PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
ment of a similar society in East Sussex. The matter will not be allowed to rest where it stands at present.
The County Councils are now permitted by a minute of the Board of Education to make a grant for the purpose of giving instruction in the principles and practice of agricultural co-operation. The Agricultural Organization Society, to the chairmanship of the committee of which I have recently been elected, has received a donation of 100l. to be devoted to this purpose in Sussex. We have asked the Education Committee of the County Council to supplement this donation by a grant of an equivalent amount, and I hope that those of you who are County Councillors, and those of you who are not, will bring pressure to bear to secure this grant. No harm can be done by education on this question.
Meanwhile, I am glad to be able to report to you that the movement is making good progress in other parts of the country, the most noteworthy societies formed during the last few months being the Midland Counties Agricultural Supply Association, which was the outcome of the indignation aroused by the hardships imposed on the farming class by a ring of implement makers, and the Farnham Farmers and Hopgrowers' Association. I attended the inaugural meeting of the latter. The original members represented, I was told, a capital of about 200,000l., and these gentlemen proposed in the first instance to buy the kulm for drying their hops by the train-load. Presently they possibly may undertake to deal with their products. Object-lessons on the value of agricultural organization are thus accumulating. We are
148
