The development, which had been so marked a feature of the Society’s business ever since the removal from St James Street to M‘Neil Street, continued during the next four years, if not with such markedly rapid progress as during those which have just been reviewed, at least at a rate which must have proved eminently satisfactory to directors and shareholders alike. One of the results of the slight slackening down of the rate of growth was that the directors had more time to devote to the thorough reorganisation of the business and to bringing all the knowledge and experience which they had gained to bear on its extension. They were not unmindful of the need for extension and reorganisation at the bakery itself, and this work received a good deal of attention during the period, but they also kept in view the desirability of bringing in new trade from every quarter where it could be procured, and so we find strenuous efforts being made to develop connections in England and Ireland, as well as to widen the scope of their operations in Scotland. PROPAGANDA IN IRELAND. The first attempt to do business with Irish societies was made in the summer of 1898, when Mr Petrie, traveller, and Mr Hamilton, director, visited a number of societies in the North, with the object of inducing them to do business with the Baking Society. This visit proved to be an eminently satisfactory one. Several good orders were secured, and at the Irish Conference, which had been attended by Mr Hamilton, it had been agreed that the president of the Baking Society should be invited to read a paper on “Federated Baking Societies” to a later conference. This conference took place on the 27th of August, when, in addition to Mr M‘Culloch, Mr Deans of the Scottish Section was present, and, at the request of the delegates, gave a report of the position of the boycott in Scotland. In the course of his report, Mr Deans pointed out that Mr Robert Walker, the organising secretary of the Traders’ Defence Association, had already turned his attention to Ireland, and had held in Belfast a preliminary meeting with the merchants of that city. He had received an invitation to address a larger meeting at an early date, but Mr Deans expressed his confidence that, if an attempt was made to introduce the boycott there, the Co-operators of the North of Ireland would know how to deal with the situation.