they may require to defray
the costs of construction, and to provide working
capital as well, the loans being repaid out of the
profits of the business. The members also
guarantee to supply to the factories all the pigs
they raise on their farms, a fine of ten Kroner
(11*. 3d.) per pig being imposed in case of non-
compliance. On sending in his pigs the farmer
is paid a certain sum, representing less than the
value, but subsequently he receives a share in
the profits according to the number of animals
he has supplied. The factories are able not only
to carry on the work of bacon-curing economic-
ally, but they can utilize all the by-products,
while the system of mutual insurance through
the Central Association of Co-operative Bacon
Curers, when sending consignments to England,
represents a saving to each factory of 25 per
cent, on this one item alone. Then, again, the
establishment of co-operative bacon factories
has been supplemented by a national movement,
supported by the State, for improving the quality
of the pigs. To this end experts were sent to
Ireland and other countries to inquire into the
methods of breeding and feeding in vogue there,

DANISH EGG SOCIETIES

65

and there are instructors who give advice on these
subjects to the Danish farmers, whenever desired.
Another highly successful branch of co-opera-
tive agriculture in Denmark is represented by
the egg industry. Here the chief organization
is that of the Dansk Andels Aeg-export, which
was founded in 1895, and now constitutes the
central body of a large number of local societies
in all parts of Denmark. The members of these
societies pledge themselves to deliver none but
freshly-laid eggs, all that are sent in being so
marked that the farmer supplying any single
one of them can be readily traced, while a
penalty of 5s. G<7. is imposed for every bad egg
received after a warning has been given. The
local societies remit the eggs to the central
organization, which arranges for grading, pack-
ing, and sale, and fixes the price per lb. to be
given to the farmers, less cost of collection and
other expenses. Membership of the local socie-
ties is generally obtained in return for an en-
trance fee of sixpence. So profitable has the
business become that the Danes send their own
eggs to Great Britain, and import eggs from
Russia for home consumption, the difference
between the price they get for the former and
the amount they pay for the latter representing
by the end of the year a fairly substantial sum.

36 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

Among the many other forms of co-operative
organization in Denmark an important role is
filled by the associations formed for the supply
of agricultural necessaries — seeds, feeding- stuffs,
manures, machinery, etc — at the lowest price and
in the best condition. Here, again, the local
societies are formed in turn into large federa-
tions. The ramifications of this co-operative
purchase system extend to practically every
parish in Denmark.

Then the growth of the egg industry has given
rise to numerous poultry societies for the improve-
ment of fowls. Some of these societies have a
membership of from 2,000 to 3,000 persons. They
receive grants from the Government, and their
operations are greatly facilitated by experts who
devote their time to delivering lectures or giving
personal advice to the farmers. Of local bee-
keepers' associations there are now sixty in
Denmark, with a membership of 5,000 and
a central federation which organizes shows,
arranges for lectures, carries out experiments,
publishes a Bee Keeper s Journal, and in other
ways promotes the welfare of the bee-keeping
industry. Mention must also be made of the
large number of societies, operating in every
part of Denmark, for the insurance of live stock
on co-operative principles, the members being

COMBINATION MANY-SIDED 37

jointly and severally responsible for the payment
of the money to which any one of them may
become entitled under the terms of his policy.
Some of these societies have up to 7,000
members, and in one instance, at least, animals
are insured in a single society to the amount of
£1,300,000.

Almost every branch of the agricultural in-
dustry is thus represented in Denmark by its
separate co-operative organization. Indeed, it
may safely be said that whenever a want arises
which may be supplied by combination, or when-
ever there is any possibility of mutual interests
being promoted, the Danish farmers are always
ready to join with one another in a combined
effort to secure what they desire. As a rule
each particular co-operative society works on
independent lines, for its own special object, so
that one farmer may be a member of many
different organizations, according to the particular
branches of agriculture in which he is interested.
It is no unusual occurrence for a Danish farmer
to belong to ten local co-operative societies, be-
sides other bodies formed for the advancement
of the agricultural interests of the country. The
general network is completed by a number of
agricultural associations whose function it is to
arrange for the holding of shows : to distribute

38 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

prizes to agricultural labourers for the efficient
management of small allotments ; to carry on
field experiments ; to organize parochial agricul-
tural societies ; to assist in the work of the
Government experts ; to arrange tours of inquiry,
whether in Denmark or in foreign countries, by
parties of Danish farmers ; to secure the im-
provement of live stock, especially cattle and
horses, or to watch over the milking qualities of
milch cows. Of these further societies, which
are also essentially co-operative in their action,
there are over 100, with a membership of 65,000.
They are in receipt of subventions from the State
to the extent of close on £10,000 a year.

Yet another group tending to the progress
of agriculture is represented by associations
of agricultural labourers which, among other
objects, endeavour to promote the practice by
them of the smaller industries — such as the
keeping of fowls and the cultivation of fruit
and flowers — and aim also at the improvement
of home life, the encouragement of thrift, and
the advancement in other ways of the interests
of labourers. The attainment of these various
purposes is sought by the holding of meetings
and re-unions (which in themselves exercise a
wholesome influence on social life in the vil-
lages), by the giving of lectures on agricultural

RESULTS OF ECONOMIC ADVANCE 39

subjects, by the opening of savings banks, and
by helping the labourers to obtain employment
in case of need. Of such societies as these there
are in Denmark 270, with a membership of
12,000. The smaller societies form groups
among themselves, and these groups in turn are
connected with large central federations, so that
there is maintained among the agricultural
labourers of the country a bond of union and
of combined effort which compares with that
existing among the farmers themselves.

For technical details as to the actual working
of these varied forms of agricultural combination
the reader who is interested therein cannot do
better than consult a Report on Co-operative
Agriculture and Rural Conditions in Denmark,
prepared by the members of a deputation sent
to that country by the Department of Agricul-
ture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, and
issued by the said Department from its head-
quarters in Dublin in the autumn of 1903.
Here I can now only add to the general outline
given above the assurance that the resort to all
this co-operative effort has brought about in the
economic conditions of Denmark changes that
have been almost revolutionary in their character.
Not only has it effectually checked the serious
consequences that seemed to be impending as

40 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK

the combined result of agricultural depression
and national disaster, but the general position
of Denmark to-day is one of greater prosperity
than ever, for the Danes are deriving more
advantage from the extremely limited amount
of soil they now possess than they got from the
land before the dimensions of their country were
so seriously curtailed. The margin of gain may
often be small, and it might be still less but for
the unquestionable energy, foresight, and per-
severance of the people ; but the general pros-
perity of the Danish people as a whole is beyond
dispute, and the one all -important factor in
bringing about that result has undoubtedly been
the development of the agricultural interest.

CHAPTER IV
GERMANY

UP to a few decades ago Germany was
mainly an agricultural country, and not
only provided what food supplies she wanted for
herself, but had a substantial surplus to send else-
where. Since then, however, the industrial in-
terests of the Empire have developed so rapidly
that they constitute a formidable rival of the
agricultural interests at home, just as they are the
recognized rivals of manufacturing countries else-
where. So between Agrarians and Industrials
in the German Fatherland there is an unceasing
strife. The industrials are draining more and
more labour from the country districts into the
towns, and they look with comparative uncon-
cern on the fact that Germany is now importing,
rather than exporting, food supplies, declaring,
as they do in effect, that all this is to the
real interest of the people, inasmuch as the
expansion of manufactures will be more pro-
fitable to the nation than the concentration

41

42 GERMANY

of too much energy on the cultivation of the
soil.

Following on these changing economic condi-
tions, together with the altered political situation
to which they give rise — a situation that has no
exact counterpart in Great Britain — came from
Germany that same falling off in agricultural
prices which affected our own agricultural classes
so seriously when the United States, Canada,
Denmark, Australasia, Russia, and other coun-
tries joined in the scramble for the conquest,
more or less, of the world's food markets. It is
true that the agriculturists of Germany had the
advantage, from their own point of view, of a
Government willing to raise up tariff barriers for
their protection, and to this extent they had a
greater chance of preserving their own consider-
able home markets for themselves than was the
case with agriculturists in free-trade England ;
but, even with this said advantage, it is extremely
improbable that agriculture would have held its
own in Germany in the way it has done had not
some very special efforts been made for the
still further development of her own particular
interests.

One of the fundamental reasons for the results
actually attained is, undoubtedly, to be sought
in the thoroughgoing system of agricultural in-

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION 43

struction that prevails in Germany. The original
founder of this system (as related in a Report
on Agricultural Instruction in Germany, pre-
pared by Dr. Frederick Rose, His Majesty's
Consul at Stuttgart) was a certain doctor of
medicine, Thaer by name, who, in 1802, con-
verted his small property at Celle, near Han-
over, into an experimental estate and farming
academy. He had made a study of German
and foreign agricultural literature, especially in
regard to the influence of chemistry upon agri-
culture, and he had "benefited greatly by the
superior methods then prevailing in the United
Kingdom " ; but he had sought in vain for a
practical system, based upon the results of scien-
tific research, by which agriculture could be
brought to a higher degree of productiveness,
and so he started an academy of his own.

From these small beginnings of 100 years ago
agricultural instruction has so far extended in
Germany that it is now divided by Dr. Rose
into the following categories : —

Advanced :

1. Independent agricultural high schools.

2. Agricultural institutes at the universities.

3. Other higher agricultural institutes.

4. Special lecture courses for advanced owners, man-

agers, and farmers of large estates, etc.

44 GERMANY

Secondary :

Agricultural schools.

Elementary :

1. Farming schools.

2. Agricultural winter schools.

3. Special lower agricultural schools.

4. Rural improvement schools.

5. Special courses of lectures.

For details respecting all these various phases
of the system, and the courses of instruction
followed, I must refer the reader to Dr. Rose's
own report. Suffice it here to say that Dr. Rose,
in summing up the general situation, tells us
that the whole system of secondary and elemen-
tary agricultural instruction in Germany, in its
principal aspects, was organized during the second
half of the nineteenth century, and he adds :
" At the present time in Germany there is no
branch of agricultural production for which
special facilities for instruction are not pro-
vided."

There may be individuals among the agricul-
tural community who will say, " What is the
use of all this instruction ? Our fathers and
grandfathers prospered without it, and we should
do the same if we were only assured of better
markets." But agricultural research and instruc-
tion have brought about great results in Ger-

PRACTICAL BENEFITS 45

many, for, among other things, they have opened
up to the farmers of that country markets which
they would certainly not have had without them.
One can hardly exaggerate the benefits derived
from the discoveries, for example, of agricultural
chemistry in regard, not only to the application
of artificial manures, but to the use of agricul-
tural products in various industries. On the
former point there is no need to speak here in
detail, but in regard to the latter there are some
interesting facts that can be given.

No fewer than 14,000,000 tons of beetroot,
representing a value of £12,600,000, are used
in Germany in the course of a year in the manu-
facture of sugar, and the production of these
supplies for an industry that is the direct out-
come of scientific research is a valuable set-off
against possible depression in other branches of
agriculture. But still more remarkable are the
enormous crops of potatoes grown in Germany,
and the various purposes to which they are
applied. In 1901 the total production there was
over 48,500,000 tons, of which about one half
would be used for other purposes than human
consumption. The Germans themselves are
great potato eaters ; they find it cheaper to feed
their cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry on raw or
steamed potatoes than to depend on imported

46 GERMANY

maize ; while desiccated potatoes are now exten-
sively used as an article of diet in the German
Army and Navy. But chemistry long since
showed that there were other uses, besides those
of direct food supplies, to which the potato could
be put. Most people are aware that alcohol is
distilled from potatoes, but it may be less gener-
ally known that in Germany there is a great
industry in the production from potatoes of a
spirit used for driving motors and engines, for
lighting, both in the public streets and in private
houses, for heating, and also for cooking. In the
course of a single year a total of 2,000,000 tons
of potatoes, valued at £2,500,000, will be used
for distilling purposes alone, the residues consti-
tuting a valuable food for cattle. For potato
starch another 2,000,000 tons a year will be
used, and of this starch the United Kingdom
imported in 1901 close on 24,000 tons. Other
products of the potato are starch syrup, starch
sugar, dextrin, and potato flour. Germany's
total export of potato flour and starch in 1901
amounted to 46,000 tons, nearly double the
quantity for the previous year, and her export
of dextrin was 14,000 tons.

One gets here some concrete and very practi-
cal examples of the help that scientific teaching
may render to agriculture by promoting, among

THE NEED FOR COMBINATION 47

other things, the greater utilization of farming
products for economic as well as for food purposes,
and there is clearly abundant justification for all
that Germany has done in this direction. But in
the particular situation in which the German
agriculturists found themselves placed in their
time of depression, there was more to be done
than could be comprised in even the most
elaborate scheme of technical education. Science
could tell the farmer what it would pay him
best to produce, and how to secure big crops :
but it left him to his own resources in the way
of raising money, and of selling his crops to the
best advantage. It was in these circumstances
that he turned his attention to the possibilities
of co-operation, and soon the fact was recognized
that agricultural co-operation was an indispen-
sable sequel to agricultural instruction. Co-
operation has, indeed, been described by an
authority on the subject as "the German
farmer's stronghold and bulwark,'' and no one
who is acquainted with the facts will fail to
admit the aptness of the description.

It was in the matter of finance that the adop-
tion of the co-operative principle assumed one
of the earliest and most practical of its varied
forms in regard to German agriculture. Falling
prices and other adverse circumstances had so

48 GERMANY

far decreased the available funds of the farmers
that it was difficult enough for many of them
to carry on their ordinary operations in their
ordinary way, year by year, without embarking
on those wider undertakings or those more
costly methods which agricultural science was
opening out to them. In these conditions it
often enough became a matter of urgent im-
portance to the farmer that he should raise a
loan which would enable him to carry on until
he obtained a return from his crops. Such a
loan might make all the difference between
comparative success and absolute failure. But
while the ordinary banks were ready enough to
advance money to a landowner who could give
them a mortgage on his estates, they were
reluctant to make advances to individual farmers
on nothing but their personal security, and their
reluctance increased in exact proportion to the
growing needs of those who wished to borrow.

The way out of the difficulty was found by a
resort to the co-operative credit bank system,
under which the joint credit of the whole of
the members of an association is used for the
purpose of borrowing money. The savings and
credit banks of this type founded by Schulze-
Delitzsch, at the end of the forties, aimed at
promoting the interests of the labouring, artisan,

CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT BANKS 49

and trading classes in general, rather than of
the agricultural classes in particular, and they
operated on a wide basis, without any restriction
as to locality. The Raiffeisen banks, on the
other hand, are essentially local in their charac-
ter, each dealing only with its individual members
in the district in which it has been set up ; so
that any individual seeking to borrow money
from the bank is likely to be known alike to the
manager and to the majority of the other
members. Then the direction of the Raiffeisen
banks is purely honorary, being controlled by a
committee of the shareholders, who receive no
remuneration, and loans to local residents are
made only under clearly defined limits ; whereas
the administration of the Schulze-Delitzsch banks
are paid for their services, and the loans are prac-
tically unlimited, according to circumstances.

The banks formed on the Schulze-Delitzsch
principle have been taken great advantage of
by the agricultural as well as by the industrial
community of Germany ; but it is the Raiffeisen
system, with its more thoroughly co-operative
basis, that has especially commended itself to
the German farmers. Its fundamental principle,
not simply of co-operation, but also of the un-
limited liability of the members, has been much

criticized, and of late the tendency in Germany

1

50 GERMANY

has been to modify this principle so far as to
place a certain limit to the liability of in-
dividuals in the starting of new banks. On the
other hand it is claimed on behalf of the
Raiffeisen institutions of Germany that there
is no instance on record of a member having
suffered from the enforcement of the rule in
question. It is argued that the existence of
such a rule makes the members careful to ad-
vance money only to those whom they know to
be trustworthy, and it is the very essence of a
Raiffeisen bank that it should operate in some
village or small town where everybody is known
to everybody else.

A brief experience convinced the pioneers of
the Raiffeisen bank movement that it was not
sufficient to put an easy credit within the reach
of the small cultivator. It was found that he
needed guidance in the spending of the money
as well. Hence the banks, in addition to re-
ceiving deposits and advancing loans, took up
the business of ordinary purchasing societies as
well — a procedure which excited a certain degree
of hostility on the part of the purchasing
societies, which, in their turn, started agri-
cultural credit banks on their own account.

Of Raiffeisen banks in Germany affiliated to
the central institution at Neuwied there are now

THE KEY TO GERMANY'S SUCCESS 51

4,000. Of co-operative credit banks in general
there are 4,455 in Prussia, and 3,899 in other
German States — a total of 8,354, representing
a membership of close on 1,500,000. Some
States will have co-operative credit banks in
over 33 per cent, of their parishes, and 50 per
cent, of the fanners in those parishes will be
members. As for the good that has been done
by such institutions, Mr. F. P. Konig says, in a
report on 4k Agriculture in Germany," issued by
the Foreign Office : " It has always been a puzzle
to me why English farmers do not club together
and form similar co-operative banks for the bene-
fit of all concerned. Co-operation has proved to
be the key to success in Germany, and has saved
many thousands of farmers from ruin."

But there are many other directions in which
the combination principle has been applied to
agriculture in Germany, besides the setting up
of credit banks. Of special agricultural societies
for the purchase of artificial manures, feeding-
stuffs, machinery, tools, coals, etc. (in addition
to what the banks may do in this direction),
there are 420 in Prussia and 578 in other
German States — a total of over 1,000. Of
production and selling societies (representing,
among other branches, societies for the sale of
seed, fruit, vegetables, and produce of all kinds ;

52 GERMANY

silo societies ; the German Spirit Syndicate ; and
societies for the sale of cattle) there are 553 in
Prussia and 116 in other German States — a
total of 669. Of dairy produce societies there
are 1,261 in Prussia and 421 in other German
States — a total of 1,682. ("As the co-operative
system of dairying has increased in Germany,"
says Mr. Konig, " dairies have almost sprung
up as fast as mushrooms.") Then most of the
factories established of late years in Germany,
and especially in Saxony, for the production of
sugar from beetroot, have been set up on the
co-operative system, the farmers who grow and
supply the beetroot either starting the factories
themselves, or else holding shares in factories
established by limited liability companies. " The
cultivation of sugar beet in Germany," Mr.
Konig remarks, "has made many a man's farm
pay, which previously was only kept afloat with
difficulty ; and when such a man, in addition
to growing beetroot, has a share in the co-
operative factory in which it is turned into
sugar, he naturally gets a double advantage."

The total amount of the purchases of agri-
cultural necessaries effected by the German
credit banks, or by the special associations for
that purpose, during 1902, is stated by the
annual report of the German Confederated

STEAM-THRESHERS FOR SMALL FARMERS 53

Co-operative Societies for that year to have
been £3,500,000.

Co-operation, again, has been extensively
resorted to in Germany in the formation of
societies for drainage and irrigation, and es-
pecially for the purpose of reclaiming bogs and
moorlands. The amount of land so reclaimed
in Germany between 1878 and 1893 is estimated
at over 700,000 acres, and much of this land,
on which nothing but heath had grown before,
now ranks as among the most productive soil
in the Empire. Still another resort to agri-
cultural co-operation in Germany has been in
regard to the use of machinery. Recent statis-
tics show that steam threshing machines are
used there on no fewer than 35,000 farms of
less than five acres each. Without co-operation
such a thing would be altogether impossible.
In some instances the farmers of a particular
district will organize a society for the purchase
of a steam-plough, letting it out on hire to their
neighbours when they are not using it them-
selves. Then in the wine districts of Wiirtem-
berg the smaller growers — mostly peasants —
will have co-operative societies for establishing
cellars where the wine juice can be kept until
it ferments, better prices being thus obtained
when it is sold.

54 GERMANY

The local agricultural co-operative societies
in Germany are supplemented by agricultural
unions, great and small, which have been a
material factor in improving the general position.
In the report already referred to, the British Con-
sul at Stuttgart says, respecting these unions : —

They are devoted to the collection, utilization, and
propagation of the agricultural knowledge and experi-
ence gained by theory and practice, and to the furtherance
of the interests of agriculture in its commercial and eco-
nomical aspects. . . . The great measure of success
which has hitherto crowned the efforts of the agricul-
tural unions is principally owing to the method of
organization, which seeks to unite all the different
branches into large and powerful corporations with well
defined and similar objects. Beginning with the small
local unions, there follow branch, district, and county
unions, all these being united together in the central and
provincial agricultural corporations of the smaller States
and provinces. These are again united into the highest
agricultural corporations of the larger States, which often
possess a semi-official character — for instance, in Prussia
the Land Economy Council, in Bavaria the Agricultural
Council, in Saxony the Land Cultivation Council, and so
forth. The apex of the whole organization and the
highest condensed expression of German agricultural
wishes is embodied in the Imperial German Agricultural
Council. In addition to these semi-official representative
agricultural bodies, there exist other special associations
which have been formed for the purpose of furthering the
interests of special branches of agriculture or agricultural
industries.

AGRICULTURAL UNIONS 55

One of the bodies in question, the German
Agricultural Association, has a membership of
13,000, and the 237 associations in Bavaria have
a membership of 56,000. Organizations such as
these ought, therefore, to exercise a considerable
influence, not alone on the economic, but also
on the political, position of agriculture in
Germany, and such has undoubtedly been the
case there in regard to recent legislation.

From some notes contributed to the Journal
of the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction for Ireland, for December, 1903, on
"Agricultural Co-operation in Germany," by
Mr. H. de F. Montgomery, I learn that the
total number of registered Agricultural Co-
operative Societies in the German Empire on
July 1st, 1903, was 17,162. This figure included
678 new savings and credit banks formed during
the previous twelve months (569 with un-
limited, and 109 with limited liability), and 151
miscellaneous societies, among which were the
following : —

Societies for the purchase of Steam Threshers 35

„ „ sale of Cattle

„ „ „ Corn

Wine-growers1 Societies

( ";it tie-breeding Societies
Horse-breeding Societies
Egg and Poultry Societies

22
4
18
10

7
V6

56

GERMANY

Distillery Societies

. 3

Irrigation Societies

. 2

Electricity Societies .

. 2

Jam Factory Societies

. 2

Steam-plough Society

'. 1

Fruit Society

. 1

Quoting from a report drawn up by Dr. Haas,
chairman of the Union of Agricultural Co-
operative Societies in Rhenish Prussia, Mr.
Montgomery also mentions a parish of 1,600
inhabitants in Hanover which can boast of five
flourishing agricultural co-operative associations,
a savings and credit bank, an agricultural supply
society, a dairy society, an egg society, a milling
society, and a society for the sale of cattle.

What, therefore, with her very practical and
comprehensive system of agricultural education,
her elaborate development of an easy and most
effective agricultural credit, and, finally, her
great variety of agricultural co-operative associa-
tions, Germany may well claim to have re-
organized the position of the cultivators of her
soil in a way that has brought to them a measure
of success, and to herself a degree of economic
advantage, that would have been impossible if,
when they were threatened with agricultural
depression, they had clung tenaciously to old
ideas and antiquated methods.

CHAPTER V
FRANCE

TO the agriculturists of Great Britain, ac-
customed to regard the condition of their
industry as one of almost hopeless depression,
there must appear to be something remarkably
strange in some observations made by M. Meline
at a gathering held at the Musee Social, Paris,
on October 31st, 1897. when the results of a
competition among the Syndicats Agricoles of
France were announced. " It is," said the French
Minister of Agriculture, " a curious fact, and
well worthy of remark, that you agriculturists
have nothing to learn from those you have called
to meet you here. It is from that world of
agriculture which for so long seemed to be given
over to a spirit of inveterate routine, and to be
deprived of all initiative, that there has pro-
ceeded the spark which should regenerate the
modern world. It is the agricultural interest
which has been the first to understand and apply
the grand formula of solidarity and mutuality

57

58 FRANCE

which contains the true and only solution of the
social problem. It is from that interest that
proceeds the immense movement which is in
process of development on all points of our
territory, and which, to-day, has only begun."

It was of the agriculture of France alone that
M. Meline thus spoke, and his special reference
was to the particular form of agricultural
association that the said " Syndicats Agricoles "
represent. That these organizations are de-
serving of the full measure of praise which has
been lavished upon them by the most enthusi-
astic of their promoters may be open to a certain
degree of doubt, for the position of agriculture
in France to-day offers this striking contrast :
that whereas in many respects combination
among the agriculturists has attained to a fulness
and a variety of development not to be surpassed
by any other country, France is, on the other
hand, distinctly behind Denmark and Sweden in
regard to dairy produce, just as she can show
nothing to compare with some of the co-
operative agricultural associations of Germany.

These limitations notwithstanding, the vast
and extremely varied network of agricultural
combination in France represented by these
Syndicats Agricoles, and the material, economic,
and social results that have followed from them,

MEETING AN ECONOMIC CRISIS 59

present a subject deserving the special considera-
tion of those who are in any way interested in
the question of agricultural progress in general.
The historian of the movement, M. le Comte
de Rocquigny, has given in Les Syndzcats
Agi'icoles et leur CEuvre, a striking account of
the conditions under which it was initiated.
Towards the year 1884, (he writes) : —

After having enjoyed a long period of prosperity, our
agricultural producers began to suffer experience of which
no one could see the end. The French market, which, by
reason of the development of the means of transport, was
no longer protected by the natural barrier of distance,
began to be flooded with foreign commodities produced at
a cost that defied all competition. Our lands, exhausted
by centuries of cultivation, had no chance against the
productions of virgin soils, or of countries more favourably
situated in regard to taxation, cost of labour, etc. The
wheat of North America, India, and Russia, the wool of
Australia and La Plata, the wines of Spain and Italy, and
even the cattle of Italy, Germany, the Argentine Republic,
etc., took, little by little, on our markets the place of our
home supplies, and the simple threat of their being im-
ported was sufficient to effect a lowering of prices. . . .
The national market existed no longer, and on a market
which had become universal, and was affected by the
slightest fluctuations that reverberated among the great
centres of the world, the Trench cultivator offered an easy
prey to the speculations of international commerce.

These new economic conditions, which there was every
reason to regard as permanent, imposed on the agricul-
tural industry a profound evolution.

60 FRANCE

It was necessary to organize for the struggle, to realize
promptly all the possible opportunities for progress, to de-
crease the cost of production, and to improve the methods
alike of production and of sale. For the attainment of these
ends the old agricultural associations were but ill-prepared.
It no longer sufficed merely to spread technical knowledge
and to give prizes and awards to agriculturists at period-
ical exhibitions.

In reading* these remarks it is impossible not
to be struck by the similarity between the condi-
tions thus developed in France and those that
arose in Great Britain — a country that was, in
fact, still more open to "the speculations of
international commerce " ; and the conclusion
must be drawn that there was as much need for
foresight and energy to be shown in this country,
in the way of organizing for the coming struggle,
as was the case in France.

There, at least, the new economic conditions
were met in a way that was eminently practical,
though the very small beginnings offered no
suggestions of the great things that were to
follow later on. A certain M. Tauviray, depart-
mental professor of agriculture at Blois, found in
the early eighties that there was great difficulty
in getting the agriculturists to use for their im-
poverished lands the fertilizers which agricultural
chemistry was offering to them ; but he saw,
also, that their reluctance was not unnatural.

ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES 61

Apart from the ignorance and the prejudices of
the farmers in respect to the use of artificial
manures, the producers thereof, having to send
out travellers and push a business then far from
active, charged high prices, and, what was still
worse, sent out adulterated or inferior qualities.
M. Tauviray's happy inspiration was to get all
the farmers in a certain district to join together
in sending in one big order, by means of which
they would be able to purchase at a less price,
get lower railway rates, and, also, be in a better
position to secure a guarantee of quality. A
combination with these objects in view was
brought about in 1883, and when, in March,
1884, organizations of this type acquired a legal
status in France, many more of such purchase
associations followed. The use of the fertilizers
was found to yield increased crops at a reduced
cost, and the operation of the new syndicates
obviated all the difficulties previously ex-
perienced. So the movement for the establish-
ment of agricultural syndicates spread, in course
of time, throughout the whole of France —
though they were more numerous in some parts
thereof than in others — while in proportion as
their utility was more and more recognized, the
scope of their activity widened. Seeds and
feeding-stuffs were purchased in wholesale lots.

62 FRANCE

the same as fertilizers. So were tools and agri-
cultural appliances of various kinds, while special
syndicates either procured agricultural machinery
too costly for individual farmers to get for them-
selves and let it out on hire, or enabled farmers
to purchase on special terms.

In these and other ways there was, in the first
instance, a direct appeal to the material interests
of the agriculturists. Other considerations were
to be advanced later on, but the leaders of the
new movement had the good fortune to win the
early sympathy of the farming community by
the offer of practical advantages which prepared
for further considerable developments of the
combination principle a class of men who, in
France, as in England, might well be regarded
as the least likely to co-operate for the achieve-
ment of a common purpose.

By 1886 there were already so many of the
new type of associations in existence that a
"Union Centrale des Syndicats des Agricul-
teurs de France " was created through the inter-
mediary of the Societe des Agriculteurs de
France, which society was formed in 1868, and
has 12,000 members, but represents a body of
a more academical type than the syndicates,
though it is one that has done much for the
promotion of the agricultural interests of the

A PARLIAMENT OF AGRICULTURISTS 63

country. The Union Centrale has not secured
the adhesion of all the agricultural associations
throughout France, but it represents 1,126 of
them, with a membership estimated at 350,000,
and its annual conferences in Paris may be re-
garded as the Lower House of a French Agri-
culturists' Parliament, the Upper House being
the Societe des Agriculteurs. When the resolu-
tions adopted by the one body have been ap-
proved by the other, and passed on to the
Ministers or other authorities, they represent
a weight of agricultural opinion to which there
is nothing to correspond in Great Britain.

The Union Centrale in Paris has been supple-
mented by forty provincial and other minor
federations. Most of these also hold annual
conferences, at which, as in Paris, questions
affecting all kinds of agricultural interests are
discussed. Nor are the views of such provincial
unions to be despised, considering that the Union
du Sud-est, for example, alone comprises 303
affiliated associations, which have a total of
80,000 members. According to the Annuaire
des Syndicats Prqfessionnels, published by the
Minister of Commerce, the number of agricul-
tural associations in France whose formation had
been officially notified up to January 1st, 1903,
was 2,438, and the total membership was

64 FRANCE

599,000. Included in this total were 6,238
women.

In the same year that the Union Centrale was
formed there was also established a Syndicat
Central des Agriculteurs de France, which
opened an office in Paris (1) to facilitate the
sale of agricultural products ; and (2) to further
group the orders for agricultural necessaries
collected and combined by the different federa-
tions of syndicates from the individual associa-
tions, purely commercial purposes such as these
being considered beyond the scope of the Union
Centrale. No great degree of success has been
obtained by this Syndicat Central in regard to
the sale of agricultural products, but the pur-
chases it effects amount to about £2,000,000
a year. This, however, does not represent any-
thing like the sum total of the business done by
the associations as a whole, many of them pur-
chasing through their provincial unions, or group-
ing their orders locally. There are twenty-five
associations alone whose purchases represent a
grand total of £900,000 ; and it is calculated
that the money spent by the whole of the asso-
ciations would amount to £8,000,000 a year.

Such, in fact, is the magnitude of the orders
given under the " grouping " system that in cer-
tain commodities the agricultural associations

COLLECTIVE PURCHASE 65

control the markets. They secure a threefold
advantage: (1) They get wholesale prices from
the manufacturers instead of retail, these prices
being made still lower by the fact that the
manufacturer, dealing direct with an association
or union, incurs less expense for travellers, etc. ;
(2) the quality has to stand the tests of the
association's experts ; and (3) lower railway
rates are obtained because the consignments are
sent to central depots in waggon-load lots instead
of small quantities, as in former days. So the
small cultivator who buys a couple of sacks of
fertilizers or feeding-stuffs through his association
gets just the same advantages in price, quality,
and railway rates as a large farmer who orders
his five or ten tons. These facilities, combined
with the skilled advice given free by the associa-
tions, have led to a very great increase in the
use of fertilizers in France, and many factories
have been set up in that country for their pro-
duction, while a decrease of from 40 to 50 per
cent, has been effected in the prices as compared
with what they were before the advent of the
agricultural associations. One factory in France
which turns out 15,000,000 kilos, the year dis-
poses of 12,000,000 kilos, of that quantity to
agricultural associations alone.

Another of the central organizations brought

66 FRANCE

into existence as part of the general movement
was the Syndicat Economique Agricole de
France, a propagandist body composed of the
most active members of the departmental
syndicates, and formed for the purpose of in-
fluencing public opinion on agricultural questions
by means of publications, conferences, etc., and
to conduct, in general, the campaigns by which
the views expressed at the representative gather-
ings of agriculturists might be carried to a
successful issue. This body is especially active
on the eve of general elections in France, and to
its energy is ascribed the original formation, in
1889, of the agricultural party in the Chamber
of Deputies.

Mention should also be made of a Syndicat
d'Industrie Agricole, the object of which is to
assist small cultivators to carry on their holdings
by helping them to obtain the necessary imple-
ments or machinery, much having been done in
this way to improve the conditions under which
agricultural operations are conducted, thus stimu-
lating the production.

Besides the associations which seek to promote
the interests of agriculturists in general, there
are many which apply to special industries.
Among these may be mentioned the Syndicat
Pomologique de France, founded at Rennes, in

ASSOCIATIONS FOR SPECIAL INDUSTRIES 67

1891, by a group of cider-makers ; the Syndicat
General des Sericulteurs de France; the Syndicat
des Distillateurs Agricoles ; the Syndicat des
Eleveurs de Chevaux en France ; the Chambre
Syndicat Centrale des Horticulteurs; with others
organized by market gardeners (especially those
who raise early vegetables), nurserymen, the
growers of vines, beetroot, tobacco, and medical
plants, bee-keepers, etc. Such organizations seek
to promote the general interests of the industries
concerned by means alike of spreading technical
information, grouping purchases of necessaries,
facilitating the sale of products, or making joint
representation, in case of need, on the subject of
market tolls, railway rates, etc.

No better illustration could be given of the
way in which combinations of this type are
resorted to in France than is afforded by the
case of the little commune of Roquevaire
(Provence). The place has a great reputation for
capers, which constitute its chief production. At
one time the inhabitants were content to grow
the capers, and sell them to wholesale merchants ;
but they found that these merchants were
mixing with the high quality capers from
Roquevaire others of an inferior kind from
Algeria and Spain, the fame of the former being
thereby endangered. To check this evil the

7 rl'/l

68 FRANCE.

local growers formed a co-operative association
for the purpose of carrying on the trade them-
selves. Instead of sending the capers to the
merchants as before, they employed their own
wives and children on the further processes of
sorting, pickling, etc., and they opened up
negotiations with wholesale houses in England,
Germany, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and the
United States, establishing a business which now
represents a total of about 200,000 francs the
year. The experiment answered so well, in fact,
that they followed it with another. Consider-
able quantities of apricots are grown at Roque-
vaire, as well as capers, and these apricots were
formerly sold to makers of preserves at Marseilles.
Some years, however, the growers had practically
no return from the fruit, and they resolved to no
longer send it to Marseilles, but to convert it
into preserve themselves, and work up a trade
with grocers, confectioners, and others. This
they have done, and they calculate that they
now secure from 30 to 40 per cent, more profit
from the apricots than they ever made before.

Among other special combinations which have
grouped producers for the purposes of collective
export to the English markets I may mention
the following: — Syndicat Agricole du Comtat,
Carpentras (Vancluse), strawberries ; Syndicat

COLLECTIVE EXPORT 69

Agricole de Gaillon (Eure), cherries, pears, etc. ;
Syndicat Agricole de Quincy-Segy (Seine-et-
Marne), black currants, pears, etc. ; Syndicat
des Viticulteurs de Thomery (Seine-et-Marne),
grapes ("raisins de Chasselas," a white variety,
chiefly grown at or near Fontainebleau, and
celebrated for their sweetness) ; Syndicat Agri-
cole de Linas (Seine-et-Oise), tomatoes and
fruits ; " La Syndicate " de Groslay (Seine-et-
Oise), fruits and vegetables ; Syndicat des Jar-
diniers de Nantes (Loire Inf.), fruits and vege-
tables ; Union des Producteurs d'Oignons a
Fleur (Toulon), bulbs ; Syndicat des Proprie-
taires et Fermiers, Ollioules (Var), bulbs ; and
the Societe Cooperative de Tullins-Fures (Isere).
walnuts ("noix du Dauphine "). To this list I
will only add that a large number of associations
in Provence make from the olives grown by
their members an oil of excellent quality, for
which there is said to be a large demand.

The results of collective action in securing for
the people advantages that could not have been
hoped for from individual effort were so striking
in all these various ways that the principle was
followed up in many other directions besides.
Associations were, for instance, formed for the
common defence of crops against different causes
of destruction <>r depredations, among them

70 FRANCE

being Syndicats de Hannetonage, organized in
various departments to wage war against the
May-beetle ; associations to take precautionary
measures against phylloxera ; and even, at one
time, associations for the protection of vines
from frost in the early spring. The last-
named result wras to be obtained by lighting in
the vineyards bonfires in which were burned
substances that produced dense smoke, the pre-
sence of which, especially on a still night, should
serve the same purpose as clouds in preventing
the radiation of heat from the ground. Whether
because the desired degree of success was not
attained, or because the expense was too great,
only a few of these particular associations have
survived ; but the fact of their being started at
all shows the readiness of the people to co-operate
for the promotion of mutual interests.

Then, in order to still further reduce expenses,
so that farmers would be better able to meet the
falling prices, various associations started the
idea of grouping their members to allow of
better terms being made with the fire insurance
companies. Such grouping meant for the com-
panies not only, as it were, " wholesale lots " of
policy-holders of an especially desirable type, but
the incurring of less cost in the collection of
premiums ; and where the associations could deal

OTHER FORMS OF COMBINATION 71

direct with the insurance companies they were
enabled to arrange substantial reductions for
their members. In those cases where the middle-
man, in the form of an agent, was not to be
dispensed with, the association got itself recog-
nized as a sub-agent, the agent proper consent-
ing to a reduction of his commission because he
was saved a good deal of labour. In the same
way agriculturists were encouraged to ensure
more freely against accidents, and eventually
there was formed a " Caisse Syndicale d 'Assur-
ance Mutuelle des Agriculteurs de France contre
les Accidents du Travail Agricole," dealing ex-
clusively with members of agricultural organiza-
tions. Special combinations were likewise formed
for the insurance of live stock and for the insur-
ance of crops against hail.

The fundamental idea of the agricultural
combination thus spread throughout the land —
that, namely, of " helping one another " — re-
ceived a still wider expansion in the formation
of what were practically Farmers' Mutual Aid
Societies. This phase of the general movement
was started in 1888 by the Syndicat Agricole du
Canton de Belleville-sur-Saone, which arranged
that whenever one of its poorer members fell
sick, or met with an accident, the others should
each do a days work for him, in turn, on his

72 FRANCE

farm or holding. Other associations did the
same, and then, as they accumulated funds,
they provided their members with medical
attendance and financial help, they established
a system of old-age pensions, and they also made
provision for the support of orphans.

To the educational work carried on by the
agricultural associations a considerable degree
of importance must be attached. From the
very outset they sought not only to enable
farmers and small cultivators to purchase fertil-
izers, but to instruct them thoroughly concern-
ing their use and purpose. In this way it was
that they began their work of promoting the
higher education of the French agriculturist.
They continued it by issuing periodicals and
almanacs, to which the leading authorities in
agricultural science sent contributions written
in popular style ; they published text-books and
established libraries ; they engaged professors of
agriculture who delivered lectures, gave free
consultations, carried out analyses, and directed
experimental farms ; and they have followed up
with much zeal a movement started in Brittany,
in 1892, for giving elementary instruction in
agricultural subjects in the primary schools,
certificates and diplomas being awarded to the
children who pass examinations therein.

SOCIAL ADVANTAGES 73

From a social standpoint it is claimed that the
associations have done much to strengthen the
feeling of a community of interests between
the different classes in rural districts, to invest
country life with increased attractions, and to
widen the expanse of the agriculturist's horizon
in general. Most of the associations are of what
is known as a " mixed " type — that is to say,
large landowners and small occupiers, farmers
and agricultural labourers, will all be members
of the same organization, and meet in friendly
intercourse to discuss subjects of common in-
terest. People have thus been brought together
who previously may have been strangers or even
more or less enemies. In the relations so es-
tablished is seen, in addition to other advantages,
one of the greatest safeguards against the spread
of socialistic doctrines in rural France, and one
of the best possible guarantees alike for friendly
settlement of any question that may arise
between the various classes, and for the general
maintenance of social peace. Many of the asso-
ciations have even established boards of concilia-
tion and arbitration by which disputes among
their members can be arranged ; and many, also,
have supplemented their help to the indigent
sick, their old-age pensions, and their mainten-
ance of orphans, by opening labour bureaux

74 FRANCE

where every facility is offered to unemployed
agriculturists to get work. The meetings of the
associations, and especially the annual confer-
ences of the unions and the banquets that
follow them, afford an agreeable change to the
generally dull routine of country life. Even
the weekly visits to the market towns have in
many places been invested with greater interest
by the provision of comfortable rooms where
members of an association can go with their
wives and children (should these be with them),
meet one another, rest and refresh, and hold
friendly conference on questions of mutual
interest.

All these things are helping to render rural
life in France pleasanter and more attractive,
at the same time that the material con-
siderations already detailed have distinctly
improved the agricultural outlook in general.
And yet, the organization movement in that
country is still incomplete, especially if we
compare the conditions of the French dairy
industry with those of the same industry in
Denmark.

A certain number of syndicates have, it is
true, been formed in France for the carrying
on of co-operative dairies on the Danish model,
and these are especially to be found in the

THE FRENCH DAIRY SYSTEM 75

Charente districts, on the west coast, substantial
quantities of dairy produce being sent thence to
the Paris markets. As regards, however, most
of the butter exported to Great Britain, the
methods in vogue are still mainly those that
Denmark abandoned a quarter of a century
ago. Each farmer makes his own particular
lot of butter, and takes it to the local market.
There it is bought by a commission agent, and
he in turn disposes of it to the wholesale
merchant, who thus receives into his " blending
mill" the dairy produce of a wide district, re-
presenting, it may be, a considerable number
of different " makes " of butter. Expert em-
ployes will sort out the purchases into five
different classes, and the quantities representing
each class will then be worked up afresh and
blended together, so as to present a uniform
quality. All this is, of course, very different
from the Danish system, under which the
farmers bring in their milk to a central depot,
where the cream is separated from it, the butter
as exported being produced in one operation
from the combined supplies.

In Denmark, too. the farmers get most of
the profit for themselves, whereas in France
the farmers are not only put to greater trouble
and expense, but they must be content with

76 FRANCE

a very modest return, because the middleman
maker wants his profit as well, and because of
the further cost of production necessitated by
the blending mill operations. Before Denmark
secured so strong a position on British markets,
the French butter exporters made large fortunes
from the business. The opportunity came with
the Franco-German War, which closed the Paris
markets for a time, and caused them to look for
an alternative outlet in Great Britain — a pro-
cedure which answered so well that in some
instances the present-day representatives of
butter -blending mills, originally started in a
very small way, are owners of chateaux, and are
locally regarded as "butter -kings," while the
French farmer still drives to market with his
weekly tub of butter, regarding his commercial
rulers with the greater awe, perhaps, because he
may be indebted to them for pecuniary advances
made to him in times of need.

Of the adaptations of Danish methods which
have, thus far, been brought about in France,
one of the most interesting is at Cherbourg.
An English firm, with the help of a Danish
manager, has there set up a factory in which
the cream is separated from the milk obtained
from 385 farmers in the surrounding district.
After being pasteurised, and having a preserva-

THE GROUPING OF PRODUCTS 77

tive added, it is despatched by the London and
South Western Railway Company's boats to
Southampton, en route for London, the output
of the factory representing from 200 to 300
gallons of cream a day.

This concern is not a co-operative one, but
it nevertheless illustrates the important fact that
even where, in France, there is no actual co-
operation among the agriculturists, there may
still be such a grouping of products gathered
in from a wide area as to eventually represent
very large quantities to be consigned by a single
firm or trader, instead of a multiplicity of small
lots forwarded by individual producers; and from
the point of view alike of the railway companies,
in their charge for waggon -loads, and of the
British grower who sees huge consignments of
foreign produce passing his doors, the point as to
who are the consignors of such loads is a matter
of detail. It may be of interest if I give one or
two more illustrations of how, even without direct
co-operation, these huge consignments may still
be got together.

In regard to eggs France is distinctly behind
Denmark in her system of collection and export,
and this may be one reason why, as already
mentioned in Chapter II., French consignments
of eggs to this country have fallen off so much

78 FRANCE

of late years. But, if her methods are primitive,
they show a degree of enterprise on the part of
her people which is deserving of commendation.
In Brittany, for example, every peasant keeps
fowls, whether he has any land or not, and these
fowls play the role of the Irish tenant's pig in
helping to pay the rent. Nor has the peasant
of Brittany any trouble in disposing of the eggs.
There are women and boys who make a regular
living by going round the country collecting
eggs at the farms and cottages. They start in
the morning with a certain sum of money in
their pockets, and a wooden crate for the eggs
fastened on to their shoulders by means of
webbing ; they tramp along lanes and paths
which would be impassable for horses and
vehicles, even if they could afford such luxuries ;
they call on the peasants on appointed days,
when they know that a little collection of eggs
will be awaiting them; they pay ready money
for what they buy, and they bring a good
quantity of eggs back with them in the evening,
selling them, at a profit of one halfpenny a dozen,
either direct to the packer at St. Malo, or to
a local tradesman who drives periodically to that
port, and will take the eggs with him, himself
making a profit on them. The packer examines
each egg, rejecting those that are doubtful,

BLACKBERRIES BY THE TON 79

grades them, and makes them up in cases for
export. The business organized on these lines
brings, in the aggregate, a substantial sum of
money to the peasantry of the district.

Still more striking is the story that can be
told concerning blackberries. A ton of black-
berries, all picked from hedges in the fields or
along the country lanes, will appear a prodigious
quantity to the average householder, and a
record seemed, indeed, to have been reached a
few years ago, when 150 tons of blackberries
were exported from St. Malo to England. But
that figure is entirely overshadowed by the fact
that during the autumn of 1903 the total quan-
tity of blackberries sent from St. Malo to this
country was no less than 773 tons ! Even then
the supply was not equal to the demand, in
a season when fruit was exceptionally scarce.
One English dealer alone telegraphed to St.
Malo saying that he would take 200 tons of
blackberries, if he could get them.

By what means are these hundreds of tons of
blackberries got together in this one particular
corner of Fiance ? There is no horticultural
syndicate there to promote the culture of black-
berries, or to organize the sale thereof; but
those said tons are collected and sent off all the
same, the persons chiefly concerned being women

80 FRANCE

and children. The peasantry throughout Brit-
tany know that there is money to be made by
picking blackberries to send to England, and
every few days during the season — especially on
Thursdays, the school holiday — the women and
children of a household will turn out with their
tins and basins, and gather what blackberries they
can. These they put together, and take in the
afternoon or evening to some village tradesman
— no matter in what line of business he may
be — who owns a horse and trap, and has deal-
ings with St. Malo. The tradesmen will give at
the rate of about eight centimes a pound for the
blackberries, and as every centime has its value
in the eyes of the essentially thrifty French
peasant, the money thus earned represents an
acceptable addition to the weekly income. As
for the tradesman, when, probably, most of the
families in the village are out collecting, he may
expect to have a good supply by the evening to
take to the wholesale exporter at St. Malo, from
whom he will receive a price that gives him
about two centimes per pound profit.

Applying this method of collection to practi-
cally every village or hamlet within a radius of,
say, a dozen miles of St. Malo, one will cease to
wonder how it is that the French wholesale fruit
merchant manages to get together blackberries

WHY NOT CORNWALL? 81

by the ton for consignment to the English
market. As for the peasantry, their receipt of
eight centimes per pound for picking 773 tons of
blackberries during the season means that the
business put into their pockets no less a sum
than £5,541. The average price at which the
St. Malo exporter sold to the English merchant
ranged from £10 to £12 per ton, though some
of the consignments realized as much as £14 per
ton. Even taking the lowest of these figures,
one finds that during the autumn of 1903 a sum
of £7,730 was paid for blackberries brought to
England from a single French port.

The question may well be asked why this
money should have gone to France when in
Cornwall and other parts of our own country
there were blackberries equally fine that were
left to rot on the bushes, either because people
would not go to the trouble of picking them, or
because there was no one enterprising enough
to carry out there the method of collection that
answers so well in France.

The answer that " distressed agriculture "
would probably make is, " Oh, the railway
rates in England are so high that the business
could never be made to pay." In anticipation
of such a reply I have asked the General
Manager of the London and South AVestern

G

82

FRANCE

Railway to favour me with a statement showing
the rates charged by his Company for the
carriage of blackberries from (1) St. Malo to
London, and (2) from stations in Devon and
Cornwall to London. He has furnished me
with the following figures : —

(1) Rate (including delivery) for the transport
of blackberries from St. Malo to London :
£2 0,?. 2d, per ton.

(2) Rates (including delivery) from stations
in Devon and Cornwall to London, in respect
to consignments above those represented by
" smalls " : —

FROM

Bere Ferrers (Devon) .
St. Budeanx ( ,, ) .
Holsworthy ( „ ) .
Launceston (Cornwall)
Camelford ( ,, )
AVadebridge ( „ )

MILES.

221*

225§
21 Of
2221
239|
2o2|

3-TON

LOTS.

Per ton.

s. d.
10 10
10 10

10 10

11 8
13 4
13 4

2-TON
LOTS.

1-TON
LOT.

Per ton.
£ s. d

1 12 61 1
1 12 6 1 1

1 12 6
1 13 4
1 15 0
1 15 0

Per ton.
£ «. d.

14

14
1 14
1 15
1 16
1 16

LOTS
UNDER
1 TON.

I

Per ton.
£ s. d.

15 10

15 10

15 10

16 8

17 6

18 4

It will thus be seen that if the traffic is sent
from Devon or Cornwall in any quantity above
" smalls " it is carried at a more favourable rate
than from St. Malo ; while if it is sent in large
quantities, such as three tons, it gets the benefit
of from 9.v. 4d. to 6s. 10r/. per ton. The Si exces-

AN IMAGINARY GRIEVANCE 83

sive railway rate " theory falls, therefore, entirely
to the ground, and the real reason why French
blackberries are put on the London market in-
stead of English is, evidently, that our neigh-
bours will take the trouble to pick them, and
make the very simple arrangement necessary for
sending them in, while English people fail to
show the same amount of energy and enterprise,
and content themselves, rather, with cherishing
an imaginary grievance against the railway com-
panies.

Gooseberries are collected in the villages
around St. Malo in a somewhat similar fashion,
the peasants who have a few bushes in their
gardens disposing of the fruit to a local trades-
man, who, when he has gathered in a good
supply, will dispose of it to the wholesale dealer,
getting Fr. 1 50 c. per cwt. on delivery, which is
at his own expense.

Then the growing of early potatoes in France
has assumed such a magnitude that the trade
therein done through the port of St. Malo alone
represented in 1002 a total of over .£200,000. It
is no wonder that a year or two ago a St. Malo
merchant, in addressing a meeting of agricul-
turists at Dol, advised them to cultivate potatoes
on every available acre. The export from St.
Malo to Southampton amounts, in the height of

84 FRANCE

the season, to as many as 1,000 tons a day, so
that complete train -loads of French potatoes
can be made up at Southampton for transit to
London. At the same time there will be two
boat-loads a week, representing up to 200 tons
each, going from St. Malo to Hull, and one
a week to Cardiff. All around St. Malo the
cultivation of new potatoes as an early crop is
followed by cauliflowers, of which every year
larger quantities are being produced, and it is
found that the farmers will readily drive into
St. Malo with their produce, although their
farms may be twelve or fourteen miles from that
port. One further consequence of all these
conditions is that agricultural land in the district
has doubled in value.

Of Cherbourg Mr. M. C. Gurney wrote a
few years ago, when he was British Consul
there : —

This district owes its prosperity to the soil, to a wise
selection of its capabilities, and development of all its
resources, no section of agricultural industry being con-
sidered too insignificant to receive careful attention. No
part of the dairy and the farmyard, however small the
profits which can be made to swell the total income, is
neglected. It is sad to acknowledge that the main source
of local prosperity is due to the inability of British agri-
culturists to supply the need of the millions of consumers
in our Metropolis and our large provincial towns, which

SUBSTITUTES FOR CEREALS 85

afford a never-failing market to the produce of Normandy
enterprise and industry in the shape of butter, poultry,
eggs, potatoes, and vegetables. . . .

Farmers in this district have realized that Europe can
no longer be a wheat-growing competitor of the new
worlds. Protective tariffs have not procured for them
remunerative prices, though they have prevented a further
fall. . . . The advice given to farmers to give up cereals for
permanent pasture is considered to have been the saving
of the farmers of La Manche, who one and all followed the
advice given. . . . The agriculturists of Western Normandy,
having abandoned cereals, now get a very fair return for
their capital and labour out of dairy-farming, horse-
breeding, poultry-rearing, cider-apple orchards, and market
gardening.

The butter export from Cherbourg, which
rose from 1,8.50 tons in 1869 to 21,519 tons in
1897, has since declined to about 16,000 tons (in
the face of Danish and other competition), not-
withstanding a temporary increase in 1902, and
the export of poultry, as well as eggs, has also
fallen off during the last few years. But, in the
spirit referred to by Mr. Gurney, the farmers
of the district are again showing their powers of
adaptability to circumstances by pushing their
alternative trade in potatoes and vegetables.
The position to-day is that nearly all the avail-
able land between Cherbourg and Barfleur, and
on to St. Vast, is being devoted to potatoes and
cauliflowers. In the district between Cape La

86

FRANCE

Hague and Granville the cultivation of parsley
has been carried on to such an extent that one
grower alone exported to England during the
season in 1901 no fewer than 100 packets of
parsley a day, each packet representing 20 lbs.
By way of final illustration of the practical
results that have followed the general change of
policy referred to above, I cannot do better than
give the following figures relating to some of
the principal items of export from St. Malo to
Great Britain : —

1895 ! 1896 1897

1898 '< 1899 1900

1901

1902

Tons. ! Tons. 1 Tons.

Tons.

Tons. Tons.

Tons.

Tons.

Butter .

1615 J 1613! 1003

882

831 ; 924

562

1149

Eggs .

5500 6939 ! 5948

4594

4768 i 4788

4252

3407

Potatoes

15770 ' 18634 15992

22130

42328 22303

28214

38594

Fruit .

3199 i 1919

2029

1123

4163 2888

3179

1829

Fresh )
vegetables J

...

2039

1932

1214

3243 1661

897

2256

Chestnuts

3290

3614; 3210

3288

4415 3413

4982

2458

Poultry

79

85 j 99

35

29

74

76

26

Mistletoe

350

432

229

210

272

275

To this table I will only add that while, in
regard to the actual sale of such produce, co-
operative effort may play a less conspicuous
role in France than in other countries in the
North of Europe, and while, also, the grouping
of lots there may still be done mainly through
the individual trader, the influence of agricultural
associations has, nevertheless, been distinctly felt
by the cultivators in the cheapening of fertilizers,

COMBINATION AND PRODUCTION 87

the increase of facilities in regard to the purchase
or use of agricultural implements or machinery,
and in the bringing of capable advisers to the
front, — advantages which have all played their
part in lowering the cost, and swelling the
volume, of production.

CHAPTER VI
BELGIUM

IT was not until about the year 1890 that
Belgium began to seriously bestir herself
with the view of effecting the improvement,
or, rather, the reconstruction, of her agricultural
position. Yet the claim is made for her that,
relatively to her size, more associations have
been established in Belgium in the interests of
agriculture than in any other country in Europe ;
while, as regards accomplished results, one
authority on the subject, M. Louis Varlez,
says : —

The movement has hardly yet been outlined, and
already the agrarian crisis has moderated — in some parts
of the country it has already come to an end. We are
taking part in a real awakening (un vrai revell) of agri-
culture. What will it be like when the movement has
developed its full proportions — when it shall have spread
throughout the entire country ?

There were, it is true, agricultural associations
in Belgium prior to 1890, and notably those that

88

REMARKABLE RESULTS 89

went by the name of " Cornices Agricoles " —
semi - official, State - supported bodies which,
originally created in 1848, were useful in their
way, especially as mediums for collecting infor-
mation, but were not sufficiently representative
of the agriculturists in general, and did not
constitute a real living force equal to the re-
quirements of the day. This said force came
into existence, rather, with the creation of " free "
or non- official associations, and the expansion
which these have undergone, as shown by the
" Expose Statistique des Associations d'Interet
Agricole," issued by the Belgian Minister of
Agriculture, is certainly remarkable enough,
considering the very short time that has elapsed
since they were started. A few facts and figures
from this report may be given in order to convey
an idea of the general position, before we con-
sider the particular causes that have led to results
so striking.

Of local agricultural leagues, formed by agri-
culturists " for the study and the defence of
agricultural interests," there were in Belgium
at the end of 1901 no fewer than 77G. with a
membership of 42,059. The action of these
leagues is in some cases confined to a single
hamlet, while in others it may extend over
several communes ; but nearly all are affiliated

go BELGIUM

to some federation whose operations may em-
brace a canton, a province, or the entire country.
The oldest of the federations is the Boerenbond ;
the others include the Federation Agricole du
Hainaut, the Federation Agricole de la Province
de Liege, the Ligue Agricole Luxembourgeoise,
etc.

The primary object of the local societies is the
purchase in common of agricultural necessaries,
this being effected through central organizations,
some of which are represented by limited liability
companies formed by the agriculturists as an
adjunct to their ordinary associations. Of
purchase societies the number in 1901 was 780,
with a membership of 49,000, and the purchases
amounted to a total of 14,000,000 francs. Some
of the associations procure costly agricultural
machinery, which they let out on hire to their
members or others, the value of machinery thus
held in 1901 being 98,000 francs. The equip-
ment of co-operative dairies is undertaken in
certain instances, and the federations operating
in the dairy districts have organized a complete
system of inspection as to the working and
management of the establishments belonging to
their members.

The raising of funds for the carrying on of
agricultural operations, either by co-operative

VARIED PHASES OF THE MOVEMENT 91

associations or by individuals, has been facilitated
by the establishment of rural credit banks of the
Raiffeisen type. Of these there were in Belgium
in 1894 only four, all newly established. On
December 31st, 1901, there were 286, connected
with six central banks, created by the different
federations. The 286 societies represent a mem-
bership of 13,000.

Of " mutual " societies for the insurance of
cattle there were 729 in 1901, with 67,000
members, the number of cattle insured being
198,000. How this movement is spreading may
be illustrated by the case of Luxembourg. In
that province there were no cattle - insurance
societies at all in 1900, whereas by the end of the
following year there were thirty-three. Then
during 1901 there were established in Belgium
thirty-seven societies for the insurance of horses,
and seven for the insurance of goats. The
operations of all these live - stock insurance
societies are safe-guarded by federations for re-
insurance.

To such an extent has the principle of " group-
ing" fire insurance policies -with the view of
getting a reduction in the premiums — been
carried, that by the end of 1901 the Boeren-
bond federation of agricultural associations had
" grouped " over 8,000, and other central bodies

92 BELGIUM

controlled 159, 1,200, 642, and 112 respectively.
In the same way the federations group policies
for insurance against accidents.

Among the associations formed to promote
special interests may be mentioned the 245 Bee
Societies, forming eight federations, and com-
prising 10,000 members. These societies organ-
ize exhibitions, open special markets for the sale
of honey, and hold from 300 to 400 conferences
in the year to further the interests of apiculture.
The Horticultural Societies number 133, with a
membership of 1 9,000 ; and the Bird Societies
(which especially devote themselves to the rear-
ing of pigeons for food) number 54, with a
membership of 4,000 ; while of associations for
improving the breed of cattle there are 312, with
a membership of 11,000.

Of co-operative dairies there were 69 in
1895, 109 in 1896, 167 in 1897, 237 in 1898, 356
in 1900, and 427 in 1901. The membership in
1901 was 47,447 — mostly very small farmers
indeed, judging from the fact that the average
number of cattle possessed per member is only
2*7. The sales effected in 1901 by these co-
operative dairies amounted to over 22,500,000
francs.

In commencing an inquiry as to the circum-
stances under which all these results have been

THE CLERGY AND CO-OPERATION 93

secured, one is speedily brought face to face
with conditions peculiar to Belgium, and hardly
to be compared with those of any other country.
What one finds is that this extensive develop-
ment of agricultural institutions in Belgium is
the result, not so much of a deliberate attempt
to meet changing economic conditions, as of a
most practical effort on the part of the clergy,
supported by the present " Clerical " Govern-
ment, to prevent the spread of Socialism in the
rural districts, and to increase the hold alike of
the Church and of the Clerical Party on the agri-
culturists of the country by taking effective
measures to improve their material and social
position. There is, in fact, scarcely one of the
" free " agricultural associations indicated by the
statistics given above that has not been more or
less inspired, if not actually brought into exist-
ence (and in many cases even still controlled),
by some parish priest or other. The reasons for
this distinctly curious position of affairs are
deserving of some consideration.

Not only is Belgium a country where political
partisanship is carried to an extent unknown
in Great Britain, but the ramifications of the
Socialist propaganda, in particular, have under-
gone great extension there of late years. So
long as that propaganda was confined to the

94 BELGIUM

toilers in the large cities, the situation was one
that had to be accepted with the best possible
grace. But there came a time when a threat-
ened spread of Socialist doctrines to the rural
districts gave rise to serious alarm. Various
causes were operating to bring about the ap-
parently impending result. The agitation in
favour of universal suffrage, the rapid spread of
education in the agricultural districts, and the
wider circulation there of cheap political news-
papers had done much to expand the intellectual
horizon of dwellers in those districts ; but a much
more potent influence in the propagation of
Socialist ideas in Belgium has been found in the
fact that so many dwellers in the rural districts
who are employed in the large industrial centres
are brought into daily contact, either in the
train or at their work, with individuals of Social-
ist tendencies whose views they eventually
adopt, more or less, and take back with them to
the villages, there to become each a propagandist
on his own account. Then every year troops of
agricultural labourers proceed from Belgium to
France to take part in the harvest, and they, too,
bring back advanced ideas with them ; while, in
addition to all this, the Socialist party in Belgium
has of late years deliberately sought to capture
the rural districts by every means in its power.

A CAMPAIGN AGAINST SOCIALISM 95

So it was thought by all good Catholics in
general, and by the clergy in particular, that the
time for action had come. As far back as 1876
the question was raised of giving instruction in
agricultural subjects to young men under train-
ing in the Seminaries for the priesthood, to fit
them for taking part in agricultural movements
in the parishes, and this course was adopted as
soon as it became the fixed policy of the Church
to check the spread of Socialism in the rural
districts. Not only was such instruction given
(with the help of State subsidies), but the
bishops were most earnest in their efforts to
induce the parish priests to promote the various
forms of agricultural combination with all the
zeal in their power. In this way almost every
cure became the centre of a local movement for
the starting of agricultural associations, and how
well qualified they became so to act is shown by
a story told by M. Victor Lecoffre in his book,
Lcs Associations Agricoles en Belgique. M.
Lecoffre went one day to a co-operative dairy
with a priest who was " diocesan inspector of
agricultural undertakings," and found that
operations had been stopped for two hours
because of a breakdown in the engine which
the engineer could not remedy. The priest-
inspector examined the engine, and then called

96 BELGIUM

for some tools, turned up his cassock, and him-
self set to work on the engine. In a quarter
of an hour it was in full working order again.
" Such men," says M. Lecoffre, " have their
influence ; beyond their priestly dignity their
technical knowledge inspires respect and con-
fidence."

The movement which has thus assumed such
widespread proportions and so many different
forms had its actual rise mostly in the starting
by isolated individuals of small associations for
the combined purchase of agricultural neces-
saries, the scope of action being subsequently
widened alike by the taking up of other objects
and by means of groups and federations. A
single illustration must suffice.

A Flemish farmer at Goor went one day to
the cure of the parish, M. TAbbe Mellaerts, and
spoke to him about the poor quality of his
wheat crop. The cure had studied botany and
kindred subjects at his Seminary, he had es-
pecially followed up the subject of chemical
manures, and he had made experiments on his
own account in the garden of his house. So he
asked the farmer, " If I tell you of a remedy,
will you use it ? " " If it is not too dear," was
the reply. When the farmer called again the
abbe gave him a sack containing twenty-five

SMALL BEGINNINGS 97

kilogrammes of chemical manure. The farmer
was reluctant to take it. He had no confidence
in such manure as that because it did not smell
strong enough. But he was induced to try it
as an experiment, and he used it to grow some
potatoes, with such excellent results that he
went to the cure for more. Then several of his
neighbours wanted supplies as well. Meanwhile
the cure had been reading of what the peasants
along the Rhine had done in the way of form-
ing combinations for the joint purchase of
agricultural necessaries, and he called a con-
ference of members of his flock to consider the
adoption of a like scheme for Goor. His parish-
ioners had no great faith in the proposal, but
seven of them put their names down as members
of a " Peasants' Guild " — just to please him.
They soon found, however, that they could get
their supplies cheaper and of a better quality
through the Guild than they could individually,
and thereupon more members joined. AVithin
a year the Guild consisted of 100 farmers.

Considerations of health then compelled M.
Mellaerts to remove to Louvain, where he
became an active writer on agricultural ques-
tions, and an especially earnest advocate of
agricultural combination. A conference of agri-
culturists at Louvain, organized by M. Mellaerts

98 BELGIUM

and others, followed in July, 1890, when it
was decided that there ought to be in every
commune in the province an agricultural asso-
ciation similar to the one at Goor, and that,
when formed, all of them should be connected
with one central body. By the following year
there were 89 local associations of different
kinds ready for incorporation into an organiza-
tion to which the name of " Boerenbond " was
given. By 1893 the number of affiliated asso-
ciations in this federation was 130. In 1897
the total increased to 380, and in 1900 to 450,
representing upwards of 26,000 members, and
covering the provinces of Antwerp, Brabant,
and Limbourg. The federation publishes a
monthly agricultural review, holds innumerable
conferences and periodical meetings, conducts
experimental fields, has a central office from
which a vast amount of gratuitous practical
advice is given, exercises a useful influence in
regard to legislation affecting agriculture, and
carries on so big a business in grouping the
orders of the local associations that it has
organized a separate section for each commodity,
set up a mill of its own for the preparation of
feeding-stuffs, and established a wholesale ware-
house of substantial proportions in the city of
Antwerp — all this being done in little more

ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES 99

than a dozen years. To the original founder
of this great federation is further due the in-
troduction and popularization in Belgium of
Raiffeisen agricultural credit banks, of which
there are close on 200, with about 10,000 mem-
bers, in direct connection with the Boerenbond
alone.

Other of the leading federations, conducted
on similar lines, were started in an equally
unpretending fashion by parish priests, sup-
ported by the more influential residents in
" particular districts, two of the essential prin-
ciples of the whole movement being thus
succinctly laid down in a report presented by
M. l'Abbe Berger at a conference held at Nivelles
in 1899:—

In the founding of agricultural associations it is
prudent to begin with parochial societies which will
federate with one another when there is a certain number
of them.

It is wise to accord complete self-government to local
associations, which should find in the central organization
only a guide and counsellor, and not a tyrannical power
which will cripple them, and deprive them of all origi-
nality and initiative.

As already indicated, the movement received
the earnest support and encouragement of the
Belgian Government, which had, in fact, already
laid some of the foundations. Coming into

ioo BELGIUM

power in 1884, the Clerical Party at once
created a Department of Agriculture, and began
to spread a very practical and thoroughgoing
system of agricultural education. One of the
most interesting phases of this system was in
regard to dairy instruction. The position of the
diary industry in Belgium was then being
seriously threatened by Denmark, and it was
found that not only were the Belgians meeting
with very severe competition on their foreign
markets, but their home markets also were in
danger of invasion. Up to that time Belgian *
butter had been almost exclusively made by
individual farmers. To encourage a resort to
the best, and especially to co-operative, methods,
the Government organized (in 1890) travelling
dairy schools, which would stay three months in
each place visited, and give practical instruction
to farmers' daughters. Before long every pro-
vince in Belgium had a travelling dairy school
of this description. Steps were also taken
by the State to secure the training of dairy
managers, so that by the time the farmers
were ready to start their co-operative dairies
there was a good supply of efficient labour
available.

The Government also did much, with the help
of its " Corps des Agronomes," to popularize

STATE AID— INDIVIDUAL EFFORT 101

agricultural science and agricultural combina-
tion ; but the fact remains, all the same, that in
the results actually brought about the State
played a secondary part, the credit for what was
done being chiefly due to individual workers.
The general position will, perhaps, be better
understood from the following most instructive
account of developments in Luxemburg, as re-
lated by M. l'Abbe Couturiaux at a conference
of priests held at Seraing in September, 1900 : —

Vast expanses of land in the Ardennes region remained
uncultivated, producing nothing but bracken, broom, and
heath. The Government, by means of numerous con-
ferences, had sought to spread the use of chemical
manures ; but the cultivators were mistrustful, and those
who attempted to use such manures found that they paid
very dear to small dealers for phosphates and nitrates
which were more or less falsified, and gave them an in-
adequate return for their outlay.

In 1892 there were established at Ortho, in the north
of the province and in the German section of Luxem-
burg, the first leagues, or syndicates, of peasants for the
purchase in common of chemical manures and concentrated
feeding- stuffs for cattle. Experience soon showed the
value of such institutions. The peasants found they
could buy, at lower prices, products of a superior quality,
guaranteed by trustworthy analyses against fraud. The
soil began to produce abundant harvests; the cattle,
better nourished, improved in quality and gave a richer
milk. Confidence in the future revived many hitherto-
discouraged cultivators.

102 BELGIUM

The people showed themselves grateful to their
pastors for having made them understand the value and
the absolute necessity for combination, and in many
parishes there were spontaneous demands made to the
priests that they should head the movement, and occupy
themselves with both the creation and the direction of
agricultural associations.

So from such very small beginnings as these
there has sprung a great national movement,
the main results of which may be thus sum-
marized : —

The original idea of checking the spread of
Socialism to the purely agricultural classes in
Belgium has been fully realized, for though the
Socialists have made vigorous efforts to establish
agricultural associations of their own in the
country districts, they have had very little
success, and the Socialist propaganda in general
is making scarcely any headway among the
cultivators of the soil.

The State has further benefited by an expan-
sion of the national resources, by the greater
prosperity of the agricultural population, and
by the creation of more solid guarantees for the
maintenance of domestic peace.

The Church has increased her hold upon the
peasantry by showing that she recognizes, and
will gladly help them to overcome, the practical
difficulties of their daily life ; while individually

RESULTS OF THE MOVEMENT 103

the parish priests have won golden opinions by
the conspicuous proofs they have given of both
a willingness and a capacity to become leaders
of men in material concerns as well as in
spiritual.

The peasantry have gained materially, because
they can carry on their operations far more
advantageously than before (as shown by a
calculation made in a Brussels Liberal journal,
La Chrojiiquc, by M. Cauderlier, that since the
ingenious network of agricultural associations
here described was spread over the country the
average return from a farm of 10 hectares —
24 1 acres — in Belgium has increased by £100 a
year) ; they have gained morally because they
have already to a great extent recovered from
their agricultural " depression " ; and they have
gained socially, because with all the increased
power and influence he derives from his mani-
fold associations, economic and beneficent, the
Belgian agriculturist has become a very different
person from what he was in bygone days.

And, lastly, a further effect of all this foresight
and energy, and especially of all this very
effective combination, on the part of the Belgian
agriculturists, has been to greatly increase, at a
proportionately lower cost, the fertility and the
total production of their iields and market

104 BELGIUM

gardens, thus enabling them to send to England
still bigger loads of those foreign agricultural
supplies which the British farmer, clinging to his
own old-fashioned methods and ideas, is apt to
regard in the light of a personal injustice.

CHAPTER VII
ITALY

THE conditions which have brought about
the great revival now taking place in
Italian agriculture — a revival that has already-
produced remarkable results, and promises still
more important developments in the next
generation — are not in themselves all of native
growth. What has been well described as the
cellule mere of the whole movement, the
organization, namely, of an effective system of
agricultural credit, was directly inspired by
Germany. The formation of purchase associa-
tions was imitated from the example set by
France. The establishment of co-operative
dairies on present lines was the outcome, more
or less, of what had been done by Denmark.
The activity of the Roman Catholic clergy in
Italy in promoting the material interests of
cultivators of the soil reminds one of what is
being done in this direction in Belgium.

Hut although Italy may have borrowed ideas

105

106 ITALY

from elsewhere, and although in certain respects
she may not yet have carried those ideas so far
as other countries have done, her national genius
has shown itself in the skilful, if not thoroughly
statesmanlike, manner in which the pioneers of
the revival have woven into one complete
system what are elsewhere still mostly a series
of isolated efforts and sectional aspirations. In
this way there has been secured in Italy com-
plete unity of conception in a well-conceived,
though many-sided, general scheme of organiza-
tion which, complex though it be, is essentially
harmonious in its scope and operation. Neither
in Germany nor in France, neither in Denmark
nor in Belgium, is there to be found that " funda-
mental idea " which in Italy has brought about
the co-ordination of all parties and all interests
for the achievement in various, but strictly
interdependent, ways of a common purpose —
the progress, that is to say, not alone of agricul-
ture or of industry, of the masses or the classes,
but of the national well-being as a whole.

The first of the main principles upon which
the so-called " Italian system " thus brought
about has proceeded is that thrift should receive
every possible encouragement among the people,
not only because it is a virtue and a material
advantage in itself, but also because the savings

ITALIAN VIEWS ON THRIFT 107

resulting from production represent financial re-
sources which ought to be re-invested in pro-
duction, and especially in those forms thereof
that are included in agricultural operations.
Provided that adequate guarantees are given
for its security, the surplus money of industrial
workers— who are often at a loss to know how
to invest it profitably — could not, it is claimed,
be put to better advantage than in the formation
of funds on which cultivators of the soil, in the
neighbourhood of the towns where the money
has been earned, could draw for the purpose of
facilitating operations on land that requires
capital for its development ; while those opera-
tions would, in turn, improve the conditions of
the industrials by ensuring them (apart from the
mere payment of interest) more employment
through the greater demand for agricultural
implements, etc.

From this point of view the representatives of
the " Italian system " are entirely opposed to the
French idea of thrift, under which the toiler who
saves a few francs as the result of his operations
will invest them in Government stock, getting a
modest return thereon, but sending the money
out of the district in which it has been earned,
and encouraging, it may be, his Government to
spend money more freely because of the evidence

108 ITALY

that seems to be afforded to them of a pre-
sumptive national wealth. Still more averse is
the " Italian system " to the sending of money
out of the country for investment in foreign
securities or speculations. Even the smallest of
savings should, it is argued, in a country like
Italy, whose available capital can be derived
from savings only, be paid into banks which will
represent the natural intermediary between town
and country, and respond to the needs of agricul-
ture in irrigating the rural districts with channels
of financial credit which will facilitate the opera-
tions of even the most modest of cultivators.
All this, it has been proved to demonstration,
can be done without danger to thrift, and the
thrift itself is, as it were, " twice bless'd."

In the various developments to which the
application of this principle has given rise is to
be found the open secret of the revival of Italian
agriculture. The peasants of Italy were, per-
haps, even worse fitted than those of most of
the other countries of Western Europe to meet
the crisis that arose when the markets to which
they had sent their products began to be flooded
with supplies from the virgin soils of the New
World. Italy had then not long attained her
national unity, and with it she had inherited
a burden of public debts that, poor as she was,

USURY AND SLAVERY 109

crippled her powers of action, and was steadily
increased under the heavy expenditure necessi-
tated by the altered circumstances of her politi-
cal position. This burden fell mainly on the
cultivators of the soil, and of these a large
proportion were owners or occupiers of " farms "
of infinitesimal proportions (there were certain
districts in which 25 per cent, of the peasants
had less than a quarter of an acre each), and
were, besides, victims of a condition of usury
that was little better than slavery. Money-
lenders flourished throughout the land, and
especially in the northern provinces, by advanc-
ing loans to the helpless peasantry at the cruellest
rates of interest, the only alternative being either
the securing of fresh stock or other necessaries
under a " lease " system, the peasant working oft*
by manual labour the excessive prices he was
charged for what he bought ; or the seeking
from the aristocracy of pecuniary favours which
robbed the peasants of all sense of independence.
In these circumstances it was not surprising
that hundreds of the peasants were sold up for
non-payment of debts, or of rates and taxes,
which often did not exceed five or six shillings
in amount ; that more and more land was going
out of cultivation ; that the ranks of the unem-
ployed in the towns were being swollen by

1 10 ITALY

constant accessions from the rural districts : that
the emigration of Italians who despaired of their
country went on at a greater rate than ever ;
and that Italy seemed to be ill-equipped, indeed,
to meet the coming economic struggle for the
markets of the world.

The conclusion arrived at by some of the most
far-seeing of Italians was that to compete with
the aforesaid virgin soils of new countries the
peasants of Italy must resort to improved
methods of culture, and must especially make
use alike of the fertilizers that agricultural
chemistry was offering to the world, and of the
improved forms of agricultural machinery. But
to do this meant the expenditure of money, and
the problem that arose was — How can the im-
poverished peasantry obtain the necessary capi-
tal ? The solution of this problem was found in
the argument already stated — that the earnings
of the people in the towns should be made avail-
able for the use of the agriculturists in the
country.

Savings banks had already been in operation
in Italy since the year 1822, and it had from the
first been one of the principles of these banks
that the deposits should be so employed as not
only to secure a benefit for the members, but
also to promote the general economic conditions

PEOPLE'S BANKS in

in regard both to industry and to agriculture.
This latter principle was especially enforced at
a national congress of savings banks held at
Florence in 1886, following on which fresh
legislation was adopted in 1888, reorganizing
the system on which the savings banks had been
established, and granting them wider powers in
the way both of assisting agricultural associations,
by giving them credit, and of making grants for
beneficent purposes or works of public utility.

Meanwhile a scheme for the formation in
Italy of People's Banks on the Schulze-Delitzsch
model had been actively propagated by Signor
Luigi Luzzatti, and a start was made in 1864
with a bank of this description at Montelupo
Florentino, others following at Zodi, Cremona,
Milan, and elsewhere. But the People's Banks
thus set up in Italy differed from those in
Germany in so far as related to the principle
of the unlimited liability of the members, it
being feared that this principle, which answered
well in Germany, would not be acceptable in
Italy. In 1876 an Association of People's Banks
was formed, and in the following year there was
a first congress at Milan; but the greatest degree
of progress in the general scheme for bringing
credit within the reach of the agricultural dis-
tricts was not made until 1888, when there was

ii2 ITALY

set up by Sigiior YVallemborg, at Loreggia, near
Padua, the first of those Village Banks which
have since so powerfully affected the general
situation.

Experience had shown that the ordinary banks
— including the People's Banks — were beyond
the reach of the peasant or the humble toiler
who had no security but his honesty and his
labour to offer in return for a small loan for
the purchase of a calf or some implements,
which might be of inestimable advantage to
him ; while it was essentially part of the Italian
system that financial credit should be at the
disposal of all deserving persons, whatever their
worldly position. The Village Banks, therefore,
aimed at reaching agriculturists whom the
Peoples Banks had been unable to touch; but
between the two there was perfect harmony,
the one being, in fact, regarded as a natural
complement of the other.

The Village Banks thus established have a
twofold character. Those known as "Agrarian
Banks" are country branches (in effect) of either
a People's Bank or a Savings Bank, or, alterna-
tively, are affiliated to some central organization
to which the deposits they receive must be
forwarded ; whereas the " Rural Banks " have
complete self-government, and can themselves

THE DIFFUSION OF CREDIT 113

utilize deposits for the purpose of making ad-
vances. In either case the Village Banks can
draw on the People's Banks or on the Savings
Banks for the funds they may require to lend
out to their members. The fear that was enter-
tained in the establishment of the People's Banks
that the principle of unlimited liability of mem-
bers would be impracticable in Italy was dis-
missed on the formation of the Village Banks,
which are mostly based on the Raiffeisen principle,
the members of each bank being jointly and
severally responsible for any default on the part
of a borrower. The effect of this arrangement
is that the Savings Bank or the People's Bank
which lends money to the Milage Bank has
good security, and the members of the Village
Bank, aware of the risk they run, are careful
to admit as fellow-members, and especially to
make advances to, only such individuals as are
known to be honest and industrious. A loan
would not be made outside a village, where, of
course, each resident would be known to his
neighbours. In this way it was found possible
to grant loans to men who, from the point of
view of the ordinary bank, had absolutely no
" security " to offer. Moral worth, on which
nothing could have been raised at a People's
Bank, was quite sufficient at a Village Bank,

H4 ITALY

and the losses sustained have, in point of fact,
been altogether insignificant. The loans granted
by the Village Banks are mostly for the pur-
chase of live stock or tools, or for the construc-
tion or repair of buildings, and they will range
in amount from about £3 to £8, advanced for
periods up to two or three years.

Thus far, then, the Italian system, collecting
the savings of even the humblest of workers in
the towns (deposits by labourers, domestic ser-
vants, school children, and residents in charitable
institutions are encouraged by the payment
of a higher rate of interest) had brought agri-
cultural credit within the reach of the humblest
of toilers in the country, and had effectually
checked the usury that formerly did so much
to the prejudice of both land and people. But
there were two further steps necessary to make
the system complete.

In the first place the agriculturists who could
now secure the capital they wanted must be
provided with an organization which would
enable them to purchase good qualities at a
low price. This was done by the formation of
agricultural syndicates on the model of those
already so well established in France. The first
of these had made its appearance in Italy in
] 887 ; but it was not until the network of bank-

THE TRAVELLING PROFESSOR 115

ing institutions here described had begun to
spread through Northern Italy that the forma-
tion of agricultural associations for the buying of
fertilizers, machinery, feeding-stuffs, etc., made
any really great progress. Even as it is, the
agricultural syndicates in Italy have not gone
much beyond the original idea of collective
purchase, and do not attempt to meet any-
thing like so great a variety of purposes as in
France.

But Italy has gone far beyond France in
taking the second of the two steps which, as I
have said, were required to complete the Italian
system. The peasants had now both the means
of raising money easily, and the facilities for
laying it out to the best advantage ; but they
were still in need of such instruction in agricul-
tural questions as would tell them what to
purchase, and how to carry on their operations
with the greatest chance of success. In France
and other countries there are, it is true, State
functionaries whose duty it is to give expert
advice to agriculturists requiring it ; but these
officials are tied more or less by official routine,
and it was left for the Savings Bank of Parma —
which had already established Village Banks
throughout the province — to take the initiative,
in 1898, in the appointment of a travelling pro-

u6 ITALY

fessor of agriculture, whose function it was to
watch over the progress of agriculture in the
district, and especially to see that the persons
borrowing money from the local institutions to
which the bank was making advances got the
best and most practical advice in the laying out
of their money.

To accomplish these purposes the professor
holds numerous conferences at which he delivers
addresses on a wide variety of agricultural
subjects, including the adoption of improved
methods, the employment of fertilizers, and the
advantages of organization ; he gives personal
consultations ; he carries on experimental or
demonstration fields, and even visits farms and
gives advice there in return for a very moderate
fee ; he holds gatherings of agricultural labourers
in the winter evenings ; he edits a monthly journal
which is a valuable auxiliary to the conferences
and public addresses ; and he encourages measures
for the improvement of stock, the organization of
co-operative dairies, the bettering of pastures by
the use of chemical manures, the taking of pre-
cautions against phylloxera, and so on.

Then, too, he is the director of the local
agricultural syndicate, so that when a would-be
borrower seeks an advance from the Village
Bank the professor not only advises the members

PERFECTING THE SYSTEM 117

thereon, from an agricultural standpoint (loans
being granted only for agricultural purposes, and
not for personal use), but he arranges for the
goods in question to be delivered through the
syndicate to the borrower, who, himself, in no
case handles the actual money nominally lent
to him.

So the guarantee is complete. The members
of the Milage Bank themselves know whether
or not the applicant can be trusted ; they have
the word of the professor that the proposed
expenditure is a wise one ; and they have the
certainty both that the purchase will be effected
in the best and in the cheapest market, and that
the money they lend will be used for the purpose
for which it is granted.

In this way the travelling professor is a direct
bond of union between the Savings Bank, the
Milage Bank, and the agricultural association,
while constituting in himself a peregrinating
bureau of agricultural information, of which all
who will are free to take advantage. So we get
the various stages of the Italian system : the
savings of the toilers in the cities are paid into
the Savings Banks or the People's Banks ; from
thence they pass on to the Village Banks to offer
a vivifying agricultural credit to workers who
would otherwise find themselves left to the

n8 ITALY

tender mercies of the professional usurer ; the
agricultural syndicate ensures the profitable
expenditure of the money ; and the travelling
professor, following in the footsteps of agricul-
tural credit, takes to the very door of the poorest
peasant the latest discoveries of agricultural
science, and fulfils generally so useful a purpose
that M. le Comte de Rocquigny says in a report
prepared by himself, M. Leopold Mabilleau, and
M. Charles Rayneri, for the Musee Social, on
" La Prevoyance Sociale en Italie " : — " Dans le
plan de cet harmonieux ensemble c'est la chaire
ambulante qui eclaire et vivifie le systeme tout
entier, en regie le bon fonctionnement, et en
ecarte les perils." It is, in fact, the travelling
professor who completes a general plan of
campaign which, even without him, had attained
a unity of action not to be surpassed elsewhere.

To this outline of the Italian system as a
whole there are some supplementary details
which must be added. The part, for instance,
which the Roman Catholic Church has played
more especially in the promotion of Village
Banks in Italy must not be ignored. So far
back as 1892 there was passed at the tenth Italian
Catholic Congress, held at Genoa, a resolution
which affirmed that " all Catholic rural associa-
tions shall proceed with the formation of strong

ACTION OF THE CLERICALS 119

territorial associations of landowners and peasants
to raise morally, intellectually, and economically
the conditions of agriculturists." The direct
object in view was, however, as in the case of
Belgium, to combat the Socialist propaganda in
the country districts, while a bulletin issued by
the Catholic Agricultural Union of Lombardy
pointed to the facilities which that institution
offered to a priest " for getting into closer touch
with the people, and the powerful means it affords
for giving activity and life to Catholic societies."
With such zeal was the movement taken up by
the Roman Catholic priesthood that of the 904
Milage Banks in existence in Italy in 1897 (as
shown by the Statist tea dcllc Societa Cooperative
It a Ha tie, issued by the Lega Nazionale delle Co-
operative Italiane) no fewer than 779 had been
formed by the Catholics during the preceding
five years. In fact, the official organ of the co-
operative banks in Italy, Credit o e Cooper azione,
said in its issue of August 16th, 1903 : —

The rural banks have undergone a development and a
diffusion altogether extraordinary; but the exuberance of
that growth has been to their detriment. It has been
sought to do too much in too short a time, and that, also,
with a certain emulation — not to speak of hostility —
towards Liberal co-operation {hi cooperazione liberate). In
some places the institutions are perfectly sound ; but in
several they have fallen into the hands of rash and in-

120 ITALY

experienced persons, and the central federation has not
always sufficed to preserve them from errors and disaster.
The entire body of the clergy have wished to take part
inja course of action that has been altogether precipitate
and it will be a heavy task to save in rural co-operation the
part that is healthy.

When one reads that a certain set of model
rules lays down that members of a Catholic
Village Bank must show " Christian sentiment
towards religion, the Church, and the Pope " ;
that another insists that members must attend
Mass at Easter and belong to no society that is
opposed to the Catholic Church ; and that a large
number of the Catholic banks are of distinctly
mushroom growth — it is no wonder that a certain
degree of criticism should have been aroused.
But, after allowance has been made for all short-
comings, there is left a sufficient percentage of
clerical as well as of non-clerical institutions to
represent a steady growth of agricultural organ-
izations which is undoubtedly having a powerful
effect on the general conditions of Italy, while
Catholics and non-Catholics alike are now show-
ing a greater disposition to find a common plat-
form on which they can unite for securing the
further material progress of the people.

Complete and trustworthy statistics on the
present position of the movement in Italy are

WHAT THE SYSTEM HAS DONE 121

not yet available, but it is estimated that of
People's Banks there are 657, with 381,000 mem-
bers and a capital of £4,200,000 ; and of Village
Banks 1,050, with 95,000 members and £25,000
capital. In 1900 there were 192 co-operative
agricultural associations, with 45,000 members,
and the collective purchases amounted to
£800,000. Of co-operative dairies (which are
spreading rapidly throughout North Italy) there
are said to be 750, with 37,000 members and
£40,000 capital. The co-operative dairies are
being followed by co-operative wine factories
and distilleries, and other forms of the general
movement are represented by various associations
for the improvement of stock, for co-operative
insurance, etc.

As to the accomplished results in Italy, there
may not have been equal success all along the
line, and the difficulties have been found especi-
ally great in organizing effective systems for
the co-operative sale of produce, so that though
cauliflowers, eggs, and other such things are
exported in prodigious quantities, each trade
remains mostly in the hands of middlemen
dealers. One must remember, too, that much
of what has been related is of comparatively
recent growth, and that the full development
thereof has still to be attained. Yet the mem-

122 ITALY

bers of the Musee Social commission do not
hesitate in their report to speak of the agricul-
tural revival in Italy as a "resurrection," and
there is, indeed, abundant evidence that from
both a material and a moral standpoint the
outcome of the movement has already had a
most powerful influence for good.

Materially, that decentralization of capital
which has saved the Italian agriculturist from
the money-lender, and placed an easy credit
within his reach, has, in the first place, led to a
greater amount of land being bought under
cultivation, as shown by the town of Sansevero,
near Foggia, where, in a little over ten years,
thanks to the People's Bank, no fewer than
8,000 acres have been converted into vineyards.
Then the increase in the extent of the land
cultivated has been followed by an increase per
acre in the yield therefrom, owing to the greater
use of fertilisers, machinery, etc., as encouraged
alike by the spread of agricultural instruction
and by the facilities offered, in regard to pur-
chase, by the agricultural societies. The quality
of the stock has improved ; farm buildings that
were once neglected, from lack of means, are
now kept in good order ; agricultural industries,
and especially co-operative dairies, are affording
new openings to energy and enterprise, and the

MATERIAL AND MORAL ADVANTAGES 123

whole agricultural position, though still far from
representing complete prosperity, has undergone
an improvement that is little short of marvellous,
considering how recently it was that the Italian
peasantry found themselves faced by some of
the severest forms of economic depression that
any country could well be called upon to meet.
Morally, too, the effects have been none the
less striking. To be rescued from the grasp of
the usurer was in itself almost a revolution for
the Italian peasant ; and the revolution was
completed when he found that he was no longer
a solitary unit, left to struggle against adverse
circumstances as best he could, but one of a
village community which could draw money
from the towns, and would, if only he had the
good opinion of his neighbours, advance funds
to him, for agricultural purposes, simply on his
word of honour. Such a position — coupled
with the fact that only individuals of known
probity (irrespective of means) were admitted
to an organization each member of which was
personally liable to refund the sum total of the
loans, in case of need — was a moral lesson of
immense force, and in many an Italian village
men regarded with a certain degree of mistrust
have mended their ways in order to gain the
desired membership. In other cases illiterates

i24 ITALY

have learned to write, so that they could attach
their signatures to the necessary papers. All
these and the various other conditions following
from fraternal association have had their reflex
action on village life in Italy, investing it with
interests and possibilities hitherto undreamed of,
and filling the peasants with new hope and trust
in the future.

Finally, we have the significant fact that this
economic and moral transformation in Italy has
been due much more to individual initiative
than to that Government intervention on which
many people of despondent temperament are
apt to place far too great a dependence. Italian
Governments have certainly shown their sym-
pathy with the movement by widening the func-
tions and improving the legal status of the
banks ; by giving practical encouragement in the
setting up of co-operative dairies, and in other
ways besides. But the conception of the Italian
system and the remarkable success with which
it has thus far been carried into effect are alike
primarily due, not to State aid, but to the
wisdom and the personal energy of a compara-
tively small number of individual patriots.

CHAPTER VIII
HOLLAND

IN the early eighties the agricultural interests
in Holland found themselves drifting into a
most serious condition of economic depression.
With the steady fall of prices in wheat, more
and more land was going out of cultivation ; in
the dairy industry the competition of Denmark
was beginning to be severely felt ; in the sale of
market-garden produce the returns were steadily
declining; and in other directions besides the farm-
ing classes found themselves faced by a decidedly
dismal prospect. It was evident that fresh and
vigorous efforts would have to be made if Dutch
agriculture hoped to hold its own, and the
question arose as to what would be the best
direction in which such efforts should be put
forth.

To solve this problem a Royal Commission
was appointed in 188C>. and the report it pre-
sented three years later showed that there was

need for the adoption alike of State aid and of

125

126 HOLLAND

self-help, each of which principles, indeed, has
since been most actively carried into effect.

In regard to State aid, it was seen that one of
the most pressing requirements of the situation
was to secure an effective national system of
agricultural and horticultural education ; and the
necessary machinery for the organization of such
a system was duly provided by the creation of
a special Department of the Ministry of the
Interior for the administration of agricultural
affairs, such Department being assisted by a
Council of Agriculture, which not only acts in
an advisory capacity, but constitutes an Agricul-
tural Bureau of Statistics for the whole of the
country. The State Agricultural College, which
had already been in operation at Wageningen
since 1876, was now supplemented by a series of
local winter schools for the teaching of agricul-
ture or horticulture, and by a variety of other
educational institutions and arrangements.

The nature of the winter schools may be
illustrated by those for horticulture and market-
gardening established at Boskoop, Naaldwyk,
Aalsmeer, and Tiel. The course of instruction
is arranged to suit the conditions of the par-
ticular locality, though the general principles of
market-gardening are taught at each. Boskoop,
in South Holland — a most interesting place to

WINTER AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 127

visit — is the centre of a district in which about
1,000 acres of land are devoted to market
gardens, divided and sub-divided by the in-
evitable canals, and market-gardening and flori-
culture are, consequently, the principal subjects
of instruction in its Winter School. The local
authorities provided both site and buildings for
the school, which has five class-rooms, and
residential accommodation for its director, to-
gether with two acres of gardens, the produce
from which is sold to supplement the grants
made by the State for the carrying on of the
work. Aalsmeer is one of the curiosities of
Holland, though it is a place unknown to the
ordinary British tourist. Approached by boat,
it looks like a series of perfectly square or rect-
angular floating islands, pegged into position, as
it were, to prevent their floating away. These
islands have, in fact, been formed by the thrifty
Dutch out of pieces of bog land that have risen
from time to time from the bottom of the adjoin-
ing lake, and been pushed together until they
were sufficiently large to form fair-sized gardens,
the original stakes driven through them being
supplemented by the planting of trees, the roots
of which have penetrated through the bog and
the water underneath until they reached the
solid earth. On these islands the people brought

128 HOLLAND

from the mainland soil enough to form sub-
stantial gardens, and there they live, in modest
dwellings, cultivating their produce, which a
regular service of boats takes off each day to
the Amsterdam market. In Aalsmeer, there-
fore, the studies followed in the Winter School
are devoted mainly to gardening. At Naaldwyk
the chief branch of instruction is the cultivation
of fruit and vegetables, and at Tiel the principal
subject taught is fruit culture.

The particular purpose of the instruction thus
given is, as defined by the Royal Decree of June
3rd, 1901, to enable persons who intend to take
up market-gardening as a livelihood to obtain
the necessary theoretical knowledge of the busi-
ness at the least possible expense. The manage-
ment of each school is entrusted to a local
committee nominated by the Minister of Water-
ways, Trade, and Industry, such committee being
required to send in periodical reports, both to
the Minister and to the Government Inspector
of Intermediate Education, as to the progress
of the schools.

Then the Government have established in
different districts a series of seven laboratories,
each with its director and its staff of chemists
and botanists, for the examination and testing
of seeds, artificial manures, etc. The laboratory

THE QUESTION OF RENT 129

at Hoorn (North Holland), the centre of the
dairying industry, has in addition a bacteriological
department and an experimental farm. The
directors of all these laboratories form a College
which meets twice a year. Distributed through-
out the country, also, there are State demon-
strators, twelve for agriculture and seven for
horticulture, who give such personal instruction
to the farmers as may be needed ; and there are
district veterinary surgeons whose help is avail-
able for breeders of stock.

So in these and other ways the State gave
what aid it could in the relief of depressed agri-
culture, and it remains to be seen what the
Dutch producers, in their turn, did in order to
help themselves by helping one another.

In the best of circumstances their position
was one that must inevitably have had its dis-
advantages. Of these one of the most serious
was the question of rent. In a country like
Holland, so circumscribed in dimensions, and
consisting so largely of land kept back only by
artificial means from the grasp of the ocean,
farms and holdings are certain to command a
high rental, and the more they are cultivated the
more valuable they become. Then, again, the
Dutch farmers mostly have large families, and
as the children grow up, and a farm becomes too

K

130 HOLLAND

small to support them all, some of them have to
look out for land elsewhere, such requirement
leading to a still further increase in land values.
Thus the tenant farmers had to work harder
to pay the increased rents to their landlords,
of whom they complained that, living among
the attractions of the Hague, and spending their
money there, they drained the country districts
of financial resources.

But if the landlords had their faults, the
farmers had theirs as well. Without being a
highly cultured person, the Dutch agriculturist
regards himself as essentially shrewd, and there
was a time when he was, also, essentially slim.
Reduced to the necessity of finding a market for
his produce abroad, he thought he could play
tricks with the foreigner by putting good fruit
or good vegetables on the top of his sack, and
inferior qualities beneath. The said practice was
one that in bygone days was more especially
adopted in the Westland district, which lies
between the Hague and the Hook of Holland,
and is famous for its fertility. As time went on
Dutch produce in general, and Westland pro-
duce in particular, began to get a bad name
on the English market, and to this cause was
due, in part, the falling off in prices which, as
already shown, was one of the causes that led to

DUTCH PRODUCERS 131

the appointment of the Royal Commission in
1886. The effect of these reduced prices on the
growers was rendered still worse by the fact that
the disposal of their produce was then almost
entirely in the hands of middlemen, into whose
pockets, it was alleged, went most of the profits.
As regards the dairy farmers, not only was there
a lack of uniformity in the qualities of the butter,
there being so many independent producers, but
there was also a lack of uniformity in quantity,
in regard to butter exported, the available sup-
plies being kept back for the home market when-
ever it was thought that better prices could be
obtained there than in England.

One sees from all this how thoroughly justified
the Royal Commission of 188G had been in
recommending self-help as well as State-help,
and, in point of fact, the agricultural community
showed themselves no more backward in adopt-
ing the one principle than the Government had
been in acting on the other.

The market-gardeners, for instance, reorgan-
ized their industry on lines that represented
some almost revolutionary changes. While the
State was teaching them how to produce to the
best advantage, they hit upon new expedients
for selling to the best advantage. All through
North Holland, for example, the market-gar-

132 HOLLAND

deners formed themselves into co-operative
societies which are conducted along extremely
practical lines. The goods of the members,
before being offered for sale, are inspected by-
officers appointed for the purpose, and any that
are regarded as below the required standard are
rejected, while those that are passed are labelled
with the registered trade mark of the society.
It is also seen that the consignments are of the
stated quantity, and that they have been properly
packed. Thus approved of, the produce is offered
for sale at the society's mart, the auctioneer
being generally the president of the local society
or branch. Many of the societies have their own
auction halls ; others hold their auctions in hired
buildings. The sales take place every night or
so many nights a week, according to the import-
ance of the centre and the season of the year,
and they are attended by dealers and com-
mission agents from Rotterdam, Amsterdam,
the Hague, and elsewhere. The goods sold are
paid for in cash, and the money is distributed
weekly among the members, each receiving the
sum for which his produce has been sold, less
a small commission. Apart from this commis-
sion, all that a member is required to pay to his
society is an annual subscription of Is. 8d. The
expenses are kept at a minimum, the only official

MARKET GARDENERS* ORGANIZATION 133

receiving a salary being the clerk of the society.
Even the member acting as auctioneer gives his
services, considering himself sufficiently repaid
by the honour with which the post is regarded.

No arrangement could, in the circumstances,
have been devised that was better calculated to
promote the interests of the market-gardeners,
many of whom, working early and late, lived
the life of labourers, and, after paying their
helpers and their landlord, found themselves
with little more than the equivalent of a
labourer's wages in the way of profit. To men
so situated it was all-important that they should
be able to get the best return they possibly could
for their produce.

Among the largest of these co-operative
societies of Dutch market -gardeners is the one
established in the aforesaid district of Westland,
which has now, through the instrumentality of
this organization, thoroughly recovered its good
name. The Westland Society is, in effect, a
federation of seven local societies, whose total
sales amount to about £50,000 a year. It is
mostly fruit that is grown in Westland — straw-
berries, raspberries, red currants, peaches, and
grapes, with certain quantities of tomatoes and
ghirkins. The neighbouring markets of the
Hague, Scheveningen, and Rotterdam are easily

134 HOLLAND

reached, a steam tramway passing through every
village in the Westland ; but most of the
produce goes to the Hook of Holland for
transport to England. Another important fruit-
growing centre is Beverwijk, situated to the
north of Ijmuiden. The industry was started
here by two or three peasants, and it proved so
successful that it was soon generally adopted by
the townspeople, so that in the season the little
gardens of which Beverwijk seems to mostly
consist will be found full of raspberries, straw-
berries, and red currants, a large proportion of
the fruit eventually finding its way to the
English market. Such are the quantities pro-
duced at Beverwijk that the local canals have
had to be improved to facilitate the traffic.

Then there have been societies of market-
gardeners established in the district between
Alkmaar and Bovenkarspel (near to Enkhuizen),
where vast quantities of cabbages and cauli-
flowers are grown. At one time the chief
product of the district in question was Edam
cheese, and when Edam cheese fetched better
prices, and was more largely sold on the market
than is the case now, the farmers were not only
well off, but comfortably situated, inasmuch as
they could hire persons at a moderate wage to
do all the work of cheesemaking, and themselves

VEGETABLES IN CAR-LOAD LOTS 135

live a life of ease. But when the demand for
Edam cheese decreased, because the consumers
preferred to pay lower prices for other makes,
dwellers in the district in question looked around
for an alternative source of income, and took to
cabbage and cauliflower growing, the greater
part of the crops they raise being disposed of
by auction at the co-operative sales of the local
market-gardeners' societies.

And here we come to see how all this com-
bination may operate to the advantage, also, of
the railways. It is probable that most of the
vegetables in question will be conveyed by
canal-boat to the town where the co-operative
auction-room is located ; but from thence the
dealers and commission agents attending the
sales will send large consignments to France,
to Germany, and to other countries, and on
these long journeys such perishables must
necessarily go by train. But the very essence
of all this combination is, not only that the
growers get better prices for their produce, and
not only that the dealers can purchase in bulk,
but, also, that the railways get regular consign-
ments iii car-load lots, and are able to make
lower rates than if they could only expect
irregular lots of comparatively small quantities,
as is too often the case in England. So it is

136 HOLLAND

that in the summer season a " cabbage train,"
as it is called, will start each day from Enk-
huizen, on the shores of the Zuider Zee, and
have fresh waggons coupled on to it at various
points, until eventually it will consist of from
thirty to forty waggons of cabbages and cauli-
flowers. Passing through Amsterdam and
Rotterdam, the waggons are ultimately taken
on to various points in Germany or Belgium —
and especially to Germany, where a considerable
proportion of the cabbages will be used for the
purposes of sauerkraut. From other parts of
Holland cucumbers will be taken to Germany
in waggon-load lots, and from Groningen or
Leeuwarden there will be started daily a train
which, with additions made at other stations
en route, will eventually consist of ten to twenty
waggons loaded up with meat for the London
market, via Flushing, the train reaching that port
at grande Vitesse speed.

Among the dairy farmers of Holland the
movement in favour of combination has been no
less complete than among the market-gardeners.
The first co-operative dairy set up by them was
in 1878, but the chief development has been
since 1890, the total number established having
increased from 19 in that year to 539 in 1902.
Of these 539 no fewer than 41 G are organized

CO-OPERATIVE DAIRIES 137

into six different Leagues, and these Leagues,
in turn, constitute the Confederation of Dutch
Co-operative Creameries, established by Royal
Decree of February 12th, 1901. The estimated
number of farmers supplying milk to the cream-
eries represented by this Confederation is 40,000,
and the butter production of the federated
creameries is equal to about 14,900 tons a year.
The chief purpose of the organization in ques-
tion is to guarantee the purity of the butter,
and maintain the reputation thereof in foreign
markets, inspections and analyses being made,
and recognized trade marks affixed to the con-
signments coming up to the required standard.
In the southern provinces most of the butter is
sold by auction in sale rooms established by the
Leagues, which enforce their rules and regula-
tions with a thoroughness that renders adultera-
tion, it is said, " very difficult, if not impossible/'
In Friesland there is a Co-operative Butter
Export Association which consigns direct to
England. Such is the growth of the butter
trade done by Holland with Great Britain that
it represented a value of £1,414.000 in 1900;
£1,511,000 in 1901 ; and £1,974,000 in 1902,
while the increased profit to the farmers, as the
direct result of their adoption of the co-opera-
tive system of butter production, combined with

138 HOLLAND

the precautionary measures taken by their
various leagues and their central federation, is
estimated at from 10 to 30 per cent., as com-
pared with the gains secured under the methods
previously in force.

A further development of the co-operative
principle in Holland has been the formation of
Agricultural Unions, each having its group of
local societies. Of these Agricultural Unions
there are now eleven in various parts of the
country, the main object they have in view being
to form a common centre in their respective
districts for disseminating information, and
otherwise promoting the interests of agriculture.
In furtherance of this aim each local society will
hold a meeting every fortnight or so to discuss
farming topics. These meetings are not only a
source of mutual improvement in regard to
agriculture, but they promote a community of
interest which in various ways facilitates the
development of the combination principle. In
some instances the landlords themselves join the
societies, and give a ready assistance in carrying
on the organization. Another purpose fulfilled
by the local societies is the purchase of seeds,
manures, or agricultural implements for the
members ; and still another is the holding of
periodical agricultural exhibitions on either a

THE BENEFITS SECURED 139

small or a large scale, according to the import-
ance of the society. The Agricultural Unions
have also been the means of bringing about the
establishment of agricultural credit banks on
the Raiffeisen principle, with a central organiza-
tion in Utrecht ; while in the South of Holland
the Roman Catholic clergy have taken up the
movement, and are actively engaged in forming-
separate societies and separate banks exclusively
for Roman Catholics.

What, therefore, with the very practical aid
given by the Government, and the active adop-
tion of self-help principles by farmers and
peasants, a network of agricultural organization
is being gradually spread throughout the whole
of Holland, and abundant evidence is forthcoming
that the results are proving beneficial to every-
one concerned. The cultivators of the soil get
better results and higher profits ; new sources
of revenue have taken the place of those that
were falling off ; the " Dead Cities of the
Zuider Zee " are showing a good deal of life and
vigour ; the operations of the dealers and com-
mission agents are facilitated ; and the railways
are enabled to quote rates which are more satis-
factory alike to the traders and to themselves
than would be the case if the freight they
handled came from an entirely unorganized body

i4o HOLLAND

of producers. There are even those who antici-
pate that when the Agricultural Unions of
Holland became still more powerful they may
be able to exercise a wholesome influence in
bringing about a reform of the land laws. But
a consideration of that point would take me
further into the domain of Dutch politics than
it is here necessary for me to enter.

CHAPTER IX
HUNGARY

ONE of the principal causes for that un-
doubted improvement which has been
brought about of late years in the position of
the individual agriculturists of Hungary is to be
found in the organization there of an effective
system of agricultural credit.

The largest landowners were the first to resort
(as they did in the sixties) to the formation of
a co-operative credit bank, by means of which
they hoped to prevent the breaking up of the
great estates ; and in the seventies the middle-
class landowners followed their example, estab-
lishing another bank, in their own particular
interests. But neither of those institutions met
the case of the peasant farmer, whose position
was, perhaps, worse than that of either of the
classes above him.

To understand the exact nature of the situa-
tion in which the peasant farmer of Hungary
found himself, one must go back to the year

mi

1 42 HUNGARY

1848, when the last remains of the feudal system
disappeared from that country. Prior to the
year mentioned, the humble cultivator of the
soil had to look to the owner of the estate when
he wanted financial help, for he himself had no
property on which he could raise loans. But his
position was altered when, at last, the land he
cultivated belonged to him ; and he then also
became an object of greater interest to the
money-lenders, who had previously regarded
him as beneath their notice, while the compila-
tion of an elaborate system of land registers —
not completed until 1860 — enabled them to
readily ascertain the position of each peasant in
regard to the land he owned, and the extent to
which it might already have been mortgaged.

The money-lenders were mostly Jews from
Galicia or Russia — men, that is to say, who
neither by race nor language had any affinity
with their victims — and they so operated that
many of the peasant farmers became virtually
their slaves. There was a monotonous sameness
about their method of procedure. They would
first start an inn, or, alternatively, a store, and
be especially friendly with any one of their
customers who happened to have a fairly pros-
perous property. On the slightest suggestion
they would offer to lend him money, and at

MONEY-LENDERS AND THEIR WAYS 143

first would press him to accept it — particularly
on occasions when he might have taken more
liquor than was good for him. In this way
the peasant would accumulate a bigger and
still bigger burden of debt with the apparently
easy-going innkeeper. Then, suddenly, at some
moment when he knew the debtor could not
possibly pay, the money-lender would demand
payment in full, and take possession of his
entire property. But the money-lender did not
want to be a farmer himself, so he would let
the peasant remain there, requiring him, how-
ever, to pay, not only a rent for house and land,
but even for the "hire" of the oxen — hitherto
his own — which he required for the ploughing
operations. In this way everything the peasant
himself gained, save only a sum barely sufficient
to keep himself and his family alive, went into
the pocket of the money-lender.

This system was more especially in vogue in
the mountain districts in the North-east of
Hungary, inhabited mainly by Slavs and Ruma-
nians of the most uncultured type, and no match
for the keener-witted individuals who preyed
upon them. Matters were not so bad in the
plains, where the superior culture and the better
position generally of the Magyar peasants made
them less susceptible to the wiles of the money-

144 HUNGARY

lenders ; but even they too often found, when
they required to raise a loan to meet their agri-
cultural needs, that they had to pay for it 40, 45,
or even 50 per cent.

To the most far-seeing of Hungarian patriots
who were watching the course of events at home
and abroad, it was evident there was an absolute
need to safeguard the agricultural interests of
the country by putting within the reach of the
peasant farmers the same advantage of an easy
co-operative credit as had been secured by the
larger landowners. The subject was discussed
at a conference held at Budapest in 1885, and it
was resolved to take action. But the very im-
poverishment of the peasants in the " congested
districts " of the North-east made it impossible
to start operations there, the people being unable
to provide the means which would constitute
the necessary capital, and the first agricultural
co-operative bank in Hungary for peasant
farmers was set up, in 1887, by Count Alexander
Karolyi, in the comparatively well-to-do county
of Pest, where there was a population of some
million and a half of people.

But when twenty village banks had been
established the necessity arose for a reconsidera-
tion of the position. In the richer districts the
local residents were dissatisfied with the rate of

VILLAGE BANKS 145

interest allowed them on their deposits by the
village banks (which were based on the usual
Raiffeisen principles), and they began to with-
draw their money in order to set up Joint Stock
banks instead ; while in the poorer districts there
was a difficulty not alone in raising capital, but
also in getting men of sufficient capacity to act as
secretaries. The choice generally lay between the
Protestant clergyman, the Roman Catholic priest,
and the village schoolmaster ; but all three became
ineligible whenever religious difficulties arose.

Then there was another grave source of
trouble. The money-lenders had taken alarm
at a movement which threatened to deprive
them of a lucrative occupation, and they hit
upon a scheme as ingenious as it was unscrupu-
lous. Affecting a friendly interest in the village
banks, they would hand in substantial deposits
in the winter, and the officials would welcome
such an addition to the available funds. Rut
in the following spring, when practically all the
capital had been advanced in loans to the
members, the money-lenders would suddenly
demand repayment of their deposits, with the
result that the village bank, dependent on its
own resources, would be driven into bankruptcy,
— which, of course, was just what the money-
lenders wanted.

146 HUNGARY

A solution of these difficulties was sought by
the setting up, in 1890, of a co-operative credit
bank for the county of Pest. This county bank
was to serve a three-fold purpose. It would
place the surplus deposits of the wealthier
districts at the disposal of the poorer ones for
the purposes of loans ; it would so control the
formation and the operation of the village banks
as to ensure their being based on beneficent
motives instead of simply a desire for divi-
dends ; and it would send travelling accountants
through the districts concerned in order to see
that the books of the local banks were properly
kept, and to give the officials such advice or in-
struction as they might require. The further
arrangement was made by the county co-
operative credit bank (of which Count Karolyi
became the chairman) that, as an additional
means of checking the tactics of the money-
lenders in their campaign against the village
banks, no branch should enter into serious
obligations with non-members, in the way of
receiving substantial deposits, without first con-
sulting the central office.

The capital for the new county co-operative
credit bank was raised by the issue of shares to
be taken up by the local banks. Of these there
were then about 200 : but the effect on the

NEED FOR BROADER ACTION 147

movement of the greater degree of utility and
public confidence brought about by the new
policy was that it developed with a rush.
Within two years 400 more village banks had
been formed. As, however, each new bank
naturally wanted a larger sum to start with
than it might need to borrow later on, the
officials of the county bank found it impossible
to provide sufficient capital to meet all require-
ments.

Meanwhile applications were coming in from
other counties wanting to be organized on simi-
lar lines, and there were still those " congested
districts " in the North-east that stood in es-
pecial need of a helping hand. So from outside
the movement, the cry was raised, that private
effort, which had thus far struggled so manfully
with a task of such magnitude, must be supple-
mented by State aid; and in 1898 the Hungarian
Minister of Agriculture introduced and secured
the passing of a Bill for the creation of a
Central Co-operative Credit Bank which would
operate over the entire country. With this
Central Credit Bank all the local co-operative
credit banks that chose could become affiliated
by subscribing for shares, and various practical
benefits, in addition to the facilities for obtaining
advances, were offered to them so to do. The

148 HUNGARY

State itself took shares to the value of £40,000,
and claimed the right to exercise a controlling
voice in the general management. Individual
sympathisers with the scheme were allotted
£80,000 worth of shares ; but any dividend
which may be paid to them must not exceed
4 per cent., and they are to be bought out as
the funds allow, so that eventually the only
proprietors of Hungary's Central Co-operative
Credit Bank will be the co-operative associations
and the State, the share of the latter represent-
ing about one-tenth of the whole.

It now became possible to extend operations
to the congested districts in the mountains to
the North-east ; but there had to be a further
trial of strength with the professional money-
lenders. In one village, for instance, the leaders
of the movement held a meeting of the peasants
to induce them to start a village co-operative
bank, which the central organization would now
be able to support. The peasants took a few
days to consider the matter. They then gave
a reply in the negative. Inquiry showed that
most of the villagers were indebted to a group
of money-lenders who had set up a local bank
of their own and now threatened them that
if they agreed to the starting of a co-operative
credit bank in the place they would at once

CHANGED ASPECTS OF VILLAGE LIFE 149

call in the whole of the outstanding loans. But
the propagandists were equal to the occasion.
They obtained from the central fund a sum of
money sufficient to pay off the debts of the
entire village, thus getting the peasants effect-
ually out of the grasp of the money-lenders;
and they then established the co-operative credit
bank, debiting the peasants with the amounts
paid on their behalf.

The organization of the Central Co-operative
Credit Bank gave a further great stimulus to
the general movement, so that by the end of
1903 there were about 2,000 local co-operative
credit banks in Hungary, and the year's business
represented a turnover of some £3,000,000. But
the work that is being done by the village banks
goes far beyond the advance to agriculturists of
so much money in the form of loans.

One comes here to an especially interesting
phase of what may be called the " new village-
life " of the country. It is obligatory on the
members of a local co-operative credit bank in
Hungary that they should pay a small weekly
subscription — one penny, twopence, or three-
pence, as the case may be — towards the funds
from which the wants of those requiring loans
can be supplied. The officers of the bank at-
tend on the Saturday or the Sunday afternoon

150 HUNGARY

to receive these weekly subscriptions, and the
occasion is one for the meeting together of the
villagers, who avail themselves of the opportunity
to talk over their common requirements. Arti-
ficial manures are not much required in the
plains of Hungary, but there is a good demand
for feeding - stuffs, and the peasants at their
weekly gathering will add together the quantities
that each may want, and so make up a fairly
good combined order. Their village bank is
probably in touch with a co-operative supply
association, and the local officials will, accord-
ingly, arrange the whole transaction for the
peasants, obtaining and distributing the supplies,
and debiting each purchaser with the amount
due from him, if he cannot pay at once. Other
agricultural necessaries are obtained in the same
way, so that although there may not be any
actual purchase associations in particular locali-
ties, a good deal of combined buying may go on,
all the same.

The material benefits derived from these new
conditions are self-evident ; but the moral results
have been still more remarkable. It was left
for some of the Hungarian clergy to discover a
fact which had escaped the notice of the leaders
of the movement, and one which they had cer-
tainly not aimed at producing, namely, that since

A SOCIAL REVOLUTION 151

the advent into the rural districts of agricultural
organization, with its co-operative credit and
other advantages, there had been a noticeable
decrease in the amount of drunkenness. Not
only was this fact verified, but it was soon ac-
counted for. Previously the peasants had met
at the village tavern on Sunday afternoons, for
the sake not so much of actual drinking as of
social intercourse. But the weekly gathering
at the bank offices made it no longer necessary
for them to go to the village inn to meet one
another. Hence there was less drinking, and
the drunkennness which had long been the curse
of many of the villages was steadily declining.

The good influences thus unwittingly set up
were extended in another direction. In many
of the Hungarian villages the advent of the
co-operative credit bank was followed by the
setting-up of a co-operative store and also of
a Farmers' Club, all three often being in one
and the same building. The Farmers' Club
generally takes the form of a library and reading-
room, and constitutes both a centre for in-
llectual and social development and a distinct
counter-attraction to the village inn.

Nor did the aforesaid moral results end even
here. Borrowing from the professional money-
lenders under the former conditions had been

H2

HUNGARY

done with a sense of shame, and a peasant who
raised a loan in this way generally tried to keep
the fact from the knowledge of his fellow -
villagers, who would understand only too well to
what the transaction might lead. These secret
borrowings preyed no less on the spirits of the
borrower than, eventually, they did on his
financial resources. But when the co-operative
credit bank was introduced the publicity of all
its proceedings constituted one of its essential
characteristics. The peasant wanting a loan had
to convince his fellow-members (who would be
personally responsible should he fail to repay it)
that he required the money for a legitimate
purpose. Everybody in the village would thus
hear of the matter, and be in a position to
discuss it if they thought fit. Beyond, also, the
particular occasion for the loan, the borrower
would have to be a man possessing the good
opinion of his fellow-villagers before they would
grant an advance. A direct incentive was given
to him, therefore, to lead a steady, sober, and
industrious life, and, besides, to keep out of
debt in other directions, for his creditors would
assuredly come down upon him at once if they
found he was raising money from the co-operative
credit bank and did not propose to pay them
their due. A healthy public opinion was thus

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 153

brought to bear upon the actions and general
conduct of the peasants, and the effect thereof
was to raise the tone alike of individuals and of
the village life in general.

To this list of moral results should be added
the fact that religious differences also are
becoming less acute in Hungarian villages, as
the outcome of the new economic movement.
Protestants and Roman Catholics meet together
on a common footing for the purpose of securing
mutual benefits, and their discovery of the fact
that, though they differ on some points, they
can work together in complete harmony on
others, is having a wholesome influence on their
daily relations.

Conjointly with the action of those who
sought to promote the revival of agriculture in
Hungary by the direct means of that co-operative
credit which constituted the real backbone of the
whole movement, must be placed the activity of
the National Agricultural Society, the county
agricultural societies, and the various co-operative
agricultural combinations connected therewith.
Established in 1830 on the foundations of an
older body, known as the " Breeders1 Associa-
tion," the National Agricultural Society operated
for many years on the usual lines of agricultural
societies of the old-fashioned type, that is to say,

154 HUNGARY

it organized exhibitions, circulated literature, and
aimed at extending scientific knowledge on
agricultural subjects. In addition to this it
secured the formation of local branches to pro-
mote the same general purposes, and it helped
to bring about the holding of national confer-
ences of farmers. Of late years, however, it
has developed a new policy by making great
exertions to establish agricultural combinations
on co-operative lines, eventually creating, in
1896, a "National League of Agricultural
Societies," for which it acts in the capacity of
an executive committee.

One of the earliest of the co-operative
organizations formed among Hungarian pro-
ducers for the promotion of special interests
was a union of wine-growers. Of more im-
mediate concern, however, to the British farmer
is the Central Co-operative Creamery Society of
Budapest. This combination was created in
1883 for the supply of milk and dairy products
of guaranteed quality, and under the best
conditions, to the inhabitants of the capital, the
business being so conducted as to yield to the
farmers, in their turn, a maximum of possible
profit. Operations were begun in a very small
way in a house rented for the purpose. By
1885 the concern had prospered so much that it

FARMERS IN COMBINATION 155

was able to build extensive premises for itself,
and these had to be further enlarged in 1900.
They now cover two acres of ground in Buda-
pest. There are received daily at this central
creamery close on 9,000 gallons of milk from
100 farms. Of this quantity 3,250 gallons are
sold to householders either from branch shops or
from milk-carts ; 4,000 gallons are delivered to
public institutions and wholesale customers, and
the remainder is used for cream or butter. The
total sum paid to the members for the milk
supplied by them, plus profits on the business
after the payment of expenses, comes to
£80,000 a year.

Another development of special interest to
British growers is the Hungarian Farmers' Co-
operative Society for supplying produce for sale
in the market-halls of Budapest. Created on the
initiative of the Hungarian National Agricul-
tural Society, this organization advises its mem-
bers as to the kinds of produce most likely to
find purchasers on the markets, gives practical
guidance in respect to growing, packing, and
despatch, receives the produce in Budapest,
supervises storage and sale, and remits the pro-
ceeds of such sale to the producer, less a small
charge for expenses. The business thus done by
the society for its members represents a turn-

I56 HUNGARY

over of from £21,000 to £22,000 a year. A
further branch has now been taken up in the
collection of eggs for export. Word is sent
week by week to the country sections telling
them how many eggs the department will accept
for two crowns (1*. Sd.). The local branch then
gathers in the eggs from its members, and for-
wards them in boxes of 1,440 to Budapest,
where they are examined and sorted before
being packed for export. The profits are di-
vided among the members as a bonus on the
agreed price already paid to them. The ex-
periment has been a complete success, and still
more country branches are being vigorously
organized.

The activity shown by the Hungarian Na-
tional Agricultural Society in bringing about
these various phases of an up-to-date organiza-
tion is being well followed by the county agri-
cultural societies. On this there is much that
could be said, but the sphere of usefulness
which a county agricultural society fills in
Hungary could not, perhaps, be better illus-
trated than by the following description of the
work done by the agricultural society of the
county of Arad, as given by Mr. T. S. Dymond,
of the Essex County Laboratories, in a paper
on "Hungarian Agriculture" read by him at

COUNTY SOCIETIES 157

a meeting of the Farmers' Club (London) in

February, 1903:—

It has constituted itself a co-operative society for the
purchase and sale of agricultural commodities. It has
established in 16 peasant-farming villages of the county
co-operative stores for the villagers. It has organized in
the villages 15 co-operative credit banks affiliated with
the National Credit Society, 12 co-operative societies for
egg-collection, 7 co-operative dairies, and 1 co-opera-
tive society for the collection and sale of corn. It has
provided premises for, and started, peasant farmers1 clubs,
with library, reading-room, etc., and winter schools of agri-
culture for the farmers1 sons. Lastly, it has organized
a model peasant farm of 57 acres in the heart of the
peasant-farming district, which, in common with 80 other
farms in other counties, is equipped with the implements
and stock considered to be most suitable for the needs of
the particular district, the cost being paid for partly by
the county and partly by the State. All this it has done
in addition to the periodical county or local shows which
usually exhaust the imagination of our own county agri-
cultural societies.

The " co-operative society for the collection
and sale of corn " here referred to is a form of
agricultural combination peculiar to Hungary,
and deserves, perhaps, a more detailed notice
than Mr. Dymond was able to give to it in his
paper.

Experience had taught the farmers that, so
long as each relied on his own individual powers
in the disposal of his corn, lie laboured undei

158 HUNGARY

certain distinct disadvantages. He was especially
at the mercy of any "ring" of buyers which
might be formed, for they knew that even if he
could afford to keep back his crop for a more
favourable market it was practically impossible
for a farmer located any distance from a railway
to hold his crop until the winter, because he
would not then be able to get it to the railway
station, owing to the state of the roads.

To meet the position thus created, the farmers
in a number of districts formed co-operative
organizations which secured loans from the credit
banks for the construction of corn elevators on
sidings near to some conveniently-situated rail-
way station ; and to these elevators the farmers
would at once send their corn to be stored, the
individual lots losing their identity, but repre-
senting, on the whole, analogous qualities of
grain. By means of these elevators the avail-
able supplies could be held any length of time.
Not only was the previous difficulty of getting
them to the railway station in the winter obvi-
ated, but the ultimate collective sale meant the
transport of the corn on the railway in bulk,
thus effecting a considerable economy as com-
pared with what would have been paid had each
farmer sent off his own particular lot as a sepa-
rate consignment. Indeed, there is at least one

CO-OPERATIVE CORN-ELEVATORS 159

instance where, by this means, the society was
able to save sufficient on the railway rates to
pay for the cost of the corn elevator. Financial
arrangements were, at the same time, made by
which the farmers obtained advances from the
banks on the corn they sent to the elevators,
and, with these advances in hand, they were
able to wait for the balance until such time as
the sale could be effected to the best advantage.

So well has this further development in the
way of agricultural combination answered in
Hungary that a central organization is being
projected for the express purpose of encouraging
and facilitating the construction of co-operative
corn-elevators in all the corn-growing districts
of the country.

Additional evidence of the way in which the
general system is operating in Hungary may be
obtained from an account of the second exhibi-
tion of the Hungarian National Agricultural
Society, at Pozsony, communicated by Mr.
Edward Brown to the Journal of the Board
of Agriculture for December, 1902. There,
among other things, one may read : —

Various displays made by the local or village societies,
which have done such good work in Hungary, were of
special interest as showing what can be accomplished by
combined effort. An arrangemenl is here worthy of note,

160 HUNGARY

namely, that these societies are allowed to compete with
the produce or stock of their neighbours. The result of
this is that a selection is made first in a village, and what-
ever benefit accrues, either in the way of prizes or reputa-
tion, is shared by all — a species of co-operation which
cannot fail to be of benefit. One of the most recent
features in connection with the development of Hungary
has been the remarkable growth of combined effort, chiefly
in the direction of production, and the result has greatly
increased prosperity in the rural districts. The displays
made by the various agricultural colleges and schools were
very fine, and I do not remember to have seen their equal
even in France, where so much is done in this direction.

The relation of the State to agriculture in
Hungary is seen alike in the remarkable extent
to which the Government conducts agricultural
operations on its own account, and in the almost
paternal character of the aid it extends to the
individual farmer. But however much one may
be opposed, as a matter of principle, to an undue
expansion either of State trading or of State aid,
there are certain considerations in the case of
Hungary which it would be unfair to that
country to ignore.

In the first place we have the exceptional
fact that, for political reasons, and mainly for
purposes of national defence, the Hungarian
Governments of bygone days acquired, as State
property, a large expanse of the mountain and
forest land which encircles the central plains of

THE STATE AND AGRICULTURE 161

Hungary ; and that later Governments, having
this land on their hands, sought to turn it to
good purpose by assuming the role of thrifty
and enterprising husbandmen. In a country
where the agricultural interest is paramount
they thought to set some good examples of
agricultural methods, and try to induce the
people to follow them.

In the next place the intellectual and economic
status of considerable sections of the inhabitants
— especially those of the type of the Slavs and
Rumanians — coupled with a lack of initiative
and an inadequate development of the trading
spirit, made a liberal degree of State guidance
and State help more justifiable in Hungary than
would be the case to anything like the same
extent in such a country as Great Britain.

The combination of these two conditions has
helped to bring about results that are certainly
remarkable enough in their way. In the first
place the State owns 3,700,000 acres of forests,
the management of which, together with that
of 3,000,000 acres of communal forests, and
8,050,000 acres belonging to other corporations,
is entrusted to the Minister of Agriculture. To
encourage the re-planting of forests and barren
territories the State distributed, between 1883
and 1901, no fewer than 358,000,000 shoots

M

1 62 HUNGARY

free of charge. The revival of viticulture in
Hungary, after the phylloxera devastations in
the seventies, was mainly due to the action of
the State, which encouraged the transformation
of 100,000 acres of barren sandy wastes into
vineyards with American grapes, and established
2,500 acres of nurseries capable of producing
(eventually) 50,000,000 vine branches yearly,
from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 other vine stocks
being sold, at a moderate price, from the forest
vineyards. In the department of horticulture
the State possesses thirty-six nurseries, with an
area of 940 acres, producing every year 7,000,000
shoots and 500,000 grafted stocks ; it has
planted 5,600 miles of highways with fruit trees,
short courses of lectures on fruit cultivation
being given to road surveyors ; and it has estab-
lished drying kilns, wine-presses and distilleries
to encourage the growers to turn to account the
fruit they cannot sell fresh. It has had, for over
a century, stud farms for the breeding of horses
for army use, and to improve farm stock in
general it has established depots where 3,000
stallions are kept ; and it has distributed as
much as £12,000 in one year in prizes to horse-
breeding societies. Altogether it spends about
£125,000 a year in the interest of horse-breeding.
Village communities will purchase from the

STATE ENTERPRISE AND STATE AID 163

State not only stallions but the bulls, rams, and
boars which it also breeds, the farmers volun-
tarily imposing a tax on themselves to pay for
the cost. From the cultivated portions of the
extensive stud farms large supplies of selected
seeds are sold to farmers at a low price.

For the encouragement of cattle-breeding and
dairy-farming, the State makes annual grants
amounting to £42,000, and it has brought about
the starting of 400 co-operative dairies. Sheep-
breeding it has sought to foster by importing
pure-bred English rams. There is, too, a State
poultry farm, covering sixteen acres of land, and
the Government has determined, by experiment,
the kinds of poultry best fitted for particular
districts. There is a State bee farm, intended
as a model for bee-keepers to follow, while bee-
farming is taught alike on the farm and in the
training schools. Finally, in the matter of
sericulture, the State keeps a silk-worm breed-
ing station, provides the public with healthy
eggs, propagates mulberry trees and distributes
several million of them every year, and even
buys the cocoons from the peasants who have
bred the silk-worms, some two dozen State
" cocooneries " being set up for this purpose.

In all this there is certainly a suggestion that,
from an English standpoint at least, State aid

1 64 HUNGARY

is carried to an excess in Hungary, and it is not
surprising that one of a deputation of Essex
farmers who visited the country in 1902 should
have written : — " The impression left on the
minds of many of us was that the State ran
everything"; while a second said: — "It is
always a debateable question to what extent
State aid paralyzes individual effort, and the
purchase and maintenance of stallions and bulls
for stud purposes out of the rates would strike
most Englishmen as a practice bordering on
Communism." But, whatever doubts might
well arise on these questions, there is no reason
to question the extremely practical and thorough-
going system of agricultural education with
which the Government of the country have
further sought to develop the welfare of the
national industry.

Though, too, the State may have done so
much, one must remember that to private initia-
tive was due the introduction of that system of
agricultural co-operative credit which, as I have
shown, constituted the "backbone" of the latter-
day revival.

CHAPTER X
AUSTRIA

IN Austria the principle of State aid in agri-
culture has been developed to an extent
that is altogether abnormal, and without the
exceptional conditions of the sister country of
Hungary.

The chief progress made in regard to Austrian
agriculture has been effected since 1890, when
the first co-operative credit bank of the Raiffeisen
type was formed. There are now in Austria
over 2,000 institutions of this kind. Close on
800 came into existence in the three years
between 1897 and 1900. The Raiffeisen banks
have, in turn, been followed by many purchase
societies, co-operative dairies, societies for the
sale of wheat, fruit, hops, oats, etc. ; societies of
wine-growers, societies for the improvement of
live-stock, and so on.

But the whole movement has been the out-
come mainly of oilieial action, supported by

numerous and liberal subsidies. Most of the

165

1 66 AUSTRIA

Raiffeisen societies, especially, are administrative
creations, due either to the State or to the munici-
palities, and showing little of that principle of
self-help to which British farmers should, prefer-
ably, pin their faith. The associations in general
are further authorized by law to call for pecuniary
aid from the State in (among other things) the
export of agricultural products, the employment
of persons possessing technical or expert know-
ledge, the construction of buildings, the pur-
chase of agricultural machinery and implements,
and in the event of general financial difficulties
arising.

It would seem to be a normal state of things
in Austria that a Provincial Administration
should hold meetings to distribute State funds
among the various co-operative agricultural
societies in a particular district. From both
State authorities and municipalities, indeed, the
societies get aid in the form of subventions, or
loans either entirely free of interest or bearing
a nominal rate of interest only. Then the
governors of provinces, the prefets of cantons,
the Provincial States' Committees, the Provincial
Agricultural Councils, the priests, and the
teachers in the elementary schools are all
required to enlighten the rural populations on
the importance and the utility of co-operative

BY WAY OF PROTEST 167

organization, and to do all they can for its
extension.

The extreme development of State aid has
given rise to a certain degree of dissatisfaction
in Austria, and a further group of agricultural
co-operative associations has been created on
strictly self-help principles, representing a revolt
against the conditions above described. The
general position is thus lamented by a writer
in the issue for January 2nd, 1904, of Die
Genossenschaft, the organ of the independent
party : —

It was a terrible economic crisis that, in 1844, led the
poor flannel weavers of Rochdale to establish their first
co-operative stores, and in spite of — or rather, because of
— the great distress then prevailing, success did not fail
them. For fifty years was the model thus set up regarded
as a pattern for others to follow. But in our country, and
in other countries besides — though not in England — the
position has been very different. Governments and
political parties are interesting themselves in the com-
bination movement, and striving to secure an influence
over it. The people, in their turn, are willing to surrender
any practical proof of self-help for a mess of pottage
in the shape of a subvention or a cheap loan. Many
Members of Parliament consider that they are conferring
a favour on their constituents if they can, in any possible
way, get various subventions for them from the national
Budget, or, to speak more correctly, cast the obligations
of those constituents upon the country. The State, they
argue, must support the citizens, not the citizens support

1 68 AUSTRIA

the State. For unreflecting persons that is the newest and
the most cordially welcomed solution of the social problem,
especially as it affects the middle classes ; while such a
solution is favoured by the bureaucracy because it gives
them a wide-reaching influence over the people in general.
True it is that the influence of an intelligent and en-
lightened bureaucracy over the uncultured classes may be
of practical service ; but when brought to bear on people
of a higher social scale it is likely to lead to positive harm,
by favouring indolence and undermining confidence in
their own powers.

As against arguments such as these it is
pleaded that the aforesaid administrative crea-
tions are established on a sure basis from the
start, and have their finances secured, so that
the societies have a better chance of success than
if they were founded by individuals who lacked
experience, and were guided only by their own
elementary ideas as to the lines on which an
organization should be conducted.

In the Trentino district (where the people are
essentially Italian in language and habits) agri-
cultural organization has made especially rapid
progress, as the result not alone of the helping
hand of the Austrian Government, but of what
the statistical report of the Italian National Co-
operative League describes as "the admirable
work in the way of active propaganda and wise
organization carried out by the Catholic party, a

TRENTINO 169

work," it adds, "that is well deserving of emula-
tion " (degno i?wc?°o di essere cmulato). There
are in the district about 400,000 inhabitants,
mostly occupied with vine culture, and the first
Raiffeisen Bank was established among them in
1891. "The wretched condition, socially and
morally, of the population," says Pio Meyer in
// Movimento nel Trentino, " was the first factor
that led to the organization of agricultural asso-
ciations ; the second was the Christian love felt
towards his neighbour by the priest, Lorenzo
Guetti." The associations formed by this pioneer
became known as " co-operative families " (fam-
iglie cooperative). By the end of 1902 there
were in the district 131 Raiffeisen banks with
10,000 members, together with numerous agri-
cultural co-operative associations of various kinds.
In this same year the different bodies formed
a " Federation of Rural Banks and Co-operative
Associations."

CHAPTER XI
SWITZERLAND

THERE are some points in the story of
agricultural organization in Switzerland
which render that country deserving of attention
both as an example and a warning.

A considerable expansion in the industries of
Switzerland between 1870 and 1880 led to a
steady flow of population from the country
districts to the towns, the proportions of the
numbers employed in agricultural and industrial
pursuits respectively undergoing great changes
in some of the leading cantons. The farmers
found that under these circumstances their
interests were being seriously prejudiced by the
shortage of labour ; but with the lesser profits
they were making, because of the rapidly develop-
ing competition of other and newer countries,
they could not afford to pay their workers the
same rates of wages as the manufacturers in
the towns were able to give. The conclusion
arrived at, therefore, was that the agriculturists of

170

ALTERED CONDITIONS 171

Switzerland would have to change their methods,
from the point of view both of resorting more to
machinery, in order to solve the labour problem,
and of using chemical fertilizers in order to in-
crease the volume, and decrease the relative cost,
of production, so as to compete better with the
foreigner. In other words, the farmer was to
employ fewer hands but spend more money.

The drawback to this plan was the average
cultivator's lack of capital — a difficulty only to
be overcome by the creation of organizations
which would enable the farmers alike to borrow
on advantageous terms, and to effect the neces-
sary purchases under the best conditions. The
establishment of organizations of this type was,
in fact, for the Swiss farmers, as Dr. Hans
Midler relates in Die Schweizerischen Konsum-
genossenschaften : Hire Entxmcklung unci Hire
Re.su/tate, a matter of life or death. But, Dr.
Midler goes on to say : —

It took a long time for the peasant to work himself up
to this conviction. An incarnate individualist, he resisted
any idea of actually resorting to combined trading or
co-operative effort, even when already convinced of the
necessity of so doing. Finally, however, he saw it had
become for him a question either of combination or of
ruin; either of rising to a true sense of his position, and
showing confidence in his neighbour, or of dropping out of
existence. When once this alternative presented itself

172 SWITZERLAND

mercilessly to the Swiss peasant, he, with good spirit and
a lighter heart, and with, also, a skill at which one cannot
fail to wonder, applied himself to the development of a
great system of organized action.

The actual pioneer of the movement was a
certain landowner in Raterschen (Canton Ziirich),
who had purchased wholesale a large supply of
chemical manures on such lower terms than his
neighbours were paying that they formed an
agricultural association, in 1874, in order to
secure similar advantages for themselves. Their
example was followed in other localities, and in
1877, at a general assembly of members of
agricultural societies in Zurich, Professor Dr. A.
Kramer strongly recommended a general resort
to organization for combined purchase of agricul-
tural necessaries, in the interest both of economy
and of quality. Even, however, when local
combinations had been formed, the prejudices
of the farmers made them reluctant to group
their orders with those of farmers in other
districts, and it was only in May, 1881, by the
active exertions of a young parish priest at
Elsau, in Dynhard, that the first approach to a
district federation of local organizations was
effected. From that time the general move-
ment spread with great activity, and in 1887
there followed the formation, at Winterthur, of

A DEBATE ABLE POINT 173

a " Union of the Agricultural Associations of
Eastern Switzerland."

Meanwhile the question had arisen whether
the local organizations created with the primary
object of supplying agricultural necessaries should
not, also, furnish household requirements, after
the fashion of ordinary co-operative stores.

The same point has been discussed in France
and elsewhere, but, generally speaking, the more
prudent advocates of agricultural combination
have been averse to the mixing up of business
and domestic considerations, and have advocated
that the co-operative purchase of fertilizers and
implements for the fields should be kept distinct
from the co-operative purchase of coffee and
sugar for the household. In Switzerland, how-
ever, different views prevailed, and not only did
some of the local agricultural associations take
up both branches, but the Union formed at
Winterthur in 1887, as mentioned above, organ-
ized two departments, one for agricultural and
the other for domestic purchasers.

The adoption of this principle led to a con-
troversy which undoubtedly retarded the progress
of the movement from a purely agricultural
standpoint, and roused against it the whole body
of general traders. While accepting the claim of
the peasants that they were entitled to conduct

174 SWITZERLAND

their own enterprises on their own lines, they
resented any invasion by them of the grocery,
drapery, and other businesses. The associations
thus found themselves boycotted for a time, and
they only surmounted their difficulties by im-
porting supplies from other countries, or, in the
case of fertilizers, by starting mills of their own.

Then some of the leaders in Switzerland of
what, at the outset, was a purely agricultural
movement, have, in the ardour of their zeal for
the progress of mankind, utilized it unduly as a
means of securing " social reform " in general ;
while the rank and file, in their turn, have not
yet entirely abandoned old prejudices, and pre-
fer to maintain sectional distinctions rather than
sink their differences, and join together on a
common platform for the achievement of a
common purpose.

So it is, therefore, that although other federa-
tions (including one at Berne, which is doing
good work in the way of grouping purchases)
have followed the one established at Winterthur,
and although agricultural associations have now
been spread more or less throughout the country
(in the form, not alone of purchase societies, but
also of co-operative dairies, live-stock improve-
ment associations, Raiffeisen banks, combina-
tions for the collective sale of produce, and so

RETARDED PROGRESS 175

on), the movement has not, as a whole, shown
the same degree of vigour, and secured the same
degree of progress, in Switzerland as in some of
the other countries with which I have already
dealt.

CHAPTER XII
SWEDEN AND NORWAY

THE development of agricultural interests
in Sweden has followed the same general
lines, especially in regard to co-operative effort,
as in Denmark. It was, in fact, the example of
Denmark that inspired the action of the Swedish
agriculturists, for the double reason that they
wanted to meet effectually the threatened com-
petition of their neighbours, and that they fur-
ther hoped to get a share in the important trade
in dairy products which those neighbours were
opening up with Great Britain.

Between the two countries, however, there are
some material differences. Whereas Denmark
is a land that is almost exclusively agricultural,
Sweden, in addition to her agriculture, has very
large iron, iron ore, and other industries, which
absorb an increasing proportion of the popula-
tion, so that whereas in 1870 the number of
those engaged in agricultural pursuits stood at

71*87 per cent., it is to-day only 55*32 per cent.

176

A COMPARISON WITH DENMARK 177

Then, again, in the neighbourhood of large
towns, and especially Stockholm, it is found
more profitable to-day to sell milk and cream
to householders than use it for butter-making.

These various changes in the economic position
have affected alike production and home con-
sumption, leaving a smaller relative proportion
of food products available for export. The fact,
also, that Sweden imposes duties on imported
feeding-stuffs (thus increasing the cost of pro-
duction), while Denmark admits them free, has
undoubtedly told against agriculture in the
former country, as compared with the latter. In
1895, for example, prior to the imposition of
a duty on maize, Sweden exported 22,000,000
lbs. of bacon. In 1901 the total was only
2,200,000 lbs., a falling off which cannot be
adequately accounted for by the greater local
demand, especially as the industrial workers in
the northern districts prefer American bacon to
Swedish. *

In all these circumstances it is assumed that
Sweden will not be likely to send to Great
Britain larger quantities of food supplies than
she is doing already. All the same the Swedish
agriculturists benefit to the extent of close on
£1,000,000 a year from the trade they do with
Great Britain in the one item of butter alone,

N

178 SWEDEN AND NORWAY

and, with a good market in their own country,
they have, altogether, done well, even though
the results of their operations may not be so
remarkable as in the case of Denmark.

The causes which have led to these results
could not be summarized more succinctly than
is done in a Report on the Dairy Industry in
Sweden, drawn up in 1897 by Mr. Arthur Her-
bert, First Secretary to the British Legation
in Sweden, who wrote : —

Foreign butter wins its way because it is generally
of good and uniform quality — at least, that is the case
with the Swedish butter, owing- to the fact that the
methods of production are always reaching a higher degree
of perfection. Cheapness is brought about, not because
the value of land is less in Sweden than in Great Britain,
or because the climate is better, or because the other
expenses of an agriculturist's business compare favourably
with our own. The reason must be sought in their co-
operative methods of manufacture, which effect very great
economies, and it is here that the British agriculturist
who does not understand how profit can be made out of
Swedish butter at the price it is sold must look for the
explanation, coupled with the fact of the thoroughness of
the agricultural technical education in this country.

How the co-operative movement has spread
in Sweden can be shown by the fact that
whereas there were in 1890 only 73 co-operative
dairies in the country, this number increased
to 302 in 1895, and stands to-day at 430. Nor

THE SPREAD OF CO-OPERATION 179

does even this highest figure tell the complete
story, for the tendency is for the small dairies to
be absorbed by the larger ones, and so disappear
from the list altogether. A similar fate is over-
taking many of the " proprietary ': dairies.
While, again, the 430 co-operative dairies repre-
sent only 2G per cent, of the total number of
dairies, they produce 50 per cent, of the total
output of butter in the country.

Co-operation has further been adopted in
Sweden in the formation of " control " associa-
tions, societies for the purchase of agricultural
necessaries, societies for securing the improve-
ment of stock, societies for the collection and
sale of eggs, and the various other combinations
in vogue in Denmark, the Swedish farmers
being no less ready than the Danish to join
together for the purpose of securing common
benefits, whether in the way of reducing cost
of production or of obtaining the best possible*
return for the commodity produced.

In addition to the purely co-operative or-
ganizations there are in Sweden a number of
agricultural societies which, among other things,
hold fortnightly butter shows at Gothenburg or
Malmo, such shows being subsidized by the State
to the extent of about £1,100 a year. The
dairies each send in lour or five casks a year,

180 SWEDEN AND NORWAY

representing the different seasons, and the
samples are analyzed with a view to keeping up
the quality, awards being made to the dairies
showing the best results. It is a significant fact
that whereas at one time the private or " estate "
dairies had the reputation of supplying the finest
quality of butter, it is the co-operative dairies
which now secure most of the prizes at the
periodical exhibitions. The agricultural societies
also import stock for breeding purposes, either
selling the animals by auction to the farmers, or
setting up breeding stations in various districts ;
and they will, likewise, advance loans for the
starting of co-operative societies or to otherwise
assist agricultural enterprises.

Of the thoroughness of the system of agricul-
tural education in Sweden there is no possible
room for doubt. To begin with, there is a State
Agricultural and Dairy College at Alnarp, near
Lund, which includes the following divisions or
colleges: — (1) A higher agricultural college;
(2) A lower agricultural school ; (3) A higher
dairy college ; (4) A lower dairy school for men ;
(5) A lower school for dairymaids ; (6) A gar-
dening college ; and (7) A farriery school ; the
course of instruction in each instance being both
theoretical and practical. Then there is a Royal
Agricultural College at Ultuna, near Upsala, the

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 181

object of which is to afford higher theoretical
instruction in agriculture (not dairy subjects) to
young men. In addition to these high colleges
there are in Sweden eighteen theoretical and
twenty-four practical agricultural schools, to the
support of which the State contributes. Then
the list of State officials includes an instructor in
cattle-breeding, another in sheep-breeding, and
still another in dairying, together with twenty-
five instructors in general agricultural matters,
with special reference to drainage, manures, and
the cultivation of the land ; while the provincial
agricultural societies employ about twenty-four
travelling dairy instructors who deliver lectures
or give practical advice to the farmers and dairy
workers, together with travelling experts in
agricultural machinery and appliances, who are
equally ready to advise in case of need. There
are, also, a number of " dairy stations " which
have been set up by private persons, with the
help of grants from the State, where dairymaids
can get instruction without going to the more
pretentious colleges.

With the opportunities which have thus been
opened out to him, the Swedish farmer of to-day
is found to have a much more complete grasp of
the science of agriculture than was formerly the
case : and when to this happy admixture of

i82 SWEDEN AND NORWAY

scientific knowledge with his practical experience
he adds a willingness to resort to friendly co-
operation with his fellows for any or every
possible purpose that tends to their mutual
advantage, it is not surprising that he should
have succeeded so well in holding his own in
the way he has done.

In Sweden's sister country, Norway, there are
650 creameries, and their production of butter
and cheese in 1901 amounted to 7,716,000 lb.
and 9,123,000 lb. respectively, the quantity of
milk employed daily being about 220,000 gallons.
Nearly all the creameries are co-operative.

CHAPTER XIII
FINLAND

TO the average British agriculturist Finland
— if he ever thinks of that country at
all — probably represents little more than a
geographical expression, and, so far as he is
concerned, a wholly negligible quantity.

At first sight there would seem to be no
reason why he should regard it from any other
point of view. It is true that in superficial area
Finland is as large as England, Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland put together. But a considerable
proportion of this area extends into the Arctic
Circle, 12 per cent, of it is represented by lakes,
and 15 per cent, by marshes and bogs, while
of Finland's terra fir ma three-fifths consist of
forests. In fact, up to three or four years ago
only 8 per cent, of the surface of the country
was under cultivation. Then the entire popula-
tion of Finland represents an average of only
about twenty-two persons to the square mile.

Living in such a land as this, and so remote

183

1 84 FINLAND

from the centres of civilization, there might well
seem to be little chance for such a community
to establish a position for themselves as pro-
viders of food supplies for the people of Great
Britain, and, also, to merit the attention of the
world in general by the development among
themselves of a scheme of agricultural combina-
tion under conditions altogether unique in their
way. Yet the Finlanders have done both of
these things, and in doing them they have found
a successful outcome from a condition of agri-
cultural depression which at one time was quite
as serious for them as anything in this direction
that has been experienced in England.

Finland remained unaffected by the changes
brought about in various other countries of
Europe by the competition of foreign wheat,
for Finland does not grow wheat. But she
can grow the rye which forms a staple article
of food for her people, and of this she grew a
great deal up to about 1880. Then her agricul-
turists began to suffer from the abundant sup-
plies of rye coming to hand from Russia, such
supplies being eventually sold in Finland at a
price that represented one-half the sum at which
alone the Finnish crops could be produced at a
profit. There was no question here of putting
a hostile tariff on the Russian rye, since Russia

MEETING A CRISIS 185

would naturally not have consented, and at first
it looked to the Finnish farmers as if ruin stared
them in the face.

But they were men of resource, and they
determined that if they could not get a living
in one direction they would in another. They
saw that Denmark was opening up an important
trade with great Britain in regard to dairy pro-
ducts, and from their point of view there was
no reason why they should not do the same.
So they resolved not to attempt to struggle
against Russian competition, but to abandon the
growing of rye for themselves, and turn their
attention, rather, to the feeding of cattle and
the creation of an export trade in butter.

In order to carry out this programme the
more effectually, some of the most capable of
the Finnish farmers went to Denmark to make
an exhaustive study of Danish methods, and a
number of Danes were engaged to go to Finland
and organize creameries there on the model of
those existing in their own country. At first
the creameries so established were mainly pro-
prietary ones ; but the pecuniary advantages of
combination soon began to be realized, and at
the present moment the proprietary dairies in
Finland are outnumbered by the co-operative.
Then to assist the farmers in opening up a

186 FINLAND

market for their produce, the Government of
Finland made a contract in 1886 with the
Finnish Steam Navigation Company for the
establishment of regular and direct steamship
communication between Hango and Hull, this
arrangement being succeeded, in November,
1902, by a fresh arrangement under which the
Government granted a loan of £72,000 for ten
years, without interest, to a new company, the
Nord, for the running of weekly boats from
Hango to Newcastle-on-Tyne. In addition to
this, the Finnish Government, with a view to
improving the breed of cattle in the country,
make loans for ten years, without interest, to
farmers who desire to import Ayrshire cattle,
which are found much more suited to climatic
conditions in Finland than the less hardy Danish
stock. But the farmers accepting the loans have
to make their purchases through the Govern-
ment "cattle consultant," who comes to this
country every year to select the animals to be
bought, the number so purchased generally
being from 100 to 150. This system has been in
vogue for the last eight years or so.

As the outcome of these various conditions
Finland sent to this country in 1897 no fewer
than 14,561 tons of butter. Since then there
has been a succession of unfavourable seasons

TRADE WITH BRITAIN 187

in Finland, leading, at times, to an almost com-
plete failure of crops in the central parts of the
country. Consequently the supplies have fallen
off of late years, and in 1902 the exports of
butter from Finland stood at 9,670 tons — a
distinct decrease as compared with 1897, but a
business of respectable proportions, all the same,
for a small country, inasmuch as it represented
a value of £944,000. At the present time two-
thirds of the Finnish butter imported reaches
England via Hull, and one-third via Newcastle-
on-Tyne, nearly the whole of it being consumed
in the North of England or the Midlands.

The most interesting phase of the agricultural
revival in Finland typified by this substantial
trade in dairy produce is to be found in the
very active development of agricultural com-
bination brought about during the last few
years in circumstances which, as mentioned
above, are altogether unique in their way.

In 189.5 a course of lectures on the need of
co-operative effort in regard to agriculture in
Finland was given by Dr. Hannes Gebhard,
Professor of Agricultural Economics at Helsing-
fors University, and these lectures were attended
by people from all parts of the country. Sub-
sequently some landed proprietors made a tour
of investigation in different countries to ascer-

1 88 FINLAND

tain for themselves what was being done there
in the direction in question, and on their return
they started a small agricultural society at
Helsingfors. Then in 1899 Dr. Gebhard pub-
lished a book in which he gave details respect-
ing the growth and development of agricultural
co-operation in France, Germany, Denmark,
and elsewhere.

Up to this time the movement had been of
a comparatively feeble character ; but it was
suddenly taken up with great vigour as a re-
sponse and set-off to the policy of Russia
towards Finland, and it so happened, curiously
enough, that the persons who, in the first
instance, showed the most zeal in the matter
were not the agriculturists, the socialists, or the
clericals, but the students in attendance at
Helsingfors University. Whatever the particu-
lar studies on which they had entered, they
flocked to the lectures on agricultural subjects,
they eagerly read whatever was available there-
on, especially with regard to agricultural co-
operation ; and when they returned to their
homes, whether at the close of their University
career or only in the holidays, they did so as
active propagandists of the agricultural co-opera-
tion movement. Their own particular motive
was one of patriotism pure and simple. They

FOSTERING COMBINATION 189

saw the Russification of their once independent
land proceeding with relentless vigour ; they
saw a country naturally poor in danger of being
crippled by an expanding military budget ; they
saw it suffering from severe depression, the
result of frosts, inundations, crop failures, and
other causes ; and in their youthful ardour they
concluded that the best service they could
render to the land they loved would be to help
in the development of its natural resources,
creating, at the same time, a closer bond of
union among the people themselves. While,
therefore, in Russia political and economic con-
ditions had done so much to foster Nihilism and
conspiracies in general, in Finland the same
causes had converted the youth of the country
into the most practical of patriots.

So the students hastened to impart enthusi-
astically to others all the ideas they had them-
selves imbibed as to the advancement of agri-
culture, and they were soon joined by members
of the agricultural community whose attain-
ments or whose views were in advance of those
of people round about them. The whole sub-
ject, too, was discussed in newspapers, periodi-
cals, books, and pamphlets, and in these various
ways interest in it was rapidly spread through-
out the land.

190 FINLAND

Then followed, in the autumn of 1899, the
definite formation of a Society for Promoting
the Application of Co-operation to Agriculture
in Finland. Of this society, known as "Pellervo,"
Dr. Hannes Gebhard was chosen as president.
It aimed at becoming a central organization
which would encourage the formation of local
bodies ; publish literature in the special interests
of the peasants ; promote the starting of co-
operative dairies, rural credit banks, purchase
societies, etc. ; provide model rules and regula-
tions for such bodies ; send out lecturers, in-
structors, and organizers all over Finland ; inquire
into the best means to be adopted for increasing
the sale of Finnish dairy products abroad ; and
otherwise seek to develop the agricultural in-
terests of the country. These were the lines on
which operations were begun, the Government
showing its sympathy with the movement by
making a grant-in-aid of £800 a year for a
period of five years.

At the time the Pellervo was started there
were already in existence in Finland seventy-
four non-co-operative agricultural organizations
corresponding to the "Syndicats Agricoles" in
France, or the " Bauernvereine " in Germany.
Within the first nine months of the formation
of the Pellervo no fewer that 150 more of

PELLERVO— ITS AIMS AND WORK 191

these local societies were established, and on
December 1st, 1903, the total number stood at
341, the membership being over 20,000.

The creation of purely co-operative bodies for
agricultural purposes was only rendered possible,
in September, 1901, by the passing of a law
giving them legal status, and it was with the
making of this law that the real activity of the
Pellervo commenced. Before the year closed
there had been established in connection with
the Pellervo a Central Co-operative Commercial
Bureau for the collective purchase of manures,
feeding-stuffs, seed, grain, salt, machines, petro-
leum, dairy requirements, etc., for agricultural
societies grouping the orders of their individual
members. It is especially interesting to know
that the example set by this Central Bureau
inspired the farmers of Northern Finland and
Lapland to arrange for a similar organization
on their own account, so that a wholesale society
for the purchase of agricultural necessaries has
been started in the little town of Kemi, which
is within the Arctic Circle.

It was felt, however, from the outset, that
no great progress would be made until there
had been set up a Central Co-operative Bank
which would be able to give practical assistance
in the formation throughout Finland of local

ig2 FINLAND

agricultural credit banks of the Raiffeisen type.
The organization of this Central Bank was a
remarkable event in its way. The capital it was
proposed to raise was fixed at £12,000, in shares
of £4 each, to be subscribed for by the agri-
culturists themselves. The country was then
suffering from severe depression, but the sum
required was raised in six weeks by 1,360 in-
dividuals, of whom 83 per cent, bought only
either one or two shares each, and 11 per cent,
from three to five shares each. Many of the
peasants had great difficulty in raising the sum
necessary for the purchase of even one share ;
but they made a great effort, being strongly
impressed with the good work the proposed
Central Bank might do, and applications for
single shares came in from every part of the
country. The Central Co-operative Bank of
Finland is, under these circumstances, regarded
by the promoters as "the most democratic in-
stitution of the kind in the world." It seems,
at least, to have been the most effective means
of promoting agriculture yet adopted in Finland.
The loans granted by the Central Bank are
advanced exclusively to local agricultural banks,
and, thanks to its aid (and, also, to the improve-
ment in its finances brought about by an annual
subvention of £800 a year granted to it by the

A VIGOROUS MOVEMENT 193

State in June, 1903), agricultural credit banks
are now in course of formation in all parts of
Finland, the total number at the beginning of
December, 1903, being fifty-one.

With the improved financial resources thus
opened up to the agricultural community, a great
impetus has been given to the formation of the
agricultural co-operative organizations sanctioned
by the law of September, 1901. Already there
are 175 registered societies of this type (among
them being seventy-two for the working of
co-operative dairies) besides a number of non-
registered bodies. The total of registered and
non-registered is estimated at 300. As indicat-
ing the amount of actual business done by the
various kinds of organizations, it may be added
that the sum total of the " grouped orders " for
1902 was £100,000, those of the Central Co-
operative Bureau alone amounting to £(>0,000.
Such figures speak well for the vigour of a
movement still in its infancy in a land of only
2,700,000 inhabitants.

The degree of interest that is being aroused
in the whole subject is further indicated by
the fact that a three days' conference on agricul-
tural organization, held in the University of
Helsingfors in April, 1902, was attended by 800
delegates — teachers in agricultural schools, agri-
o

i94 FINLAND

cultural instructors, ordinary peasants, and
others — from all parts of Finland, Lapland
included. But such interest is less surprising
in view of the amount of zeal and energy that
the Pellervo society is throwing into its work.
It publishes manuals on agricultural subjects,
a monthly agricultural review which has 27,000
subscribers, and a Year Book, which is a bulky
volume of over 600 pages ; it issues model rules
and regulations, forms, etc., for the use of
co-operative societies ; it has six organizers
whose business it is to go about the country
explaining to the farmers the principles of the
movement, and instructing the officers of agri-
cultural societies in regard to technical and
commercial details ; it holds, with the help of
these organizers, as many as 300 conferences
a year ; and it has, in the central office in
Helsingfors, a secretarial staff the members of
which, among other duties, give advice to local
societies, and carry on an ever-increasing corre-
spondence, the letters dealt with by them
between January 1st and December 1st, 1903,
representing a total of 4,000. The original
subsidy of the Pellervo of £800 a year from the
Government has been supplemented by a further
grant of £240 to provide a salary for a special
instructor in the management and working of

ACCOMPLISHED RESULTS 195

co-operative dairies, and to allow of the prepara-
tion and publication by the Society of detailed
statistics respecting the dairy industry. The
Pellervo has also received about £1,200 in
donations.

The results already obtained with such modest
finances are distinctly good ; but they are re-
garded by the leaders of the movement as having
chiefly laid the foundation for better results still
to come. There is even the hope that at some
future time Finland may stand more on an
equality with Denmark in supplying butter for
British breakfast tables ; and if we are to go
on importing prodigious quantities of dairy pro-
duce from abroad, there is no reason why Fin-
land— a country which has not only won much
cordial sympathy from the English people, but
takes from us textile goods, machinery, tools,
artificial manures, railway rails, railway engines,
and other things besides, fully equal in value to
what she sends to us — should not have a fair
share of our patronage.

But whatever the further development of
agriculture in Finland may be, the one thing
certain is that the organization of her dairy
industry has enabled her to fully recover from
the agricultural depression that overtook her
twenty years ago. Apart from the unfavourable

1 96 FINLAND

seasons of the last few years, the agriculture
of Finland is in a much more healthy and pros-
perous condition to-day than it was in the early
eighties, and those imports of cheap rye from
Russia which then seemed to threaten her with
disaster are now looked upon as having been
little more than blessings in disguise.

CHAPTER XIV
SIBERIA

PROBABLY the last country in the world
from which the British agriculturist has
thought to meet with competition on his home
markets is Siberia. But the rate at which the
imports of dairy produce from Siberia into this
country are increasing is prodigious. In 1900
they represented a value of £980,000; in 1901
the figure rose to £1,055,000 ; and in 1902 it
stood at £2,196,000. In fact, Russian butter
was, for a time during the summer of 1903,
coming to London at the rate of 1,000 tons a
week, and there were large quantities of eggs
and poultry besides. The first dairy in Siberia
for the manufacture of butter for export was
not set up until 1893. Yet to-day the number
of such dairies in the country is over 2,000, and
their operations, which are still rapidly extend-
ing, already cover an area of 160,000 square
miles. As for the total production of butter
in Siberia, it increased from 5,000. 000 lbs. in

1 97

198 SIBERIA

1898 to 67,000,000 lbs. in 1901. The value of
Siberia's total butter export in 1903 was put at
£3,000,000.

How can so great a business as this have been
developed, in so short a time, in a land which
the English farmer has, probably, hitherto asso-
ciated with frost, and snow, and political exiles,
rather than with successful and competitive agri-
cultural pursuits ?

To begin with, the ordinary idea of Siberia is
an altogether erroneous one, for the country has
vast expanses of virgin soil of wonderful fertility,
and though the summer is short, the climate
uncertain, and the locusts destructive, there is
scope for almost limitless production. But the
natural advantages of the land remained un-
developed until the advent of the Trans-Siberian
Railway, which put the country in touch with
the Western world ; though even then the re-
sults indicated above have been due far more to
foreign than to native enterprise.

The first person in Siberia to make butter
according to modern methods was an English-
woman, married to a Russian ; and the first
dairy with an equipment of separators for butter
production was opened in the district of Kourgan
by a Russian. Notice was attracted to the
Siberian product by an agricultural show held

DANES TO THE FORE 199

at Kourgan in 1895, but still more effectually
was the attention of foreign buyers called to it
by an exhibition organized at St. Petersburg,
in 1899, by the Imperial Economic Society.

No sooner did the Danes realize the possi-
bilities of Siberia than they went there and
began to start butter factories on the same lines
as in Denmark — with this difference, however,
that they did not attempt to bring the Russians
into a scheme of co-operation, but preferred to
set up proprietary dairies instead. There was
effective organization, but the peasants were
paid for the supplies they brought to the central
stations, without sharing in the profits. They
were helped, however, in other ways, capital
being advanced to them, in case of need, for
the purchase of stock, etc., and the business
grew with great rapidity. Starting at Kourgan,
it soon spread to Omsk, Kainsk, Ob or Novo-
Nikolaievsk, Barnoul, Biisk, Minussinsk, and
other centres, where it now constitutes the main
resource of the population. In the Barnoul, or
Altai, region, especially, the industry has under-
gone great expansion. The quantity of butter
despatched from Ob station in 1899 was only
six railway truck-loads, or 738 cwt. ; whereas in
1902 the total from this one centre was 995
truck-loads, or 101,000 cwt. At Omsk there

200 SIBERIA

are no fewer than eight Danish firms established,
and many Russian, English, and German firms
have likewise joined in the enterprise. There
are two Danish houses alone in the country
which are said to be exporting at the rate of
10,000,000 lbs. of butter a year.

It was not without a good deal of difficulty
from local officials that " foreigners " were able
to play their part in developing even so desirable
an industry as this in a country such as Russia,
however favourably disposed the higher officials
might be to the scheme ; and even the higher
officials have sought to extend the business
along the lines of co-operation among the
Russian peasantry themselves rather than in
the direction of encouraging outsiders to set up
still more of their proprietary establishments.
To this end a number of co-operative dairy
associations have been formed, the Imperial
Government granting to them loans not exceed-
ing £320, at 4 per cent., repayable within five
years, for the purposes either of a co-operative
dairy or of refrigerating stores. The money
is generally advanced on the security of the
live-stock belonging to the peasants, and the
profits are divided among them according
to the amount of milk they have supplied.
In other cases dairies are operated by the

DIFFICULTIES OF THE POSITION 201

local communes, and are regarded as communal
property.

There are, however, in Siberia, special diffi-
culties in the way of developing the industry
along such lines as these. The peasantry have
not yet risen out of the depths of ignorance in
which they have so long been steeped ; their
tendency to herd together in villages is prejudicial
to real agricultural development, and constitutes,
together with drunkenness and corruption, one
of the curses of the country ; while their eager-
ness for money, combined with the keen com-
petition between the butter merchants, makes
them more disposed to sell their milk to the
highest bidder than to co-operate for the working
of it up on their own account. The allegation
is even made against some of them that they
are so ready to dispose of all their available
supplies that they do not keep back sufficient
milk to provide for the wants of their own fami-
lies. Another impediment to the formation of
co-operative dairies in Siberia is the difficulty of
finding disinterested and honest managers.

The Imperial authorities arc doing all they can
to promote the movement, for, in addition to
advancing loans, and helping in other ways, they
have appointed official dairy instructors, each of
whom has a group of dairies under his super-

202

SIBERIA

vision. The Moscow Imperial Agricultural
Society is likewise showing much activity in
the matter. It has opened branches at Kour-
gan, Tomsk, and Omsk, and these branches keep
in close touch with one another, and are carrying
on a propaganda among manufacturers and ex-
porters with the special view of securing a
direct export of the produce to London — which
is regarded as the chief market — and doing
away with the Danish middlemen. But up to
the present only about one-twelfth of the exist-
ing establishments are co-operative or com-
munal, and the Danish middleman remains the
predominant partner.

How under these various conditions the in-
dustry has expanded is shown by the following
table : —

YEAR.

NUMBER OF DAIRIES.

EXPORTS.

Cwta.

1898

140

48,360

1899

334

86,730

1900

1,107

354,670

1901

1,800

599,720

1902

2,035

685,500

The Government run four butter trains a
week during the summer season. Starting from
Ob, each train picks up waggons at various
stations (Omsk generally supplies four) until the
full complement of from 25 to 28 has been

TRANSIT ARRANGEMENTS 203

reached. Three of the trains go to Riga and
Windau, the destination of the fourth being
St. Petersburg, Novi Port, and Reval. Each of
them travels at gr ancle Vitesse speed, and takes
precedence of all ordinary goods trains. Re-
frigerator waggons, painted white, are provided
for the traffic (about 1,000 are now available),
and theoretically there should be a supply of ice
at every important station, either for use in the
waggons or for keeping the local supply of
butter fresh until the train arrives ; but in prac-
tice, as may well happen in Russia, the railway
arrangements are distinctly defective. At one
station, for instance, there will be no ice, and
at another there will be ice in waiting, but no
one to put it into the waggons. From Omsk
(the headquarters of the industry) to the port of
Riga the time taken was, up to recently, fourteen
days, but the transit has since been expedited.
From Riga the butter comes weekly either to
London, to Hull, or to Leith. From Windau
supplies reach London or Newcastle rid Copen-
hagen, and still other weekly consignments ar-
rive in London from Reval. The cost of the
land transit from Omsk to Riga is about 7s. 4>d.
per cwt. From Kurgan to Riga it would be 5d,
per cwt. less ; from Petropavlosk 3d. per cwt.
less ; from Kainsk 3d. per cwt. less ; from Ob

204 SIBERIA

6d. per cwt. more ; from Barnoul 1*. 6d. per cwt.
more, and so on, these low freights being, of
course, fixed by the Government for the express
purpose of facilitating the export of the produce.
From Riga to London direct, including all
wharfage and landing charges, the freight works
out at between 2s. and 2s. 6d, per cwt. So the
butter purchased at Omsk at the rate of, say, 11
roubles per pood, or £3 12s. 9d. per cwt., costs
£4> 2s. 3d. by the time it reaches London. The
total distance from Omsk to London is 3,600
miles.

Two qualities of butter are exported from
Siberia — table butter and cooking butter ; and
there is a special reason why much of the latter
quality — as well as a good deal of the former —
should be consigned to Denmark for consump-
tion in that country, Great Britain and Den-
mark being, in fact, the two chief importers of
Siberian dairy produce. Prior to the introduc-
tion of the co-operative dairy system the butter
made by the Danish peasants was mostly of
an uncertain type ; but when the peasants left
off producing each his own little lot, and butter
was made only in large quantities of uniform
quality, the inferior kinds disappeared. There
was, however, a commercial demand for these
inferior, and consequently cheaper, kinds. The

DETAILS OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 205

chemical conditions which bring about a rancid
flavour in butter, and make it unsuitable for the
table, are volatile, and driven off by the heat in
the process of baking. Butter which would not
be palatable on bread may, therefore, still be
quite suitable for the making of confectionery.
So it is that " confectioner's butter " is a well-
recognized article of commerce. But with the
improvements effected in the Danish system of
production there was no longer sufficient of the
" confectioner's " variety in the country to meet
the demands of the pastry-cooks. Consequently
the Danish traders, while sending their own pro-
duce to Great Britain, imported at first " con-
fectioner's butter" from the United States,
Galicia, the interior of Germany, and other
countries, a considerable trade growing up in
the article in question. But this trade is now
done exclusively with Russia, owing to the lower
freight, while a good deal of Russian butter of a
superior quality is used in Denmark as an ordi-
nary article of diet because it comes cheaper
than the Danish, which can be much more pro-
fitably exported to Great Britain.

In addition to the substantial quantities of
Russian butter sent to Denmark for consumption
there, much also goes to Copenhagen to be
"graded'1 by the Danish experts, and, if ap-

206 SIBERIA

proved, re-consigned to England. There have
been suggestions that Russian butter so landed
in Denmark is forwarded thence to ourselves as
Danish ; but the laws of the country are severe
against any such deception, and the Danish pro-
ducers have voluntarily agreed upon a brand
with which all their home-made butter is marked
when exported. Large supplies of Siberian pro-
duce were also sent, prior to the war, to points
on the Pacific coast, and to China and Japan.

What the future development of the industry
may be is an interesting problem both for Siberia
herself and for those other countries, including
British Colonies, likely to be affected directly or
indirectly by her entrance as a formidable com-
petitor on the world's food markets. Of the
Trans-Siberian Railway it has well been said by
the British Commercial Agent in Russia, Mr.
Henry Cooke, in a report on the " Trade of
Siberia," that it has "already served as a spur
to the colonization and civilization of this huge
inert expanse of territory, whose very name
hitherto stood but as a symbol of isolation " ;
while as regards the rural industries which have
followed the railway, I have the assurance of a
trader intimately acquainted with recent develop-
ments in Siberia that they have been " a perfect
God-send " for the peasants. "The people," writes

BASIS OF THE BUSINESS 207

my authority, " have been literally saved from
starvation by what they have received for their
butter. Yet they are anything but grateful.
Siberia's population exists largely on English
money, but curses the giver."

The point, however, with which I am here
mainly concerned is not either a fiscal or a senti-
mental one, but the practical consideration that
the exceedingly rapid growth and the truly
enormous expansion of the Siberian dairy in-
dustry, on the lines described, are directly due
to that system of effective and thoroughgoing
organization which, whatever the precise form it
may assume, and whatever the particular country
in which it may be developed, constitutes in
present-day conditions the indispensable basis for
any real success in agricultural pursuits.

CHAPTER XV
SERVIA

THE conditions from which organized effort
has sought to rescue the agriculturists of
Servia were at one time unspeakably bad.
Crippled by taxation, and his normal condition
of impoverishment made worse by occasional
crop failures, the Servian farmer in his struggle
for existence had two natural enemies who
profited by his misfortunes, and preyed upon
him for all that he was worth. The one was the
shopkeeper in the towns, the other was the inn-
keeper in the villages.

It was to the shopkeeper he went when he
was obliged to borrow money for his farming
operations. The ordinary banks were far beyond
the reach of modest cultivators who had no
adequate security to offer, and a tradesman was
the only alternative. It was convenient to go
to him, and the shopkeeper himself was ready
enough to lend. The drawback to the arrange-
ment was that the shopkeeper's recognized rate

208

PLUNDERING THE FARMERS 209

of interest was one franc per month for every
ten francs — say 120 per cent. So profitable was
the business that people became shopkeepers in
the towns for the express purpose of lending
money to customers, not caring whether the shop
itself paid or not. The poor farmer might be
ruined, but that was, for them, a mere matter
of detail.

The innkeeper in the villages was not a
money-lender. He preferred to leave that
branch of the business of plunder to the trader
in the towns, and to take up one which he
could work to his own particular advantage.
Most of the innkeepers in Servia are Greeks,
and the Servian Jew who lends money has the
reputation of being a man of modest pretensions
compared with the Servian Greek who doesn't.
In any case the village innkeepers had a way of
inducing the farmers to sell their produce to
them, instead of going to market with it, and the
sale was often effected in this way at a price
which represented a very small profit indeed for
the man who had produced the crop, and a large
profit for the innkeeper who assumed the role
of middleman.

What the Servian farmer stood especially in
need of, therefore (though there were other things
besides), was to be rescued from the clutches

p

210 SERVIA

of these two sets of harpies, and it became evi-
dent that he could not work out his economic
salvation if left to his individual resources. An
effective combination was absolutely indispen-
sable, and the first thing required of such com-
bination was that the peasants should be provided
with an easy system of agricultural credit.
People's Banks had been in existence since 1883,
but these did not sufficiently meet the case of
the poorer cultivators. What was needed was
the starting of village banks of the Raiffeisen
type. These alone could give the peasant the
kind of credit which would be of real service.
But he wanted more than easy credit. He
wanted, besides, some practical assistance both
in the spending of the money he borrowed and
in the disposal of the crops he raised.

Servia is not a country which offered the same
scope as France (for example) in the way of an
elaborate network of agricultural syndicates and
other combinations for a variety of purposes,
and what has happened there is that the agri-
cultural credit banks, which began to be set up
in Servia in 1893, have practically covered the
whole ground of agricultural organization. They
not only receive deposits and make loans to the
farmers, but they themselves will see to the
buying of cattle, seeds, fertilizers, implements,

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BANKS 211

and other things, thus serving the purpose of
a supply association ; they procure the agricul-
tural machinery which local associations hold
in common ; they undertake the sale of produce,
and they also arrange for various forms of in-
surance, including insurance against sickness,
against famine resulting from loss of crops,
and also against prejudice to crops due to an
inadequate supply of labour. It is true that
some of these functions will be delegated to sub-
sidiary bodies, but the agricultural credit bank
is the controlling spirit. Thus, in the report of
the Union of Agricultural Co-operative Societies
in Servia (a federation formed in 1895) for the
year ending June 30th, 1903, mention is made
of 228 agricultural credit and savings banks,
while the number of exclusively purchase
societies is given as only two. Yet the afore-
said banks, in addition to granting during the
year 8,209 loans, representing a total of
£26,500, bought agricultural necessaries to the
extent of another £15,000. These may be small
figures compared with corresponding returns in
France and Germany ; but, considering that
Servia is a small and a backward country, and
that the movement here described only began
in 1893, the results stated are distinctly credit-
able.

212 SERVIA

The report further mentions that while 58
fresh agricultural societies were formed during
the year, the net total was not increased by
that number, inasmuch as 13 dropped out of
existence. The reason for this fact is that the
secretary of an agricultural co-operative associa-
tion in Servia is generally the parish priest or
the schoolmaster, and should these persons leave
the district, there may be no one sufficiently
well educated to take their place. A return
made by 253 societies shows that of their 12,361
members 6,218 could read and write, and 6,143
could not. So we get the further fact that
when the Central Union started a forward move-
ment in support of its propaganda, it arranged
to give lectures on purely agricultural subjects
in fifteen towns or villages, and to begin the
training of young people in the duties of organ-
izing secretary in fourteen.

The Central Union issues, also, an agricultural
newspaper, many pamphlets, and an elaborate
and extremely practical handbook. In this way
good educational work is being done, in addition
to the material benefits afforded to the agri-
cultural community. In still another direction,
social peace is actively promoted in Servian rural
districts by the institution known as " The Court
of Good Men," which it is one of the aims of

PROMOTION OF SOCIAL PEACE 213

the agricultural co-operative associations there
to promote. "The Court of Good Men " is
really a board of arbitration for the settlement
of local disputes, so as to avoid alike the spread
of ill-blood and the waste of money in legal pro-
ceedings. The report already referred to shows
that during the year ending June 30th, 1903, no
fewer than 103 cases came before these courts,
and out of the 103 there are three only which
are described as ending unsatisfactorily. Most of
the cases turned on questions of right of way or
the appropriation of a slice of a neighbour's land
in the process of ploughing the unfenced fields ;
but a certain number dealt with claims for money
due, and still others related to " insults to one's
honour." But, whatever the points in dispute,
the value of the services rendered to the parties
concerned in obtaining so large a proportion
of friendly settlements may well be set to the
further credit of the local organizers of agri-
culture.

So the conditions in Servia are being sub-
stantially improved, and that country, also, is
joining with zest in the scramble among the
nations for the privilege of furnishing us with
our food supplies. From a bacon factory set up
in Belgrade in 1901 there have come to Eng-
land in the course of a single year 19,750 cwts.

214 SERVIA

of bacon, obtained from 16,120 pigs, though up
to quite recently the Servian farmers paid little
attention to pig-breeding, and none to fattening
for the markets. Of poultry, too, Servia sup-
plies us with considerable quantities, especially
for our Christmas markets, and she is also
opening up a good trade with us in eggs, judg-
ing from the fact that a consignment she des-
patched to London in November, 1902, filled
four railway waggons.

Servia may be a small country, and a poor
and uncultivated one ; but she has re-organized
her agricultural methods, she has re-established
her farmers, and she now feels quite equal to
sending her surplus stocks all across Europe to
compete with the British producer in his home
markets.

CHAPTER XVI
POLAND

IT was not until 1900 that the first agricul-
tural association on co-operative lines was
started in Poland, yet already the practical
utility of this form of combination has been
abundantly proved in a country where agricul-
tural conditions had suffered from a long series
of adverse circumstances.

There was a time in the history of Poland
when the peasants, instead of paying rent,
worked for the landowner, to whom they were
so much bound that they could not leave the
land without his permission. Even when this
requirement was abolished, they still did work
in lieu of paying rent, and though they were
granted the right to own land, comparatively
few of them had acquired possession of their
holdings down to 1800. Four years later the
peasants had a grant made to them of the land
they lived on, and they were now freed from
any obligation to work (except as wage-earners)

215

216 POLAND

for the previous owners thereof. These in-
dividuals consequently lost a good deal of the
cheap labour on which they had formerly relied,
the cost of production being thereby increased.
This did not matter very much so long as good
prices could be secured for the grain ; but a
serious position was reached when those prices
fell 40 per cent, as the combined result of
the great production in the United States
and of the tariff war between Russia and
Germany.

Meanwhile the substantial expansion of in-
dustries, fostered by a high protective tariff,
had drawn off more and more of the rural
populations into the towns, thus further de-
creasing the supply, and increasing the cost, of
agricultural labour. Other causes tending to
the same result were the increasing stream of
emigration, the tendency for the labourers to
wander into Germany and Austria- Hungary in
harvest time, attracted by the higher wages paid
there than in Poland ; and the dividing up of
the large estates into small lots, which — with
the assistance of the (State) Peasants' Bank,
when necessary — were purchased by the peas-
ants, whose labour thus became still less avail-
able for the larger proprietors.

One of the main objects sought by the co-

THE LABOUR PROBLEM 217

operative agricultural societies now to be found
in each of the ten governments in Poland has,
therefore, been that of facilitating the more
general use of machinery, for its own sake, for
the purpose of helping the large proprietors to
solve the labour problem, or for promoting the
interests of the small holders, many of whom
found it difficult enough to carry on their opera-
tions at a profit, and regarded as the greatest of
boons the possibility of acquiring, or obtaining
the use of, machines and implements on the
most advantageous terms.

In some cases (as the British Consul-General
at Warsaw relates in a report to the Foreign
Office) the society enables a member to secure
machinery at cash price on credit ; in others it
will itself purchase the machinery and let it out
at a low rate to farmers. From 2d. to 5d. will
be charged per day for a plough ; from 5d. to 2.y.
for winnowers ; and from 2s. to 2s. (Sd. for drills.
The Warsaw society is said to have already
obtained machinery to the extent of £ 29,000 in a
year. The societies also deal in artificial manures
and seeds, buying at wholesale prices, and selling
retail, on credit, at an advance of only 5 per
cent, on those prices. Mr. Murray says in his
report for 11)00 that " naturally this action on
the part of the societies has led to great op-

218 POLAND

position on the part of the dealers, who allege

that the societies should confine themselves to

arranging shows and trials, and to improvement

of the roads and breeds of cattle, and collecting

of statistics " ; but in his subsequent report he

was able to say : —

1901 was a very good year for the Polish agricultural
societies, and proved that these institutions are extremely
useful to agriculturists as a means for buying articles for
agriculture and for selling its products on terms they could
not otherwise get. The turn-over of some of these
societies was very considerable, when it is taken into con-
sideration that it was the first year of their existence, that
their capital is very small, and that they have to compete with
the middleman, whose efforts, now he is losing ground, are
more than doubled. . . . British firms, and more especially
makers of agricultural machinery and implements, should
very seriously consider opening up business connections
with these societies, as their importance, in view of the
special facilities which have been granted to them by the
Government as to freights, loans, etc., is sure to increase
very considerably, and they will become about the most
important buyers of articles connected with agriculture.

In addition to the purchase of machinery, etc.,
agricultural organization is likewise being de-
veloped in Poland in the interests of the dairy
industry. Other societies have taken up the
question of improving the breed of cattle. A
Mutual Insurance Society against damage done
by hail has also been started.

SCHOOL GARDENS 219

Special co-operative agricultural credit banks
have not yet, apparently, been formed in Poland ;
but Mr. Murray says that the facility with which
hop-growers can now obtain credit from the
State Bank does much to encourage hop cultiva-
tion, and has rendered an incalculable service to
the hop-growers. Advances are also made by
the State to grain-growers. In the matter of
agricultural education Mr. Murray says : — " A
good step that has been taken recently is the
establishment of gardens at primary schools,
that the children may learn something about
gardening and the care of fruit trees, which they
plant themselves on fete days arranged specially
for the purpose." In former times, it seems,
Polish landowners would require their peasants
to prove that they had planted a certain number
of fruit trees before they would allow them to
marry. This old custom has disappeared, but
Poland has now got 120,000 acres of fruit
orchards, and fruit culture is regarded there
as an industry especially deserving of en-
couragement.

One drawback to the complete success of
agricultural organization in Poland is that, for
political reasons, no federation of societies oper-
ating over the whole country will be permitted
by the authorities, and each group must be

220 POLAND

content to work within the boundaries of a
single government. But, in spite of this limita-
tion, the movement has made an excellent start,
and the position of the Polish agriculturist
has already undergone a decided improvement.

CHAPTER XVII
LUXEMBURG

EVEN in so small a State as the Grand
Duchy of Luxemburg, which occupies
only 1,585 square miles of territory, and has
not much more than 200,000 inhabitants, the
organization of agriculture has been taken in
hand with a thoroughness that compares favour-
ably with the conditions to be found in those
neighbouring countries of France, Germany,
and Belgium between which it is wedged.

Luxemburg became possessed of an " Associa-
tion Royale Agricole " in 1846, and of " Le
Circle Agricole et Horticole " in 1853, and these
institutions performed a useful function in
holding exhibitions, circulating literature, and
watching over the commercial interests of agri-
culture. But the time came when Luxemburg,
seeing what other countries were doing, con-
cluded, as they had done, that combinations with
a more practical purpose had become indispensa-
ble. Accordingly, in 1883, the Luxemburg

221

222 LUXEMBURG

House of Representations passed a law author-
izing the formation of agricultural syndicates,
the immediate purpose of which was to be the
carrying out of works for the improvement of
the soil. These were followed, later on, by the
formation of many other syndicates on the
general model of those established in France.
One of the primary objects sought by this newer
type of organization was the collective purchase
of agricultural necessaries, to which end the
members of the syndicates held annual meetings,
where they announced the quantities of chemical
manures, seeds, etc., they would require during
the year. The administration then grouped the
orders, bargained with the manufacturers for the
entire quantity, and had it sent to some con-
venient centre in waggon-load lots.

Then, also, the associations held periodical
conferences at which addresses were given by
experts in agricultural science, gatherings of
this kind being found to have an important
educational influence on the cultivators of the
soil who form the bulk of the little community.
In 1894 the first co-operative dairy in Luxem-
burg was formed. To-day there is a consider-
able number of these organizations in the Grand
Duchy. They have been grouped into a general
federation, the Council of which supervises not

A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMME 223

only the dairies but the sale of the butter and
cheese ; and the peasants find their own labours
have decreased in proportion as their profits have
augmented. In 1899 the fruit growers formed
a combination to organize the joint export of
their produce. Other associations deal with the
insurance of live-stock, these being supplemented
by a federation for re-insurance.

The most important factor in the general
situation was, however, brought about when the
House of Representatives passed a further law
authorizing the Government of the Grand
Duchy, on the application of the Communal
Councils, to establish Agricultural Credit Banks
from which the local associations could obtain
loans up to £ 40 each, at 5 per cent, interest, for
periods not exceeding three years. In this way
the peasants were often enabled to at once take
advantage of agricultural improvements which
otherwise would have been beyond their means.

The Government also appointed a commission
of experts to watch over and extend the work
carried on in the experimental and demonstra-
tion fields already set up by various associations,
and to furnish reports on that work to the
agricultural journals in the interests of the
whole fanning community. The commission
was further charged with the task of popu-

224 LUXEMBURG

larizing the newest and best types of agricultural
machinery by giving demonstrations thereof in
the country districts, thus bringing them under
the direct notice of the peasantry ; and it was
instructed to prepare agricultural maps of the
Grand Duchy, so that the farmers in any par-
ticular locality would be in a better position to
obtain the kind of fertilizers needed for the soil
they were cultivating.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE UNITED STATES

T 1 J HEN visiting the United States in the
VV winter of 1902-1903 to collect data for
my book on American Railways, I had many
opportunities of learning how, in various ways,
and in different directions, the agricultural in-
terests of the country had been advanced by
a resort to improved methods of production,
and especially by systems of combination which
had enabled producers to make arrangements
with railway companies that tended to the ad-
vantage of both. I have thought, however,
that for the special purpose of the present work,
it would be better, instead of attempting to deal
with United States conditions as a whole, to
give a study of a particular district, and it
seemed to me that no one district among those
I saw in the course of my journeyings on the
American Continent would be more suitable for
the purpose than that of the Illinois Central
Railroad. Apart from numerous ramifications.

225

226 THE UNITED STATES

this railway runs in a direct line from Chicago
to New Orleans, and, for a considerable part
of that stretch of over 900 miles, serves many-
centres where the local interests are mainly
agricultural.

With a view to obtaining definite facts and
figures, I communicated with the president
of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, Mr.
Stuyvesant Fish, and at his request Mr. T. J.
Hudson, the Company's traffic manager, has
drawn up for me what I now venture to offer
as a profoundly interesting statement, based on
the results of his thirty years' experience in
the service of the Illinois Central. This is what
Mr. Hudson says : —

Before the advent of railroads each town or city was
dependent for its fruits and vegetables on the surround-
ing country, and then the supply was only abundant
during the particular season when such products were
grown. As the facilities for rapid transportation came
and progressed, the farmers enlarged their operations,
until now cities and towns in all parts of the country
are kept supplied the year round with fresh fruit and
vegetables. The traffic is immense, and has grown to
be of such commercial importance that in cities like
New York, Chicago, and St. Louis entire streets are
given over to the handling of the business. In many
places whole farms are used entirely in the raising of
truck (market-garden produce), so profitable have pro-
ducers found it to be. They take advantage of the
newest discoveries in connection with agriculture, as

MARKET-GARDENING 227

developed by Agricultural Colleges and Experiment
Stations, particularly in the South, and by these means
are enabled to add materially to the productiveness of
the soil. So the business has grown from gardens sur-
rounding cities to territories covering many States, fur-
nishing the railroads with a high-class traffic and a crop
of quick sale for the farmer.

While at the present time the States south of the
Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River supply a
large proportion of the produce of this nature, it is
only in comparatively recent years that this has been
the case, for the reason that the development of that
part of the country in the matter of transportation
facilities has come since the close of the Civil War. In
fact, at the time of the Civil War truck-farming was
only in its infancy in Illinois. The building of the
Illinois Central Railroad opened up a region in Southern
Illinois particularly adapted to fruit and vegetable grow-
ing. In the early sixties settlers in the vicinity of Cobden
planted orchards, having in mind the supplying of fruit
to the Chicago market, where prices were high; and, while
waiting for the orchards to mature, they took up the
raising of vegetables and small fruits, such as tomatoes
and berries. Meeting with success, they continued the
business, which increased in volume each year until it
has developed into its present proportions.

With the close of the war and the opening up of direct
North and South lines of transportation, the business had
gradually extended into the South until now, as stated
above, that section of the country has become a great
fruit and vegetable territory. As the demand in Northern
cities for fresh fruits and vegetables the entire year round
grew, truck-farming kept extending further South in order
to get the earlier crops. The extreme Southern pro-
ducers had of course to pay high transportation charges

228 THE UNITED STATES

on account of the distance, and there was great risk in-
volved in sending the produce to Northern markets on
account of the time involved in transit. To meet this,
the railroads have furnished special service, and the pro-
ducers have combined and formed associations in order
to secure advantages in reduced rates, and, also, to effect
improvements in the manner of handling both at the
point of despatch and at the destination. As the result
of all these conditions the far South and South-west can
now compete with the more Northern localities in the
regular seasons, and, besides, furnish the produce during
winter months at prices within the reach of all.

While the principal movement of the traffic is from the
South to the North, vast quantities of Northern -grown
potatoes, cabbages, onions, celery, etc., are transported to
the South every winter, so that the Illinois Central at one
season of the year hauls train-loads of such produce North-
bound, and then, a few months later, hauls the same kind
of commodities South-bound.

The Southern States traversed by the Illinois Central
and Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroads are probably
the largest fruit and vegetable-producing States in the
Union. Crystal Springs, Miss., on the Illinois Central,
is, indeed, the largest tomato-shipping point in the world,
and other of our stations are as notable in the raising of
strawberries and vegetables, car-loads after car-loads of
such commodities being forwarded during the different
seasons.

As an indication of the improvements made by the
railroads in the facilities for handling this perishable
traffic, I may say that in the beginning shippers were
obliged to use either common box cars or cattle cars, or
send by express. As regards the last-mentioned course,
not only was it almost impracticable, on account of the
high charges, but the produce met with hasty handling,

THE RAILWAYS AND THE TRADERS 229

and suffered from the poor ventilation in the baggage
cars. The box ears also afforded poor ventilation, causing
the vegetables to heat, while the stock cars were too open,
and exposed the contents to the weather, besides which
there was the constant pounding and jarring, owing to
absence of springs on the cars. Now we provide modern
ventilated cars and refrigerator cars, which ride as easily
as passenger coaches. Trains composed of such cars are
run through on passenger train time, enabling the fruit
and vegetables to be placed on the market almost as fresh
as at the time of gathering.

The manner of loading — which is, of course, an im-
portant consideration in the carrying on of this traffic —
has been reduced to a science. The contents of a venti-
lated car are so arranged that when the car is in motion
a current of air comes in at the front end ventilators,
passes between the tiers of packages, and escapes through
the rear ventilators. Where refrigerator cars are used
they are iced several hours before being loaded, so thai
the temperature is of the proper degree when the ship-
ments are placed therein. When necessary the cars are
also re-iced en route. In this way fruits and vegetables
of the most perishable kind can be carried thousands of
miles and delivered in good condition.

Owing to the nature of the traffic, the special kind of
cars required, and the need to run the trains on fast
schedules, the rates charged were necessarily high, par-
ticularly for le.ss-than-car-load lots ; and in order to secure
the benefit of lower, or car-load, rates, the shippers and
consignees found it necessary to form organizations.
These organizations have worked to the mutual advan-
tage of all — the railroads as well as the shippers and

consignees.

The building of the Illinois Central opened up, as
already mentioned, a region in Southern Illinois which

230 THE UNITED STATES

was particularly well adapted to the raising of fruits and
vegetables, the territory in the vicinity of Cobden taking
the initiative in the matter. It was at this station that,
about twenty-five years ago, the first Fruit Growers'1
Association was formed, establishing what is known as
the Granger System of shipping. The associations formed
under this system are organized under the laws of the
State, and are capitalized at from $1,000 to $5,000. The
stock is issued in shares of $10 each, and any person
engaged in the growing or shipping of fruits and vege-
tables who has subscribed for a share is considered a
member. The officers of the association generally consist
of a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer
and six directors, elected by the shareholders at the
annual meeting. The business of the association is
controlled by the board of directors and officers, who
appoint a local manager, and also, at destination, a
receiver or general consignee. The local manager looks
after details at the shipping point, such as ordering cars,
checking the packages from the farmers1 waggons into
car, giving receipts for them, and making up a detailed
manifest of the shipments loaded into car, which manifest
accompanies the car to destination, and gives the name of
the shipper and commission merchant to whom consigned.
The shippers are given the privilege of consigning their
shipments to whatever commission firm they choose, and
the packages are so marked. The way-bill shows the car-
load to be consigned to the general consignee, who meets
it at destination, pays the railroad company the freight
charges, which are assessed on car-load basis, and makes
delivery to representatives of the different commission
houses, who will be on hand with waggons. He then
adds to the freight charge his charges for handling,
prorates the amount, and fixes a package rate in propor-
tion to the size and contents. The commission merchant

THE "GENERAL CONSIGNEE" 231

renders a bill of sale, deducting the various items of ex-
pense, such as commission of 10 per cent., freight charges
on package basis, cartage, etc., and remits direct to the
shipper by cheque or express order. The general con-
signee, in collecting from the commission men the amount
due in respect to the railroad charges already paid by
him, and, also, for his own services, makes a small addi-
tional charge on behalf of the association, to enable it to
meet cost of management, etc. Supposing, for instance,
that the railroad freight comes to $40 per car, and that
the charge for his own services is 84 per car, making
a total of 844, he collects an amount which "ill ag-
gregate 850 per car, remitting $6 to the central organ-
ization.

The advantages of this system are (1) that the farmer
is relieved of much trouble in shipping his consignments ;
is able to gain the full advantage of car-load rates ; is
sure of his goods being properly looked after on arrival at
destination : is certain of honest returns ; and is led by
all these considerations to increase his crop from year to
year; (2) the railroad company gets more freight to handle;
it is saved the expense of loading and unloading; and it
effects an economy in dealing with one or two persons in-
stead of many in regard to the collection of freight charges
and other matters of detail.

From this association at Cobden have sprung a number
of others; and as an indication of the magnitude of the
car-load business done bv them I may mention that the
average number of cars per annum dealt with by five of
these organizations works out as follows : Cobden, TOO ;
Anna. 500; MaKanda, 860; Villa Ridge, 800; Balcom,
100. The extent of the business done is still more
clearly shown bv the following table, which gives the
quantities of fruit and vegetables forwarded from Southern
Illinois (Villa Ridge to Carbondale inclusive) during the

232

THE UNITED STATES

last eight years, and the freight receipts of the Illinois
Central Railroad Company in respect thereto : —

YEAR.

QUANTITIES.

RECEIPTS.

1896

1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903*

lbs.
40,588,200
58,239,800
36,095,500
32,389,100
31,865,300
43,322,600
40,483,200
32,315,900

Dollars.

76,355.67
104,959.74
64,885.52
57,297.23
54,948.49
77,023.43
63,361.89
51,186.42

Total .

315,299,600

550,018.39

* Nine months.

The schedules of fruit and vegetable trains from
Southern Illinois points to Chicago show that the speed,
including stops, is twenty miles per hour, and, not includ-
ing stops, twenty-one miles per hour. In 1902, however,
the train scheduled from Centralia ran at a speed of
twenty-five miles per hour.

P'rom points in the Southern States the returns in re-
spect to freight tonnage and receipts give the following
totals for the " seasons " of the undermentioned years —
the " season " covering in each instance the months from
March to July, inclusive : —

YEAR.

QUANTITIES.

RECEIPTS.

lbs.

Dollars.

1896

39,371,192

227,304.84

1897

35,622,900

222,342.03

1898

52,989,179

273,532.35

1899

29,622,642

159,603.66

1900

37,886,397

188,600.49

1901

38,450,506

186,095.71

1902

40,829,398

210,488.72

1903

41,909,964

236,139.71

Total .

316,682,178

704,107.51

xVt several places situated on the Southern lines a

MAGNITUDE OF THE TRAFFIC 233

speciality is made of some particular product, as, for in-
stance, strawberries at Independence, La.; radishes at
Roseland, La.; tomatoes at Crystal Springs, Miss.; and
cucumbers at Canton, Miss. In many of the districts
served by these Southern lines there are associations
operating on the same principle as those in Illinois already
mentioned.

As a further indication of the extent of this traffic
from the South to the North I give, also, the number of
extra cars, loaded with fruit and vegetables, from stations
on the Southern lines, and from points in Illinois, handled
for the American Express Company, and necessitating the
running of special trains almost daily during the season,
these cars being in addition to the tonnage hauled on the
freight trains as shown above : — ■

YKAH. NO. OF (.'AltS.

185)7 . . . 187

1898 .... 291

1899 . . . . 325

1900 . . . . 380

1901 . . . 454

1902 . . . 465

1903 .... 565

The significance of all these figures will be better under-
stood when it is remembered that there has been a vast
change in the products of the South during the past
twenty or twenty-five years. Prior to that time cotton
was the staple product, and no attempt was made to
cultivate other crops to any extent. But the last two
decades have seen a great resort not only to the produc-
tion of fruit and vegetables, but to the growing of crops

of all kinds, including grain and hay, SO that cultivators

are now no longer dependent mainly on a single article.
More attention is, also, being given to stock grazing, and
dairying has been taken up in New Orleans, the adapt-

234 THE UNITED STATES

ability of Southern soil to a diversity of crops and
purposes being now taken full advantage of; while the
general prosperity of what were once purely agricultural
districts has been very greatly increased by a further
rapid development of industrial enterprises.

I may add, by way of conclusion, that the figures I
have given do not fully represent the sum total of the
fruit carried, for, irrespective of all this, the Illinois
Central also handles a very large traffic in bananas and
other tropical fruits, imported by way of New Orleans.
This makes it necessary for us to have a large equipment
of cars especially designed for handling fruit. As going
to show the extent of this business, I beg to call your
attention to the fact that on June 30th, 1903, the Illinois
Central R.R. Co. had in service : —

NUMBER.

CAPACITY IN TONS.

Fruit Cars

. 1,516

42,172

Refrigerator Cars

. 2,037

58,319

That is to say, the equipment available for this purpose,
if used for no other, could carry over 100,000 tons at
each loading of the cars.

*&

This most instructive story — for which I have
to express my cordial acknowledgments to Mr.
Stuyvesant Fish and Mr. Hudson — brings out,
I think, with great force and clearness the fact
that the agriculturists in the United States, as
in the countries of Europe with which I have
already dealt, have not been slow in benefiting
from the latest developments of agricultural
science ; that to this cause is due, in part, the
great expansion in agriculture brought about

WHAT THE STORY SHOWS 235

there ; that the best of results for traders and
railways have followed the adoption by the
former of combination principles which enabled
the one to work hand in hand with the other,
to their mutual advantage ; and that cultivators
in Illinois and the Southern States, at least,
have displayed great readiness generally in adapt-
ing their methods alike to fresh openings and
to changing conditions.

CHAPTER XIX
ARGENTINA

IN an interesting sketch of the position of
agriculture in Argentina, published in the
Journal of the Board of Agriculture for June,
1903, Mr. Herbert Gibson, vice-President of
the Argentina Rural Society, showed that
several special circumstances had combined to
give to Argentina the position she now occu-
pies as a food producer — especially for British
markets.

The crisis of 1890 drove the estanciero "back
to the land " ; and the outbreak of foot and
mouth disease in Argentina, which closed our
ports to his live-stock, was a blessing in disguise
to him, since it led to the inception of the
chilled meat trade, and the substantial develop-
ment of the dairy business, the latter being,
also, greatly facilitated by reason of the drought
in Australia, which gave Argentina a better
chance with her exports. Another most im-
portant element in the spread of agriculture in

236

BUTTER A LA BASQUE 237

the country has been the expansion of the
Argentine railways, the whole of which, with
a few exceptions, are owned by English com-
panies. " Throughout the agricultural zone,"
says Mr. Gibson, " new branches are being
made, carrying the colonist and the tools of
his craft to virgin lands, and putting him in
touch with his buying market. Every lineal
mile of new railway calls 15,000 acres of land
into cultivation."

But the point with which we are here mainly
concerned is the evidence afforded as to the
effective part that organization has played in
the results to which Argentina has attained, and
concerning this I venture to quote the following
passages from Mr. Gibson's contribution : —

Fifteen vears ago the traveller in Argentina would
arrive at an estancia, where the mobs of cattle numbered
thousands, to rind that he had to drink tea without milk,
and mark as a token of honour to the guest a tin of Danish
salt butter on the table. The dairy supply of the great
citv of Buenos Aires was in the hands of Basques, who
milked their cows in unclean yards, and rode off in the
morning astride a jangling pannier of tin cans, the cream
churning into butter as the horse trotted through the
lanes of the suburbs. Thus they cantered into town to

dispense their wares from door to door, mid their sole
competitor was the pedestrian cow-herd, who drove his
kine through the busiest streets, and, in answer to the hail
of the housewife, supplied milk "fresh from the cow."

23S ARGENTINA

The process of churning by equitation demanded the
roughest of trots, and the cowboy of Argentina describes
the rude gait associated with this interesting function as
a trote lechero — a milkman's trot.

Men who are still young have seen a horse-hide vessel
containing cream secured to a rough sled, and dragged
at break-neck speed over the pampa. When the wild
chase ended, and the hide vessel was opened, butter was
revealed.

A few years ago a leading estanclero took up the trade
of the dairy supply of Buenos Aires. He erected buildings
on his estate, and equipped them with separators, refriger-
ators, and all the most modern appliances of dairy science ;
introduced milking herds of which the Dutch Holstein
and the Shorthorn were the predominant breeds ; opened
numerous supply stores in the city, whose cool white-tiled
rooms speedily became popular with the man in the street,
and in a year the Basque, with his clattering cans and the
street cow, had faded into the past.

This was the beginning of the dairy trade. The drop
in wool, particularly in the strong cross-herds which con-
stitute the bulk of the Argentine wool parcel, induced
live-stock breeders to give more attention to their herds
of cattle. The outbreak of foot and mouth disease and
its effect on live-stock trade was a further incentive to the
estanclero to study the profitableness of the dairy business.
Central butter factories, receiving cream either by direct
purchase or on the co-operative system, were established
in many districts. In 1898 the production of butter
barely exceeded the local consumption. In 1902 over
4,000 tons were exported, almost entirely to the United
Kingdom. The importance of producing a uniform
quality has made the farm dairy and churn give place to
the central factory, and the result has been a corresponding

LARGE EXPORTS AND HIGHER PRICES 239

improvement in the market value. In 1900 Argentine
butter was sold at a price inferior to that obtained for
the French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Australasian
article ; to-day Argentine butter obtains a price second
only to that of Denmark and Sweden.

CHAPTER XX
CANADA

IN the twenty-eighth annual report, for the
year ending December 31st, 1902, of the
Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental
Farm, the President, Mr. James Mills, writes : —

The condition and prospects of agriculturists in this
country are improving. The farmers of Ontario, not to
speak of the other provinces of the Dominion, are in a much
better position now than they were fifteen or sixteen years
ago. They are on a higher plane of intelligence ; they dress
better and live better ; they are getting a larger share of
the necessaries and comforts of life for their labour; and
as a class they stand higher socially than they did in the
years gone by. Many agencies have been contributing to
these gratifying results — the public and High Schools all
over the province, the Agricultural College, the Dairy
Schools, Travelling Dairies, Farmers1 Institutes, Women's
Institutes, Live-Stock, Dairy, and Poultry Associations,
Entomological Society, and Fruit Growers' Association,
Winter Fairs, other great fairs, provincial sales of live-
stock, and the annual distribution by the Minister of
Agriculture to all members of Farmers1 Institutes through-
out the province of free copies of all reports and bulletins
issued by the Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural

240

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES NEW AND OLD 241

College, the Farmers1 Institutes, and the various associa-
tions under the control of the Minister — many agencies
and a great work.

Of these various agencies the one that has,
perhaps, exercised the most direct and the most
powerful influence in recent years, in giving a
new impetus to the development of agriculture
in the Dominion, is the Farmers' Institute, with
its equally successful off-shoot, the Womens'
Institute.

In Canada, as in most of the European
countries already dealt with, there came a time
when the ordinary type of agricultural society
was found no longer equal to the practical re-
quirements of the day. But this conclusion Mas
arrived at not without good experience of the
institutioi in question. There had been agricul-
tural societies in Canada since 1798, and the old
records relate how, in those early days of Colonial
history, the farmers would meet together at a
monthly dinner, and indulge in much conviviality
— and also in much snuff-taking — as an accom-
paniment to their exchange of views on the best
way in which the interests of agriculture could
be advanced.

In 1830 an Act was passed in Ontario which
provided that when an agricultural society was
organized in any district lor the purpose of im-

242 CANADA

porting valuable live-stock, grain, grass - seed,
useful implements, or whatever else might con-
duce to the improvement of agriculture, the
Government might grant £200 to assist, provided
the society raised £50. Under the operation of
this Act the formation of district societies spread
so far that in 184G there was organized a Pro-
vincial Board of Agriculture, whose function it
would be to hold provincial exhibitions, the
first of these being at Toronto in that same year.
Then the local agricultural societies, which began
to get more numerous, took to holding exhibi-
tions on their own account, and the growth of
the general movement led to the passing of the
Agricultural and Arts Act, which was to the
following effect : —

The objects of District and Township Societies shall be
to encourage improvement in agriculture, horticulture,
manufactures, and the useful arts :

(a) By importing and otherwise procuring seeds, plants,
and animals of new and valuable kinds ;

(b) By offering prizes for essays on questions of scien-
tific inquiry relating to agriculture, horticulture, manu-
factures, and the useful arts ;

(c) By awarding premiums for excellence in the raising
or introduction of stock, for the invention or improve-
ment of agricultural or horticultural implements and
machinery, for the production of grain and of all kinds of
vegetables, plants, flowers, and fruits, and generally for

FARMERS' INSTITUTES 243

excellence in any agricultural or horticultural production
or operation, article of manufacture, or work of art ;

(d) By carrying on experiments in the growing of
crops, the feeding of stock, or any other branch of agri-
culture, or by testing any system of farming through
arrangement with one or more of the farmers of the
municipality in which the society is organized.

But in actual practice the said societies rarely
went beyond the powers conferred upon them
by section " (c) " in regard to the holding of ex-
hibitions, and these, in the words of the Minister
of Agriculture for Ontario, soon degenerated
into " spectacular amusements," after the fashion
of country fairs, the real interests of agriculture
being put into the background. Another au-
thority on the subject wrote not long since : —

I go to nine or ten exhibitions in this part of the
country, and it is seldom we find a judge who really knows
the difference between a Shropshire, a Hampshire-down,
and a Southdown.

Agriculture could not be expected to derive
much real stimulus from societies conducted on
such lines as these, and it was a happy inspira-
tion that led to the starting in Canada of the
type of Farmers9 Institute which was already
doing good work in the I nitcd States. This
new organization, however, was to supplement
rather than supplant the agricultural societies,
and it lias certainly worked along lines of activity

244 CANADA

that are all its own. To-day it is being steadily
spread throughout Canada, much activity being
shown in this direction by the Dominion De-
partment of Agriculture, which during 1902
furnished speakers for systematic work under-
taken with a view to promoting the establish-
ment of Farmers' Institutes in Quebec, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick,
the North-west Territories, and British Colum-
bia. But, for the purpose of illustrating the
general system, it may suffice if I deal with the
growth of the movement in the provinces of
Ontario and New Brunswick.

The " Rules and Regulations " approved in
1895 by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council
for the guidance and direction of Farmers' In-
stitutes in Ontario set out (among other things)
that —

The Ontario Legislature has voted an appropriation of
$2,200 for Farmers"' Institutes for a grant of $25 to one
Institute in each district, on condition that an equal sum
be granted by the County Council or the municipalities in
which the Institute is organized, and on such further con-
ditions as may be imposed by regulations of the Minister
of Agriculture.

The object of each local institute shall be the dis-
semination of agricultural knowledge in its district and
the development of local talent. The officers shall endea-
vour to bring the rank and file of the farmers into touch
with the most successful local men, that the masses may

OBJECTS AND OPERATION 245

become more conversant with the best and most profitable
methods of farming, stock raising, dairying, fruit culture,
and all branches of business connected with the industry
of agriculture.

Each Institute is required to hold at least
five meetings every year in different places
in the district in which it operates, and at
these meetings, except in the case of the
annual meeting, papers are to be read or ad-
dresses delivered on questions relating to agri-
culture, horticulture, dairying, or kindred sub-
jects. It is stipulated that " free discussion
shall be encouraged,'1 and to this end the prac-
tice is to make the papers short and suggestive
rather than complete, so as to encourage a
general exchange of views. It is further laid
down that "all institutes organized under the
Act shall be strictly non-partisan and non-sec-
tarian in every phase of their work, and no insti-
tute shall be operated in the direct interest of
any party, sect, or society, but for the equal
good of all citizens and the farming com-
munity."

All money received, whether ;is members
fees, legislative giant, grant from the County
Councils or from municipalities, or otherwise,
is to be spent within the district in which the
institute operates (1) to defray actual expenses

246 CANADA

of meetings ; (2) to employ suitable persons to
address meetings ; (3) to assist in circulating
agricultural, horticultural, live-stock, and dairy
literature or periodicals among the members, or
to establish a circulating agricultural library for
the use of members ; or (4) to remunerate the
secretary and others for services rendered.

Founded on these general lines, Farmers'
Institutes have made such progress in the
province that they comprised, on June 30th,
1903, a total membership of 23,754. The
number of meetings held during the previous
twelve months had been 837, and the number
of papers read or addresses delivered was 3,377.
The meetings are often attended by official
delegates whose expenses are paid by the Pro-
vincial Government, but every effort is made to
stimulate local interest and local energies.

As regards the results obtained, the Superin-
tendent of Farmers' Institutes for the Province
of Ontario says in his report for 1902-1903 : —

Through the Institute it is our object to help the
farmers towards a knowledge of better methods of farm
management. By free discussion at these meetings the
farmer gets new ideas in regard to his work, which en-
ables him to solve problems that have worried him on his
farm. He is also advised of new varieties of plants and
animals, and is thus enabled to improve his live-stock and
the feed which is necessary for their development.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 247

The variety of subjects dealt with is indicated
by the following examples of the topics dis-
cussed : — Agriculture : " The Clover Family " ;
"Clover the Key to Successful Farming"; "Barn-
yard Manure"; "Soil Cultivation" ; " Feeds and
Feeding " ; " Fodder Crops " ; " Selection and
Care of Seeds." Horticulture : " Spraying an
Apple Orchard " : " How we Exterminated the
Black-knot in our Township " ; " Planting and
Care of an Orchard " ; " Growing Apples " ;
" Handling and Marketing of Fruit " ; " Small
Fruits " ; " The Farmer's Fruit Garden." Live-
stock: "Breeding, Selecting, and Feeding Cattle
for Export"; "The Beef Animal from the
Butcher's and Feeder's Standpoint " ; " Horse-
raising, and the Requirements of the Market " ;
"Present Prospects of the Hay Trade " ; " How
to Improve our Live-stock." Dairying: '"Co-
operation in Dairying"; "Prevention of Milk
Fever in Cows " : " A Practical Talk on Dairy
Cows." Poultry: "Raising and Fattening Poul-
try for Export"; "A Desirable Poultry House" :
"The Egg — Through the Incubator to the Home
or Foreign Market."

Exhibits likely to be of general interest are
also shown at the meetings, and OD this point
the Superintendent further says, in his report : —

Besides the regular subjects discussed at the meetings

248 CANADA

we made a speciality last year of " good seeds.'" Samples
of good and bad seeds, in small bottles, were furnished
the delegates, together with large charts showing the per-
centage of weed seeds found in commercial samples as
ordinarily sold by our merchants. It was appalling to
find that in many instances seed was being offered for
sale in Ontario containing millions of weed seeds of
twenty or more varieties. Our delegates were instructed
to point out the differences in good and bad seed, and
to impress upon the farmers of Ontario the necessity for
using only good seed, if they would keep their farms clean.

The institutes fulfil, also, a social purpose, the
reading of papers on severely practical topics
being relieved by others on matters of more
general interest, by papers written by ladies, and
by music and recitations for the special purpose
of attracting the attendance of wives and daugh-
ters. In fact, an American writer, Prof. A. J.
Cook, says in an article on " The Ideal Farmers'
Institute : How to hold it in your Neighbour-
hood " : — " To secure the maximum good the
institute should be largely attended by earnest,
enterprising farmers, with their wives and
families. . . . The man who attends an institute
without his wife gains only a partial benefit."

But the Canadian ladies were not willing to
play simply a subordinate part in the movement.
When, in 1897, the Farmers' Institute had be-
come an established success, the wives and

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES 249

daughters set up " Womens' Institutes " as a
subsidiary organization, instead of contenting
themselves with imparting additional attractions
to the gatherings of the men ; and these further
institutes have been no less successful than the
others.

They started in quite a small way, but in the
year ending June 30th, 1903, they had a total
paid-up membership in the province of 4,583.
The meetings are held in the houses of the mem-
bers— so as to save the expense of hiring halls —
or sometimes the use of a schoolroom, or even
of a church, will be granted ; and the nature
of the proceedings may be gathered from the
following statement of the " objects " in view : —

To promote the knowledge of household science which
shall lead to improvement in household architecture, with
special attention to home sanitation, to a better under-
standing of the hygienic and economic value of foods and
fuels, and to a more scientific care of children, with a view-
to raising the general standard of health of our people.
Mutual improvement by an interchange of views by essays,
lectures, or other means found practicable, upon all sub-
jects pertaining to the welfare of our homes and families.

The utility of these essays and lectures must
stand unquestioned, judging from the exam-
ples contained in an illustrated Handbook on
Women 8 Instil tries, issued by the Ontario De-

250 CANADA

partment of Agriculture — an admirable publica-
tion of which anyone disposed to introduce an
additional interest into the daily life of farmers'
wives and daughters in England may be strongly
advised to beg a copy from that Department.

From two of the papers contained in this
volume I should like to give a few lines, as
illustrating the particular purpose the movement
is intended to serve. Writing on " Women's
Institutes," Miss Blanche Maddock (Guelph)
says : —

If a woman is to rule wisely and well in her own home,
it is absolutely necessary that she come in contact with
others, that she should keep in touch with the great
outside world. . . . Since the formation of Farmers1 In-
stitutes farming has received a new impetus. Men are
now becoming proud of their profession, and the old cry
of " drudgery " is not so often heard. However, this cry
is still heard in the farm home. Statistics prove that
more women in the country go insane than in any other
class in the community. This is not so much from over-
work, but because of the monotony of woman's work on
the farm. The same work is done day in and day out,
with no other thought than getting one thing done to get
to the next. The well-known line, " The daily round, the
common task, will furnish all we need to ask," may be true
enough if we could realize the wonderful forces in nature
with which we are coming in contact in the daily round of
work. . . .

At the meetings of the Women's Institutes all subjects
for the uplifting of the home and the bettering of house-

WOMAN'S WORK ON THE FARM 251

keeping methods are discussed. When the organization
of these institutes was first discussed it was feared by
a great many that the movement would not be favoured
by the women throughout the country. So far as my
experience goes, I find that the women throughout the
Province of Ontario are taking up the work very enthusi-
astically. They feel that the time has come for new and
improved methods of housekeeping, and are looking for-
ward to the meetings of the institutes as a means of
accomplishing this end.

Then in a paper on " Objects and Benefits of
Women's Institutes/' Mrs. J. Gardner (Kemble),
says : —

Our farmers'' wives, aside from their attendance at
church, get out none too often, but coming in contact with
other lives brings new trains of thought, and relieves that
tension sure to follow the pursuit of only one kind of work,
and that made up of little things. . . .

To make a success of farming there must be co-operation
between the farmer and his wife. I know of no other
occupation where the wife must so necessarilv be a co-
partner in the business with her husband. ... I once
heard a man say he now owned dollars where he would not
have owned cents if it had not been for a good wife. . . .
How is it that the women of Denmark and Germany have
gained the reputation of being the best housekeepers in
the world p . . . Why may we not, as women of Canada.
at the beginning of this bright and new century, increase
in power and prosperity in the same ratio as they have
done ?

There arc mi many interests about the farm closely con-
nected with the work of the thrifty housewife that they
are almost a part of her work as well. It is not necessary

252 CANADA

for women to work in the field, but there is a distinct
woman's work in the country and on the farm. . . . One
thing we may be if we choose, and that is good farmers''
wives. . . . The young girls who, during the beginning
of the new century, shall come to preside over the agricul-
tural homesteads of Ontario will be far better fitted to
assume the responsibilities than were a majority of their
mothers when they came to preside over the new home
that marriage gave them. This is especially due to the
different educational institutions that have been started in
this country. . . .

Let the farmers and their wives unite in general demand
for mutual advantage, and not, as it has been, a one-sided
development. With that end in view let us place before
ourselves a high ideal and strive to attain it. Develop a
fondness for our calling, for what we love to do, and we
will do well.

These extracts may, perhaps, convey a suffi-
ciently clear insight into the spirit with which
the formation of " Women's Institutes " has
been taken up in the Dominion as a sequel to
the " Farmers' Institutes," and the combination
of the two represents a phase of agricultural
progress which, with the other agencies spoken
of at the outset, is bringing about the noticeable
improvement in the condition and prospects of
the Canadian farmer. And this improvement
would be advanced still further if the ordinary
agricultural societies of Canada could be induced
to become less recreative and more practical, by

HUNGER AND THIRST FOR INFORMATION 253

joining heartily in that task of promoting the
higher education of farmers which constitutes
the key-note of the conspicuous success to
which the Institute system has attained.
Speaking on these topics at the annual meeting
of the Canadian Association of Fairs and
Exhibitions, held in the city of Toronto in
February, 1902, the Hon. John Dryden.
Minister for Agriculture, said : —

The gentlemen looking into my face to-day perhaps do
not realize as I do the hunger and thirst that exist for
information all over the country — it is not for amusement,
but for information. If these agricultural societies will
undertake to give this information, they will be ten times
as popular as they are to-day, or ever have been.

This is the work that has been undertaken in these
latter days by the Farmers1 Institute system. The Farmers''
Institute and the agricultural society should be dovetailed
together. What does an agricultural society undertake to
do by bringing together these animals and presenting the
best products ? Some people seem to think the object is
that they may give prizes to this man and to the other ;
but the giving of these prizes is only a means that is
used towards another end. The end and object of it all,
as contemplated by the framers of the Act, was to present
the proper ideals to the people, so that they might know
exactly what was the best thing, and what they ought to
produce in the best interests of the country. That was
the idea contemplated by the framers of the law. Hut
the agricultural society >toj>s there; that is all it can do.
I can fancy a voung man who is without information, but

254 CANADA

has become interested in agriculture, looking on and
saying : " I should like to know how to produce them,
but your society does not give the information. I should
like to know what they mean by putting that animal first.
The other one looks better to me — but I can get no in-
formation.11 The only way this young man could get the
information he seeks would be to attend the meeting of
the Farmers1 Institute, where these matters are discussed.
The Farmers1 Institute, therefore, supplements the agricul-
tural society, and the one ought to be dovetailed into the
other — that is, if you are endeavouring to reach the object
I have set up in my own mind as being the aim and desire
of every agricultural society.

If, Mr. Dryden continued, they found that
in a certain section of the country improvement
was needed along a particular line, the exhibition
should try to improve the general production
in such district in the department in question,
offering prizes in these classes only, and announc-
ing lectures thereon in a building adjoining the
exhibition, so that the lecturers could have
before them, when they gave their information,
the animals which had been judged. In this
way the work of agricultural society and insti-
tute would be combined, and the farmer would
be helped to get out of the beaten track.
Mr. Dryden proceeded : —

I think that our agricultural societies ought to have
definite purposes before them, and accomplish in that way
definite results for the best interests of our countrv. We

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES' PURPOSES 255

should thus unify our methods and raise the standard of
production. The object to be attained will, of course,
vary in different districts. In one district it may be that
the fruit interest is paramount. Then let your attention
be turned in that direction. Or it may be that the people
want instruction in dairying. A deputation of dairymen
waited upon me this morning. They said there had never
been a time in the history of the country when the people
needed information on dairy subjects more than they do
just now. They are drifting away and becoming careless
in their methods. ... It is improvement in your methods
that will lead to better production all over the country.

These remarks were made by a Canadian
for Canadians, but I commend them to the
consideration of agriculturists at home, with
this query : Are they not, in the main, just as
applicable to Great Britain as they are to the
Dominion of Canada ? And would not Farmers'
Institutes and Women's Institutes on the Cana-
dian model, with an improvement of the ordi-
nary agricultural societies to follow, be likely to
serve as useful a purpose on this side of the
Atlantic as on the other ?

To show what is going on in the smaller
provinces as well, I should like to add a few
words concerning New Brunswick, which is the
largest of the three Maritime Provinces of the
Dominion, but lias an area no greater than that
of Scotland without the islands.

256 CANADA

New Brunswick's leading industry is agricul-
ture, and of the ordinary type of colonial
agricultural societies — which hold shows and
fairs, and introduce good stock — there are in
the province about sixty, with a membership of
5,000. They receive grants from the Govern-
ment to the extent of £1,500 a year, and they
are said to have done excellent work. But that
work was found inadequate in itself, and a
recent Act of the Provincial Legislature author-
ized the formation of Farmers' Institutes for the
purpose of disseminating information with regard
to agriculture.

The position to-day is well indicated by the
report of the New Brunswick Commissioner of
Agriculture for 1902, from which I take the
following : — •

The demand for more and better knowledge along
agricultural lines is a predominant feature with New
Brunswick agriculturists, for they are beginning to realize
the fact that no business or calling in life offers better
opportunities for intelligent and well-directed efforts than
agriculture ; but to simply plough and mow, reap and sow,
is no longer considered intelligent farming. Therefore the
farmers of this province have awakened to the necessity of
being informed along all lines of this work, for never in
the history of the province has there been such a demand
for printed information as the demand of the past year. . . .

Lectures are delivered in every section of the province
through our Institute speakers, who are men skilled in all

FARMERS' SCHOOLS 257

branches of farm work, and the good seed sown by them
has already begun to bear fruit. Thousands of farmers
with their wives and daughters attend these meetings,
which are veritable farmers1 schools, in which information
along all branches of agricultural work is given by these
practical and scientific men, procured from various parts
of the Dominion. This necessarily costs a large sum of
money, which is cheerfully expended, in order that the
agricultural work may be promoted, for with this great
industry in a healthy condition all other industries will
soon feel the benefit.

It is pleasing to know that the efforts of this depart-
ment are being recognised by the farmers of this country,
interests having been aroused that have lain dormant for
years, much to the detriment of those who are engaged in
all agricultural pursuits, as well as those who are depending
upon the agriculturist to make his work a success.

CHAPTER XXI
AUSTRALASIA

THE position which the Australasian colonies
have succeeded in obtaining in the markets
of the world, and especially in the markets of
the Mother Country, has been secured only as
the result of a great amount of energy, enterprise,
and skilful organization.

Australasia had her " agricultural crisis " in the
seventies and eighties, just as Europe in general
had, but under wholly different conditions.
With vast expanses of virgin soils, she was
capable of a productiveness far beyond the
powers of consumption of her very limited
population, and when the time came that the
supplies were greater than the local demand, the
agriculturists began to drift into a very depressed
condition indeed. Too often the fall in prices
was such that the settlers could hardly get any
return at all for their labour. Sheep were boiled
down for tallow ; butter had sometimes to be
kept for any period from six to twelve months

258

FIRST ESSENTIAL— REFRIGERATION 259

before a market could be found for it, and then
it would fetch threepence a pound ; and cheese
and other perishables realized so little that it
was hardly worth while to go to the trouble of
preparing them. Breeders of pigs even had a
massacre of superfluous stock every second or
third year in order to keep up the prices of those
animals or of those products which alone it was
worth while to put on the market.

It was seen that the best remedy for these
conditions would be found in the furnishing of
food supplies to Great Britain ; but an essential
preliminary to the adoption of this remedy was
the discovery of an effective system of refriger-
ation, so that perishable commodities could be
carried the very considerable distance to be
traversed and arrive in sound condition. To-day
all this is regarded as a matter of course, and
refrigeration seems a simple enough business.
But there has been an element of romance in
the story, all the same. It was in 18G1 that the
late Thomas Sutcliffe Mort resolved in his own
mind that the man who could solve the problem
of refrigeration on board ocean-going vessels, for
the safe transport of large quantities of perish-
able produce, would bring wealth to the Colonies
and confer a great boon on the teeming popula-
tion of the Mother Country. Not only did he

26o AUSTRALASIA

undertake the task, but from that time he
devoted his energies and his means almost
entirely to its accomplishment. Fourteen years
later — that is to say, in 1875 — he called together
a number of the leading colonists of New South
Wales to inspect some " chilling works " he had
set up for preparing meat for export to Great
Britain, and so confident of success was he that
in his opening speech on the occasion he declared
that " the half-starved nations of the earth shall
now be fed." Some thousands of pounds were
also spent on fitting up the ship Northam with
refrigerating apparatus, and the vessel was duly
laden with a cargo of meat for consignment to
England. But the machinery broke down before
the vessel left the wharf, and the experiment was
a failure. Mr. Mort died soon afterwards, with-
out having seen the successful accomplishment
of efforts on which he is said to have expended
a quarter of a million sterling.

But there were other workers in the same
field, notably Dr. James Harrison, of Geelong,
who gave the best years of his life to developing
the system of artificial refrigeration. In 1880
there was a first successful shipment of frozen
meat from Australia to England by the steamer
Strathleven, and a new era was started for
Australasian agriculture, though another period

SECOND ESSENTIAL— INSTRUCTION 261

of eight years was to elapse before refrigeration
was taken advantage of for the transport of any-
other perishable commodity than fresh meat.
Then there began to grow up a further big trade
in dairy produce, and this, in turn, has been
succeeded by the export of fruit, poultry, rabbits,
etc., in respect to all of which the principle of
refrigeration has practically annihilated distance.
The greatest of the disadvantages under which
the Australasian farmers had laboured was thus
successfully overcome, and they were able to
join actively in the now world-wide competi-
tion for the privilege of supplying the British
public with food. But there were other things
still to consider. I 'nder his previous conditions,
as already described, the cultivator had found
that the most primitive methods of cultivation
sufficed ; but when he had to adapt his pro-
duce to the requirements of the British market,
and when he entered into competition with
European cultivators who neglected no scientific
principle which would improve their position,
the situation became altogether different. The
various Colonial Governments thereupon set
about the organization of more or less effective
systems of agricultural education, the colleges,
schools, information bureaux, and model farms
established witli this special object in view being

262 AUSTRALASIA

supplemented by itinerant professors and in-
structors, who went about among the farmers,
or otherwise assured to them skilled advice in
the various branches of their undertakings.
These, again, were supplemented in some of
the Colonies by substantial bonuses, and by a
system of official inspection of produce intended
for export.

But in Australasia, as in most of the European
countries of which I have already spoken, it was
found that the opening up of more markets, and
the teaching of better methods of production,
required to be supplemented by giving to the
cultivators greater facilities for raising capital, by
means of loans, for the carrying on of their agri-
cultural operations. Here, again, there are differ-
ences in the conditions in Europe and Australasia
respectively, for though the Australian squatter
may be in a better financial position generally
than the average peasant in Continental Europe,
he is liable to visitations of drought, unknown
in the Old World, which in a single season may
deprive him of years of effort, and leave him to
begin his work all over again. Added, therefore,
to the general considerations which apply to the
Colonial equally with the European farmer, there
were special reasons why an easy agricultural
credit should be brought within the reach of

THIRD ESSENTIAL— CREDIT 263

the former ; and as this subject is a matter of
practical interest to agriculturists all the world
over, it may be of advantage if I indicate briefly
what has been done in some of the leading
Colonies.

In New South Wales an Act was passed in
1899 adopting the principle of advances to
settlers who were in necessitous circumstances,
or were financially embarrassed owing to
drought. A Board was appointed to consider
applications for loans, and determine whether
they should be granted. Under the original
Act no advance made to any one settler was
to exceed £200, at 4 per cent, interest, and the
sum borrowed was to be repaid in ten years ; but
under a later Act, passed in 1902, the maximum
was increased to £500, and the period for repay-
ment was extended to 31 years.

In Victoria the Savings Banks Commissioners
were authorized by an Act of 1890 to make
advances to settlers on mortgages of their lands.
In 1890 a new Act modified some of the con-
ditions previously laid down, and enabled the
Commissioners to lend to farmers, graziers,
market gardeners, or other persons engaged in
agricultural, horticultural, vitieultural, or pastoral
pursuits. The loans, granted on the security of
the land held by the borrowers, could be ad-

264 AUSTRALASIA

vanced in instalments, if desired. They were to
bear 4^ per cent, interest, and be repaid in sixty-
three half-yearly instalments, or such smaller
number as might be arranged.

In Queensland an Agricultural Bank Act,
passed in 1901, authorized the establishment of
a bank for the purpose of promoting the
occupation, cultivation, and improvement of
the agricultural lands of the State. The capital
to be raised was not to exceed £250,000, and
advances up to £800 might be made to farmers
or settlers. Interest at the rate of 5 per cent,
per annum was to be paid for the first five years,
at the end of which period the borrower was to
repay the loan within twenty years in half-yearly
instalments at the rate of £4 0*. 3d. for each
£100 advanced.

In South Australia a State Advance Bank
was set up in 1895 for the purpose of making
advances to farmers, producers, and local
authorities, in aid of industries, at a rate of
interest not to exceed 5 per cent., the funds
being raised by mortgage bonds guaranteed by
the Colonial Government.

In Western Australia the Agricultural Bank
Act of 1894 authorized the establishment of a
bank which would make advances to farmers
and cultivators for the purpose of enabling them

THE "AUSTRALASIAN SYSTEM" 265

to carry out improvements in respect to " clear-
ing, cultivating, and ring-barking." By an
amending Act of 1890, the definition of such
improvements was extended to fencing, drainage
works, and the provision of wells, fresh water
reservoirs, buildings, or other works enhancing
the value of the holding. The capital of the
bank is £200,000 ; the maximum loan is £800,
and the maximum rate of interest is 5 per cent.

Finally, in New Zealand the Government
Advances to Settlers Act of 1894 provided for
the establishment of an Advance to Settlers
Office, which was empowered to lend on first
mortgages on land occupied for farming, dairying,
or market gardening purposes.

One sees, therefore, how these various con-
ditions may well have contributed to the advance
of Australasian agriculture : the bringing of the
markets of the Old World within reach of the
Antipodes by the successful resort to refriger-
ation ; the higher education of cultivators
who had been led by Bountiful Nature into
the adoption of easy-going and non-scientific
methods of production ; and the active aid of
the State both in directing the various brandies
of agricultural industry along practical lines
and in placing financial resources within the
reach of the cultivators in case of need. As for

266 AUSTRALASIA

the results, there is no need to bring forward any
elaborate array of statistics to show how greatly
the productiveness of Australasia has increased
under the operation of the various circumstances
described above. On this point I will content
myself with a single fact, namely, that within
thirteen years of the practical application of the
principle of refrigeration, the exports of agricul-
tural products despatched by these means from
the colony of Victoria alone amounted in value
to £15,500,000.

The expansion of colonial agriculture suggested
by such figures as these means much more, too,
than simply the direct return from the produce
that is exported. It means that land suitable for
grazing or other agricultural purposes in con-
venient localities has greatly increased in value
of late years ; and it means, also, that many
subsidiary industries have been created to supply
requirements for the various branches of agricul-
tural export. Saw mills and factories have been
set up for making butter and fruit boxes or
rabbit crates ; and hundreds of persons find
employment all the year round in providing
wraps for the carcases of frozen mutton. One
sees here a further illustration of a fact which I
have already repeatedly advanced — that the
development of agriculture may be a substantial

DRAWBACKS 267

advantage not alone to the toilers in the rural
districts but also to the workers in the towns.

Provided that the deplorable consequences of
periodical droughts in Australia can be avoided
by an efficient system of irrigation, there would
seem to be hardly any limit to the productive-
ness of our Australasian colonies, and though
agriculture there is only just passing out of what
is called the " tentative " stage, it is evident that
the foundations have been laid of an organized
system from which much can be looked for in the
immediate future. There are drawbacks, how-
ever, apart from the possibilities of drought. A
writer in the Year Book of Australasia for 1903
says, in regard to the question of fruit export : —

The great difficulty consists in the absence of concerted
action on the part of the fruit growers generally, and
especially in New South Wales. Attempts have been un-
successfully made to introduce the co-operative principle,
which has effected so much in connection with the dairy
farming industry; and until something of the kind be-
comes possible the progress of Australian fruit cultivation
must remain slow and uncertain.

Even in the dairy -farming industry itself
there is an increasing tendency on the part of
the farmers to avoid the daily journey to the
central factory with their milk by using hand
separators at home, and taking in their cream

268 AUSTRALASIA

at intervals of from two to eight days, to the
consequent detriment of the butter produced.

Worse still is the position to which the farmers
have been reduced by the industrial conditions in
Colonies which are becoming a dubious Paradise
for Workers but an undeniable Purgatory for
Employers. The "Rights of Labour" move-
ment has, it seems, affected country districts as
well as industrial centres, for the farmers say
they cannot afford to pay the rates of wages
imposed by the " labour boards," and they and
their families cannot stand the strain of doing all
the work themselves. " So it is," writes one
authority on the subject, " that we are drifting
more and more into the position of limiting our
summer production to the herds we can manage
without hired help."

The path of the Australasian farmer is, there-
fore, far from being strewn entirely with roses.
But it is a much easier path for him to walk
along than it would have been had not Science
and Organization each stretched out to him a
friendly hand in the way I have here sought to
describe.

CHAPTER XXII
IRELAND

IT was in 1889 that Mr. (now Sir Horace)
Plunkett started on his attempt to re-
organize the agricultural conditions of Ireland.
Returning there after a prolonged residence in
the United States, where he had been ranching
in the interests of his health, he was struck by
the distressed condition of the country, and
resolved to do what he could for its improve-
ment. He began, however, on lines which he
soon found it necessary to abandon. At the
Co-operative Congress in England, in 1889, he
got the idea that the regeneration of Ireland
might be facilitated by the establishment of
co-operative stores. The speedy discovery of the
fact that such a hope would be entirely delusive
led him to think of other possible remedies, and
he then evolved in his own mind the idea of a
co-operative dairy, not learning until some time
afterwards that co-operative dairies were already
a well-established institution in Denmark.

269

270 IRELAND

To get the Irish people to adopt his proposals
was, however, tremendously uphill work. The
need for action was evident enough, for the
position the Irish farmers had secured for
their produce on English markets was being
threatened by other countries which were adopt-
ing scientific processes that gave them an
immense advantage over the " miserably out-of-
date methods " (as Mr. Plunkett himself called
them) of the Irish farmers, who had, further,
been deprived by steam, electricity, and re-
frigeration of whatever advantages they once
commanded with regard to nearness to markets.
" Your very existence," he told them, " is
threatened by circumstances of which you have
little knowledge, and over which you have, at
present, no control." But he addressed fifty
meetings before he got the first co-operative
dairy started, and it was not until another
twelve months had passed that he saw the
second. Then success gradually became more
assured, so that in 1891 the creameries and
co-operative societies numbered 17 ; in 1892
there were 25; in 1893, 30; and in 1894, 33.
The movement had then so far progressed
that it could no longer be controlled by
individuals, and the Irish Agricultural Organ-
ization Society was formed, the number of

THE RECESS COMMITTEE 271

creameries and societies increasing, the follow-
ing year, to 67.

All this time Mr. Plunkett had been looking
forward to the day when it might be possible
to supplement self-help by State aid. But ex-
perience had convinced him that organization
among the farmers themselves must precede
Government action, if such action were to be
really efficacious, and not until he had achieved
a certain degree of success in the former respect
did he move in regard to the latter. Then, in
1896, he was instrumental in bringing about the
Parliamentary Recess Committee, composed of
representatives of the various Irish parties.
This Committee made elaborate inquiries abroad,
and deliberated as to what could be done to
develop the agricultural and industrial resources
of Ireland, eventually presenting a report in
which, among other things, they recommended: —

(1) That the administration of State aid to agriculture
and industries in Ireland on the principles to be described
can he most effectively carried out by including the two
branches of Agriculture and Industries, and the technieal
instruction relating thereto, under the care of one Depart-
ment ; of Government specially created for the purpose ; and

(2) That this Department should consist of a Hoard with
a Minister of Agriculture and Industries responsible to
Parliament at its head, and assisted by a Consultative
Council representative of the agricultural and industrial
interests of the country.

272 IRELAND

A " Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction for Ireland ': was duly created on
what (but for legal phraseology) were identically
the same lines as those proposed by the report
of the Recess Committee. The Department
works in cordial sympathy with the Organiza-
tion Society, and such sympathy is well justified
by the fact that if the Organization Society had
not already been in existence, and laid so well
the foundations of the new movement, it would
have taken the Department at least another
five years to attain to the position it occupies
to-day.

The work of setting up co-operative cream-
eries in Ireland has been greatly facilitated of
late years by the fact that they can be established
without imposing any serious financial burden
on those concerned. The initial cost may be
from £1,300 to £1,500 for a creamery fitted
with the requisite machinery of a modern type ;
but, as a rule, it will not be necessary to make a
call on the members for more than 10s. each (in
some cases only 5s. each is paid), the remainder
of the cost being met out of the subsequent
profits.

The trade done by the Irish creameries now
represents a total of £1,000,000 the year. The
number of Dairy Societies and Auxiliaries in

SOCIETIES AND BANKS 273

Ireland in 1902 was 322, with a membership of
41,299. Of Agricultural Societies there were
124 in 1902, and of Poultry Societies 31. The
latter represent an especially promising phase of
the movement. At one time the eggs were
collected from the farmers by "higglers," who
bought them at a certain price irrespective of
size or colour. They might be kept some time
until the higgler called, and he, in turn, might
keep them until he had made up a good consign-
ment, so that by the time the eggs reached the
English consumer many of them would be bad.
In this way Irish eggs got an unfavourable repu-
tation. To-day instruction is given to the
farmers as to breeds, etc., the eggs are paid
for according to weight and colour — the farmer
thus having every inducement to provide for the
collector as many large brown eggs as possible —
and the eggs, when bought, are graded and sent
off promptly to market. Instruction is also
given in the art of packing according to Danish
methods. There arc, in addition, Flax Societies,
Horticultural and Fruit Growers' Societies, and
an Irish Kee-Keepers' Federation.

The importance of the role that is being played
by the agricultural credit banks in Ireland in
facilitating all this economic development could
hardly be exaggerated. To the Irish peasant it

T

274 IRELAND

may be a matter of supreme importance that he
should be able to raise a small loan in case of
need. The temporary use even of a few pounds,
for the purchase, say, of a pig, may make all the
difference as to whether or not he will be able
to pay his rent. Not only, however, have the
ordinary Joint Stock banks in Ireland a natural
reluctance to make very small advances to in-
dividual borrowers, but to these persons them-
selves the expenses incurred in obtaining such
advances may substantially reduce their actual
value. A farmer living in county Mayo once
related his experiences in getting a loan of £5
from a Joint Stock bank. " I had, " he said,
"first of all to pay the return railway fare of
myself and my two sureties to the town where
the offices of the Joint Stock bank are. That
was 1.?. 3d. each. I had also to pay my sureties
for the loss of their day's work, and give them
dinner. The bank deducted 2s. 6d. from the
£5 for the loan of the money for three months,
and I had to pay the cost of the bill. Then,
as I knew I should want to renew the loan
at the end of the three months, I had to
keep on good terms with my sureties for all
that time, and 'treat' them when I met them."
A calculation showed that the amount paid by
the farmer in respect to the loan in question

A REVOLUTION IX FINANCE 275

was equal to 48 per cent, per annum on the
sum borrowed.

The agricultural credit banks are changing
all this. Based on the principle of unlimited
liability, they are formed by combinations of
peasantry, farmers, and better class sympathizers,
and are managed on the most economical method,
all the officials giving their services gratuitously.
With the personal guarantees of the members
for the return of the sums borrowed, no difficulty
is (as a rule) found by the rural banks in getting
substantial sums at 4 per cent, from the Joint
Stock banks, which, generally speaking, regard
the rural banks as desirable " feeders," and well
deserving of encouragement. From the agri-
cultural credit bank the farmer gets a loan at the
rate of one penny per £ per month for such
time as he may require it. The interest is not
deducted in advance, and he incurs practically
no travelling or other expenses either at the time
he obtains the loan, or when he seeks its renewal.
In actual practice the loans granted range from
£2 to £10, the average being £8 or £4. Hitherto
the banks have (so far as can be ascertained)
made only one bad debt. In the course of a
single year a bank established in one of the
congested districts on the west coast granted
400 loans to small farmers, and in eleven cases

276 IRELAND

only were the borrowers as much as a single
week late in their repayments. Even this fact
displeased the local committee, who imposed a
penalty of threepence on each of the eleven
borrowers for being in arrear.

All this may seem to be very paltry to a
financier accustomed to dealing with large sums
of money ; but to the impoverished peasantry
of Ireland it represents a substantial boon in
regard to the material help afforded, while there
are, also, good moral results secured in the
teaching of a sense of responsibility, and in the
inculcating of business principles. From the
latter standpoint even the threepenny fines
have a value which cannot be gainsaid. Alto-
gether one can readily sympathize with the
declaration of one Irish farmer who described
the local agricultural credit bank as " the Good
Samaritan of the district." It is hoped, how-
ever, that people in Ireland who have money
to invest may be induced to pay it into the
rural banks on interest, in order that such banks
may have a larger capital available, and, also,
to promote a community of feeling between the
different classes. On the one hand it is sought
to persuade the comparatively poor to deposit
their modest savings in the rural banks, instead
of hiding them in the rafters, or storing them

THE AGRICULTURAL WHOLESALE 277

in an old stocking or a tea-pot ; and, on the
other hand, it is desired that the comparatively-
rich should devote their surplus money to the
development of the district in which they live,
instead of sending it away for investment in
speculations in other countries. Above all, a
very substantial addition to the number of these
banks, which are doing so much good with such
modest resources, may be hoped for. Already
there are 150 in the congested districts alone.
But to achieve really great results there should
be close on 1,000.

Another outcome of the co-operative move-
ment in Ireland is represented by the Irish
Agricultural Wholesale Society, Ltd., which
was formed in 1897 to supplement the efforts of
the existing agricultural societies by obtaining
for them and their members all descriptions of
agricultural requirements of best quality at the
lowest market prices. The Agricultural Whole-
sale Society represents, in effect, a federation of
the other societies, the idea which led to its
formation being that the experts whose services
such a federation could secure would be better
able to judge of the qualities of fertilizers, seeds,
etc., than individual farmers could do, and that
the federation would be able to get lower terms
for large grouped orders than individual fanners

278 IRELAND

or individual societies could hope to secure for
smaller lots.

In regard to fertilizers it was found that the
average Irish farmer had the most elementary
ideas on the subject, for he generally called all
artificial manures by the one name of " guano,"
and he judged of their quality by their smell,
which he concluded must be strong, if not nasty,
if they were good. To-day, on the contrary,
Irish farmers will talk about artificial manures
in a way that would do credit to a professor of
agriculture. Whereas, also, they once paid at
the rate of £4 or £5 per ton to some local
trader for manure of very inferior quality, they
obtain to-day the highest grades through their
Agricultural Wholesale Society for about £3
per ton, the total purchases of that Society now
representing about 12,000 tons of artificial
manure the year.

But if the position of the Irish farmer was
once bad enough in respect to artificial manures,
it was still worse as regards seeds. Before the
formation of the Agricultural Wholesale Society
the west coast of Ireland, from Sligo to Tralee,
was the dumping-ground for all the " refuse "
and " cleanings ' of seeds from England and
Scotland, as well as from the Continent in
general, just as the Welsh coast, from Holy-

SEEDS AND IMPLEMENTS 279

head to Carmarthen, is to a great extent at the
present day. The Irish farmers in the district
in question were, in fact, robbed as mercilessly
in the matter of seeds as they were in the
matter of manures. The refuse brought up
weeds, if it brought up anything, and the clean-
ings produced a soft grass which contained no
proper nourishment for the cattle. It is no
wonder the farmers used to say " it was useless
for them to sow seed at all." But now that
purity and germinating qualities are guaranteed,
larger yields and much heavier crops being
consequently obtained, the purchases by farmers
in the West of Ireland have increased enor-
mously, and are still increasing.

Less advance has been made, up to the
present, in the matter of agricultural imple-
ments. Whether or not there is an actual
"ring" of makers, it is certain that the latter
hesitate to deal direct with the Wholesale
Society, and insist that purchases shall be made
through " recognised agents " ; but the way may
eventually be found of overcoming a difficulty
which at present presses somewhat hardly on
farming interests.

Such is the magnitude of the operations
carried on by the Irish Agricultural Wholesale
Society, Ltd., that the annual turn-over now

28o IRELAND

amounts to from £80,000 to £90,000, as com-
pared with one of only £15,000 in the first year
of the Society's existence. Singularly enough,
too, this substantial business is done on a capital
that does not exceed £8,000. The course of
procedure adopted is as follows. The farmers
in a certain district notify to their local agri-
cultural society the purchases they want to
make, and the combined order is sent to the
Wholesale Society in Dublin. But with it
there is a printed form by which the members
of the committee, individually and collectively,
guarantee payment in case of default on the
part of the actual purchasers ; and, as the com-
mittee generally includes some wealthy farmer
or other person of means, the guarantee is re-
garded as sufficient to warrant the directors, in
their turn, pledging their own credit to the
bankers. So well does the system work that the
Wholesale Society has not yet made a single
bad debt, while 90 per cent, of the local societies
pay their accounts within the stipulated period.

A further supplementary organization is the
Irish Co-operative Agency Society, Ltd., which
seeks to provide the Dairy Societies with a
profitable market for their produce. The society
has its headquarters in Limerick, with depots
in Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Glasgow,

RAILWAY RATES 281

and elsewhere, and an agent in South Africa.
In 1902 it sold 35,000 cwt. of butter, realizing
£178,800, as compared with 30,800 cwt., realiz-
ing £166,700, in 1901.

Combination among the Irish farmers has
further shown its value in securing the most
favourable of railway rates. In the course of
conversation a leading official of the Department
of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for
Ireland said to me on this subject : —

We began with the idea that the railway rates were
extravagantly high. We had heard people say so, and we
thought it must be true. But the more we looked into
the matter the more we saw that, considering the char-
acter of the freight, the quantities carried, and the ir-
regular times at which consignments were handed in, the
rates charged by the railways were really most reasonable,
so far as the individual lines were concerned. We saw,
also, that what was needed was such a combination among
the producers and traders that their various consignments
would be despatched in bulk and at regular times, so as
to encourage and enable the railway companies to give
more favourable terms. Our experience shows that when
this is done the railway companies are perfectly ready to
meet us, and do all that it is in their power to do.

Another authority, who possesses an intimate
knowledge of the working of the co-operative
movement in Ireland, said to me on the same
subject : —

We have been too much in the habit of blaming tin

282 IRELAND

railway companies without recognizing their difficulties.
There are stations where the business is so irregular that
some days there will be a lot of officials with absolutely
nothing to do; but they must be kept on because another
day there will be perhaps more than they can get through.
What the co-operative movement is going to do in
Ireland, among other things, is to organize the traffic
for the railways, so that they will know what to expect,
and be enabled in various ways to effect economies from
which we shall hope to gain advantages for ourselves.

As illustrating the possibilities in respect to
reduced railway rates already open to com-
bination, reference may be made to the rates
charged for the carriage of artificial manures
on the Midland and Great Western of Ireland
Railway between Dublin and Langford, a dis-
tance of seventy-eight miles. For a single ton
the rate is 10s. Id. ; for 4 tons it is 7s. lOd. per
ton ; for 6 tons it is 6s. 5d. per ton ; and for 50
tons 5s. lOd. per ton, with the further conces-
sion of spreading that quantity of consignments
over a period of eight days. An individual
farmer in Ireland could not be expected to
order a 50 - ton lot, so as to secure the
lowest of these rates; but the Irish Agricul-
tural Wholesale Society, with which he can
be connected through his local society, will
give out contracts for as many as 2,000 tons
at a time.

IRISH LIFE AND CHARACTER

283

The position in 1902 of the various bodies
associated with the Irish Agricultural Organiza-
tion Society is shown by the following table : —

DESCRIPTION OF

1902.

INCREASE OVER 1901.

SOCIETIES.

No.

Members.

Turnover.

No.

Members.

Turnover.

Dairy .
Auxiliaries .

247)
7--. 1

41,299

£

1,039,615

45

8,235

£

198,476

Agricultural

124

12,962

75,521

12

1,267

3,356

Banks .

145

6,611

16,480

44

2,353

6,123

Poultry

31

5,906

29,914

5

1,137

13,245

Home Industries

50

2,983

11,998

12

344

3,048

Flax . . .

4

118

2,889

—

15

2,224

Bee-keepers .

17

298

91

17

298

91

Federations .

3

257

232,528

1

125

18,261

Miscellaneous .

10

862

6,066

6

311

5,333

Totals . .

700

71,296

1,415,102

142

14,085

247,157

The total number of Societies on December
31st, 1903, was 853, subdivided as follows : —
Dairy Societies, including auxiliaries not separ-
ately registered, 367 ; Agricultural Societies,
145; Banks, 201; Home Industries, 55 ; Poultry
Societies, 3G ; Bee-keepers' Societies, 28 ; Mis-
cellaneous Societies, 14 ; Flax Societies, 4 ;
Federations, 3. The approximate membership
of the whole of the Societies on the same date
was 80,000, and the approximate total turnover
was 1*2. 000.000.

Apart from the practical considerations already
dealt with, the new agricultural movement is
appealing strongly to certain phases of Irish
life and character in a way that is also well

284 IRELAND

deserving of notice. Forty or fifty years ago
the social life of the Irish peasantry was of a
most interesting kind. Its distinguishing fea-
tures was the celidh — a gathering of the villagers
in the house of one or other of their number,
where, after the day's work was done, they
would tell stories, relate folk lore, sing Irish
songs, recite poems, or listen to the village
fiddler, perhaps also dancing an Irish jig to
his accompaniment. Occasionally the indoor
gatherings would be varied by dances at the
cross-roads. So it was that the life even in out-
of-the-way villages in Ireland exercised a great
charm on the people, and such conditions must
have had much to do with the devotion with
which Irish men and Irish women all the world
over regard their native land. But with the
growth of political and agrarian troubles this
poetic side, as it were, of Irish character began
to die out ; life in the villages became dull and
monotonous, and the younger people especially
found the longing for a more active and a more
pleasurable existence irresistible. In England
in such circumstances as these the country
people would migrate to some large town or
city ; but in Ireland the magnet that draws the
peasantry from the villages in which they were
born is America.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT 285

The fact is now recognised by the leaders
of the new economic movement in Ireland that
one of the most effectual means of checking
this constant emigration to the United States
will be found in improving the conditions of
rural life in Ireland, by cultivating afresh not
alone material advantages, but also those social
instincts which form so characteristic a phase
of the Irishman's natural temperament. Thus
it comes that rural co-operative societies are
fulfilling much more than a purely commercial
purpose. Some of them have provided halls
and recreation rooms ; others utilize the offices
connected with the creameries for dances and
other gatherings ; and about fifty of them have
opened libraries in the interests of their members.

All these things increase the attachment felt
towards the societies, and the combination of
what may be called the human with the business
element is having the best of results, alike for
the people themselves and for the enterprises
in which they have embarked. In other coun-
tries such combination might not be either
necessary or desirable ; but to the Irish peasantry
it appeals with special force. Experience gained
in organizing the new movement has shown that
in the poorest districts particularly it is of little
use to appeal only to the personal interests of

286 IRELAND

the individual. The peasant who is told that
if he joins an agricultural co-operative society
he will get so much more for his eggs, his
butter, or his other produce, is deaf to the
argument. But if the appeal be made to his
feelings of brotherly love and of patriotism — if
he is told, for instance, that by joining the
society he will help to improve the position alike
of those around him and of his country in
general — he responds instantly, and is eager to
do what he can. In the wealthier districts
business considerations have the greater weight ;
but one of the oddities of the situation in the
Irish rural districts is that, the poorer the man,
the safer it is to appeal to his heart rather than
to his pocket. In the one case he will regularly
walk long distances to attend the meetings that
are called ; in the other he would hardly, as it
were, cross the street.

The healthy public spirit thus being aroused
may be illustrated by a gathering held in one of
the most impoverished districts in the west of
Ireland to consider the formation of a co-opera-
tive credit bank. An organizer from Dublin
explained to the assembled peasantry that the
proposed bank would be established on the basis
of unlimited liability, so that if a borrower or
his sureties failed to refund the amount borrowed

THE NEW HARMONY 287

the other members would be jointly and indi-
vidually liable to pay the money out of their
own pockets. The organizer was fully prepared
to hear his audience decline to accept any such
responsibility, and he was agreeably surprised
when a man among the audience called out,
" Sure, that is nothing. Anyone would do that
to help his neighbour." Where, in fact, the
individual in Ireland is unprogressive, the com-
munity, operating in combination, becomes dis-
tinctly progressive, and a spirit is developed
which is deservedly regarded as one of the most
promising features of the whole economic cam-
paign.

Of no less importance to Ireland, as a country,
is the fact that the new movement leads to the
gathering together, on one common platform,
of persons of all classes, creeds, and shades of
opinion. At first there were political differences.
When, in the early days, a meeting was held at
a town in county Limerick to discuss the setting
up of a creamery, one speaker declared, " We
will have nothing to do here witli butter that is
not made on Nationalist principles." In another
instance a dairy society came to grief because
the members disagreed in their views respecting
the late Mr. ParnelL A lew such experiences,
however, led to the rule being firmly established

288 IRELAND

that no religious or political subjects should be
brought up for discussion at any meeting held
in connection with the co-operative movement.
So it is that to-day parish priest and rector,
landlord and tenant farmer, will all meet at the
same table, and discuss in perfect harmony the
various topics connected with the well-being
and progress of the particular society in which
they are mutually interested.

Such an achievement as this, in such a
country as Ireland, would in itself be almost
a sufficient reward for the toils of the organizers ;
but the matter does not end even here, for the
discovery of the fact that such harmony is
possible is having a reflex action in regard to
public life in Ireland in general. It is seen that
men of varied opinions can meet and work
together for the common good without in the
slightest degree sacrificing those opinions ; and
the broader views to which this tendency is lead-
ing can hardly fail, in course of time, to bring
about some substantial changes in a country
where sectarian and political considerations have
hitherto been supreme.

CHAPTER XXIII
ENGLAND AND WALES

WHEN we inquire what England has been
doing in regard to the organization of
her agriculture, in order to meet all the activity
in the same direction that has been shown else-
where, the reply is far from satisfactory.

There is no need to disparage the useful pur-
pose which, in its way, has been served by our
various agricultural associations, whether national
or county, especially in regard to the holding of
shows and the spread of agricultural knowledge.
But the series of sketches already given has
shown that most of the countries on the Conti-
nent of Europe realized any number of years
ago, up to a quarter of a century, that the
ordinary type of agricultural society, whether
controlled by the authorities or " free," was no
longer sufficient in itself to meet the exigencies
of a changing sit nut ion, and that improved
methods of production, together with organiza-
tions of a much more practical type (especially

u 289

290 ENGLAND AND WALES

on co-operative lines), had become an absolute
necessity if the countries concerned were to
hold their own amid the rivalries of the nations.

What we are here concerned in, therefore,
is to see the extent to which this second
stage has been reached in England, and the
conclusion forced upon one is that, so far as
our own country is concerned, agricultural co-
operation in any approach to a widespread and
practical system is still absolutely in its infancy.
Leaving out of account certain associations
which are really commercial in their working,
the Aspatria (Cumberland) Agricultural Co-
operative Society, established in 1869, and still
in active operation, was one of the earliest
representatives in England (if not actually the
first) of what may be called the " Continental "
type ; but though a few others may also have
been formed, all these must be regarded as
isolated efforts rather than as constituting any
approach, in even the most modest way, to a
national movement in favour of co-operative, as
against purely joint stock, combinations.

It was the National Agricultural Union, with
which the late Lord Winchilsea was associated,
that constituted the first real effort to organize
British agriculturists on a national basis ; and it
was the British Produce Supply Association,

FIRST ATTEMPTS 291

founded by the same gentleman, that formed
the most ambitious attempt yet made in Eng-
land to create a direct bond of union between
farmers and consumers. The National Agri-
cultural Union had expressed the aspiration of
eventually assisting in the organization of local
co-operative societies for the purchase of neces-
saries, for the sale of produce, for credit, and for
assurance ; but in point of fact, little or nothing
was done on these lines, and the members de-
veloped tendencies in favour, rather, of a policy
of protection, while the Union adopted the prac-
tice of approaching Parliamentary candidates,
and calling upon them to either accept a par-
ticular programme or look out for opposition.
With political leanings such as these, the Union
failed to convince the agriculturists that it was
a practical body, and it gradually drifted into
the position of a negligible quantity.

The British Produce Supply Association,
formed in 1890, was a distinctly interesting
effort, and one that aroused much sympathetic
interest at the time. Lord AVinchilsea's idea
was that produce collected at certain depots in
the country districts should be sold in London
in such a way that the public could depend on
getting British - grown fruit, vegetables, etc.,
while the farmers would be enabled to get larger

292 ENGLAND AND WALES

profits through the abolition of the middle-
man. It was an ambitious scheme, and one
which should have represented the climax rather
than the commencement of agricultural organi-
zation, many of the most powerful agricultural
bodies on the Continent having found, indeed,
that while co-operation for purposes of produc-
tion is eminently practicable, co-operative sale
is a very different problem, and one full of diffi-
culties. Lord Winchilsea, however, was sanguine
of success, and he raised capital that eventually
stood at £50,000. One-fifth of this sum was
paid out on the initial expenses, which included
the opening of commodious and well-arranged
stores in Long Acre, where a retail business was
to be carried on in addition to a wholesale
business in the adjoining Covent Garden market.
At first the prospects appeared extremely
hopeful. Lord Winchilsea's friends and sympa-
thizers gave him loyal support, and began to
patronize the Long Acre establishment in a
way that filled some of the West-end traders
with alarm. But these well-intentioned patrons
were soon discouraged. Experience showed
that British farmers could not be depended
on to forward regular consignments to the
depot, and that those which they did send in
represented, too often, either second or third-

AN UNFORTUNATE ENTERPRISE 293

rate qualities, their best having gone to the
ordinary commission agents or dealers. West-
end patrons found, therefore, that not only was
it inconvenient to go to Long Acre for their
supplies, but they could not depend sufficiently
on them if they did.

Hence the patronage of the central depot fell
off, and there came a time when the losses on
a business which, as the result proved, had been
started both in the wrong place and on too
large a scale, amounted to £250 a week. Nor
was any greater degree of success gained from
the wholesale department in Covent Garden
market. In June, 1899, the central depot was
removed from Long Acre to Lower Seymour
Street, Portman Square, so as to be nearer to
West-end patrons : but fifteen months later the
original association was wound up, and a new
one, with a modest capital of £6,000, in £1
shares (17*. 6rf. paid up), held by some half-
dozen persons, took over the Lower Seymour
Street concern, lint the new association works
on different lines from those of the old. It
receives nothing but eggs direct from the
fanners. The idea of operating with a com-
bination of farmers in the country lor general
supplies was abandoned, not so much, perhaps,
on account of difficulties such as those stated

294 ENGLAND AND WALES

above (for these might have been surmounted),
but because a single establishment would not
always be able to absorb the quantities coming
to hand. It was thought better for all parties
that the farmers should send their produce to
Covent Garden market, and that the repre-
sentatives of the Lower Seymour Street depot
should there purchase such quantities as the
establishment thought it could dispose of, the
surplus remaining in the wholesale market to
be sold there to those who wanted it, instead
of being left on the hands of the association.

Thus the final outcome of a costly experi-
ment was to stamp as impracticable a scheme
to which Lord Winchilsea, with a most earnest
desire to improve the lot of the British farmer,
had devoted a vast amount of energy. If he
had first seen to the organization of the farmers
into registered local co-operative societies, and
then, when he had produced the desired results
(such as levelling up the quality of produce,
meeting market requirements, etc.), had set
about forming a central depot in London with
which all these local societies could have been
affiliated, a very different result would probably
have followed. As it was, a well-meant project
failed, a substantial sum of money was lost,
and a very decided discouragement was given

PRACTICAL LINES AT LAST 295

to the idea of " agricultural combination " in
general.

Meanwhile the position of the National Agri-
cultural Union had not improved, and the time
came when this organization, also, was to be re-
constructed. On the death of Lord Winchilsea
Lord Templetown succeeded to the presidency
of the Union. He was followed by Mr. R. A.
Yerburgh, M.P., who, in December, 1900,
brought before the members a proposal that
they should enter upon what he described as
" an entirely new field of action — a field of
action which the Union had never had in view
before." His scheme was, in effect, that the
Union should adopt the teaching and the
methods of agricultural co-operation already so
successfully followed in Continental countries,
abandoning both politics and risky experiments,
and proceeding upon strictly practical lines.
The proposal thus made was approved, and the
Union arranged to amalgamate with, and (but
for the first word) adopt the title of the
"British Agricultural Organization Society,"
which had been established at Newark. Lin-
colnshire, by Mr. W. L. Charleton, as the out-
come of a close personal inquiry he had made
into the working of the Irish system of agricul-
tural combination.

296 ENGLAND AND WALES

So, in April, 1901, there was at last started a
really effective organization for the purpose of
spreading throughout Great Britain some
approach to the system of agricultural co-
operation carried on so long and so successfully
by other countries, which, availing themselves
of their increased production, were by that time
flooding our markets to a greater extent than
ever with their surplus supplies. With modest
funds that well deserve to be augmented, the
Agricultural Organization Society, operating
from its headquarters at Dacre House, Dacre
Street, Westminster, has already accomplished
a considerable amount of good work. The
objects of the society (of which Mr. R. A. Yer-
burgh, M.P., is president, and Mr. T. A. Brassey
chairman of the executive committee) are : —

To secure the co-operation of all connected with the
land, whether as owners, occupiers, or labourers, and to pro-
mote the formation of Agricultural Co-operative Societies
for the purchase of requisites, for the sale of produce, for
Agricultural Credit Banking and Insurance, and for all
other forms of co-operation for the benefit of agriculture.

The actual work of the society is carried out —

(1) By sending organizers to address meetings and to
give advice as to the proper course to be pursued in the
formation of local societies.

(2) By providing model rules which have been found
by experience to be the best working rules for all similar
societies.

OBJECTS AND METHODS 297

(3) By sending lecturers, when desired, to affiliated and
other societies.

(4) By acting as an information bureau to affiliated
societies.

(5) By acting as arbitrator in disputes that may arise
in the affiliated societies.

(6) By assisting in all ways possible the furtherance of
combined action between the various affiliated societies in
trading matters.

(7) By publishing leaflets and circulars from time to
time, dealing with the various forms of agricultural co-
operation.

There were affiliated with the central organiza-
tion in London on December 31st, 1903, a total
of seventy local agricultural societies of bona fide
farmers, the whole of these local bodies, with the
exception of twelve, having been formed since
the Agricultural Organization Society came into
existence in 1901. The membership at the end
of 1903 was between 5,000 and 6,000. These
figures represent a rate of progress far in excess
of what was secured in the early days of the Irish
movement, and they suggest that the British
farmer is, at last, really awakening to the
realities of his position, and is now fully pre-
pared to take action, if only someone will show
him the way.

The local agricultural societies are strictly
co-operative bodies, registered under the Indus-
trial and Provident Societies Act, thus affording

298 ENGLAND AND WALES

a contrast to the various farmers' clubs (which
are only voluntary associations) and to the com-
binations of the aforesaid commercial type. The
last-mentioned are registered under the Joint
Stock Companies Act. They pay more or less
generous fees in salaries to directors, managers,
and officials, and they work over an unlimited
area for the profit of shareholders ; whereas the
co-operative agricultural societies pay no fees or
salaries (except, perhaps, a very small sum given
to the secretary or manager), they keep to a
clearly denned area in their operations (generally
from seven to ten miles), and they seek to pro-
mote the general welfare of the members rather
than to provide dividends. A classified list of
fifty-four of the seventy affiliated with the
central organization at Dacre House shows their
particular purposes to be as follows : —

Agricultural supply . . . . 31

Societies combining supply of requirements
and sale of produce

Cheesemaking

Dairy and bottled milk . . \.

Rural industries

Allotment and small holding .

Societies combining supply of requirements

and the improvement of live-stock
Poultry and egg
Improvement of cart horses .

8
3
3
1
3

3
1
1

54

AIMS FOR THE FUTURE 299

The central association encourages the forma-
tion of a number of small local societies rather
than that of one or two large societies in each
county. It is found that a wide-spread interest
in agricultural organization results from these
small societies. When a sufficient number of
them have been formed in a county, they will
be combined into a county federation, at the
head of which will, if practicable, stand the
society occupying the most central situation ;
and when federations have been formed in a
number of neighbouring counties they, in turn,
will be associated in a still larger federation
among themselves. In this way Great Britain
will eventually be divided into several clearly
defined sections, each having its committee and
secretary, and each being represented by dele-
gates on the central body in London.

Developed on lines which Continental ex-
perience has shown to be thoroughly sound
and practical, there should thus eventually be
brought into existence a non-political organiza-
tion of farmers which must have far-reaching
effects on the future of British agriculture. It
should, however, be understood that the Agri-
cultural Organization Society, like the Irish
Agricultural Organization Society, is a purely
propagandist body, and not itself a trading one.

3oo ENGLAND AND WALES

leaving, as it will do, the local societies and their
federations to arrange matters of business for
their members. It is further deserving of men-
tion that no questions of religion or politics are
allowed to enter into the conduct of the move-
ment, Rule 43 of the central organization ex-
pressly providing that —

No religious or political question shall be introduced at
any meeting of the Society, and no action of the Society
shall be directed towards the propagation of any political
or religious doctrines, or the advancement of the interests
of any political party or religious body.

There is much of interest that could be told
concerning the local agricultural associations as
showing the really practical nature of the ser-
vices they render. The Aspatria Society, for
instance, has arranged sales representing a
total of over £500,000 since it started opera-
tions— a fact which suggests that when the
county federations come to be formed they
should be in a position to effect considerable
economies in the purchase of agricultural neces-
saries in wholesale quantities. On the other
hand an excellent example of what can be done
in a small way is afforded by the Muskham
(Notts) Co-operative Agricultural Society. This
village organization was started in 1899 with
seven members and a secretary, and several

SOME PRACTICAL EXAMPLES 301

months elapsed before the membership was
increased. The shares were 5s. each, Is. 3d.
being called up. Just prior to the harvest
of 1899 the society resolved to purchase a
" reaper and binder " at a cost of £3*2 (although
their paid-up capital was then only £15), and
the members obtained an advance from a local
bank on their giving a guarantee to hold them-
selves collectively and individually responsible
for repayment. A scale of charges for the use
of the machine was drawn up, and the receipts
have since then been sufficient to clear off the
loan, so that the machine now belongs to the
society, and the further income derived from it
over and above wear and tear represents so
much profit.

The Framlingham and District Agricultural
Co-operative Society, brought into existence by
the Agricultural Organization Society in May,
1903, lias pioneered the movement in Suffolk,
and was able to show a good record for the first
six months of its operations. By the end of
1903 it had secured the adhesion of 114 mem-
bers, who were holders of 1,600 shares, and
it had done a considerable trade in linseed and
cotton cake, coal, and agricultural implements.
The members had also been supplied with
manures, seeds, corrugated iron, wire-netting.

302 ENGLAND AND WALES

and binder twine, and other goods. The egg
department had been most successful, over
56,000 eggs having been despatched to the
orders of the National Poultry Society. The
accounts showed a profit of 6 J per cent., after
allowing for all initial expenses, on a turn-over
of £1,136 for the half-year.

In the county of Worcester, especially, agri-
cultural co-operation is now becoming a dis-
tinctly active force. The very great initial
difficulty of inducing the farmers to set aside the
traditions, habits, and prejudices of generations
has been so far overcome that several excellent
associations have been started and are in good
working order, while even those Worcestershire
agriculturists who still regard co-operative effort
with a lingering mistrust are beginning to think
there is " something in it," after all. At Bewd-
ley a co-operative association started by repre-
sentatives of the Agricultural Organization
Society in May, 1902, has rented a large ware-
house where fruit and vegetables are collected,
graded, and re-packed, the questions of sorting
and of suitable packages having been rightly
regarded as of primary importance for the local
producers if they are to succeed in the markets
where the association further seeks to push their
produce. Thanks to such combined effort, also,

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM WORCESTERSHIRE 303

a threatened serious fall in the prices for both
fruit and vegetables, which individuals would
have been powerless to prevent, has been
checked. Then, beyond the ordinary functions
of an agricultural co-operative association, the
Bewdley society has provided its members with
a well-arranged " swim-bath," with drying floor,
pens, etc., where they can have their sheep
"dipped," without trouble or risk, at Id. per
sheep — a moderate charge which, nevertheless,
leaves a margin of profit for the association.

At Far Forest, four miles from Bewdley, there
is a village agricultural society which obtains, at
wholesale prices, and to the extent of about
£1,500 a year, all kinds of necessaries for the
local farmers, and helps them with the sale of
their poultry, fruit, eggs, etc. The members of
the committee represent six different religious
denominations, but there has never yet been any
friction. " Vicars Farm, Ltd.," organized in the
summer of 1902 by the Rev. G. F. Eyre, vicar
of Far Forest. ;is a separate co-operative society,
was started with the idea of conducting a poultry
farm ; but its main business to-day is the control
of a dairy which collects milk from its members,
and distributes it in the form of bottles of ster-
ilized milk, cream, and skim-milk to customers
over a considerable area.

304 ENGLAND AND WALES

Not only did the vicar of Far Forest and his
family take a large number of shares in the
society, but the farmers were organized by him ;
he is the very active president of the concern,
in the management of which he is helped by a
committee of four ; he keeps fowls himself both
for sale and show ; he grows raspberries on two
and a quarter acres of land ; and he is a member
of the Far Forest Supply Association, helping
the farmers to effect their purchases in the
cheapest and best markets, and giving them,
generally, the benefit of his knowledge and ex-
perience. A further development in the same
district has been the formation, on co-operative
lines, of the " Far Forest Pure Water Supply
Association, Ltd." The fruit-growing and other
industries in this corner of Worcestershire had
been much hampered by an insufficient supply
of water from the local wells, and cattle
and horses had to be driven long distances
to obtain good drinking water. The " Far
Forest Pure Water Supply Association" was,
therefore, on the initiation of Mr. Eyre, founded
with the object of sinking an artesian well to
meet the wants of the small holders of the
district. A supply equal to 500 gallons per
hour was tapped at a depth of 200 feet, but
it was resolved to continue the sinking until

OPPOSING A "RING" 305

a supply of 1,000 gallons per hour had been
obtained.

The most striking proof of all, however, of the
progress that agricultural co-operation is making
in Worcestershire is afforded by the recent
formation — with Stourport as its headquarters
— of the " Midland Counties Agricultural Supply
Association, Ltd." This society is the outcome
of opposition to the alleged "ring" of implement
dealers in the Midlands, whose policy the
Worcestershire Chamber of Agriculture, in con-
junction with the Agricultural Organization
Society, decided to try to checkmate. A sub-
committee was appointed to go into the whole
matter, and then the business of a local firm
of implement-makers was bought up, and con-
verted into a co-operative undertaking. The
amount of business done by the association since
it was formed is regarded as most satisfactory,
and the " ring " is considered to have received a
serious set-back in the Midland Counties.

There are many other interesting phases of the
general movement in England, but 1 must now
content myself with only two further examples.
One of these is that of the Newark Dairy, Ltd.,
at Long IJennington, Lincolnshire, which re-
presents the result of a very persistent effort
made by Mr. W. L. Charleton (now one of the

X

3o6 ENGLAND AND WALES

vice-presidents of the Agricultural Organization
Society) to group the farmers of the district into
an association for providing the towns of Newark
and Grantham with an "up-to-date" milk
supply. The milk is bought from the farmers
at a price which has averaged, since the society
was formed, 7\d. per gallon ; it is filtered, bottled,
and pasteurized, and the bottles, hermetically
sealed, are sent off to the customers, who find
this method a great improvement on the ordinary
practice in regard to milk supply. Between
January 1st and December 31st, 1903, over
12,000 gallons of milk were distributed in this
way, the farmers getting much better profits
than if each had acted independently of the
other. The association has now enlarged its
premises by purchasing an adjoining public-house
(the licence of which was about to lapse) and the
four acres of land adjoining. One room of this
former inn it will convert into a " cyclists' rest,"
while another will be utilized as a library and
reading-room, representing a little centre for the
general revival of village life in the neighbour-
hood.

My last example in this connection is that of
the Scalford Dairy, Ltd., an association which
was registered in April, 1903, for the starting at
Scalford, near Melton Mowbray, Leicester, of

A FARMERS' FEDERATION IN WALES 307

the first and only co-operative factory that yet
exists in Great Britain for the making exclu-
sively of Stilton cheese. It constitutes a genuine
attempt on the part of Leicestershire farmers to
combine their forces in competition with the
proprietary cheese factories, with a view to their
obtaining a better return from their raw ma-
terials, and they have entered into the scheme
with great heartiness. The Duke of Rutland
let them have a large building in the village, at
the low rental of £1G a year, for the purposes of
a dairy and store, and the farmers themselves
did all the carting of the materials required for
the various alterations. The cheeses that have
been made have sold well, and the society pro-
mises to be a success.

Wales must, perhaps, be regarded as having
shot ahead of England, for while the latter
country has at present only local co-operative
societies, affiliated to the central organization in
London, the former has now a " Welsh Farmers'
Federation " of agricultural co-operative socie-
ties. The main purpose of this federation is to
bulk the orders for farmers' necessaries collected
by the individual societies. Of these there were
20 at the end of 1903, the membership being
about 3,000. With one exception, the whole of
the Welsh societies are co-operative trading

308 ENGLAND AND WALES

organizations. The movement is taking strong
hold among the Welsh farmers, who are begin-
ning to realize the need there is for them to
study the business aspects of their industry. A
special feature of the campaign in Wales is that
the opening of a store by each society, under
the charge of a manager, is found essential to
success ; while as the societies get firmly estab-
lished they develop other lines of usefulness,
among them being the improvement of live-
stock, the disposal of members' produce, the
acquiring of weighbridges, etc.

Among the most successful of the Welsh
societies is the one formed in the Vale of Tivy,
West Cardiganshire. This society increased its
turn-over from £700 in 1901 to £6,000 in 1902,
when the balance-sheet showed that, after pay-
ing all expenses, and after having already en-
abled the members to share in the profits, there
was a surplus of £300 over and above the capital
originally invested. The membership of the
society is about 600, mostly " small " people,
whose individual purchases of maize, meal, bran,
etc., nevertheless swell in a surprising degree the
sum total of the business done. In 1902 the
society grouped the Christmas poultry of its
members, and disposed of it at a good figure,
breaking up an old " goose fair ring," which had

SOME WELSH SUCCESSES 309

previously kept the prices down to a level that
was absurdly low. The same society has now
undertaken the sale of pigs for its members,
sending over 50 animals per week to the London
market. The Emlyn Society has also been very
successful in selling Christmas poultry in bulk,
and has increased its turn -over from a few
hundred pounds the year to £3,000.

Of the other societies, one at Lledrod, which
started with only eight members, has now 70,
almost every farm in the parish being repre-
sented in it; the Fishguard and Goodwick has
given an order for nearly 400 tons of superphos-
phate for its members, this representing the
largest grouped order, so far, of any single agri-
cultural society in Wales ; and the store of the
Carmarthen society is doing a business equal to
£100 a week, and has brought about a general
reduction in the prices of agricultural necessaries
in the district.

All this looks sufficiently promising ; but,
thanks to their new federation, the Welsh
societies can now arrange their purchases to still
better advantage. The first contract made by
the federation was for the delivery of from 1,500
to 2,000 tons of basic slag, and the total amount
of the business done by the federation in 1903
was £25,000. Wales has further distinguished

3io ENGLAND AND WALES

herself by the fact that Prof. D. D. Williams
has delivered a course of lectures at University
College, Aberystwyth, on "Agricultural Co-
operation." Through the liberality of Mr.
Augustus Brigstocke, two scholarships of £10
each have been awarded in connection with these
lectures, which are to be an annual institution
at the College.

Agricultural organization on essentially prac-
tical lines has thus at last made a fair start
in England and Wales, and it has done so in
a way that already offers abundant scope for
a revision of the popular idea that it is hopeless
to expect the British farmers to combine as
those in other countries are doing. Still, the
work thus far done has amounted mainly to
preparing the foundations for a really national
effort ; and although these foundations have now
been laid, after an infinitude of trouble, the con-
struction of the edifice to be reared thereon will
not proceed at the rate it should unless the
builders receive a larger degree of support in
the provision of funds for propaganda purposes
than has been the case hitherto.

Another factor in the situation is the absolute
need that agricultural credit should go hand-in-
hand with agricultural organization. The ne-
cessity for this dual arrangement has been

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT 311

proved over and over again on the Continent of
Europe, and though the financial position of
British agriculturists in general may be more
favourable than that of the peasantry in vari-
ous other countries where an easy agricultural
credit was established years ago, the extreme
desirability of such credit being available in
Great Britain, also, is beyond any possible
doubt.

Happily, here again a good commencement
has been made by the Co-operative Banks
Association, whose headquarters are at 29, Old
Queen Street, Westminster, S.W. The pur-
pose of this association is to establish both town
and country co-operative banks, the former
being registered under the Industrial and Provi-
dent Societies Acts, and issuing £1 shares, paid
for in weekly instalments of Gd. ; while the
latter are registered under the Friendly Societies
Act, and borrow money from the Central Banks
Committee on the collective credit of the mem-
bers (as the town banks do on the credit of their
shares) for the purpose of making small advances
for productive purposes. These country co-
operative banks are, in fact, of that Raiffeisen
type which has already conferred such inestim-
able benefits on so many countries abroad, and
their adaptability to the requirements of the

3I2 ENGLAND AND WALES

small cultivator, the village tradesman, and the
labourer in the rural districts of England has
been abundantly proved by the eleven village
banks which have already been established, four
of them being in Leicestershire, two in Wor-
cestershire, two in Norfolk, and one each in
Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicester-
shire. Where these banks exist there is no
need for individuals of the classes mentioned to
resort to the professional money-lender, and
loans of from £2 to £10 or £20 can be readily
obtained by honest and deserving toilers for the
purchase of live-stock, fertilizers, or implements,
the repairing of glass-houses, and other purposes.
The little timely help thus granted has, in many
instances, been of practical service, while in every
case the instalments have been punctually re-
paid. There is room for hundreds more of such
village banks in England, and until they have
been established no complete system of agri-
cultural organization can be hoped for. While,
however, village banks of this type are calcu-
lated to fully meet the requirements of the
" small " agriculturists, they are not likely, on
their present basis, to answer the purposes of
farmers who conduct operations on a large or
a fairly large scale, and it is foreseen that for
them a different kind of agricultural credit will

PUBLIC AUTHORITIES 313

have to be created. To this point I shall revert
in the concluding chapter.

Still another body well deserving of public
support is the National Poultry Organization
Society, which from its headquarters at 12,
Hanover Square, W., is striving to encourage
and develop the production of the best qualities
of poultry and eggs in the United Kingdom, and
bring producers into more direct communication
with retailers, "thus organizing the system of
marketing which at the present time in respect
of many parts of the country compares so
unfavourably with the methods adopted by
foreigners who have perfected their organiza-
tions and practically captured the British
markets."

In regard to the action of public authorities
in England a concession which ought to be of
considerable advantage was made in 1902, when
the Board of Education authorized the teaching
of the " principles and practice of agricultural
co-operation ' under the Technical Instruction
Act of 1889. This concession was made on the
application of the Agricultural sub-Committee
of the Buckinghamshire County Council, sup-
ported by the Agricultural Organization Society.
It was followed by the appointment, through
the society, of an agricultural organizer by the

3H ENGLAND AND WALES

Buckinghamshire Technical Instruction Com-
mittee for a period of three months, a co-
operative agricultural society being formed,
with the town of Buckingham as its centre.
The committee have now arranged that if an
application should be received from any par-
ticular district in the county for an organizer to
visit the farmers and give them advice, the cen-
tral society shall be asked to send such organizer
there, his expenses being paid according to a
specified scale. Then the Agricultural sub-
Committee of the Lancashire County Council
have resolved : " That ' the principles and
practice of agricultural co-operation' be put
on the list of subjects that may be taught by
the Technical Instruction Committee, and, in
the event of application from any locality,
that the Agricultural Organization Society be
at once communicated with ; that in the mean-
time the Principal of Agriculture communicate
with the secretary of the Agricultural Organiza-
tion Society, and ascertain approximately the
terms and conditions upon which a competent
person experienced in agricultural co-operative
work could be supplied." To this it may be
added that the Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire,
and Staffordshire County Councils have obtained
the sanction of the Board of Education to their

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 315

giving instruction in agricultural co-operation ;
while the Notts County Council included in their
scheme of technical instruction for 1903-4,
among some " Informal Talks and Discussions
on Practical Subjects with Farmers," such topics
as " Farmers' Clubs and Co-operation," and
" Co-operation in Dairy Work."

Cordial recognition must be given, also, to the
very earnest efforts which have been made by
the Board of Agriculture to promote organiza-
tion among the farmers of the country, and to
advance the interests of agriculture in other
ways besides. But while there is much that the
Board of Agriculture can do, the powers of that
body are necessarily limited, and it is undesir-
able in the extreme that the agriculturists of the
country should rely too much on the help of the
State in those particular matters where they can
very well act for themselves, provided only they
show the necessary initiative and energy.

CHAPTER XXIV

A GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH
AGRICULTURE

IN the Jahrbuch fur Nationaldkonomie und
Statistik (Jena : Gustav Fischer) there is a
very clear and comprehensive survey, by Dr.
Hermann Levy, of " The Present Position of
English Agriculture," which deserves the atten-
tion of English as well as of German readers.

A belief in the ruin of British agriculture, as
the ultimate outcome of the fall in the price
of wheat, is, Dr. Levy says, widespread in
Germany, and it has been especially fostered
by the Parliamentary inquiries made into the
subject in this country in the middle of the
nineties, when the general conditions were
avowedly bad. Yet Dr. Levy finds that our
agriculture has not only survived, but has lately
been showing signs of improvement. It is the
causes of this improvement — not sufficiently
accounted for by any advance in prices — which
the author of the paper seeks to investigate.

316

DISSOLUTION OR EVOLUTION? 317

In England as well as in other countries, he
proceeds, the conditions to which the crisis of
1879 gave rise led to two different opinions
being formed. The one was that for English
agriculture there had set in the beginning of
the end. The other held that the new con-
ditions were simply a process of evolution,
showing the need for a radical change in pro-
duction. British farmers, it was argued, must
apply their energies in directions where they
would either escape the competition of foreigners,
or encounter it in a less degree than in the
growing of corn. Especially, it was argued,
must they devote themselves to raising the
finest varieties of cattle — either for the meat
market or for stock-breeding purposes — and to
the production of butter, cheese, fresh milk,
fruit, and vegetables.

Taking up these various points .seriatim, Dr.
Levy adduces, in the first place, a number of
facts and figures to show the important position
to which Great Britain has attained of late
years as a producer of live-stock for foreign
countries. Not only, he points out, has the
export thereof already attained to considerable
proportions, but more and still more British
agriculturists are turning their attention to
what is found to be a profitable industry.

3i8 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

In regard to dairy products, Dr. Levy con-
tinues, the impression prevails in Germany that
the large supplies of butter received from
Denmark and Ireland have done serious harm
to the English farmer, and such supplies cer-
tainly represent a serious competition. But
neither in Denmark nor in Ireland does he find
conditions which the English farmer might not
have secured for the purpose of at least check-
ing this competition, had he thought fit. Instead,
however, of doing so, the English farmer found
it more profitable to devote himself to the
supply of fresh milk. Here the two leading
factors were (1) the steadily increasing con-
sumption of milk in the towns ; and (2) the
constant improvement in the conditions of trans-
port. Farmers who could send their milk to a
town got better prices and incurred less trouble
than if they turned it into butter ; so that (in
effect) it paid them to let the foreigner supply
the towns with butter if they could control the
market there for fresh milk. All this is perfectly
true, no doubt ; but the German critic omits to
point out that there are parts of England so
situated that the farmers cannot send their milk
to the large centres of population. In these cases,
at least, the establishing of co-operative dairies for
butter production should be a decided advantage.

PRODUCTION AND PRODUCERS 319

In the matter of poultry and eggs, Dr. Levy-
finds that the English farmers have made a sub-
stantial advance of late years ; and he deals,
also, with the opportunity offered to them for
supplying the wants of the English people in
regard to fruit and vegetables, the consumption
of which, as he demonstrates, has enormously
increased throughout Great Britain. He shows
that not only has far more land in England been
devoted to fruit and vegetables, and especially
to potatoes, but the yield per acre has improved
owing to the introduction of better varieties
and the resort to improved methods.

So the crisis brought about in 1879 led to im-
portant changes in production. But it led, also,
as Dr. Levy next shows, to no less significant
changes in regard to the producers. Dividing
the agriculturists of England into two classes,
" gentleman farmers " and " working farmers,"
he defines the gentleman farmer as the product
of those days of agricultural prosperity when
native-grown corn fetched a high price, and the
demands on the grower's own energies were
but few.

With the advent of the crisis came the decline
of the gentleman farmer. He had no longer
the same role to fill, in the economy of the new
agriculture, which, with its breeding and feeding

32o GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

of cattle, and its production of fruit and vege-
tables, required the close personal supervision of
a " working " farmer. Even more than this was
necessary. There were needed for these alterna-
tive branches of agriculture helpers of a higher
type than the labourer who had gone through
his almost mechanical round of duties in the
production of corn. But persons of this type
were more difficult to get, and even when they
were secured, the milking of cows, especially,
was regarded with dislike by both women and
men. So the lack of competent hands, followed
by the steady migration of the rural population
to the towns, too often led to a shortage of
labour which the working farmer and his house-
hold had to meet by themselves taking the
leading part in the ordinary work of the fields.
Here, again, therefore, the working farmer had
the advantage over the gentleman farmer, so
that while the latter lamented over the deca-
dence of that British agriculture in which he
could no longer play his part, the former found
abundant scope for his personal energies in
newer directions.

To the original contention that the agricul-
tural crisis could be surmounted only by turning
to these other sources of production, instead of
corn-growing, two objections were advanced :

SCOTCH SETTLERS IN ESSEX 321

(1) That the consumption of meat, vegetables,
and fruit in England was not likely to undergo
any great expansion ; and (2) that, if it did, the
conditions of the English soil would not allow
of these articles being produced in adequate
quantities. Dr. Levy disposes of each of these
fears. On the one point he adduces figures
indicating the really enormous growth in the
consumption of butter, cheese, eggs, poultry,
apples, pears, plums, etc., in Great Britain of late
years ; on the other he tells how lands in various
parts of the country which had previously been
regarded as fit for corn-growing only have, by
dint of individual energy and application, been
adapted to the new conditions, and are pro-
ducing excellent results. He is especially warm
in his praise of the success achieved by Scotch
settlers in some of the most unpromising districts
of Essex and other Eastern counties. Such
success, he remarks, shows " how personal
capacity, combined with hard work, can sur-
mount natural difficulties," and he adds that
" the Scotch farmer possesses a power of adapt-
ability which the English farmer either has not
got or has had to acquire." Whatever the
nationality of the farmer, however, provided lie
hus fought bravely the difficulties presented by
Nature, either by adopting new methods or

322 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

improving on the old ones, success has "not
been far off."

But, granting that the British farmers are
willing to turn their attention to particular
forms of agricultural produce, other than corn,
for which there is a large demand ; and granting,
also, that the soil can be adapted to the achieve-
ment of this purpose, how is it that the British
cultivator has to encounter an increasing competi-
tion from the foreigner in regard to the produce in
question ? Why has not the British farmer been
able to keep in his own hands the entire supply of
those enhanced quantities of butter, eggs, poultry,
fruit, and vegetables which his markets require?

This is the next point to which Dr. Levy
addresses himself, and he declares with emphasis
that the reply to the question is not to be found
in any special advantages conferred by Nature
on foreign countries as compared with Great
Britain. He attributes the conditions in ques-
tion mainly to two causes. The first of these is
that " alike in the production of his supplies and
in his method of disposing of them, the British
farmer has a less perfect system than that of the
countries which compete with him " ; and this
double superiority on the part of the foreigner
is mainly due, Dr. Levy adds, to his application
of the principle of co-operation.

THE NEW ERA 323

But Dr. Levy is able to tell his German
readers that "even in agricultural circles in
England the fact is now becoming more and
more recognized that the lack of co-operative
organization has been the reason why the Eng-
lish cultivator has not been able to meet foreign
competition in regard to articles of produce for
which the soil of the island-kingdom is no more
unfavourable than that of other countries." He
goes on to explain the aims of the Agricultural
Organization Society, and the successes it had
achieved up to September, 1903 ; and in this
connection he suggests that one of the main
difficulties to be encountered in England in
carrying out an effective organization scheme
will be found in the varying sizes of the farms
in particular districts, large, medium, and others
comparatively minute being found side by side,
and representing a variety of needs and interests
which it may be difficult to bring together on a
common footing. Another drawback to agricul-
tural organization in England, as compared with
Continental countries, he finds in the fact that
here the farmers are mainly tenants instead of
owners of the soil they cultivate, while they
move about more freely from one district to
another, thus often not acquiring the local ties
and sympathies that are found in rural districts

324 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

in foreign countries, where the families may have
known one another for generations. Even with
these drawbacks, however, Dr. Levy finds in
present conditions in England a distinct advance
in the development of combination — " an
advance," he declares, "which has certainly
contributed to the fact that English agriculture
is in a better condition to-day than it was in the
middle of the nineties."

The second of Dr. Levy's reasons why the
British cultivator has not been able to fully meet
foreign competition in market-garden and other
produce is defined by him as a non-agricultural
one. " In England," he writes on this point,
" the possession of landed property offers to the
wealthy great social and political advantages.
The political influence of the landowner, and
the attractions and advantages of a country-
seat, alike as a summer residence and as a centre
for sport and society, awaken in almost every
well-to-do Englishman the desire to own an
estate." For these reasons, Dr. Levy argues,
a great amount of land has been taken up in
England for non-agricultural purposes, and is
kept unproductive, not because tenants could
not be found, and not because of any unsuit-
ability of the soil, but either in the interests of
sport, or because the conversion of the land into

NON-AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS 325

small holdings might detract (in the opinion of
the owner) from the beauty of the landscape.
In this way non-agricultural interests often come
in conflict with agricultural, while in other cases
the paramount reason may be simply a lack of
knowledge on the part of a landlord who leaves
the entire management of his estate to an agent
— a person generally disposed to favour large
holdings in preference to small ones. Whatever
the immediate cause, the effect is that much of
the land which in Continental countries would
be utilized for market -garden or kindred pur-
poses fails to yield those substantial quantities
of produce with which alone the British culti-
vator could hope to offer a supply equal to the
demand.

I conclude this digest of Dr. Levy's paper
with the following extract, in which he sums up
his general argument : —

We see now the causes which operated to make foreign
competition felt by the English farmer even in what lie
ought to have regarded as profitable forms of production,
so that he was not in a position to derive full advantage
from the increased requirements of his home markets.
The reason is not to he sought in the impossibility of
securing the remunerative development of these particular
branches of agricultural activity. It is admitted that
such development was quite possible. Neither can it be
said that the conditions of cultivation were worse in

326 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

England than elsewhere. The causes are, first, that other
countries have better methods alike of production and
sale, due to their comprehensive development of the
principle of co-operation ; and, secondly, non-agricultural
interests have retarded the expansion of those further
branches of production which might otherwise have been
more fully exploited.

CHAPTER XXV

DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE
FARMERS ?

IN his review of the present position of
British agriculture, the German authority
whose paper thereon I dealt with in the pre-
ceding chapter, makes no reference at all to
that subject of railway rates which is so often
advanced as one of the chief reasons for the
adverse conditions from which British farmers
have suffered of late years. That he can have
been unaware of the complaints made on this
point is scarcely probable, for when German
experts undertake an investigation into any par-
ticular subject they are essentially "thorough";
and the only conclusion one can arrive at is that
in the opinion of this impartial critic the back-
ward condition of British agriculture is so far
due to other causes that the question of railway
rates does not constitute a sufficiently important
matter to be introduced into his line of argu-
ment.

J27

328 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

It is true that this bogey of railway rates in
reference to agriculture is brought out from
time to time in Great Britain itself, and there
are individuals here who continue to cherish the
delusion that the British farmer's natural enemies
are the railways. But the statement of facts I
have already presented as to what other countries
are doing for the development of their agricul-
tural interests shows that the greatest advantages
they have gained have been secured from changes
of method which are sufficient in themselves to
account for their successful competition with
the home producer, so that no practicable re-
duction merely in the cost of transport would
suffice to enable the British farmer to meet
Continental competition, without any resort to
the Continental systems of production and com-
bination.

All the same, it should serve a useful purpose
to inquire whether or not the railways are sin-
cere in their contention that the interests of
British agriculture are also their own interests,
and whether or not they have really made an
earnest effort to help the British farmer by such
practical means as lay in their power. Some
definite facts on these points ought to go far
towards dispelling the lingering delusions there-
on, and help to clear the way for a wider re-

A FRIENDLY CONFERENCE 329

cognition of the actual requirements of the
position.

In the month of October, 1895 (a year when
much was being said as to the depressed con-
dition of British agriculture), the Great Eastern
Railway Company summoned a conference of
farmers from the Eastern Counties to consider
what could be done by the railway to further
their interests, and Lord Claud Hamilton, the
chairman of the Board of Directors, accompanied
by Colonel Makins, the deputy chairman, and
the leading officials, met a number of representa-
tives of agriculture, headed by the late Lord
Winchilsea. In an article on the subject which
I contributed to The Times of November 2nd,
1895, I wrote : —

The primary object of the Great Eastern Railway Com-
pany in calling the conference was to impress on the
agriculturists that while there should, in the interests
of" all parties concerned, be a certain co-operation between
the railways and the producers, it is also essential that
each side should, at the same time, have its distinct
organization, complete in itself, and not intrenching on
the legitimate domain of the other. Thus it was
pointed out that the duty of a railway company, as
carriers, is to organize a carrying service, and that it was
for the producers in their turn to organize their consign-
ments for delivery to the railway company, and the

subsequent sale thereof, in such a way as t<> secure a maxi-
mum of profit at a minimum of expense. Hut it was

330 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

further pointed out, in effect, that this minimum of expense
cannot be obtained when each producer acts independently
of every other producer, and that it can, in fact, only
be secured when a considerable body of producers work
together in concert. . . . The fundamental principle laid
down was that, if the railway companies are to help
agriculture, then agriculture should, in its turn, facilitate
the operations of the railway companies, and so make
reductions of rates much more practicable than they
would otherwise be.

Further conferences followed, and at one of
these Lord Claud Hamilton announced that, as
an earnest of his company's desire to do what
they could to help the agriculturists, farm pro-
duce would, from December 1st, 1895, be con-
veyed on the Great Eastern Railway, by passen-
ger train, from any one of 98 different stations
on their system to London and stations in the
Great Eastern suburban district at a reduced
charge of 4>d, for any weight up to 20 lbs.,
and Id. for every additional 5 lbs. up to a maxi-
mum of 60 lbs., provided that such produce was
packed in boxes which the company would pro-
vide at little more than cost price. The idea of
these boxes was the twofold one of (1) facilitat-
ing loading, inasmuch as boxes of certain sizes,
with lids nailed down, could be more readily
handled and placed on top of one another than
a miscellaneous assortment of hampers and

THP: "BOX" SYSTEM 331

packages ; and (2) that the trouble of returned
empties would be got rid of, since the boxes
would be so cheap that there would be no need
to send them back.

Later on the company prepared and circulated
a " List of Farmers, Market Gardeners, and
Others prepared to forward farm and garden
produce direct to their consumers," and much
advantage has been taken of the opportunities
thus offered ; though the system is one that
obviously confers a greater benefit on the farmer
and the consumer than on the railway company,
since, for the latter, it means the increase of that
" small parcel " business which involves a maxi-
mum of trouble for a very modest amount of
profit. The agricultural organizers of to-day
are, indeed, themselves opposed to the system,
on the ground that it tends to strengthen that
element of " individualism " which it is their
primary object to get rid of from among the
British farmers, in favour of joint action akin to
that of their foreign competitors. All this is
reasonable enough, and it would be vastly pre-
ferable to a railway company to deal witli
IJritish produce in bulk rather than in the form
of an infinitude of separate small consignments.
But at the time in question there was no effec-
tive combination on the part of the farmers

332 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

to produce the former result, and the only
alternative seemed to the Great Eastern Rail-
way directors to be to give such immediate help
as could be rendered by the system which they
introduced. A little more than a year later
there were hopes that the desired organization
among the farmers was on the point of being
realized by the formation of Lord Winchilsea's
British Produce Supply Association ; but how
that well-meant attempt failed has already been
related.

Meanwhile the whole subject had attracted
much interest throughout the country, and most
of the leading railway companies either called
conferences of agriculturists resident in the
districts served by their lines, or else took such
direct action as seemed to them most likely to
secure the desired results. I was myself present
at two of these further conferences — those ar-
ranged by the Great Western and the South
Eastern Railway Companies — and I can bear
testimony to the great earnestness with which
the representatives of the railways not only
advanced their own ideas, but welcomed any
suggestion offered by the agriculturists which
seemed to be at all practicable.

But the fact that other railway companies may
not have called such conferences must not lead

SPECIALLY LOW RATES

333

one to assume that they remained inactive in the
matter. On the London and North Western
Railway, for example, no formal conference was
held, but at every station in the rural districts
through which that railway passes large posters
were prominently displayed, in April, 1896, an-
nouncing that the company were prepared to
arrange specially low rates, where not already in
existence upon the company's system, " for meat,
dead poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, vegetables,
and other farm and dairy produce, in separate or
mixed consignments." That these "specially low
rates " deserved to be so described is shown by
the following table, given on a handbill which
was likewise issued : —

REDUCED RATES for the Conveyance of Agricultural, Farm,
and Dairy Produce by Passenger Train.

BACON, CHEESE, CREAM, EGGS, FISH, FLOWERS, FRUIT,
HONEY, GAME* (dead), HAMS, ICE, PLANTS, POULTRY*
(dead), RABBITS* (dead), FRESH MEAT, VEGETABLES,
MUSHROOMS, BULBS,t and SEEDS t (Garden and Agri-
cultural).

\$a

o

3

7

9

in

13

16

20

21

36

48 i S«5

Distance.

lba.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lb9' ||-

d.

d.

d.

d.

a.

~~d.

^^

t. d.

s. d.

s. d.

s. d,

s. d.

>/.

Up to 30 m

1

5

6

6

(i

6

0 6

II li

0 6

n U

0 6

i

8

M .,

1

5

6

6

6

6

0 6

0 6

0 6

0 9

1 0

i

„ l<)<) „

1

.-,

6

6

6

6

0 ?

1) s

(I !» 1 8

1 (i

I

,, 800 ,,

1

5

6

7

8

!»

0 10

0 11

1 0

1 6

8 0

t

Above 800 „

4

5

6

8

!>

10

1 0

l 3

1 3

1 11

I 6

I

• N'it applicable l>etween stations in England ami stations in Scotland,
t Includes collection as well M ■ I'l i v.-ry within usual limits.

334 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

This list of rates is deserving of study because
it will enable unprejudiced persons to judge for
themselves whether or not there is really any
foundation for the allegation that British agri-
culture is being crippled by extortionate charges
on the part of the railway companies.

It was further announced that the company
were "prepared to arrange special rates for regular
consignments of agricultural, farm, and dairy pro-
duce sent in large quantities by goods or passenger
train," and information was given as to where
application for these special rates should be
made.

The mere issue of these posters and handbills
would have been sufficient had the company
desired simply to convince the world in general
that they were desirous of" helping the farmers."
But the absolute sincerity of such desire was
shown by their taking action along lines of which
the world in general was not likely to hear at all
without some such occasion as that which now
presents itself for making the fact known.

The following memorandum, dated April 29th,
1896, and addressed "To Goods Agents and
others concerned," was sent out by the Chief
Goods Manager : —

Referring to the instructions you have already received
with reference to the endeavours that are being; made to

VERY MUCH IN EARNEST 335

give increased facilities for the transit of farm produce over
the railway, and the posters that will be exhibited at the
stations in connection with the matter, I wish to impress
upon you that every effort must be taken to increase this
business, both in the interests of the farmers and the
Company. The Company are prepared to put into opera-
tion, where they do not at present exist, low special rates
for regular consignments sent in fair quantities, and also
to, as far as possible, give an improved service to distant
markets.

You should take every opportunity of notifying this
by personal communication with the farmers or growers in
your district, and all applications for particulars of the
rates and arrangements should be sent to your District
Goods Manager, with full information as to the descrip-
tion of produce, packing, and quantities in which it will
be consigned, together with the names and addresses of the
applicants.

In accordance with these instructions repre-
sentatives of the railway company waited
personally on all the principal farmers, growers,
or producers of agricultural commodities in
every district within reach of the London and
North Western Railway where there was any
chance of business being got, in order to see
whether, by any hints they could give, any
assistance they could render, or any offer of low
rates they could make, they might help the
farmer, and, at the same time, bring traffic to
the railway. The number of personal calls thus
made was close on 1.000, and a considerable ex-

336 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

penditure, altogether, was incurred. Yet the
applications for the proffered special terms
during the ensuing twelve months represented
a total of only 268 for the whole of the London
and North Western Railway Company's system ;
so that a leading official was constrained to
observe, in a report he drew up on the subject : —

The comparative paucity of applications, considering
the publicity given to our willingness to assist, confirms
what has been already stated — that the agricultural
depression does not largely exist in the districts we serve,
and that where it does exist the remedy is not one within
the powers of this railway company to provide.

All the same, the posters and the handbills
already mentioned were issued afresh by the
company at the end of 1903.

Then the Great Western Railway Company,
in addition to holding the conference to which I
have already referred, followed it up by others,
and sent experienced officers to the farmers and
market gardeners in the principal agricultural
districts of the Western and Midland counties
to bring prominently to their notice the fact
that by joining hands instead of acting indi-
vidually they might obtain full advantage of
reduced rates and increased railway facilities.
The officers were further instructed to closely
study the particular directions in which the

MEETING REQUESTS 337

agriculturists thought further co-operation with
the railway company would be of value. The
results of this inquiry were carefully considered
by the directors, several of whom are specialists
in agricultural questions, and it was decided to
adopt measures of a practical character for the
purpose of meeting the three groups of requests
into which the suggestions of the agriculturists
fell. The chief points in regard to each of these
groups may be mentioned, as showing the
general attitude of the company in question
towards the farming interests.

In the matter of the milk traffic the pastoral
districts desired low rates for the conveyance of
milk ; train arrangements of an absolutely de-
pendable character, so that places at a distance
or on branch lines could obtain a share in the
supply ; improved arrangements for the return
of empties, and Sunday trains on certain
branch lines. To meet these requests, and to
anticipate others, the directors codified a pre-
viously complicated system of charges, and
brought all the rates within a simple mileage
scale which they set out in a pamphlet they
circulated ; they opened seven branch lines for
Sunday traffic ; they constructed a large number
of special milk vans upon framework similar to
that of tl ; best rolling stock ; and they arranged

338 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

to concentrate the milk from specified districts
at suitable junction stations, and to carry it
thence at express speed. For the Wiltshire
dairies, for example, the milk for London from
the various stations in the district is focussed at
Swindon, whence it is taken in " milk trains ';
to London at the rate of about fifty miles an
hour, without any intermediate stop. At
Paddington there is a line with platform and
approach road set apart exclusively for the milk
traffic, and the whole arrangement works so
well that the company have carried 27,500,000
gallons of milk in a single year substantially
without complaint.

Inasmuch as the allegation is constantly being
made that the railway charges unduly affect the
selling price of food products, it may be added
with regard to this question of the milk supply
that the dairy farmer in the West of England
gets about sixpence per gallon for his milk, and
the railway company will receive, on an average,
one penny per gallon for bringing it to London,
where, as sold to the ordinary householder, it
will probably fetch Is. 4>d. per gallon. If, there-
fore, the farmer gets too little, or the consumer
pays too much, for the milk, the fault can
hardly be attributed to the railway. When on
one occasion the Great Western Railway

THE EXAMPLE FROM BUDAPEST 339

Company reduced certain rates for the convey-
ance of milk, with the intention of assisting the
dairy formers, the buyers availed themselves of
the opportunity to reduce the prices they paid
to the farmers, who were thus no better off
than before. Better far would it be if the
farmers would organize some system among
themselves by which they could secure a greater
control over the whole business, instead of
simply calling upon the railways to reduce their
rates to a level where they would cease to be
remunerative. Would it not be possible for the
British farmers to create in London a Central
Co-operative Creamery Society on lines similar
to the one which is being so successfully oper-
ated at Budapest, as told on pages 154-5 ?

The second group of requests had reference
to farmyard produce for private householders.
The farmers desired arrangements by which
small mixed lots of butter, poultry, eggs, etc.,
could be cheaply and rapidly taken by passenger
train, and delivered direct to the houses of con-
sumers without intermediate agency of any
description. This, of course, was practically the
same system as the one referred to above, minus
the supply of boxes by the railway company,
and the directors willingly agreed that scales of
conveyance charges should be issued to meet

340 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

the desired object. Under this arrangement
a consignment weighing 24 lbs., and compris-
ing (say) two couple of ducks or fowls, 24 eggs,
2 lb. or 3 lb. of butter, a tin of cream, with a
certain quantity of fruit or vegetables, can be
sent on the Great Western 50 miles by pas-
senger train, and delivered at the house of the
consumer (provided he lives within the usual
limits) for an inclusive charge of sixpence. It
seems scarcely possible, from the railway stand-
point, that traffic such as this can be made to
pay ; but in any case it affords conclusive
evidence of a desire to "help the farmer."

The third group of requests related to agri-
cultural produce for markets and large traders.
Low rates for such produce by fast merchandise
train were asked for, with authority to lump
together or aggregate the various descriptions
of articles on conditions that would enable the
producers to make such loads as to justify the
despatch of through trucks direct to the towns
to be served. Here, again, the desired conces-
sion was made, new tables of rates being pre-
pared and issued to meet the arrangement
stated ; though when it came to getting the
farmers themselves to group their lots, so that
they could take advantage of the facilities thus
granted, a good deal of difficulty was experienced.

SCRUPLES AND PREJUDICES 341

They began to use just the same arguments as
every other railway company, more or less, that
has moved in the matter has heard. " They had
always kept their trade to themselves, and in-
tended to go on doing so, as they did not wish
that their neighbours should know their business."
It was further declared that " if the railway
carried the goods for nothing it would not assist
the producer to any extent. There was generally
a good market near home for all that could be
produced, with the advantage of getting ready
money without worry or risk." The railway
officials pointed out to them that, to obtain the
fullest benefit of low railway rates, it was always
desirable and frequently necessary that the pro-
ducers within a given area or district should
make arrangements for grouping their lots. If
they would only overcome their prejudice against
co-operation there was no reason whatever why
they should not appoint one of their number to
cany out the details for them.

Where, however, it was found difficult to in-
duce the farmers to combine, there was generally
some enterprising middleman who would buy
direct from the fanners— themselves quite satis-
fied to get cash down — and do the grouping of
lots on his own account, so as to lake advantage
of the railway company's concessions. The

342 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

farmers thus lost some of the profit they might
have made had they adopted the full policy
recommended to them by the railway, but by
taking their produce to the middleman in the
local markets, instead of waiting for the
« higglers ': or others to call for it, they got
at least better prices than before. Altogether
the effect of the railway company's concessions
has been to bring about quite a little revolution
in certain of the markets in the West of England.
On the South Eastern and Chatham Railway
there was issued a circular giving tables of
exceptional rates for the conveyance of fruit
and vegetables from stations in the country to
London, these rates being exclusive of collec-
tion, but inclusive of delivery to Covent Garden,
the Borough, Farringdon, or Spitalfields markets.
On this circular the following announcement was
made : —

Reduced Charges for large Consignments. — When a
sender forwards from the same station or siding to the
same salesman and market in London a consignment of
fruit or vegetables, or a consignment consisting partly
of fruit and partly of vegetables, and elects to lump and
tender such consignment at one time, the rate or rates
applicable to such consignment will be subject to a re-
duction of 10 per cent, when the aggregate weight exceeds
2 tons, and to 15 per cent, when the aggregate weight
exceeds 4 tons.

DISCARDED OPPORTUNITIES 343

The same allowances will be made when a consignment
of fruit or vegetables, or consisting partly of fruit and
partly of vegetables, is the property of two or more
senders, but in such cases, one of their number is, by
arrangement amongst themselves, to be selected as the
nominal sender. His name is to appear as such on the
consignment note handed to the Company, and he is to
be authorized by his co-senders to receive, on their behalf,
the allowances above referred to.

Here was an excellent opportunity given to
the senders to obtain reduced railway rates by
grouping their consignments, and the offer has
since been renewed from time to time ; but so
far as the officials of the railway can recall, no
senders on the company's system have yet taken
advantage of it.

On the London and South Western Railway
a practical effort was made several years ago to
effect some sort of combination among the
farmers in one of the important agricultural
districts served by that line, with the view of
getting them to combine their consignments, so
that they could gain the advantage of lower
transit rates. The unsatisfactory results sug-
gested that the time was not then ripe for such
arrangements ; but in January. 1904, the com-
pany gave fresh evidence of their desire to do
what was possible in the way of promoting the
interests of agriculture. They issued a well-

344 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

arranged pamphlet in which were tabulated the
rates for conveyance by passenger and goods
train on the South Western system of milk,
butter, cream, eggs, game, honey, flowers, fresh
meat, dead poultry and rabbits, fruit and vege-
tables, grain, manure, etc., explaining that "these
low rates have been compiled with the object of
bringing the producer and consumer into closer
touch by affording facilities for the quicker
transit of all kinds of farm and dairy produce,
fruit, and other perishable goods, thus enabling
the producer to secure a wider market for his
produce, and the consumer to obtain it direct
with promptitude and at a reasonable charge."
A circular letter, to the following effect, was at
the same time issued by the General Manager,
Sir Charles Owens, to agriculturists resident
within convenient reach of the South Western
lines : —

The London and South Western Railway Company beg
to announce to farmers and others that, in order to assist
them in disposing of their produce, they have decided to
issue a pamphlet, giving the names of those residing in
the district served by their line who would be willing to
supply customers direct with dairy, farm, or market garden
produce.

This pamphlet will be extensively circulated in London
and other large centres of population, and the arrange-
ment widely advertised in the Press and by every possible

"IN ORDER TO ASSIST THEM" 345

means. There is, therefore, every prospect that the scheme
will be of material assistance, not only to producers, but
also to the consumer.

A form of application is appended to this communica-
tion, and it is requested that anyone who has produce
available for disposal under the system indicated will fill
in the necessary particulars, and send the form to the
Station Master at the nearest London and South Western
Station.

The issue of these two pamphlets would
seem to suggest that the company had fallen
back on the alternative of encouraging the
" individualist " system, pending the develop-
ment of combination ; but they are still hoping
to see such combination brought about, for in
the pamphlet which gives details as to rates they
say, under the head of " Goods Trains Arrange-
ments : " —

A special feature of the rates is the relatively lower
charge made for consignments of 1 ton and upwards, and
it is hoped that senders, by combining together to send
the largest possible quantities, will secure for themselves
the advantage of these exceptional rates.

Here, on the face of it, is clear evidence of
a willingness to "help the farmer"; but to en-
force conviction one needs to see what arc the
rates actually charged. Taking those for the
conveyance of agricultural produce by passenger
train, I find that a hamper weighing 24 lbs., and

346 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

containing, say, a mixed consignment of poultry,
eggs, meat, fruit, vegetables, cream, etc., will be
carried a distance of 100 miles, and delivered
free, for ninepence, representing a little over one
farthing per pound. A parcel weighing 1 cwt.
would be carried the same distance for 2s. 2d., or
less than a farthing per pound, and larger con-
signments would be proportionately cheaper.

All this seems reasonable enough, and it hardly
encourages the idea that any distress from which
British agriculture may be suffering is due to
excessive railway charges ; but still greater bene-
fits are open to the farmers who will aggregate
their consignments, and take advantage of the one,
two, or three-ton rates for transit by goods train.
To show how this might operate, I will assume
that at Petersfield, Hampshire, which is fifty-five
miles from Waterloo, there are farmers who
have arranged with customers in London to
supply them with, altogether, 112 weekly ham-
pers of produce, each representing a weight of
20 lbs. The railway charge per hamper for car-
riage from Petersfield and delivery would be 8^/.
But if the farmers in question grouped their 112
hampers into one consignment for delivery, in the
first instance, to a joint representative in London,
they would be able to send it at the 1-ton rate,
which would represent a charge of 156'. I0d.,

ADVANTAGES OF A 1-TON LOT 347

instead of a total of £3 14s\ Sd., or, in other
words, 1 f </. per hamper instead of Sd. ; while the
combined packages could be despatched from
Petersfield by the goods train leaving at 7. '25 in
the evening, and reach London in ample time
for delivery early the next morning, so giving
practically the same advantage as would be gained
from despatch by passenger train. There is
still the cost of distribution in London to be
reckoned. But if a little combination formed
by the growers at Petersfield were to join
with similar combinations in other districts in
fixing upon some one agent or representative in
London, who would thus be enabled to control
a business of substantial dimensions, it should be
possible to arrange for delivery in London at
a cost of about Id. per hamper. This would
increase the total cost to 2fr/. per hamper, as
against the Sd. paid under the existing system.
All that is needed to effect this result is a very
moderate amount of organization alike in the
country districts and in London.

To a railway company the grouping into a
single consignment of a considerable number of
si 1 Kill parcels which would otherwise be handled
separately means a great saving of labour, not
alone in the matter of loading, unloading, and
delivery, but also in the clerical work done, and

348 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

railway charges must necessarily bear some rela-
tion to the services rendered. Take the case of
a parcel, however small, sent by passenger train.
It is first entered on a way-bill, which is made
out in duplicate. One copy of this way-bill is
placed on a clip to be sent at the end of the
month to the chief office for the preparation of
the monthly returns, on which it will represent
a separate item ; and from thence it will go to
the Railway Clearing House, where, if the
parcel should have travelled over the lines of
different companies, the proportion due to each
must be assessed. The second copy of the way-
bill will have been delivered with the parcel to
the guard of the passenger train. At the receiv-
ing end all the way-bills are collected from the
guard by a railway servant sent to meet the
train for this purpose. He takes them into the
parcels office, where a clerk will check both
parcels and way-bills. Should one of the former
be missing a separate report must be made to
the sending station, and it may be that consider-
able correspondence will ensue, and inquiries be
made up and down the line, before the lost
package is found. Should parcels and way-bills
agree, those of the former which are to be de-
livered by the company are given over to the
delivery clerk, who will proceed to make out

HOW A RAILWAY EARNS ITS PENCE 349

the delivery sheets. On these he must carefully
record any charges to be paid by the consignee,
or, in the case of a prepaid parcel, he must
ascertain the distance it is to go, lest the des-
tination is beyond the company's free delivery
limits. In that case the parcel is handed over
to a suburban carrier, an extra charge for de-
livery being specified accordingly. Then the
parcels are given to the carmen, who, after
delivering them, will hand over to the cashier
the money they have collected. The cashier
will make his records in the books he keeps, and
the papers will pass on to the accounting clerks,
who will have to make up the summaries and
abstracts against each of the stations from
which the parcels in question have been con-
signed.

Most people, I should imagine, would think
that by the time a railway company had done
all this — in addition, be it remembered, to carry-
ing the parcel — it had well earned the few pence
it charged. They will, also, understand more
readily the force of my suggestion that there is
but a small scope for profit for a railway com-
pany in this small -parcels business, however
willing they may be to extend it in the interests
of agriculture. If. again, the reader will en-
deavour to realize the amount of trouble in-

35o DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

volved in going through the above processes 112
times in the case of the aforesaid Petersfleld
parcels, he will see why it is much less costly
to a railway company to handle one big consign-
ment than a mass of small ones. The clerical
labour is practically the same ; though it may
be even greater in the latter case, because the
smaller the parcel the more likely it is to go
astray, and lead to endless trouble before it is
found. Effective agricultural organization means,
therefore, not only lower railway rates for the
farmers, but a decrease in working expenses for
the railway companies.

Reverting to the London and South Western
pamphlet, I find there some very low rates for
the conveyance of milk. The rates charged per
imperial gallon are — for distances not exceeding
25 miles, \d. ; 40 miles, %d. ; 60 miles, \d. ; 100
miles, Id. ; 120 miles, l§d. ; 150 miles, l±d. ;
above 150 miles, l^d. Under any circumstances
such modest charges as these could hardly be
called excessive; but they include more than
appears on the surface. In districts where the
passenger train service is not adequate for the
conveyance of the milk, special milk trains are
put on so as to avoid delay. Such trains are
run to Waterloo, on week days, from Ports-
mouth Junction at 6.15 a.m., from Yeovil

MILK SPECIALS 351

6.20 a.m. and 7.12 p.m. ; Salisbury, 8.15 a.m.,
and Templecombe 5.15 p.m ; and on Sundays
from Yeovil at 5.55 a.m. and 4.33 p.m., and
Templecombe at 4.33 p.m. But the farmers
require to have their cans back again as soon
as possible. So the railway company not only
run one series of special trains for the full cans,
but they run a further series of specials for
the prompt return of the empty ones, making
no charge whatever for the latter service. Con-
sidering all these things, the scale of charges
given above would really seem to be reasonable-
ness itself, and if the farmers make less profit
than they think they ought to get from the sale
of their milk, they can hardly attribute the
fact to any greed on the part of the railway
companies.

The very small effect that railway rates should
have on the selling price of any article of food
in respect to which there has been such organiza-
tion as will permit of the despatch of consign-
ments in bulk is still more clearly brought out
by the circular in regard to the charges for meat.
The carriage, for example, from Creditor! to
Waterloo, a distance of 170 miles, of three tons
of prime English beef would amount to little
more than a fifth of a farthing per pound.

The last example I draw from this very in-

352 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

structive circular, as showing the attitude of the
railways towards the farmers, is in respect to the
rates for stable and town manure. For the con-
veyance of this commodity from Nine Elms in
6-ton lots, station to station, the London and
South Western Railway Company charge per
ton (to give only a few instances) to Alton, 47
miles, 3s. 3d. ; Basingstoke, 48 miles, 3s. 2d. ;
Bursledon (a great strawberry growing district),
80 miles, 4s. ; Fleet, 37 miles, 2s. 8d. ; Guildford,
30 miles, 2*. 2d. ; Mottisfont, 78 miles, 4s. ;
Petersfield, 55 miles, 3s. 6d. ; and so on. Rates
such as these (and on other systems they are
about the same) should confer a great advan-
tage on the farmers, and especially those at a
distance from London ; but they offer no direct
gain to the railway company, more especially
as the waggons used for conveying the manure
cannot be utilized for back loading, and therefore
run the double journey for the single small
charge. The railway companies, however, regard
a plentiful use of manure as likely not only to
benefit agriculture but also to bring them larger
freights later on, and they accordingly quote
terms which, but for the possible subsidiary
advantages, would be altogether unremunera-

tive.

The examples thus far given have illustrated

FOSTERING LOCALITIES

J3>1

the general policy of railway companies in deal-
ing with the whole body of agriculturists in the
districts served by their respective lines. As an
appendix thereto. I should like to offer some
instances of how railway companies may seek
to foster the agricultural development of par-
ticular localities.

Some eight years ago it was found that the
land in the neighbourhood of Girvan was well
suited to the growing of new potatoes, and the
growers and dealers asked the Glasgow and
South Western Railway Company to encourage
the starting of such a business by allowing them
to send new potatoes from Girvan to Glasgow
(a distance of sixty-two miles) at a lower rate
than the existing one of 16*. Id. per ton, which,
it was feared, would render the trade unprofit-
able. After looking into the matter the railway
company agreed to reduce their rate to 10*.
The enterprise was developed with remarkable
rapidity, and subsequently a deputation from
the farmers and potato merchants represented
to the railway company that a still larger
business could be done if the rate were further
reduced. Thereupon it was brought down to
!).v. 6dL, and, later on, to S.v. 9d. Then, again,
the railway company, finding that the farmers
wanted large supplies of stable manure, took it

2 A

354 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

out to them from Glasgow at the rate of 3s. a
ton, thus aiding the industry still further.

In point of fact the railway company sought to
meet the wishes of the growers by every means
in their power. But they had their reward in
due course, for when the new potato season
opens at Girvan the consignments will start at
about 40 waggon-loads a day, and will rise to
200 waggon-loads a day for a period of three
weeks, falling off again, then, until the season
is over. Between June 16th and August 26th,
1903, there were despatched from Girvan
station 5,250 waggons of new potatoes, re-
presenting a total of 13,500 tons. One may
be absolutely certain that the industry would
never have attained to such dimensions as
these but for the ready assistance given by
the railway.

Quite recently a farmer who proposed to start
the growing of late varieties of potatoes in the
Girvan district asked that a lower rate should
be given for potato seed, of which he was pre-
pared to send a consignment of 200 tons. To
encourage this further enterprise the company
reduced the rates for seed potatoes between the
districts concerned for a period of three weeks,
by which time the consignment in question
would have been delivered. Now, too, that the

"THE BUCKS ARRANGEMENT" 355

experiment of growing cabbages is also being
tried at Girvan, lower rates have been granted
in respect to these as well.

In Wigtonshire and other parts of Scotland
it was found some years ago that the farmers
were clearing out of their farms, and that the
landlords were becoming poorer and poorer
owing to the agricultural depression. There-
upon the railways lowered their rates for agricul-
tural necessaries taken into these districts, and
from every agricultural district in Scotland
where such rates were not already in force they
made special rates for grain, potatoes, and other
agricultural products to the large centres of
consumption either in Scotland or in England,
thus helping considerably to bring about the
improvement that has since been experienced in
the localities in question.

Then there is the case of "The Bucks Arrange-
ment," to which reference should be made as
one that is, in various respects, especially in-
structive.

This " arrangement " was instituted on the
London and North Western Railway to facili-
tate the despatch of ducks, fowls, butter, etc.,
direct from the senders' doors to London
salesmen, and to ensure, also, the prompt
receipt by the senders of the amounts due to

356 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

them in respect to such produce. The railway
company supplied cloths and hampers ; they sent
a man to collect the produce ; they carried it by
rail and delivered it to the salesman in the
London markets to whom it was consigned ; and
they afterwards obtained from such salesman
the amount due to the sender, to whom they
then paid it over. In 1880, when the business
was in a prosperous condition, the sum total
thus collected for the local producers of poultry,
without any charge for the services so rendered
being made by the railway company, was over
£3,000, and the benefit conferred on the
consigners — who were mostly producers of a
" small " type, to whom a prompt settlement
was a very great convenience — must have been
considerable. What more the company could
have done for them it is difficult to imagine.
Later on, as the facilities offered by the
Post Office for the remittance of money were
developed and better understood, there was no
longer any need for the railway company to
continue their role as financial intermediaries in
respect to these branches of the business. As
regards the butter forwarded from Bucks to
London, the senders were chiefly farmers whose
accounts were already settled monthly by the
salesmen direct.

A QUESTION OF COMPETITION 357

Meanwhile changes had been proceeding in
other directions. The prosperity spoken of had
been due mainly to the high prices obtained for
Aylesbury ducks, which then had a monoply of
the market at a certain time of the year. But
the time came when the local producers en-
countered a competition which they were not
energetic enough to overcome. Seeing what
good prices Aylesbury ducks were realizing on
the market, the farmers of Norfolk, Suffolk,
Devon, and other counties improved their own
breeds by judicious crossings, and finally they
produced birds which are almost — though,
perhaps, not absolutely — equal to the Aylesbury
variety. From these other English counties,
therefore, large supplies are now coming on
the market, and still further consignments are
received from Russia, Hungary, Canada, the
United States, and even from Montevideo.
Instead of there being any longer a " season 51
for ducks, those birds can now be obtained by
the dealers from all quarters throughout the
year, and a pair of Aylesbury ducks which in
days gone by would have fetched 25s. could not
now be sold for more than from <>.v. to 8.v.

In the opinion of one experienced wholesale
dealer, the fault of the Bucks producers lias been

in continuing to devote their energies exclusively

358 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

to one particular breed, instead of bestirring
themselves and showing more enterprise in
facing competition ; but when the dealer in
question ventured to suggest to an individual
sender a certain change of method which he
thought an improvement, the only result was
that the sender took offence, and withdrew his
supplies. At the present time the rearing of
Aylesbury ducks is mostly in the hands of
cottagers, who breed them indoors, and force
them so as to be ready for the market within
seven or eight weeks in the early spring, when
they command the best price.

As for butter-making in Bucks, that has
practically ceased, the farmers finding it more
profitable — or, at least, less trouble — to send
their milk to the condensed milk factories at
Aylesbury, Buckingham, and Winslow, instead
of changing their methods to meet the cheaper
production of Irish and foreign butters. Not
only is no butter now being sent from Ayles-
bury, but supplies thereof are reaching that
district from Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and
Ireland.

Reduced to statistics, the actual decline of the
poultry and butter business in Bucks, under the
circumstances here narrated, may be shown by
the following comparative statement taken from

A DECLINE AND ITS COMPENSATION 359

the London and North Western Railway Com-
pany's traffic receipts for that county : —

1903.

Number of flat? carried . \ op A/,„ „ CAA

(poultry and butter) ./ 36'06° 6>600

Receipts £2,405 8*. Od. £359 10*. 'Id.

So far as the railway company are concerned,
the milk carried to Aylesbury, Buckingham,
Winslow, etc., is an ample equivalent for the loss
in regard to poultry and butter. Whether or
not the final results are as satisfactory to the
local producers is more than I can say ; but in
any case this story of " The Bucks Arrange-
ment " throws an interesting sidelight on the
changing conditions of British agriculture, and
the relations thereto of our railways.

The evidence I have already adduced should
be sufficient, I think, to convince the most
sceptical of the genuine and practical nature of
the interest felt by British railway companies in
the increased prosperity of that native agricul-
ture from which they have so much to hope in
many different ways, apart from the actual
amount of produce they convey on their lines.
There is only one further aspect of this particular
branch of the subject on which I should like to
bring conviction to the minds of the British

360 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

public ; that is to say, I would fain impress upon
them the fact that when complaints are made
to railway companies by representatives of the
agricultural interest they are investigated with a
thoroughness of which few persons outside the
general offices of a railway company can have
any conception. But this chapter has already
gone to such length that I must now content
myself with a single " case in point."

A few years ago loud and persistent com-
plaints were made by private firms and com-
panies in Ireland of the unsatisfactory condition
in which consignments of butter sent to England
were reaching their destination, as compared
with the Danish supplies, although the latter
travelled a much greater distance ; and the blame
was alleged to be attributable to defective
railway arrangements. With a view not only
to investigating these complaints, but also
to ascertaining if any improvement could be
brought about by an adoption of Danish
methods, the London and North Western
Railway Company (which was then bringing
some 5,000 tons of Irish butter per annum to
England via Dublin Wall) appointed a deputa-
tion of its officials to visit Denmark for the
purpose of making an inquiry as to the con-
ditions under which the Danish product was

INVESTIGATING A GRIEVANCE 361

despatched. The same officials were subse-
quently to visit North Eastern ports to see how
the butter was handled there on arrival ; and,
finally, they were to ascertain the corresponding
conditions in respect to the Irish product. All
this the deputation did, early in 1899, and the
report they drew up occupies fifteen pages of
printed foolscap, much practical information
being given in respect to even the smallest of
details.

The report itself is interesting because it
brings out very clearly the difference between
home and foreign methods in the consignment
of dairy produce, and shows how faults which
traders are only too ready to attribute to the
railways may. in point of fact, be in no way due
to them at all. From Denmark, the deputation
found, butter is sent in weekly consignments, in
order that exporters can get the advantage of
handling, and also of shipping, in large quantities.
Three boats, for example, which the officials saw
despatched from Copenhagen one Thursday night
for Hull, Leith, and Newcastle respectively,
conveyed 12,826 casks of butter, the value of
which was about 170, 000. Pending the de-
spatch of these large weekly cargoes, the butter
— in the making of which a good deal of ice has
already been used — is put into cooling stores

362 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS?

provided with refrigerating apparatus, the
temperature of the butter being thus reduced
to 48 deg. Fahrenheit. This ensures the main-
tenance of the " texture," as well as of the
flavour and the aroma, so that the butter carries
well, and arrives, as stated, in good condition.

But in Ireland the circumstances were found
to be altogether different. When foreign com-
petition was less keen, Irish butter was de-
spatched in large quantities to a comparatively
few consignees, and, inasmuch as it was then
highly salted, it could be kept for long periods
without deterioration. With the advent of
foreign competition, however, and with, also,
the improvement in the facilities for rapid trans-
port, the Irish producer opened up a direct
trade with retailers in various parts of the
United Kingdom. This meant a daily consign-
ment of small lots — instead of the previous
periodical despatch of wholesale quantities — and
a corresponding increase in the difficulties of
conveyance. At the same time the demand
of the market changed to one for fresh butter,
in place of the salted variety, and this fresh
butter, generally made without ice, and rarely
put into a refrigerator before being despatched,
would be sent off by train and boat almost as
soon as it had been made. It thus had no

WHERE THE FAULT LAY 363

chance of first getting reduced to the tem-
perature at which alone one could expect it
to carry well.

The railway company were quite ready to
incur the substantial expense of providing re-
frigerating apparatus on their Dublin steamers
in the interests of the trade ; but the experts
consulted declared that unless the butter had
been cooled down before being despatched, re-
frigeration on board the steamers for the few
hours occupied in the passage would serve no
useful purpose.

The inquiry showed, therefore, that not only
were the conditions complained of in no way due
to the railway company, but it was the traders
alone who could provide an efficient remedy.
This they are now doing to a certain extent, for
of the existing dairies in Ireland about one-sixth
either have been, or shortly will be. equipped
with refrigerator rooms.

CHAPTER XXVI

CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS

THE task I set myself to accomplish at the
outset of the present work was to show (1)
that the advantages by means of which foreign
agriculturists were able to compete successfully
with English producers on our own markets
might be due to far other causes than any
question of railway rates ; (2) that, instead of
British railways being the natural enemies of
British agriculture, they are profoundly inter-
ested in its prosperity — on much broader
grounds than merely the amount of produce
they carry — and have themselves shown great
energy in endeavouring to promote the welfare
of the farmers ; and (3) that if the prosperity
of these farmers is to be promoted it must be
done, not by persistent bickerings against the
railways because they do not carry retail lots at
wholesale prices, or grant concessions which
would transform them from a commercial under-

364

AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION 365

taking into a philanthropic institution, but by the
adoption of the improved methods, and especi-
ally of the principle of co-operation, rendered
necessary alike by the progress of agricultural
science, by the competition of new countries, by
the annihilation of distance through the im-
provement and the cheapening of facilities for
ocean transport, and by that industrialization
of agriculture which requires that the farmers
of to-day should study the science of marketing
just as thoroughly as the science of production.

It is for the reader to say whether or not
I have succeeded in accomplishing this task ;
but for my own part I must affirm that such
investigation as I have been able to make into
the conditions existing in other countries has
profoundly impressed me with the changes
which are there being brought about — changes,
indeed, that are having a far wider influence
than simply on the fortunes of the individual
farmers.

It is, I think, no exaggeration to say that
when some future historian deals with the closing
years of the nineteenth century, and the opening
years of the twentieth, he will, in his survey,
especially, of the countries of Continental Europe,
turn much more readily to the silent revolution
brought about in their rural districts, ;is the out-

366 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

come of the agricultural revival, than he will to
many of the changes of Government or other
political events that loomed so large in the view
of their contemporaries. He will trace in these
countries, during the period in question, the dis-
appearance of such conditions as those that
led in earlier days to peasants' wars and rural
risings. He will see how classes that for centuries
had been regarded as the most hopeless victims
of dull routine and narrow-minded individualism
were led to adopt new ideas, to avail themselves
of the teachings of scientific research, and to
recognize the paramount need — following on
altered circumstances — for taking common action
to gain common advantages. He will find how,
with the strength that comes from unity, groups
of foreign peasants had invaded British markets,
and gained a commercial victory over farmers
mainly superior to themselves in means and
social status, but content to stand alone, each
more or less mistrustful of his neighbour. Then
he will learn, also, how the changes thus brought
about in Continental conditions tended to the
breaking down of class prejudices, by bringing
all sections of the rural community into closer
touch and more friendly intercourse one with
another; how they checked, if they did not
actually nullify, the economic depression that

BRITISH FARMERS V. CONTINENTAL 367

once threatened them ; and how, finally, they
promoted not alone the material, but the in-
tellectual, the social, and the moral advancement
of the agricultural communities.

When, from a review of conditions such as
these, with their important influence on the
evolution of society and on the world's progress
in general, one turns to a comparison between the
typical Continental and the typical British farmer
of to-day, and traces the cause of the foreigner's
success, there are some strong contrasts to be ob-
served. The British farmer has been, in the main,
essentially an individualist, content to do as his
father before him did, depending more on tradition
and practice than on science, self-reliant and self-
sufficient, ever complaining of fate, and expect-
ing the world to adapt itself to his ideas instead
of looking to him to adapt his methods to
changed conditions. The foreign farmer who has
thoroughly imbibed the spirit of combination is a
man of a very different stamp. He gets his seeds,
his artificial manures, and his agricultural ap-
pliances through a local society, which in turn
arranges through a provincial or a national federa-
tion to buy such things, of trustworthy quality
and at the most favourable prices, and transport
them on the railway at wholesale rates ; another
society enables him to obtain the use of costly

168 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

o

agricultural machinery which he could not
purchase for himself ; and still another will give
him skilled advice on all matters connected
with the cultivation of his farm. He im-
proves his stock with the help of societies
organized with this special object in view ; he
joins with other farmers in his district in engag-
ing the services of an expert who will analyze
the milk supplied by each cow, and advise as
to feeding, etc.; he sends the milk to a co-
operative dairy; he forwards his pigs to a co-
operative bacon factory, and he delivers the eggs
laid by his fowls to a co-operative egg-export
combination, receiving, in each case, not only a
better price for the commodity than if he made,
or traded, on his own account, but a share also in
the profits. Then he joins with his neighbours
in insurances of their stock, their farms, and their
produce on such lines as to secure the lowest
possible terms ; he helps to form agricultural
credit banks which will make him and his fellows
independent of the professional money-lender ;
he has clubs or institutes for the purposes alike
of agricultural instruction and social intercourse ;
and he ends by producing crops in such abun-
dance, and at so comparatively low a cost, that
he has no difficulty in competing with the British
farmer, who keeps mainly to the practices of his

THE AWAKENING 369

forefathers, the distance of the foreigner from
our markets being fully counterbalanced by the
subsidiary advantages he secures for himself
alike by his improved methods and by his resort
to combination.

But the awakening has come. The conviction
is spreading among the agricultural community
at home not only that " something must be
done," but that they should do what they can
for themselves without further loss of time.
The bogey of excessive rates imposed by rail-
ways supposed to be indifferent to the welfare of
the rural districts through which they run their
trains may not have disappeared, but it is
disappearing. There are seen to be other con-
siderations besides railway rates, and the assur-
ance of the railway companies that equality of
conditions in respect to home and foreign
produce will meet with equality of treatment
is at last gaining acceptance. Even, again,
those who look for the salvation of British
agriculture to tariff reform and " protection "
must see that, whether they achieve their desires
in this direction or not, the need for agricultural
organization will still remain. This truth has
been realized alike by "protected" Germany
and "free trade" Denmark. So the question is
— " What should the British farmers do in order

2 B

370 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

to secure this organization, and put themselves,
as far as possible, on the same level of advantage
as their foreign competitors " ?

The first essential in giving an answer to this
question has been to show the nature of the
various developments to which agricultural co-
operation abroad has led. This I have sought to
do in the present volume, which offers, as I think
I may fairly claim, an abundance of suggestive
facts for the consideration of would-be agricul-
tural reformers in this country. Happily, too,
the foundations of an effective system have
already been laid here by the representatives of
the Agricultural Organization Society ; and my
first recommendation, as the outcome of such
investigation as I have been able to make into
the general question, is that a generous degree
of public support should be given to this society
in order that its excellent work may be continued
on a broader basis. Any unnecessary multipli-
cation of independent and overlapping agencies
is an evil which should be avoided, and, from
what I have seen or learnt of foreign systems,
I do not think that any organization could have
been started on lines more practical, and better
adapted to meet the particular conditions of
our own country, than one finds represented by
the general policy of the society in question.

THE NEW POLICY 371

In two respects, at least, that policy differs
from the methods generally adopted by organ-
izers of public movements in Great Britain.
In the first place it has been sought to keep the
working of the society in the hands of men who
have a practical acquaintance with the position
and the needs of agriculturists, rather than seek
to impress the world by a long list of supporters
who might carry much weight with " Society,"
but would not favourably impress the working
farmer. In the second place there is no idea
of framing, in London, cut-and-dried schemes
to which the agricultural districts are expected
to adapt themselves, the entire machinery being
operated from some office in the Metropolis.

The aim is, rather, to secure the creation,
throughout the country, of the greatest possible
number of local co-operative, self-governing
associations, each affiliated, it is true, to the
central organization, but each fulfilling its own
particular purpose according to the special needs
of the locality where it exists, and looking to a
common centre for advice only, or for the attain-
ment of such advantages as require a united
effort. In other words, instead of a start being
made witli an elaborately organized central body
in London, gradually extending the ramifications
of its machinery into the country, each rural

372 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

parish is invited to act on its own account, and
(with the guidance which London offers to give)
begin a little network of local activity which,
while regarding its own particular village as its
real centre of action, will stretch out until it
touches the similar network set up by its neigh-
bours, parishes thus associating with parishes,
and counties with counties, until a really national
organization can be attained as the final out-
come of the movement rather than the starting-
point.

It is this same idea of not attempting too
much to begin with that has led most of the
agricultural co-operative associations yet formed
in England to adopt, so far, only the elementary
form of combination represented by collective
purchase. Collective sale is a higher standard
which will be duly attained when the education
of farmers in matters co-operative has been
sufficiently advanced ; but collective purchase
has been universally found to represent the
most practical and the most hopeful means of
making a start. It has the disadvantage of
raising a certain amount of opposition on the
part of manufacturers and traders ; but Con-
tinental experience shows that agricultural co-
operation has been a decided benefit to honest
manufacturers and traders. It has greatly in-

ATTITUDE OF MANUFACTURERS 373

creased the demand for agricultural necessaries,
and has allowed of big orders being got direct
from the societies, without any expense in regard
to travellers or agents, and without any risk of
bad debts. The only persons who need be afraid
are the dishonest traders whose seeds, fertilizers,
or feeding-stuffs will not bear the test of those
strict analyses which a society is so much better
able to exact than an individual purchaser. The
wisest manufacturers, therefore, will be those
who hasten to make friends with the agricultural
societies — which represent a coming force that
cannot be withstood — instead of opposing them
with u rings " or other difficulties, persistence in
which must simply mean that the societies will
either manufacture for themselves, or else make
their purchases abroad. In fact, the foreign
manufacturers, with their experience of what
good customers agricultural syndicates may be-
come, are already coquetting with the English
societies with a view to securing their patronage.
If, in spite of all that I have said, farmers on
the one hand, or manufacturers on the other,
may still have their doubts as to the value of
these purchase societies, or the amount of trade
they may represent. I would commend to their
notice an article in the Empire Review for
December, TJ03, by Mr. Theobald Douglas, on

374 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

" How to Increase Britain's Agricultural Produc-
tion." I have here room for only a few passages.
Mr. Douglas says, among other things : —

The fundamental reason for the depression of agri-
culture in Britain is not low prices but small crops, and
British farming can only be benefited by increasing the
size of the crops without adding much to the cost of
production. . . . Belgium, although thickly populated,
supplies nearly the whole of London, as well as herself,
with vegetables. ... In England there are cattle and
horse breeding societies ; but of what use is all this when
fodder is wanting ? ... In 1902 the imports into England
of meat, cattle, oats, butter, margarine, milk, and cheese
were to the value of £86,000,000. These imports she
could produce herself if the soil were so manured as to
give double or treble the yield of fodder. . . . The in-
crease of yield in Continental countries has been accom-
plished, despite stubborn opposition, by the introduction
and application of the principle that those nutritive
vegetable substances which have been extracted from the
soil by the crops must be replaced. But there is by no
means sufficient farmyard manure to supply the soil's
needs. . . . The most important question for Great
Britain is to teach the farmer how best to use the different
(artificial) manures, and to furnish him with the required
manures at the cheapest possible rate. The use of mineral
manure would never have been so general in Germany had
it not been that both these questions were thoroughly
and systematically examined by special organizations
throughout the country whose influence penetrated to
every village. These organizations are agricultural co-
operative corporations which afford the farmer the oppor-
tunity of buying the right sort of manure at a cheap price.

ORGANIZATION AND THE TRADERS 375

The actual extent to which the German farmer
has availed himself of the opportunity thus
offered is sufficiently indicated by the follow-
ing figures, which Mr. Douglas gives as showing
how the use of fertilizers increased in Germany
between 1880 and 1902 :—

Basic slag from 200,000 to 1,100,000 tons.
Superphosphate from 400,000 to 900,000 tons.
Potash „ 150,000 „ 350,000 „

Nitre „ 100,000 „ 400,000 „

These facts and figures should, I think, relieve
the farmers of any lingering doubt as to the
course they should adopt, and the manufacturers
of any reluctance to welcome an innovation that
evidently means a big increase of business for
somebody !

So I place in the forefront my recommenda-
tions that every encouragement should be given
to the efforts already being made to promote
combination among the British farmers. But
experience has already shown that no really
effective scheme of agricultural organization on
a widespread basis can be carried out, even in
Great Britain, unless supplemented by some
practical system of co-operative agricultural
credit banks, arranged on so comprehensive a
scale as to meet the varying wants of all our
agricultural classes. There may not be in

376 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

England, Wales, and Scotland so large a pro-
portion as in Ireland and in various Continental
countries of those very small cultivators to whom
the loan of £5 or £6 from a co-operative village
bank would be a great personal convenience. A
certain demand for such facilities there un-
doubtedly is on the part of labourers and
very small producers, and such demand the
Co-operative Banks Association should, with
adequate support, be well able to meet. But
a wider basis of operations than this is required
to answer the requirements of farmers who
would want to borrow more substantial sums,
and might find it an inestimable benefit if they
could obtain them from a co-operative credit
bank.

Still more effectually would such a bank facili-
tate the operations of an agricultural association,
which would secure loans on the individual and
collective credit of its members for the purchase
of the necessaries required by them, and receive
payment in such convenient instalments as might
be arranged. Especially could costly agricultural
machinery be thus obtained by an association of
farmers without their being required to advance
any capital of their own, and without, in fact,
their paying anything except the stipulated sums
for hire, by means of which the sum expended

THE QUESTION OF FINANCE 377

would be eventually repaid. While, therefore,
agricultural science and the economic situation
of to-day have rendered essential a greater resort
to agricultural machinery, if only as a means of
reducing the cost of production, agricultural
combination has brought the use of even the
costliest machines within the reach of the
humblest cultivator, placing him in practically
the same position, in this regard, as the most
prosperous of his neighbours.

Whether the British farmer acts individually
or collectively, the financial question calls, indeed,
for serious consideration. It might even be
argued that until the financial problems which
arise have been satisfactorily disposed of, no
great progress at all will be made. In almost
every agricultural district in Great Britain
farmers or cultivators of the smaller class are
practically in the hands of commission-men or
brokers who advance money to them before
their crops are ready, and afterwards get the
produce at substantially less than its legitimate
value, because of the financial obligations which
the growers incurred towards them at a time
when they were pressed for money. Not only
does the individual farmer suffer, but the market
price of the commodity in question is affected.
Illustrations of these practices could especially

378 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

be drawn from the hop-producing districts of
Surrey and Hampshire, where it is no unusual
thing for the hop growers who begin with
obtaining advances from the dealers to finish
by realizing about three-fourths of the actual
value of their crops.

An agricultural co - operative association,
backed up by an agricultural credit bank, could
meet this evil by itself undertaking the sale of
the produce, advancing to the farmer the greater
part of the amount which the crop might be
expected to realize, and paying the balance to
him — less a moderate charge for expenses —
when the transaction had been completed. In
this way the grower would no longer be at the
mercy of the dealers, better results would be
obtained for the sale of individual lots, and there
would, also, be a greater prospect of the market
prices being maintained, in which case the larger
class of growers would benefit as well as the
small ones. Reference to the chapter on " Hun-
gary " will show how effectively the system here
described has been carried out in that country in
regard to the production and sale of wheat.

There is no need for me to enter now upon
any detailed statement concerning the precise
lines to be followed in the formation of those
co-operative credit banks which would provide

THE UTILIZATION OF SAVINGS 379

the good financial resources needed by the Agri-
cultural Co-operative Associations to carry out
the above-mentioned policy of defence, in addi-
tion to the other arrangements in respect to
purchase, etc. But on the question of ways
and means I would commend to those who are
interested in this branch of the subject a perusal
— or even a re-perusal — of the chapter on the
position in Italy, where, as I have explained,
the savings effected by the artisans in the
towns are rendered available for the purpose
of loans to agriculturists in the district in which
they have been obtained, instead of being sent
away to be invested in Government securities,
or to be put into, perhaps, dubious foreign
speculations. The financial position of Italy
is, of course, altogether different from that
of Great Britain ; but if, for instance, the
deposits made in the Post Office Savings Bank
by the working classes in one of our great
industrial centres could, under some absolutely
secure system, be utilized to encourage the start-
ing of co-operative credit banks in the surround-
ing agricultural districts, the result would be
not only to confer a great advantage on the
tanners, and not only to improve the general
position of agriculture, but also to produce an
increased demand for agricultural machinery,

380 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

etc., the supply of which would mean that the
artisans who had saved the money would get
not only as good a rate of interest as they do at
present, but a bonus thereon in the form of more
employment.

It may, perhaps, be thought a matter well
worth considering whether or not anything can
be done in this direction, thus rendering the
savings in question directly reproductive. But
in any case the scope of the Co-operative Banks
Association will have to be widened, or some
fresh arrangements effected so as to extend the
advantages of co-operative credit to other than
simply the humblest of agriculturists ; and in
this connection it may be found desirable to
amalgamate the Agricultural Organization
Society and the Co-operative Banks Associa-
tion, so as to give greater force to the efforts
that each is making. How intimately agricul-
tural organization and co-operative credit are
associated I have already shown, and much
better results would doubtless be gained by
bringing these two phases of one and the same
general movement into close touch — each
directly operated by a committee of experts,
with its staff of officers, but each forming part
of one and the same body — than if they worked
in complete independence the one of the other.

WOMEN'S INSTITUTES AND VILLAGE LIFE 381

The same remarks apply to the National Poultry
Organization Society, which should also form
part of a federation on the lines here suggested.
In fact, when these various societies go to the
agriculturists, and reproach them — more or less
— for not adopting principles of co-operation, it
would be open to those agriculturists to reply :
" Quite so : but why don't you societies set us
the example among yourselves ? "

To co-operative agricultural associations for
commercial or other material purposes, and to
co-operative credit banks for the financing of
cultivators, small and large, might well be added
some such organizations as the Farmers' Insti-
tute and the Women's Institutes which I have
described under the heading of " Canada." In
Great Britain, as in the Dominion, agricultural
societies of this type should fulfil a most useful
purpose from both an educational and a social
standpoint, adding as they must do fresh in-
terests to village life, and helping to relieve what
must too often be its unspeakable dullness.
From each of these points of view the formation
of women's agricultural societies seems to be
especially worth considering. It was, indeed, a
very happy inspiration which led the wives and
daughters of Canadian farmers to conclude that,
inasmuch as women generally play so important

382 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

a part in the work of a farm, they should have
an organization of their own which would enable
them to do what they could to advance the
welfare both of home life and of agriculture ; and
the example so set is one that might very well
be followed in Great Britain — as supplementing,
one may hope, an attempt which the husbands
and fathers will make to form for themselves
on British soil institutes akin to those of the
Farmers' Institutes of Canada.

I would venture to suggest, also, that there is
need for the existing county and local agricul-
tural societies, Farmers' Clubs, etc., to revise
their methods with a view to meeting the actual
requirements of the present-day situation. It
will have been seen that, in a number of the
countries dealt with, agricultural societies which
exist mainly for the purpose of holding shows
and distributing prizes have been regarded as
somewhat out of date, and fresh organizations
have been set up either in their place or to
supplement their action. It might be possible
to modify any resort to this course in Great
Britain by a reconstruction, as it were, of some
of these existing agencies, and many suggestions
as to the form such reconstruction could take
may be gathered from the statements already
given as to what is being done elsewhere. The

SELF-HELP RATHER THAX STATE AID 383

addition to ordinary shows of lectures giving
practical explanations to young agriculturists
concerning the good or bad points of the
exhibits, as is done in Canada, would in itself,
for instance, add greatly to the value of these
gatherings.

The extent to which the State should take
action in the matters under consideration is a
point upon which differences of opinion may
arise ; but my individual conviction thereon is
that the agriculturists should rely to the fullest
possible extent on the two great principles of
self-help and mutual-help, and depend as little
as possible on State aid. My aim has been,
therefore, to show what can be done by a resort
to the former principles, rather than to say
anything that would lead to greater dependence
on the latter, and how very much there is that
the British farmers can do for themselves in
following examples set elsewhere has, I think,
been abundantly proved.

No one can doubt the zeal shown by the
Board of Agriculture, and the part played by
that body in (among other things) spreading
sound practical information by means of publica-
tions of various kinds, is deserving not alone of
all praise but of still wider development. In
by-gone days, however, there was too marked

384 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

a tendency on the part of the Board to pose as
the farmer's friend, and to represent the railways
as, in effect, the farmer's enemies. In the latter
respect there has recently been a more generous
recognition of what the railways have done, or,
at least, have either sought to do, or are willing
to do, provided only the agriculturists will meet
them half-way. But there would still seem to
be a disposition to get the farmers throughout
the country to look to a centralized Government
department in London for guidance and direction
in all their wants. The recent appointment of
" honorary correspondents to the Board of
Agriculture " is a case in point. We have been
told that "it would be the duty of these
correspondents to make known to all the
farmers in their respective districts what the
Board of Agriculture could do for them, and
to make known to the Board of Agriculture
what were the wants of the farmers in their
particular districts." To a certain extent this
arrangement may serve a distinctly useful pur-
pose. But the said honorary correspondents
are to be chosen from among the " landowners,
land agents, and farmers " of each of nineteen or
twenty districts, and when the term " farmers "
is sub-divided into " gentleman farmers " and
" working farmers " (on the lines stated in the

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 385

"German View of British Agriculture"), it is
just possible that the interests of the last-
mentioned class — which interests are not neces-
sarily identical with those of landowners, land
agents, and gentleman farmers — might not always
be either fully represented or adequately con-
sidered. If, on the other hand, the arrangement
in question were to so far influence the said
working farmers as to lead in the slightest
degree to their depending on the Board of
Agriculture to do for them what they could
very well do for themselves, the result could
only be deplored. Personally, 1 am much more
favourably inclined towards an active fostering
of self-help, on the lines laid down by those now
carrying on the work of organization in the rural
districts, than I should be towards any possible
development, even from afar off, of such political
and bureaucratic tendencies as those which Die
Gennossenschaft grieves over in the case of
Austria.

Where, I think, there is more especially dis-
tinct scope for Government action is in a greater
expansion of the good educational work already
done through the publications of the Board of
Agriculture by placing on a better footing the
whole system of agricultural education in its

manifold phases, and more particularly as rc-
2 c

386 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

gards rural elementary schools. To give an
adequate account of all that our foreign competi-
tors are doing in these respects would require a
volume to itself ; but the impression left on one's
mind by an inquiry into conditions abroad is that
whatever may or may not be the actual benefits
we have derived from systems of elementary
and technical education suited mainly to urban
populations, we are sadly behind other countries
in a really efficient method of preparing the
children and young people in rural districts for
those agricultural avocations to which they are
expected to take when their school days are over.

In the higher branches of agricultural educa-
tion good work is undoubtedly being done by the
various agricultural colleges. But even better
results would be obtained if these colleges were
to follow the example of the agricultural colleges
of Holland in devoting at least an hour and a
half each week to instruction on the subject of
agricultural organization ; while Mr. Augustus
Brigstocke's gift of two scholarships of £10 each
to enable diploma students to pursue a course of
lectures at Aberystwyth University College, as
mentioned in the chapter on " England and
Wales," is well deserving of emulation.

One may hope, also, that the County Councils
will be disposed to take full advantage of the

THE POSITION OF COUNTY COUNCILS 387

powers they now possess for helping on the work
of agricultural organization. How profoundly
the interests they represent are concerned in the
welfare of agriculture will be readily conceded.
It is equally certain that the funds at their
command for educational purposes could hardly
be laid out to more practical advantage, from a
"county" standpoint, than in securing an increase
of agricultural prosperity. Happily, too, there
is no need for them to incur any very great
expense in the exercise of their new authority.
The direction in which they could render the
most practical assistance would be in guarantee-
ing the salaries of capable agricultural organizers,
working in touch with all the various agencies,
constituting a connecting link between them, and
forming a means by which the general work
of agricultural organization could be advanced.
There would be no necessity whatever for any
of the County Councils to elaborate schemes of
their own. They need only help to build on the
foundations already laid.

There is, however, one direction in which
action already taken in the work of agricultural
education might be modified. With the best
of intentions, travelling dairies have been sent
round various rural districts in order to give
daiiy workers instruction in better methods of

388 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

butter-making ; but the effect is to prolong the
chances of life of that system of farm-dairies
which ought to be allowed to die out in England,
as in Denmark and many other countries, in
favour of co-operative dairies, where the butter
would be made in bulk from the milk collected
from a large number of farms. Unless specially
organized from the point of view of production
in considerable quantities — as is the case with
many of those on the Continent — travelling
dairies do not necessarily qualify for work in
those co-operative dairies which are the great
desiderata. It would, therefore, serve a more
useful purpose if the County Councils, instead
of incurring the expense of travelling dairies,
were to make grants for technical instruction in
dairy work to be given in co-operative dairies of
the Danish type. It might even be practicable,
in case of need, for two or three counties to join
together in setting up such a dairy for educa-
tional purposes, so as to promote the training,
not alone of ordinary dairy workers, but also of
dairy managers, for whom there will be a demand
as soon as the co-operative dairy system is more
generally spread throughout the country. Here,
again, the expense need not be great, because
the dairy set up ought soon to become practi-
cally, if not entirely, self-supporting.

AGRICULTURAL LECTURESHIPS 389

The further suggestion has been made that
County Councils should grant funds in favour
of " agricultural lectureships " ; but this is an
idea I am not disposed to support. The British
farmer would not be inclined to favour lectures
on the technicalities of his business from others
than experts of the very highest eminence in the
country, persons, that is to say, whose services
a single County Council might not be in a posi-
tion to enlist, even if it surmounted the tempta-
tion of appointing as lecturer some person of
local reputation only. In cases where lecturers of
a second or third rate rank have been engaged by
local authorities the results have sometimes been
far from satisfactory. Any scheme for official
agricultural lectureships might, therefore, be left
to the Board of Agriculture, which would be in
a much better position to engage the best talent
for the purpose, and might be well-advised so
to do, the County Councils devoting themselves,
rather, to the employment of agricultural
organizers. As regards the work of these indi-
viduals, it is found that they do far more good
by having quiet talks with the farmers in their
own homes, on the market, or at the village inn,
than by holding public meetings to propagate
their i<l« ;is. or by seeking to deliver addresses
on technical subjects on their own account.

390 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Finally, the conclusions at which I have arrived
may be summed up thus : —

(1) That the British railway companies, instead
of being in any way hostile to British agriculture,
are profoundly interested in its welfare, for many
reasons, apart from the amount of agricultural
produce given to them to carry.

(2) That they have already offered, and are
continuing to offer, abundant evidence of their
willingness to do all they can to help the farmers
— short of granting rates and conditions which
would render their operations altogether un-
remunerative — and that what they now ask is
that the farmers, in their turn, should meet them
half-way, and so organize their business as to
either avail themselves of advantages already
open to them, or to be in a position to present
a stronger case when they advance further sug-
gestions.

(3) That in foreign countries changes in agri-
cultural methods and a widespread resort to
combination have brought about remarkable im-
provements in agricultural conditions ; so that if
the British farmer wishes to compete successfully
with foreign produce he must be prepared to
conduct his operations, as far as possible, on the
same lines, and not content himself with cherish-
ing grievances against the railways because they

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE 391

do not quote wholesale rates for the transport of
retail lots.

(4) That there is, at last, a prospect of England
attaining to a practical scheme of agricultural
combination on the lines successfully resorted to
by foreign countries ten, twenty, or even five-
and-twenty years ago, and that much more good
is likely to result from encouragement of these
efforts, and from a genuine attempt on the part
of the farmers both to co-operate among them-
selves and to adapt their methods to railway
conditions, than would follow merely from a
blind persistence in unreasonable complaints and
more or less unfounded allegations.

INDEX

Aalsmeer, Winter Agricultural School at: 128

Agricultural Organization Society: Formation, 295; objects, 296-7 ;
local societies, 297-9; central body non-political, 299-300; action
respecting County Councils, 313-14; German writer's reference to,
^2^ ; support of, recommended, 370 ; policy of, 371-2 ; a suggested
federation, 380-1

Agrk 1 1 11 uai. Societies, Older Tvi>e of : 60, 89, 157, 241, 243, 253-5,
289, 382-3

Albumen Factories : 20

Apricot-Growers, Combination of: 68

Argentina: Results of financial crisis, 236; railway development,
237; butter-making by Basques, 237; organization of Hie dairy
industry, 238

Aspatrla (Cumberland) Agriculti kai. Co-operative Society: 290,
300

Australasia: Agricultural conditions in the past, 258-9; refrigera-
tion, 259-61 ; agricultural education, 261-2 ; agricultural credit,
262-5; results, 266; effect on urban industries, 266; drawbacks,
267-8

A 1 -in Ai.i a : Drought in, benefits Argentina, 236

Austria: Biggs from, 16; abnormal development of State aid, 165-8;
views of bit Oenosaengchaft, [67 8; conditions in the Trentino
District, 168-9; Austrian bureaucracy undesirable in England, 385

Bacon: Danish factories] 31-4 ; decrease in Swedish supplies, 177;

factory in Belgrade, 213
Bananas, I'iiuik at (United States) : 234
Baj k, I'i tsANTs' (State) : In Poland, 216
Banks, Co operative Cbj i >i i : In Germany, 47-51 : Belgium, 91, 9 1 ;

Italy, 1 10-24; Holland, [39; Hungary, i)i .v,; Austria, [65, m»i;

Switzerland, 171; Finland, 191 .; ; Servia, 210 u ; Luxemburg,

223; Ireland, -•;.; 7; England, 296, 310 12, 375 80
Banks, Raiffej 1 -. : 49, 91, 99, 1 1 145, 105, 169, 1 74, 210, 311

I; \\ k\ S \\ isi.s : 1 10-1 |, 379

394 INDEX

Banks, Schulze-Delitzsch : 49, 1 1 1

Bee-Keepers' Societies : Denmark, 36 ; France, 67 ; Belgium, 92 ;
Ireland, 273, 283

Beetroot, Cultivation of : 45, 52, 67

Belgium : Railway rates, 5 ; an agricultural awakening, 88 ; Cornices
Agricoles, 89 ; statistics of local agricultural societies, 89-92 ;
clergy and co-operation, 93-103 ; attempt to check Socialist propa-
ganda, 94-5 ; Peasants' Guilds, 97 ; the Boerenbond, 98 ; action
of Belgian Government, 99-101 ; dairy industry, 100 ; results of
the movement, 102-4 ; Belgian vegetables for London markets,

374
Berger, M. l'Abbe : 99

Beverwijk, Fruit-Growing at : 134

Bewdley Co-operative Agricultural Society : 302

Bird Societies : 92

Blackberries : 79-83

Board of Agriculture : 315, 383-5, 389

Board of Education and Agricultural Co-operation : 313, 314-15

Boerenbond : 90, 91, 98

Bonus System (Australasia) : 262

Boskoop, Winter Agricultural School at : 126-7

" Box System " of Consignment : 330-1, 339

Brassey, Mr. T. A. : 296

Brigstocke, Mr. Augustus : 310, 386

British Produce Supply Association : 291-4, 332

" Bucks Arrangement," The : 355-9

Bulgaria : Trade in Eggs with Belgium, 19

Butter: Danish, 28-31, 204-6; French, 74-6, 85, 86; Dutch, 131,

136-8; Swedish, 177-8, 179-80; Finnish, 186; Siberian, 197-206;

"Confectioner's," 204-5; Argentine, 237-9; Australasian, 258,

267-8; English, 318, 358; Irish, 360-3

" Cabbage Train " (Holland) : 136

Canada : Improvement of agricultural position in Ontario, 240 ;
Farmers' Institutes, 241-8; "Women's Institutes, 249-52; Agri-
cultural Societies, 241-3, 252-5 ; position in New Brunswick, 255-57

Caper-Growers, Combination of : 67-8

Catholic Agricultural Union of Lombardy : 119

Cattle-Breeding : In Denmark, 38 ; Germany, 55 ; Belgium, 92 ;
Italy, 121; Sweden, 179; Finland, 186; Poland, 218; Great
Britain, 317

Cattle-Consultant (Finland) : 186

Cattle, Societies for the Sale of (Germany) : 55

Cauderi.ier, M. : 103

INDEX 395

Cauliflowers: 84, 85, 121, 134-6

Central Association- of Co-ofebaitve Bacon-Curers (Denmark): 34

Central Co-operative Creamery Society (Budapest) : 154-5, 339

Charleton, Mr. W. L. : 295, 305

Cheese-Making, Co-opera tive : 298, 306-7

Chemistry, Agricultural : 43, 46, 60, 110, 128, 226-7

Chests its ; 86

Cider-Makers1 Societies (France) : 66

Clergy and Agricultural Organization: In Belgium, 93-102 ; Italy,
105, 118-20; Holland, 139; Ireland, 288; England, 303-4

Comices Agricoles (Belgium) : 89

Conciliation and Arbitration Boards : 73, 212-3

Confederation of Ditch Co-operative Creameries : 137

Cook, Prof. A. J. : 248

Cooke, Mr. Henry : 206

Co-operative Agricultural Associations. See under different coun-
tries

Co-operative Banks Association : 311, 376, 3S0

Co-operative Butter Export Association (Friesland): 137

Co-operative Stores : 151, 157, 173-4

Corn-Elevators, Co-operative (Hungary) : 157-9

Corps des Agronohes (Belgium) : 100

Count] CouNCTLa WD Agriculture : In Canada, 244, 245 ; England,
313-15, 386-9

Court of Good Men (Servia) : 212-3

Couturiaux, M. i.'Abhe : 101

Cream Making at Cherbourg; 76-7

Credit, Agricultural: Australasia, 262-5. See also under "Banks"

Dairies, Co-operative: In Denmark, 30-1 ; Germany, 52; France,
74; Belgium, 90, 92, 100; Italy, 105, 121, 122, 124; Holland,
136-8; Hungary, 157; Switzerland, 174; Sweden, 178-80; Fin-
land, 185-7, 193; Siberia, 197-202; Poland, 218; Luxemburg, 222;
United St.ihs, 233; Argentina, -'.57-9; Australasia, 267; Ireland,
269, 270, 272, 280, 283, 285 ; Bngland, 303, 305-6, 318

D URTES, Til \vi 1 1 .ini. : [CO, .vs7~8

Dalgab, Col.: 27

Danish Heath Society : 28

\) \\>k AnDELB \ 1 1. BxPORT : 35

Denmark: Railway rates, 6 ; eggs from, 19; Danish 0. Comisfa

methods, 23 \ ; economic crisis in, 25 9; dairy industry. 28 3] ;

bacon-curing factories, 31-4; egg-export, 35 6; poultry societies,
36; bee societies, .^> ; livestock insurance, ;,<> 7: operation of
societies, 57; agricultural associations, 37 's; agricultural labourers,

396 INDEX

38-9 ; results of movement, 39-40 ; Danish and French methods
compared, 74-5 ; effect of Danish competition on Belgium, 100 ;
on Holland, 125; Danish methods adopted in Finland, 185; Danish
enterprise in Siberia, 199-202; butter exports from Siberia to Den-
mark, 204-6 ; Danish v. Irish methods, 360-3

Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ire-
land : 271-2

Depression, Agricultural. See under " Economic Crises "

Die GenossenscJutft : 167-8, 385

Distillery Societies : In Germany, 56 ; France, 67

Douglas, Mr. Theobald : 373-5

Drainage and Irrigation, Co-operative : 53, 56

Drunkenness, Check given to (Hungary) : 151

Dryden, Hon. John : 253-5

Ducks (Aylesbury) : 355-8

Dymond, Mr. T. S.: 156-7

Economic Crises : In Denmark, 26 ; Germany, 41-2 ; France, 59-60 ;
Belgium, 88; Italy, 108-10; Holland, 125; Switzerland, 170-1 ;
Finland, 184-85; Poland, 216; Argentina, 236; Australasia,
258-59; Ireland, 270; England, 316-17, 319

Education, Agricultural. See under " Instruction "

Eggs : British farmer and new-laid eggs, 13-16, 22 ; imports from
France, 13; French methods, 13, 77-9; trade in foreign eggs,
16-23; eggs used for industrial purposes, 20-1 ; Cornish egg-trade,
23-4 ; Danish methods, 23-4, 35 ; egg societies in Germany, 55 ;
exports from St. Malo, 86 ; eggs from Italy, 19, 121 ; egg societies
in Hungary, 156, 157; in Sweden, 179; eggs from Servia, 214;
Ireland, 273

Egypt, Eggs from : 19

Emlyn Agricultural Society (Wales) : 309

England: Agricultural organization in its infancy, 289-90; National
Agricultural Union, 290-1, 295; British Produce Supply Associa-
tion, 291-4 ; Agricultural Organization Society formed, 295 ;
objects, 296-7 ; present strength, 297 ; character of societies, 297-
307; agricultural credit, 310; Co-operative Banks Association,
311, 376, 380 ; National Poultry Organization Society, 15, 302, 313 ;
position of County Councils, 313-15, 386-9 ; Board of Agriculture,
3J5> 3^3-5) 389; German view of English agriculture, 316-26;
attitude of railway companies, 327-63 ; Agricultural Organization
Society deserving of support, 370-2 ; need for agricultural credit,
375-80; scope for Farmers' and Women's Institutes, 381 2 ; re-
construction of agricultural societies, 382-3 ; expansion of agricul-
tural education, 385-9

INDEX 397

Essex Farmers, Visit of, to Hungary : 164
Eyre, The Rev. G. F. : 303-4

Far Forest (Worcestershire) Agricultural Society : 303

Far Forest Pi-re Watkr Supply Association : 304

Farmer, Bri itsh and Continental type compared : 367-S

Farmers, "Gentlemen": 319-20, 385

Farmers, "Working": 319-20, 385

Fertilizers : Beneficial use of, 45, 60, 86, 96-7, 10 1, no, 122, 171, 374 ;
increasing- use of, 65, 278, 375 ; adulterated or inferior qualities,
61, 101, 278; cheaper rates through combined purchase, 65, 97,
101, 217, 222, 278 ; expert advice respecting, 224, 374

Finland : Geographical conditions, 183-4 ; an agricultural crisis, 1S4 ;
dairy products succeed rye, 185; exports to Great Britain, 186-7 '>
early days of combination movement, 1S7-9 > Pellervo started, 190;
Central Co-operative Commercial Bureau, 191 ; Central Co-operative
Credit Bank, 192 ; impetus to agricultural co-operative societies,
193 ; operations of Pellervo, 194 ; results, 195

Fiscal Problem : 10, 206-7

Fish, Mr. Stuyvesant : 226, 234

Flax Societies (Ireland) : 273, 283

Food Supplies, Effect of Railway Rates on : 351

Foot and Mouth Disease (Argentina) : 236, 238

Fb \mi im.i'am Agricultural Co-operative Society : 301

France: Railway rates, 5-6; change in agricultural conditions, 58-60;
early days of Syndicate Agricoles, 60-1 ; growth of, 61-2 ; Union
Centrale, 62 ; Societe des Agriculteurs, 62 ; provincial federations,
63 ; Syndicat Centrale, 64 ; Syndicat Economique Agricole, 66 ;
Syndicat d'Industric Agricole, 66 ; various, 67-72 ; educational
work, 72 ; social results, 73 ; dairy industry, 74-7 ; eggs, 77-9 ;
blackberries, 79-81 ; gooseberries, S3 ; potatoes, 83 ; cauliflowers,
84 ; butter, 85 ; exports from St. Malo, 86

Friendly Soc a ties' A« 1 : 31 1

Frost, I' n nos "i Vines igainsi : 70

Fruit: 56, 68, 86, 134, 162, 219, 223, 226-34, 26l> 2(S7> ^73- 3'9

Galuia .- Eggs from, 16, 17, 18, 22

Gardner, Mrs. J. •. 251

Gerhard, Dr. Hanneb: 187, 188, 190

Generai Consignee, The (United States) : 230

Germans : State ownership of railways, ( gj agricultural conditions,

)i j; agricultural instruction, )_■ 5; science and industries, 44-6 ;

co-operation, 47; co-operative credit banks, 48-50; agricultural

societies. 51 3; agricultural unions, 54; statistics. 55 6; use nt

398 INDEX

Gibson, Mr. Herbert : 236-7

Glasgow and South Western Railway : 353-5

Gooseberries : 83

Granger System of Consignment (United States) : 230

Great Eastern Railway : 329-32

Great Western Railway : ^32> 336-42

Guetti, Lorenzo : 169

Gurney, Mr. M. C. : 84-5

Haas, Dr.: 56

Hamilton, Lord Claud : 329, 330

Hannetonage, Syndicats de : 70

Harrison, Dr. James (Geelong) : 260

Herbert, Mr. Arthur: 178

Holland: Railway conditions, 6, 135; economic crisis, 125; Royal
Commission, 125; agricultural and horticultural education, 126-9;
position of Dutch producers, 129-31 ; organization of market-
gardeners, 131-5; dairy farmers, 136-8; agricultural unions, 138-9;
results, 139-40

Hop-Growing: 219, 37S

Hoorn (North Holland), Laboratory at : 129

Horse-Breeding by Hungarian Government : 162

Horse-Breeding Societies : 38, 67

Horticultural Societies : 63

Hudson, Mr. T. J. : 226, 234

Hungary: Organization of agricultural credit, 141-9; "new village
life," 149-50 ; moral advantages, 150-3 ; National Agricultural
Society, 153; National League of Agricultural Societies, 154;
Central Co-operative Creamery, Budapest, 1 54-5 ; Hungarian
Farmers' Co-operative Society, 155 ; county agricultural societies,
x56-7 ; co-operative societies for the collection and sale of corn,
157-9 5 agricultural exhibition at Pozsony, 159 ; relation of State
to agriculture, 160-4

Illinois Central Railroad : 225-34

Implement Dealers, Attitude of : 218, 279, 305

Implements, Co-operative Purchase of. See under "Machinery"

Industrial and Provident Societies Act : 297-8, 311

Industries, Urban, aided by Agricultural Development: 107,

266
Instruction, Agricultural : In Denmark, 29 ; Germany, 42-5 ;

France, 72; Belgium, 100; Italy, 122; Holland, 126-9, 138, 386;

Sweden, 178, 180-1 ; United States, 226-7 ; Canada, 240, 246-8,

253~7 » Australasia, 261-2 ; Ireland, 273 ; England, 385-9

INDEX 399

Insurance, Co-operative: Live-stock, 36, 71, 91, 223; accident,
71 ; hail, 71, 218 ; famine, shortage of labour, etc., 211 ; grouping
of policies, 70, 91

Ireland: Report of Department of Agriculture on Denmark, 39;
report on Germany, 55 ; early days of agricultural organization,
269-70 ; Recess Committee, 271 ; Department of Agriculture and
Technical Instruction, 272 ; co-operative creameries, 272 ; poultry
societies, 273 ; agricultural credit banks, 273-7 ! Agricultural
Wholesale Society, 277-80; Co-operative Agency Society, 280-1 ;
Irish railways and agriculture, 281-2 ; statistics of societies, 283 ;
social results of movement, 283-5 5 the human element, 285-7 !
the new harmony, 287-S ; Irish example inspires English action,
295 ; Irish v. Danish dairy methods, 360-3

Irish Agrii oltural Organization Society : 270, 272, 283

Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society : 277-80

Irish Co-oi>ehative Agency Society : 280-1

Italy: Eggs from, 19; conditions prior to agricultural revival, 105-10;
the " Italian system," 106-8 ; organization of agricultural credit,
1 10-17, 122 ; formation of agricultural societies, 1 14-15 ; the travel-
ling professor, 1 15-18; action of Roman Catholic Church, 118-20;
statistics, 120-1 ; results, 121-4

Jam Factory Soulties: 56, 68

Karolyi, Coin 1 Alexander: 144, 146

KONIG, Mil. F. P. : 51, 52
Ku \mlii. Prof. Dr. A. : 172

Labour Bureai -. (France): 73

Labour Conditions ds Australasia : 268

Laboi kerb, Agri ii.m : Societies of, in Denmark, 38-9; supply

of, in Switzerland, 170, in Poland, 216

Land: Reclamation of. in Denmark, 26-S ; Germany, 53; Holland.
127; increasing value of, France, *4 ; Australasia, 266; system

of tenure, Denmark, 29; Italy, 100; Holland, 129-30; Poland,
215 p. : I ngland, 1 • ; 6

LiAPLA* D, AgRICULTURA] ObGANIZ \ I Iun 1 v; : i< > 1

I EGA NaZIONALE DELL] Co-OFERATTVl [tAIXANE : I 19, 1 68

1 .1 vy, Dr. Hir mann : 316 16

1. 1 vi -on k I si 1: \-. < 1 . S. e under " Insurance"

Loading I B ulwai Cars) rN the United States : ;2'i

I don on) North Wester* Railway i 333 6,355

London un> Soi in Western Railway Compaot : 77, 82, 343-51

400 INDEX

Luxemburg: Need for organization, 221; agricultural syndicates,
222-3 > establishment of Agricultural Credit Banks, 223 ; commis-
sion of experts, 223

LuzZATTI, SlGNOR LuiGI : III

Mabilleau, M. Leopold : 1 18

Machinery, Agricultural : Action of State in respect to, 223-4

Machinery, Co-operative Purchase of : 36, 51, 53, 55, 56, 62, 66, 87,

90, 115, 138, 2ii, 217, 300-1, 305, 376
Maddock, Miss Blanche : 250
Makins, Col. : 329

Manures (stable or town), Railway Rates for : 352, 353-4
Market-Gardeners : In France, 67, 84 ; Belgium, 103-4 ; Holland,

125-8, 130-5, 155-6; United States, 226-34; England, 321, 324-5
May-Beetle, War against : 70
Meat, Fresh (Holland) : 136
Meat, Frozen (Australasia) : 259-61
Meline, M. : 57
Mellaerts, M. l'Abbe : 96-9
Meyer, Pio : 169

Midland Counties Agricultural Supply Association : 305
Milk Supply : Central Co-operative Creamery Society of Budapest,

154-5 ; milk supply in England, 298, 303, 305-6, 317, 318, 337-9,

35°- J
Mills, Mr. James : 240
Mistletoe : 86
Money-Lenders : In Italy, 109, 122, 123; Hungary, 143-5, 148;

Servia, 208-10 ; England, 377-8
Montgomery, Mr. H. de F. : 55, 56
Morocco, Eggs from : 20
Mort, Mr. Thomas Sutcliffe : 259-60
Muller, Dr. Hans: 171
M usee Social : 57, 58, 118, 122
Muskham (Notts) Co-operative Agricultural Society : 300-1

National Agricultural Union : 290-1, 295

National Poultry Organization Society : 15, 302, 313, 381

Newark Dairy, Ltd. : 305-6

Old-Age Pensions (France) : 72
Orphans, Support of : 72
Owens, Sir Charles : 344

Parsley : 86

Pei.lervo (Finland) : 190-5

INDEX 401

Phylloxera : 70, 162

Plinkett, Shi Horace : 269-71

Podwoloczyska : Eggs from, 17, 20 ; albumen factories at, 20

Poland: Landowners and peasants, 215-6; shortage of labour, 216;
purpose of agricultural societies, 217-8 ; fruit-growing, 219

Potatoes: Germany, 45-6; France, 83-5, 86; England, 319; Scot-
land, 353-4

Poii.thy : England, 15, 319, 355 -9 ; Denmark, 36 ; France, 78, 85, 86 ;
Servia, 214; Australasia, 261 ; Ireland, 273

Professor, Travelling Agricultural (Italy) : 116

PrntHASE, Co.mhi.ved : general, S ; in Denmark, 36 ; Germany, 50-2 ;
France, 61, 64; Belgium, 90, 96-7, 98, 101 ; Italy, 105, 1 14-15,
121, 122; Holland, 138; Hungary, 150; Switzerland, 172-4;
Sweden, 178; Finland, 191, 193; Servia, 210-11 ; Poland, 217-18;
Luxemburg, 222 ; Ireland, 278-80 ; England, 296, 298, 300-3,
372-5 ; Wales, 307-9

Raii keise.v. See under " Banks "

Railway Rates .- Conditions abroad, 4-6 ; lower rates secured by
combination, 61, 65, 135, 139, 159; conditions in Ireland, 281-2;
England, 327-63 ; Scotland, 353-5

Railways and the Farmers : Friction between, 1 ; railway interest in
rural districts, 2 ; question of quantity and conditions, 3 ; identity
of interests, 3; the making up of "big loads," 135-6, 139, 231-4,
282, 309, 346-9; position in the United States, 228-31 ; effect of
railway expansion (Argentina), 237; position in Ireland, 281-2;
British farmers and railway rates, 327-8 ; action of Great Eastern
Railway Company, 329-32; Great Western, 332, 336-42; South
Eastern, ^32 ; London and North Western, 333-6, 355-63 ; South
Eastern and Chatham, 342-3; London and South Western, 343-
52 ; Glasgow and South Western, 353-5

Railways, Continental : Germany, 4; Belgium, 5; France, 5-6;
Holland, 6 ; Denmark, 6

Rayneri, M. C'll Mill £ : I 18

Recess Committee (Ireland) : 271

REFRIGEB vi ion : In Australia, 259-61, 266; Denmark and Ireland, 360-3

RoCaUIGWT, -M. 1.1: COMTE in:: 59, 1 18

Roman Catholk Churcb and Agriculturai Co-operation : In

Belgium, 93-102; Italy, 105, 118-20; Holland, 139; Inland, 288

I in. j 1 1 v Mm , Caper-Growers of: 67-8

Rumania i Eggs from, 16, 18

Rural 1. 11 1. I mm 1 oi Ai.mk ni in al Organisation on : Denmark,
38-9; France, 74; Italy, 113, 123-4; Holland, 138 j Hungary,
149-53; Canada, 25a 2 ; Ireland, . ae 11 1, 365-9

402 INDEX

Russia: Eggs from, 16-19; Russian eggs for Denmark, 35 ; competes

with Finland, 184. See also " Siberia "
Rutland, the Duke of : 307
Rye, a Crisis in (Finland) : 184-5

Sale, Collective: In Denmark, 32, 35; Germany, 51, 55; France,
64, 67, 68-9; Italy, 121; Holland, 131-8 ; Hungary, 154-9;
Switzerland, 174; Luxemburg, 223; Ireland, 280-1; England,
291-4, 296, 298, 302, 303, 305-7, 372 ; Wales, 308-9

Sansevero, Vineyards at : 122

Scalford Dairy, Limited : 306

Schou, Mr. Rudolf : 26

Schulze-Delitzsch. See under " Banks "

Science and Agriculture : 43, 46, 60, 181-2, 226-7, 26i> 270

Scotch Farmers in Essex : 32 1

Scotland : Potato-growing at Girvan, 353-4 ; lower rates to agri-
culturists in Wigtonshire, etc., 355

Seeds, Bad : In Canada, 248 ; Ireland, 278 ; Wales, 278

Segelcke, Prof. T. R. : 26

Servia : Financial troubles of farmers, 208-10 ; village banks, 210-1 1 ;
co-operative agricultural societies, 212 ; the " Court of Good Men,"
212-13 ! exports to Great Britain, 213-14

Siberia: Eggs from, 17, 22; dimensions of dairy industry, 197-S ;
growth of, 198-200 ; difficulties, 201 ; export arrangements, 202-4 ;
qualities, 204-5 5 future outlook, 206 ; attitude of peasantry
towards British, 206-7 5 expansion due to organization, 207

Sick, Indigent, Relief of (France) : 73

Socialism : Check of, by agricultural organization, in France, 73 ;
Belgium, 93-5, 102 ; Italy, 119

South Eastern Railway : 332

South Eastern and Chatham Railway : 342

State Aid: In Denmark, 34, 36, 38; Belgium, 93, 100; Italy, 124;
Holland, 125-9, 139> Hungary, 139, 160-4; Austria, 165-8;
Finland, 186, 190, 194; Poland, 219; Canada, 244-8, 256;
Australasia, 261-5; England, 315, 383

Sweden and Norway : Sweden and Denmark compared, 1 76-7 ;
co-operative methods, 178; position of dairy industry, 178-9;
purchase societies, 179; agricultural societies and their work,
179-80; agricultural education, 180-1 ; co-operation in Norway,
182

Switzerland: An economic crisis, 170-1 ; need for combination,
1 7 1-2 ; local organizations and district federations, 172 ; co-
operative stores, 173 ; check to full expansion of movement, 174-5

Syndicate Agricoles, Origin of : 58-63

INDEX 403

Tariffs, Protective: In Germany, 42; France, 85; Sweden, 177;

Poland, 216
Templetown, Lord: 295
Thrift: Italian ideas on, 106-8

Traders and Agricultural Co-operation : 173, 218, 279, 305, 373-5
Trenttno District, Conditions in : 168-9

United States, The: Illinois Central Railroad, 225-6; growth of
trade in market-garden produce, 226-8 ; railway arrangements,
228-9; need for organizations, 229; basis on which operated, 230-1 ;
traffic statistics, 232-3 ; change in Southern production, 233 ;
Farmers' Institutes, 243

Vale of Tiw (Wales) Agricultural Society : 308
Varlez, M. Louis : 88

Wagentngen, State Agricultural College at: 126

Wales: Welsh Farmers' Federation, 307 ; number of local societies,
307 ; attitude of Welsh farmers, 308 ; examples of local societies,
308-9 ; large contracts, 309 ; lectures at University College,
Aberystwyth, 310

Wallemrorg, SlGNOB : 112

Westland District (Holland): 130, 133

Wheat-Growing : 26, 42, 59, 85, 125, 157-9, 2I9> 3l9~2°

Williams, Prof. D. D.: 310

Winchilsi 1, Lord: 290-4, 295, 329, 332

Wine-Growers' Societies : 53, 55, 67, 121, 154

Women's Institutes: 248-52, 381-2

Worcestershire, Agricultural Organization in: 302-5

Won( bstershire Chamber oi Ai.mh dlture : 305

Yerburgh, Mr. R. A., m.p.: 295, 296

Zuloeb Zee, The: "Cabbage Train" from shores of, 136; new life
in the •• Dead ( lities," 139

PLYMOUTH

WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON

PRINTERS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

This book is DUE on the last date stamped below

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