The growth of the movement in the last nine years under the fostering
care of the I.A.O.S. is highly satisfactory. By the autumn of this year
(1903) considerably over eight hundred societies had been established,
and the number is ever growing; of these 360 were dairy, and 140
agricultural societies, nearly 200 agricultural banks, 50 home
industries societies, 40 poultry societies, while there were 40 others
with miscellaneous objects. The membership may be estimated--I am
writing towards the end of the Society's statistical year--at about
80,000, representing some 400,000 persons. The combined trade turnover
of these societies during the present year will reach approximately
L2,000,000, a figure the meaning of which can only be appreciated when
it is remembered that the great majority of the associated farmers are
in so small a way of business that in England they would hardly be
classed as farmers at all.

These societies consist, as has been explained, of groups of farmers who
have been taught by organisers that certain branches of their business
can be more profitably conducted in association than by individuals
acting separately. The principle of agricultural co-operation with its
economic advantages will, as time goes on, be further extended by the
combined action of societies. With this end in view federations are
constantly being formed with a constitution similar to that of the
societies, the only difference being that the members of the federation
are not individuals but societies, the government of the central body
being carried on by delegates from its constituent associations. The two
largest of these federations, one for the sale of butter, and another
for the combined purchase by societies of their agricultural
requirements, have been working successfully for several years.
Federations, too, are being formed, as societies find that their
business can be conducted more economically, for example, in dairying by
centralising the manufacture of butter, or in the egg export trade by
the alliance of many districts to enable large contracts to be
undertaken. In the near future a further development of federation will
be required to complete a scheme now under consideration for the mutual
insurance of live stock. Such a scheme involves the existence of two
prime conditions, a local organisation for the purpose of effective
supervision, and the spreading of the risk over a large area.

In all such enterprises