and economic changes the Organisation Society is
either the initiator, or is called in for advice, and its continued
existence in a purely advisory capacity as a link between the societies
where concerted action is required, will be necessary even when the
organisation of farmers into societies is completed. The economic life
of rural communities is in continual need of adjustment. Now it is an
invention like a steam separator which revolutionises an industry. At
another time the crisis created by a change in the tariff of a foreign
country forces the producer either to find a new outlet for his wares,
or to abandon a hitherto profitable employment. A striking instance of
the value of organisation and connection with a central advisory body
occurred in 1887, when swine fever broke out in Denmark, and the exports
of live swine fell from 230,000 in one year to 16,000 in the next. The
organisation of the farmers, however, enabled them easily to consult
together how best to meet the emergency, and their decision to start
co-operative bacon-curing factories was the foundation of their present
great export trade in manufactured bacon.

I must not overburden with details a narrative intended for readers to
whom I merely wish to give a deeper and wider understanding of Irish
life than most of them probably possess. But there is just one form of
agricultural co-operation to which I can usefully devote a few
paragraphs, because it throws much light upon the associative qualities
of the people and also upon the educational and social value of the
movement. I refer to the Agricultural Banks, more properly called Credit
Associations, which have been organised upon the Raiffeisen system.
Before the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed we had
read of these institutions, and of the marvellously beneficial effect
they had produced upon the most depressed rural communities abroad. But
only in the last few years have we fully realised that they are even
more required and are likely to do more good in Ireland than in any
other country; for on the psychological side of our work we formerly but
dimly saw things which we now see clearly.

The exact purpose of these organisations is to create credit as a means
of introducing capital into the agricultural industry. They perform the
apparent miracle of giving solvency to a community composed almost
entirely of insolvent individuals. The constitution of these bodies,
which can, of