Now it may be said I have talked a long while round and round the rural
community, but I have not suggested how it is to be created. I am coming
to that. It really cannot be created. It is a natural growth when the
right seed is planted. Co-operation is the seed. Let us consider
Ireland. Twenty-five years ago there was not a single co-operative
society in the country. Individualism was the mode of life. Every
farmer manufactured and sold as seemed best in his eyes. It was
generally the worst possible way he could have chosen. Then came Sir
Horace Plunkett and his colleagues, preaching co-operation. A creamery
was established here, an agricultural society there, and having planted
the ideas it was some time before the economic expert could decide
whether they were planted in fertile soil. But that question was
decided many years ago. The co-operative society, started for whatever
purpose originally, is an omnivorous feeder, and it exercises a magnetic
influence on all agricultural activities; so that we now have societies
which buy milk, manufacture and sell butter, deal in poultry and eggs,
cure bacon, provide fertilizers, feeding-stuffs, seeds, and machinery
for their members, and even cater for every requirement of the farmer's
household.
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