INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
BuKEAU OF Economic and Sociai, Inteixigence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1917

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE
I918

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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE v>'i*^o«3^

Bureau of Economic and Sociai, Inteu.igence W^^As>^^

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1917

^

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE
1918

5^/7'

THE INTERNATIONAIv INSTITUTE OF AGRICUIvTURE.

Origin of the Institute and Summary of the International Treaty,

The International Institute of Agriculture was established under the
International Treaty of 7 June 1905, which was» ratified by forty govern-
ments. Sixteen other governments have since adhered to the Institute.

It is a government institution in which each country is represented
by delegates. The Institute is composed of a General Assembly and a
Permanent Committee.

The Institute, always confining its attention to the international
aspect of the various questions concerned, shall :

(a) collect, study, and publish as promptly^ as possible, statistical,
technical, or economic information concerning farming, vegetable and ani-
mal products, trade in agricultural produce, and the prices prevailing in
the various markets ;

(b) communicate the above information as soon as possible to those
interested ;

(c) indicate the wages paid for farm work ;

{d) record new diseases of plants which may appear in any part of
the world, showhing the regions infected, the progress of the diseases,
and, if possible, any effective remedies ;

{e) study questions concerning agricultural co-operation, insurance,
and credit from every point of view ; collect and publish information which
might prove of value in the various countries for the organization of agri-
cultural co-operation, insurance and credit ;

(/) submit for the approval of the various governments, if necessary,
measures for the protection of the common interests of farmers and for the
improvement of their condition, utilising for this purpose all available
sources of information, such as resolutions passed by international or other
agricultural congresses and societies, or by scientific and learned bodies, etc.

Permanent Committee
OF THE International Institute of AoRicutTURE

Presidint : Marquis Rappaele Cappelli, Delegate of Italy.
Vice-President : M. Loms-Dop, Delegate of Prance.
List ot the Delegates of the Permanent Committee :

13
U
15
j6
17
18
19
20

2t
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

33
34

35
36

37 ;

38
39
40

41
♦2
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
SS
56
57

Abyssinia

Argentine Republic. . .
AOSTRIA

Hdngakv

Belgium

Brazil

Bulgaria

Chile

China

Colombia

Costa-Rica

Cuba

Denmark

Ecuador

Egypt

France

French West Africa. .

Algeria

Madagascar

Morocco

Tunis

Germany

Gt. Britain & Ireland. .

Australia

British India

Canada

Mauritius

New Zealand

Union of South Africa

Greece

Guatemala

Italy

Eritrea & It. Somal.

Tripoli and Cirenaica

Japan

Luxemburg

Mexico

Montenegro

Netherlands

Dutch East Indies . . .

Nicaragua

Norway

Ottoman Empire

Paraguay

Persia

Peru

Portugal

Roumania

Russia

Salvador

San Marino

Serbia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

United States

Urugu ay

V

I

I

I
IV

I
III
II

I
V
V
V
IV
V

II
I

V
V
V
V
V

I

I

III

II

II

V
IV
IV
IV
V

I

IV
IV

I

V
lU
V
IV
IV
V

rv
I

V
IV
V
IV

I
I

V
V

III
I

IV
IV

I

V

Prof. G. Cuboni, Director, Station of Plant Pathology, Rome

Dr. OCTAVio Pineiro Sorondo.

Cliev. V. de Pozzi, Government Cotincillor.

O. BOLLE.

M. STANaOFF.

M. E. ViLLEGAS, Minister Plmipotentiary.

Wang-Tseng-Sze.

Don RuFO RuFFO, Principe della Scaletta.

Marco Besso.

M. A. JiARTiN RivERO, Minister Plenipotentiary.

A. DE Oldenburg, Charge d'affaires.

M. Miguel Valverde, Consul General.

IvOUis-Dop, Vice-President of the Institute.

Louis-Dop.

Louis-Dop.

Louis-Dop.

Louis-Dop.

I/)UIS-DOP.

Dr. T. Mueller, Privy Councillor.

Hon. William Erskine, Counsellor of the Embassy.

Hon. William Erskxne.

Hon. William Erskine.

Hon. William Erskine.

Hon. William Erskine.

Hon. William Erskdte.

Hon. William Erskine.

M. Coromilas, Minister Plenipotentiary.

G. Montefiore, Consul General for Guatemala.

Marquis R. Cappelli, VicePres. of theCh.,Pres. of the Institute.

SmNOOH iMAt, First Secretary of the Embassy.
O. BoLLE, Delegate of Belgium.

G. VoLPi, Minister Plenipotentiary.

Baron W. B. R. de Welderen Rengers, Minister Plenip.

Baron W. B. R. de Welderen Rengers.

V. E. BiANCHi, Consul General.

Dr. A. FjELSTAD, Counsellor to the Agricultural Department.

Dr. Mehmed Djhmil Bey.

A. DEL Gallo, Marquis of Roccagiovinb.

Louis-Dop, Delegate of France.

EuSEBio I,EAO, Minister Plenipotentiary.

DE&iETRins C. Pennesco, Counsellor to the Legation.

His Excell. G. Zabiello, Consul General for Russia.

A. Blanchi Cagliesi, Vice-Consul.

His Excell. L. Luzzatti, Minister of State.

C. ScoTTi, Consul General for Serbia.

Francisco Bilbao Sevilla, Agricultural Engineer.

Baron C. N. D. de Bildt, Minister Plenipotentiary.

M. DE Planta, Minister Plenipotentiary.

Davtd Lubin.

Dr. E. RoviRA, Consul.

Secretary General: Prof. Carlo Dragoni.

BXPI^ANATORY NOTE

1. The i>resent Table of Contents refers to the twelve numbers of the
International Review of Agricultural Economics published from January
to December, 191 7, and includes, therefore, all the articles and notes dealing
with co-operation, insurance, credit and agricultural economy in general
contained in these volumes.

2. The articles and notes relating to co-operation have been grouped
in 2 i classes ; those dealing with insurance are divided into 0 classes ; those
which deal i&ith credit into 9 classes ; and those which treat of agricultural
economy in general into ij. A complete list of these classes precedes the
table. In our classification we have followed the rule of single entry and
placed un(ter only one heading those articles and notes which, from the nature
of the subject treated, might appear in more than one group.

As it is not in every case clear why an article or note has been assigned
to one group rather than to another, the reader must be prepared to refefHo the
several analogous groups in any one of which a particular article or note might
appear. A dairymen's co-operative society, for example, might have as its
object the protection of the general economic interests of dairy farmers as a
class, or simHy the improvement of the methods of production, transport, and
sale, or again the purchase and collective use of animals of the special dairy
type. An article relating to such a society might appear under various head-
ings, according as it dealt more particularly with one or other of tJtese objects. ■

3. In each group the articles and notes have been subdivided by countries,
following the aphabetical order. For each country the articles are arranged
in the chronological order in which they were published. We have added a table
giving the classification by countries.

I. — CONTENTS BY SUBJECTS.

CLASSIFIED LIST OF SUBJECTS

I. — Co-operation and Association.

I. General, studies.

II. General, statistics.

III. Central State institutions.

IV. Federations of agricuetural co-operative societies.

V. Central institutions of agricultural co-operative societies.
VI. Co-operative credit societies.
VII. Co-op er\tive societies for purchase and for purchase and

sale.
VIII. Co-operative productive societies.
IX. Co-operative societies for production and sale or for sale.
X. Co-operative dairies.
XI. Collective farms.
XII. Miscellaneous co-operative societies.

XIII. Associations" for the protection of the general interests

OF FARMERS.

XIV. Associations to further the technical progress of agri-

culture.
XV. Associations concerned with live stock in general.
XVI. Associations concerned with horned live stock.
XVII. Bee-keeping associations.

XVIII. Miscellaneous information relating to agricultural co-
oper.\tion.

XIX. Agricui,turai, congresses.

XX. NON-AGRICUiyrURAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES OR ASSOCIATIONS.
XXI. MlSCELLANTEOUS INFORMATION REI,ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND
ASSOCIATION IN GENERAI,.

XXII. Notices of pubucations.

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

I. Generae studies.
II. Fire insurance.

III. Haie insurance.

IV. Live stock insurance.

V. Insurance of eive stock raised for slaughter.
VI. Insurance against agricueturae accidents.

VII. Other branches of agricueturae insurance.

VIII. MiSCEEEANEOUS INFORMATION REEATING TO AGRICULTURAL IN-
SURANCE.

IX. Notices of publications.

III. - Credit.

I. General studies on non-co-operative credit and the indebt-
edness of landed property.
II. Legislation.

III. Intervention of the State and of public authorities.

IV. Land credit.

V. Agricultural credit.

VI. Savings banks as credit institutions.
VII. Bank system.

VIII. Miscellaneous information.
IX. Notices of publications.

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I. GeneraIv studies.
II. Fiscal system and agricui^ture.

III. State as landowner.

IV. Various forms of land tenure.

V. The redistribution of lands and measures to prevent ex-
cessive subdivision.
VI. Agrarian reform in general.
VII. Home colonization.
VIII. Problems of hydraulics and forestry.
IX. Trade and transport of agrarian products.
X. Measures for the improvement op the conditions of country
life. Cheap dwelling houses. Industries auxiliary to
agriculture.

XI. lyAND prices and REVENUES. ^

XII. Agricultural education (from the social point of view).

XIII. Agricultural labour.

XIV. State intervention in favour of agriculture.

XV. Supply of agricultural produce and high cost of living.
XVI. Miscellaneous information.
XVII. Notices of publications.

I.

CO-OPERATIQN AND AvSSOCIATlON

I.

GBNERAIy vSTUDIES.

Page

2

31-34

4

1-6

6

21-24

9

12-13

British India.

I. — Co-operation in Travancore

2. — Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in IQ14-1915 . .
3. — The Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in India,

in 1915-1916

4. — The Activity of the Co-operative Societies in 1915-1916

British West Indies.

Co-operation in Antigua : an Object Lesson, by W. R. Dun-
lop I 13-16

Canada.
Recent Success of Agricultural Co-operation in Canada. . . 3 17-24

Germany.

I. — Agricultural EcononiA' in the Kingdom of Saxony:

I July 1914 to 30 June 1915 i 1-5

2. — Some Facts as to the Co-operative Movement ... 5 25-26

ITAI^Y.

The Development of the Co-operative Movement in the A-

bruzzi 9 20-20

Norway.
The Agricultural Co-operative ^Movement 7 25-26

— M —

N"> Page

Russia.
The Russian Co-operative Movement during the War ... 8 12-20

II.
GENERAL STATlSTICvS.
British India.
Co-operative Societies in Bengal in 1915-1916 10 10-12

ITAI,Y.

1 . — The Statistics of the Catholic ySocial and Economic

Institutions T i 26-26

2. — The Development of the Co-operative Movement in

Italy according to Recent Statistical Data as to the

" Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative " 6 6-12

3. — Co-operative Societies legally constituted on 31 De-
cember 1915 9 16-18

4. — The Co-operative and Mutual Agricultural Societies

in Italy on 31 December 1916 10 13-14

Japan.
The Present Position of Co-operation in Japan. ..... 11 i-ii

III.
CENTRAL STATE INSTITUTIONS.
British India.
The Madras Provincial Co-operative Bank, Limited .... 2 34*35

IV.
FEDERATIONS OF AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.
Germany.

1 . — The General RaifEeisen Federation of Neuwied in 191 4-

1915 2 1-13

3 i-io

2. — The Federation of Polish Co-operative Societies in the

Provinces of Posnania and West Prussia, in 191 4 . 6 24-28

iTAiY.

1 . — The Activity of the Office of Legal Advice of the " Le-

ga Nazionale delle Cooperative " 3 29-30

2. — The Federations of the Catholic Rural Funds of the

Provinces of Bologna, Reggio d'Emilia, Forli and

Salerno in 1915-1916 5 ' 28-30

3. — The Constitution of " La Federazione delle Latterie So-

ciali Cremonesi" 5 32-32

— 15 —

N" Page

4. — The Position of Local Federations of Catholic Rural

Funds on 31 December 1915 9 18-19

5. — The "Federazione Italiana dei Consorzi Agrari" in

1916 . . . . ■ 9 20-21

6. — The Formation of the "Federazione Nazionale delle

Unioni Agricole " ' .'. . 9, 21-22

7. — The Position of the Provincial Federations of the Ca-
tholic Rural Funds of Bologna, Florence and Pistoia 9 22-23

Russia
The Central Co-operative Union of Flax Growers 7 14-21

United States.

The California Federation of Farmers' Co-operative Market-
ing Associations 12 51-52

V.

CENTRAL INSTITUTIONS OF AGRICUIvTURATv CO-OPERATIVF

SOCIETIES.

British India.
The ■ Madvura-Ramnad Central Co-operative Bank, Ivimited 11 12-13

Bui^garia.
The Central Co-operative Bank of Bulgaria 7 1-7

ITAI,Y,

The National Institute of Credit for Co-operation, the Insti-
tute of Credit for Co-operative Societies and the Na-
tional Bank of "Italian Rural Funds in 191 6 .... 7 8-13

VI.
CO-OPBRATIVE CREDIT SOCIETIES.

British India.

The Activity of Co-operative Credit Societies in Ceylon in

1916 10 10 10

French Protectorate of Morocco.
The Tlurift Societies 10 12-13

ITai,y.
The Position of certain Popular Banks in 1 91 5 i 23-26

Regency op Tunis.
Native Thrift Societies in 1 91 5 2 25-30

— iG —

N" Page

Russia.

1. — Mutual Credit Societies in Russia on i Jul}- 1915 . . . i 29-31
2. — Popular Co-operative Credit from 1 91 4 to 1 91 6 ... 4 19-27

SWITZERI.AND.
The Swiss Union of Raiffeisen Funds 12 18-19

United States.
North Carolina Rural Banks .4 34-35

VIT.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES FOR PURCHASE AND FOR PURCHAvSE

AND vSALE.

Canada.

I. — The Co-operative Sale of Wool 2 14-24

2. — Co-operative Trading in vSaskatchewan 9 13-14

ITAI^Y.

The " Societa Anonima Cooper ativa per I'Esportazione dei

Prodotti Agricoli " of Jesi in 1915-1916 3 28-29

United States.
The Co-operative Purchase of Live Stock in Wisconsin . . 4 31-34

VIII.
CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTIVE SOCIETIES.

Great Britain and Irei^and.
An Irish Co-operative vSociety for Growing Wheat 7 24-2*5

Russia.^
The Finnish Superintending Societies in the Years 1913-1915 3 32-33

Switzerland.
The Co-operative Cornmill at Leman 9 24-24

United States.

I. — The Development of the Co-operative Associations
controlling Dairy Production in the United States
from 1966 to 191 6 2 37-39

2. — The California Peach Growers' Association in 191 6

1917 ■ 9 25-25

— 17 —

N° Page

IX.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES FOR PRODUCTION AND SALE,
OR FOR vSxlLE.

Austria.
The Co-operative Oilmills in Dalmatia 3 11-16

Canada.

I. — Co-operative Stock Marketing in Alberta 9 14-15

2. — The Co-operative Marketing of Agricultural Produce 10 1 g

ITAI,Y.

lya Federazione Apistica Italiana 5 31-32

Russia.

I. — The Egg Trade and Co-operation in Ru.ssia .... 9 7-1 1

2. — The Co-operative Sale of Tobacco 10 14-16

United States.

1 . — The Co-operative Marketing of Live Stock in Wisconsin i 31-32
2. — Farmers' Co-operative Elevators in Minnesota ... 8 i-ii
3. — The Co-operative Production and Sale of Raisins in

California 10 16-18

4. — The Essentials of Successful Co-operative Fruit and

Vegetable Canneries 11 15-17

X.

CO-OPERATIVE DAIRIES.

Itai,y.
Collective Dairies 4 7-18

Russia.
Finnish Co-operative Dairies in 1915 5 33-34

Spain.

I. — The First Co-operative Cheese Factory 6 1-5

2. — The Co-operative Dairy of the " Ca.sa de Ganaderos "

of Saragossa 7 26-27

United vStates.

A Co-operative Cheese Manufacturing and Marketing As-
sociation in Tillamook County in Oregon 12 20-24

2

— i8 —

N" ■ Page

XI.

COI.LECTIVE FARJklS.

ITAXY.

1, — The Collective Farm of San Giovanni in Croce .... 3 27-28

2. — Facilities for the Leasing of Domanial Lands by Co-

operative Societies 12 13-13

3. — Collective Farms in the Province of Parma 12 14-16

XII.
MISCFLLANEOUS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.

France.

I. — A New Syndicate for Mechanical Agriculture .... 2 36-37
2. — ^The Co-operative Societies for the Cultivation of A-
bandoned Lands and the Reconstruction of Des-
troyed Villages 7 22-24

Great Britain and Irei^and.

Co-operative Fishing in the Aran Islands 12 9-13

ITAI.Y.

A Co-operative Association among Owners and Usufructories

of Woods 12 17-18

Russia.

1 . — Co-operative Supply and Production of Agricultural

Machines i

2. — The Position and the Activity of the Grain Elevators of

the Government and the Railway Companies ... 3

XIII.

ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE PROTECTION
OF THE GENERAL INTERESTS OF FARMERS.

Bei,gium.
The Activity of the Belgian Boerenbond in 1 91 5 5

Spain.
The Association of the Agriculturists of Spain and its Work i

SWITZERI.AND.
The Peasants' "C» nion and Peasants' Secretariat in 1916 . . 6

— 19 —

N° Page

United States.

I. — The Activity of the Jewish Agricultiiral and Industrial

Aid Societ5'-in 1916 5 35-36

2. — The American Society of Equity 6 28-29

XTV.

AvSvSOCIATlONS^TO FURTHER THE TECHNICAL PROGREvSS
OF AGRICULTURE.

Denmark.

The Activity of the Royal Society of Danish Agriculture in

1915-1916 5 9-14

Germany.

Housewives' Agricultural Associations and their Activity . i 20-21

Great Britain and Irei<and.
The Agricultural Organization Society in England and

Wales 5 15-24

HOUAND.

Dutch Market Gardening and its Organization, by H. M.

R. Leopold 9 1-6

ITAI,Y.

The Formation of the " Societa degli Euotecnici Itahani " 3 30-3°

XV.

AvSSOCIATIONS CONCERNED WITH LIVE vSTOCK IN GENERAL

Austria.

The Object and the Task of the " Allgemeine Oesterreichi-

sche Viehverwertungsgesellschaft " 4 28-30

XVI.
ASSOCIATIONS CONCERNED WITH HORNED LIVE STOCK.
United States.
Co-operative Bull Associations 11 13-15

XVII.
BEE-KEEPING ASSOCIATIONS.

ITAI,Y.

The " Federazione Apistica Subalpina " 12 18-18

^ -.0-

. XVIII.

MIvSCELIvANE^OUS INF0E3IATI0N RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL i

CO-OPERATION.

British India.
The Progress of Co-operative Societies in Baroda State . . 3 25-26

ITAI,Y.

I. — Agricultural Co-operation and Social Assistance of

Peasants i 21-23

2. — The Internal Reorganization of the Italian Co-opera-
tive Movement 12 13-T4

XIX.

AGRICULTURAL CONGREvSvSES.

ITAI,Y.

1. — The Resolutions of the National Meeting of the Agri-

cultural Co-operative Societies at Milan ■ 3 26-27

2. — A Meeting of the Representatives of the Catholic Eco-

nomic Organizations of the Southern Provinces •. . 5 26-28

3. — A Meeting of Agricultural Co-operative Societies at

Bologna 9 22-22

4. — An Important Meeting of Agricultural Co-operative

Societies 12 16-17

XX.

NON-AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES OR ASSOCIATIONS.

British India.
Co-operative Distribution in Northern India 2 35-36

Denmark.

The General Union of Co-operative Consumers' As.sociations

in 1915 I 17-19

ITAI.Y.

The Development of the " Unione Cooperativa di Milano " 3 30-32

— 21 — -

NO Page

XXI.

MISCELLANE)0US INFORIMATION RBI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IN GENKRAI..

1TAI.Y.

I. — The Inspecting and Book-keeping Offices for Co-oper-
ative Societies 2 30-31

2. — The Deliberations and Votes of the Three Commissions

for Co-operative Production and Labour, Co-opera-
tive Consumption and Agricuhural Co-operation,
nominated by the Congress of Italian Co-operative
Societies in December igi6 g 15-16

3. — ^ An Office of Inspection and Aid for the Agricultural

Co-operative Societies at Bologna g 21-21

4. — Formation of New Societies g 23-23

XXII.
NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS.

Austria.

Prof. Hausi^ER : Bericht liber die Tatigkeit der K. K. Land-
vvirtschaftsgesellschaft in Wien wahrend der Kriegs-
zeit igi4, igi5 und igi6 8 21-22

Greece.

KawTSUnakis (Dr. Jur. D. E.) : Die genossenschaftliche

Bewegung in Griechenland 6 30-31

Russia.

BUBNOFF (J. V.) : The Co-oi^erative Movement in Russia:

Its History, Significance and Character 8 22-23

United States.

1. — BexeIvI, (J. A.) and Kerr (W. H.) : Business Practice

and Accounts for Co-operative Stores 6 31-31

2. — Humphry (J. R.) and Kerr (W. H.) : A System of

Accounts for Live Stock Shipping Associations . . 6 32-32

3. — BEXEti, (J. A.), Machperson (H.) and Kerr (W. H.) :

A Survey of Typical Co-operative Stores in the

United vStates 6 32-32

4. — Gai,pin (C.J.) and Sawtei.i,E(D. W.) : Rural Clubs in

Wisconsin 6 33-33

II.

INSURANCE AND THRIFT

I.

GENERAL STUDIES.

N. Page

Canada.

Agricultural Insurance in Saskatchewan in 1 91 6 8 24-26

SwiTZERIvAND.

Agricultural Insurance in 1915 2 25-34

II.
FIRE INSURANCE.

Canada.

Prevention of Forest Fires 8 26-28

France.

The Mutual Agricultural Fire Insurance Society of the East

on I January 1916 3 44-46

Russia.

The Business done by Finnish Mutual Societies for Insurance

against Fire and Mortality among Live Stock ... 7 33-40

United States.

I . — The General Conditions of Insurance against Fire and

the Development of Mutual Insurance 6 34-47

2. — The Organization of Farmer's Mutual Fire Insurance

Companies • 10 19-28

3. — Mutual Insurance against Fire in Massachusetts . . 11 32-36

N»' Page

III.

HAIL INSURANCE.

Austria and Hungary.

The Insurance of Tobacco Plantations against Hail in

Bosnia and Herzegovina i 56-58

Canada.

I. — Municipal Insurance against Hail in Saskatchewan , 5 37-48

2. — Agricultural Insurance in Alberta in 1916 10 29-30

3. — Modification of the lyCgislation as to Insurance against

Hail II 27-27

France.
Insurance against Hail in 1 91 6 12 35-36

Germany.

I. — Insurance against Hail in the Principality of Hohen-

zollern in 1915-1916 1 61-62

2. — The Damage caused by Hail in Wurtemberg in 1916 10 30-31

ITAI,Y.

I. — The Development of the " Mutua Agraria Grandine "

of Bologna 9 31-32

2. — The " Societa Italiana di Mutuo Soccorso contro i

danni della Grandine " in 1916 9 31-32

SWITZERI,AND.

Insurance against Hail in 1915 i 62-63

United States.

1. — State Hail Insurance in North Dakota 2 41-49

2. — The Unfavourable Results of Insurance against Hail in

1916 9 36-37

Uruguay.

I. — The State Bank of Insurance and Insurance against

Hail 3 35-42

2. — The State Bank of Insurance and Insurance against

Hail 6 38-38

— 25 —

NO Page

IV. ■

LIVE STOCK INSURANCE.
British India.
Cattle Insurance in Burma, by A. E. English, I. G. S. . . . ' 2 50-54

Germany.

1 . — The Principal Federations of Societies for the Insur-

ance of Cattle in East Prussia i 33-42

2. — The Baden Association for Insurance against Morta-

lity among Live Stock i 58-61

3. — The Results Obtained b)^ the Most Important Mutual

Societies for Insuring Live Stock in 1916 11 27-30

ITALY.

1 . — The Tuscan Federation for the Mutual Insurance of

Live Stock and its First Results 9 26-30

2. — The Provincial Federation for the Reinsurance of the

Mutual Live Stock Societies of the Province of

Porto Maurizio 9 33-34

Russia.

Finnish Societies for Insurance against Mortality among

Live Stock in 1913 . 3 54-56

V.

INSUR,ANCE OF LIVE STOCK RAISED FOR SLAUGHTER.

Germany.

A Llemoir on the Transference to the State of the Insurance

of Li^e Stock raised for Slaughter 10 31-31

ITAI.Y.
The Mutual Insurance of Live Stock intended for Butchery 3 48-50

VI.
INSURANCE AGAINST AGRICULTURAL ACCIDENTS.

ITAI,Y.

1. — The Mutual Fimds for Insurance against the Accidents

of Agriculture r 43*55

2. —The Proposals of Senator Conti's Law for compeUing

the Insurance of Land against the Accidents of Pea-
sants' Labour 3 46-48

— 2t)

NO Page

3. — A New Mutual Insurance Society against the Acci-
dents of Agriculture 3 51-51

4. — The " Cassa Mutua contro gli Infortuni Agiicoli "of

Florence'in 1916 , 9 34-36

5. — 'The Organization of the "Terra Italica ", a Mutual
Society for Insuring against the Accidents of Agricult-
ural I/abour 9 32-33

6. — Compulsory Insurance against the Accidents of Agricult-
ural Labour 11 18-26

SWlTZERJ^AND.

The Swiss Society of Agriculture and Insurance against the

Accidents of Agriculture in 1 91 6 10 32-33

VII.
OTHKR BRANCHES OF AGRICUIvTURAL INSURANCE.
Germany.

The Damage caused by Floods 11 31-32

United States.

I . — Mutual Agricultural Insurance against Windstorms in

Illinois 8 30-31

2. — Insurance against Fiost in Iowa 8 28-30

VIII.

MlSCELIvANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO
AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE.

Al,GERIA AND REGENCY OF TUNIS.

The Central Algerian and Tunisian Fund for Agricultural

Reinsurance in 1915 3 43*44

ITAI^Y.

The Rules for the District Offices of Agricultural Mutuality 3 50-51

IX.
NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS.

ITAI.Y.
MaGAI<di (V.) : L'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni . . i 64-64

III.

CREDIT

I.

GBNBRAI. STUDIES ON NON CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT
AND THE INDEBTEDNESS OF LANDED PROPERTY.

N» Page

Germany.

The Consolidation of Property in Prussia 9 52-55

Spain.

The Organization of Agricultural Credit by the Formation

of a CentralFund 11 37-48

II.

LEGISLATION.

Canada.

I . — The Application of the Agricultural Act in British Co-
lumbia .... 4 70-73

2. — The Short Term Rural Credit Act of Manitoba . ... 12 44-46

Germany.

Prussian Legislation as to the Rentengiiter and its Results

from 1891 to 1914 7 41-45

iTAIvY.

Recent Provisions as to Agricultural Credit 12 37-43

United States.
The First Year of the Federal Farm Loan Act 11 54-56

— 28 —

N° Page

III.

INTERVENTION OF THE STATE AND OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES.

ITAI,Y.

Eoaiis to Agriculturists for growing Corn and other Cereals 8 52-52

IV.
LAND CREDIT.

Al^GERIA. ,
Credit for Colonization in Algeria 3 57-62

Argentina.

I. — The Franco- Argentine Mortgage Bank in 191 5- 191 6 3 68-69

2. — -The " Banco el Hogar Argentino " in 1915-1916 . . 7 46-47
3. —The Business of the Mortgage Company of the River

Plate, Ltd., in 1916 . 7 47-48

4. —Argentine Land Credit in 1915-1916 8 46-49

5. — The National Mortgage Bank 9 51-52

Australia.

The South Australian Land Mortgage and Agency Company

in 1916 8 49-50

CANADA.

Scheme for the Organization of Rural Mortgage Credit in

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 3 63-67

Denmark.

The Working of the Danish Land Credit Associations in

1916 I 70-73

Egypt.

1. — The Operations of the Land Bank of Egypt in 191 6 4 73-74

2. — The " Credit Foncier Egyptien " in 1915-1916 .... 10 51-53

Germany.

I. — The Bank of the Landschaft of Ea.stern Prus.sia at

Koenigsberg in" 1915-1916 i 74-78

2. — ^ The Prorogation of Mortgage Debts from 31 July 191 4

to 31 December 191 6 9 56-58

— 29 —

N" . Page

3. — The " Landschaft " of Poseii from i Januar}' 191 4 to

I January 1916 12 1-8

iTAIvY.

The Activity of Institutions of Land Credit in 1916 ... 11 49-53

Russia.

I. — The Activity of the vState Land Bank for the Nobility

in 1915 6 48-59

2. — The Activity of the Peasants' Land Bank • 8 32-45

10 34-50

Union of South Africa.

The Land Bank of South Africa in 1 91 6 7 28-32

United States.

1 . — The Activity of the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis . 12 49-50

2. — The Federal Land Bank of Berkeley, California, and

Loans on Orchards •. . : 12 19-20

Uruguay.

I. — The Mortgage Bank and its Activity in Relation to

Land Credit in 19x5-1916 i 65-69

2. — Mortgage Insurance 4 50-53

V.
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT.

Austria and Hungary.

Agricultural Credit in Bosnia and Herzego\una 2 55-65

China.
The Functions of the Agricultural and Indu.strial Banks . 7 48-50

Germany.

The " Landwirt.sckaftlicher Kreditverein " of the Kingdom

of Saxony in 1916 10 53-55

30

Page

ITAI,Y.

I. — The " Credito Agrario per il Lazio " in 1916 8 50-52

2. — The " Federazione per il Credito Agrario neU'Umbria "

in 1915 8 53-53

3. — The Development of the " Banca dell'Associazione

Agraria Parmense " 8 53-54

4. — The " Banca di Credito Agricolo " of Florence in 1916 8 54-55

5. — The Agricultural Credit of the Savings Bank of the
" Banco di Napoli " and the Agricultural Credit De-
partment of the " Banco di Sicilia " in 1916 .... 9 .39-50

6. — The Provincial Fund of Agricultural Credit for Basili-

cata in 1916 12 48-49

7. — The " Federazione per il Credito Agrario neU'Umbria " 12 49-49

RUMANL-V.

Agricultural Credit in Rumania 5 49-62

Russia.
The Question of Forest Credit in Finland ' 3 73-73

VI.
SAVINGS BANKS AS CREDIT INSTITUTIONS.

CHII.E

The First Thrift Conference and the Savings Banks of Chile 4 37-49

VII.
BANK SYSTEM.

United States.
Federal Banks and Financial Organization 4 55-69

VIII.
MISCEI.I.ANEOUS INFORMATION.
French Coi.onies.
The Discount and I^oan Transactions of Colonial Banks . 3 70-72

— 31 —

iTAlvY.

Page

I. — Italian Savings on 30 June 191 6 . 3 52-53

2. — 'The Institution of a System of Current Accounts and

Postal Orders 12 46-48

United %TATES. •

I. — Determination of Federal Land Bank Di.stricts ... 4 75-76

2. — The Subscription of the Capital of the Federal Land

Banks 4 76-76

IX.
NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS.

GER]VIANY.

Ai,TROCK (Walther V.) : Kur- und Neumarkisches Ritter-
schaftlisches Kreditinstitut und neues Brandeburgi-
sches Kreditinstitut 6 60-63

United States.

Thompson (C. W.): Factors affecting Interest Rates and

other Charges. on vShort-Time Farm Loans .... 6 63-63

IV.
AGRARIAN ECONOMY IN GENERAI^

I.

GENERAL STUDIES.

N" Page

Austria.

Some Agricultural Problems in Dahnatia 4 84-89

Great Britain and Irei^and.

I . — ■ Agriculture and the War 3 86-93

2. — Agriculture and the War 8 79-84

ITAWAN COI<ONlES.

Tvibya (Tripoli and Cirenaica). I,and System and Coloniza-
tion 8 66-78

n.

FISCAL vSYSTEM AND AGRICUIyTURE.

Austria and Hungary.

Agrarian Taxes in Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 75-85

Uruguay.

The Reform of the I^and Tax from the Point of View of Agri-
culture and Breeding 2 108- 11 6

3

— 34 -

N' Page

III.

STATE AvS LANDOWNER.

Argentine.

The Lands of the State Domain 7 79-80

IV.
VARIOUS FORMS OF LAND TENURE-

British India.

Land Tennres in the Panjab in their Original Form and as

affected by British Rule, by J. M. DouiE 7 51-60

France,
The Cancelling of Rural Lea.ses 10 78-79

ITALY.

Recent Measures as to Agricultural Contracts ....... 2 117-118

United Stated.

1. — Farm Tenancy in the United vStates, bj'' Prof. Benja-

min H. HiBBARD, University of Wisconsin ..... 4 90-99

2. — Land Tenure and the Organization of Agriculture on

Indian Reservations in the L^nited States 5 63-76

V.

THE REDISTRIBUTION OF LANDS AND MEASURES TO PREVENT
EXCESSIVE vSUBDI VISION.

Germany.

The Subdivision of Land in Old Bavaria 4 77-83

• VI.
AGRARIAN REFORM IN GENERAL.

Rt^ssia.
The Results of the New Agrarian Retorm in Russia (Part II) . 2 89-107

— 35

VII.
HOME COLONIZATION.

Argentine.
Formation of Agricultural ColoniCvS for the Indian.s ....

AUSTRAWA.

1 . — lyand Settlement and the Provision of Credit in West-
ern Australia, by Dr. J. W. Paterson (concluded) .

2. — Clo.ser Settlement

3. — Land Settlement in 1 91 5-1 91 6

British India.
The Colonization of Canal Lands in the Punjab

British West Indies.
The Progress of Land Settlement in Granada

Erythrea. .

Land Tenure and Colonization

Germany.

The Activity of the Royal Commission of Colonization for
West Pru.ssia and Posnania in 1916

Great Britain and Ireland.

Settlement of Ex-Service Men within the Empire after
the War

Hungary.
Interior Colonization and the Future of Small Property .

ITAI,Y.

1. — The Foundation of an " Istituto Autonomo di Bonifi-

camento Agrario e di Colonizzazione per la vSardegna "

2. — The Development of Improvements in the vSouth . .
3. — The Cultivation of Abandoned Arable Lands ....

ITAI,IAN vSOMAIJI,AND.

Land Tenure and Colonization

II
II

123-123

79-89
124-124

lOO-IOI

IOI-I03

103-104

67-88

81-84

75-f

72-76

120-121
83-84
84-85

91-115

— 36 —

NO Page

Japan.

Interior Colonization and the Progress of Agriculture in

Korea 6 75-79

Nkvv Zeai.and.
Settlement of Discharged Soldiers on the Land 3 1 20-121

Regency of Tunis.
The Society of the French Farms of Tunisia during the War g 84-85

Russia.
The Results of Interior Colonization in Finland (concluded) i 90-113

United vStates.

I. — Land Settlement in California 4 118-120

2. — Interior Colonization in California 9 59-66

viii.

«
PROBLEMS OF HYDRAULIGS AND FORESTRY.

ITAI.Y.

The New Measures for the Preservation and Increa.se of the

National Property in Woods 11 82-83

Russia.
The Forests of Finnish Towns 3 121-123

Serbia.
The Question of Forestry in the Kingdom of vSerl)ia ... i 11 4-1 22

IX.
TRADE AND TRANSPORT OF AGRARIAN PRODUCTS.

Russia.

Government Aid to Home Industry 4 112-1x4

United States.

I. — The Regulation of the Fruit Trade 7 61-67

2. — The Organization of tlie Sample Trade in Groin in ^Ini-

uesota II 57-63

— 37 —

N» Page

X.

MEASURES FOR THE * IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITIONS OF
COUNTRY I.IFE. CHEAP DWEIvUNG HOUSES. INDUSTRIES
AUXILIARY TO AGRICULTURE.

France.

1. — The Conditions of Rural Life in France 7 68-78

2. — The Conditions of Rural Life in 1 91 3-1 91 4 11 64-74

Germany.

Reconstruction after the Destruction following on Events

of the War in East Prussia 8 56-65

XI.
LAND PRICES AND REVENUES.

United States.
The Rise in the Value of Improved Farm Land ..... 9 86-87

XII. .

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. (FROM THE SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW).

ITALY.

The Technical Education of Peasants 11 85-85

XIII.
AGRICULTURAL LABOUR.

Austria.
Agricultural Labour in Dalmatia ; . . i 124-126

BELGIUxM.

Agricultural Training for Partially Disabled Soldiers ... 3 116-117

Canada.
Discharged Soldiers and Agriculture 10 77-78

France.
I. — Agricultural Wages during the War 4 104-106

38 —

Page

106-108

77

-81

74

-78

79

-82

108-]

[09

112-112

82-

■83

115-118

82-

■95

2. — The Increase in Agricultural Wages from 1914 to 1916 9 67-73

3. — The Department of Agricultural I,abour at the Minis-

tr}'- of Agriculture . 10 79-8i

Great Britain and Irei<and.

1 . — Women Workers on the Farm 4

2. — Agricviltural Labour in Ireland and the Migration of

Irish Agricultural Labourers 5

3. — -Rates of Cash Wages of Agricultural Labourers in

England and Wales 9

4. — • Wages Boards in England and Wales 12

ITAI,Y.

1 . — - Institution of a National Labour Exchange .... 4

2. — A Provincial Labour Office at Rome ........ 4

3. — Institution of a Provincial Labour Office at Ravenna 7

Sweden.

I. — -The Agricultural Labour Supply in 1 91 5 4

2. — -Conditions of Life and Work among the Forests of

Varmland, Dalecarlia and Norrland 5

United States.

The Improvement of Conditions among Immigrants into

California 12 f>6-73

XIV.
STATE INTERVENTION IN FAVOUR OF AGRICULTURE.

Great Britain and Irei^and.
The Scottish Land Court in 191 5 . . .* 6 64-74

SWITZERI^AND.
Federal Aid to Swiss Agriculture 7 83-86

1

XV.

SUPPLY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE AND HIGH CO.ST OF LIVING.

Canada.
Cold Storage in Canada 12 .53-65

39

Page

Great Britain and Ireland.

I. — The Corn Production Act, 1917 10 67-71

2. — Further Provisions of the Corn Production Act 191 7 12 74-78

ITAI,Y.

Recent Measures for Developing the Growing of Cereals . . 7 80-81

Russia. ^
Food Control Conuuittees 12 82-83

United States.
Federal Food Control Act 12 83-84

«

»XVI.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORI^IATION.

Argentine.
The Leasing of the Domain Lands 11 81-82

France.

I. — The Department for Civil and Military Vegetable

Gardens 3 ii8-iig

2. — The Restoration of Agriculture in the Invaded Depart-
ments 9 79-81

3. — The Technical Re-education in Estabhshments de-
pending on the Ministry of Agriculture of Men Muti-
lated in the War 10 56-66

ITALY.

1 . — ■ Rules for granting the Temporary Use of Agricultural

Machines

2. — -National Charity for the Orphans of Peasants killed

in the War

3. — An Important Scheme for the Foundation of a Pro-

vincial Institution of vSocial Aid

4. — A General Commissariat for Food Consumption- . . .

5. — -The Protection given by the Province of Florence to

the Orphans of Peasants killed during the War . .

6. — - The New Organization of the Ministry of Industry,

Commerce and Labour .

2

II 8-1 20

2

121-123

2

123-125

4

109-110

4

110-112

7

81-82

— 40 —

Page

Russia.
The Settlement of Kirghiz Nomads on the Steppes of Tur-
kestan 4 114-115

United Statics.

Overtime in the Fruit and Vegetable Canning and Paeking

Industry of Oregon 2 125-126

XVII.
NOTICES OP PUBIylCATlONS.

Austria.

I. — Agrar-Compass Jahr- und Adressbuch der oesterrei-

chischen Landwirtschaft » . . . . 6 86-86

2. — WiTTSCHiEBEN (Dr. Otto) : Die Zwangsversteigerun-
gen land- und forstwittschaftlicher Grund.stiieke in
Steiermark 1903-1912 8 85-85

3. — STrakorch (Dr. Siegfried H. C.) : Die Grundlagen der
Agrarwirtschaft in Oesterreich. Bine Haudels- und
Producktionspolitische Untersucliung 8 85-86

Austria and Hungary.

FeiFai<ik (Dr. F.) : Ein neuer aktueller Weg der Losung der

bosnischen Agrarfrage 6 80-86

United States.

I. — Turner (H. A.): Systems of Renting Truck Farms

in Southwestern New Jersey 8 86-87

2. — Adams (A. B.) : Marketing Perishable Faim Products 8 87-87

3. — Stewart (C. L.) : Land Tenure in the United States

with Special Reference to Illinois 11 86-87

ITAI<Y.

Avanzi (Dr. E.) : Influenza che il protezionismo ha spiegato

sul progresso agrario in Italia 11 86-87

SWITZERI.AND.

Publications of the Secretariat of Swiss Peasants, No. 54 :

" La Question Ouvriere Agricole en Suisse "... 8 86-86

INTERNATIONA!,.

Annuaire international de legislation agricole lo 82-85

II. — CONTENTS BY COUNTRIES

II.

CONTENTS BY COUNTRIES

ARTICLES AND MISCELLANEOUS NEWS {*),

Argentine.

III. — Cyedii.

1. —The Franco Argentine Mortgage Bank in 1915-1915. . 3 68-69

2. — The « Banco^el Hogar Argentine » in 1915-1916. ... 7 46-47

3. — .The Business of the Mortgage Company of the River

Plate, Ltd., in IQ16. . " 7 47-48

4. — Argentine Land Credit in 1 91 5- 1 91 6 8 46-49

5. — The National Mortgage Bank 9 51-52

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

1. — ■ Formation of Agricultural Colonies for the Indians . . i 123-123

2. — ^ The Lands of the State Domain . . '. 7 79-80

3. — . The Leasing of the Domain Lands 11 81-82

Austria.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

I. — The Co-operative Oihnills in Dalniatia

2. — 'The Object and the Task of the " Allgemeine Oester-

reichische Viehverwertung.sgesellschaft " . . . .

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

1 . — • Agricultural Labour in Dalmatia

2. —Some Agricultural Problems in Dalmatia

(*( For Notices of rublicatious sec pages 24, 36, 4G.

3

11-16

4

28-30

I

124-126

4

84-89

— 44 —

N" Page

Hungary.

IV. — Agyarian Economy in Gtneval.

Interior Colonization and the Future of Small Property . . lo 72-76

Austria and Hungary.

11. — Insurance and Tlivifl.

The Insurance of Tobacco Plantations against Hail in Bosnia

and Herzegovina i 56-58

HI. — Credit.
Agricultural Credit in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 55-65

It. — Agrarian Economy in General.
Agrarian Taxes in Bosnia and Herzegovina " . 3 75-^5

Bei<gium.

I. — Co-operation and Association.
The Activity of the Belgian Boerenbond in 1 91 5 5 1-8

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.
Agricultural Training for Partially Disabled Soldiers. ... 3 116-117

Bulgaria.

I. — Co-operation and Association.
The Central Co-operative Bank of Bulgaria 7 , 1-7

Chile.

III. — Credit'.

The First Thrift Conference and the Savings Banks of Chile. 4 37-49

China. ,

III. — Credit.
The Functions of the Agricultural and Industrial Banks . . 7 48-50

Denmark.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

1 . — The (iieneral Union of Co-operative Consumers' Asso-
ciations in 1915 I 17-19

45 —

2. — The Activity of the Royal Society of Danish Agri-
culture in 1915-1916 5 9-14

III. — Credii.
The Working of the Danish lyand Credit Associations in 1 91 6 i 70-73

EGYPT.

III. — Credii.

1. — The Operations of the Land Bank of Egypt in 1916. . 4 73-74

2. - The " Credit Foncier Egyptien " in 1915-1916 - ... 10 51-53

Cranck.

I. — Co-opera tioii and Association.

I.- — A New Syndicate for Mechanical Agriculture 2 36-37

2. — The Co-opeiative Societies for the Cultivation of A-
bandoned Lands and the Reconstruction of De-
stroyed Villages * 7 22-24

II. — Insurance and Thrifu

I.- — The Mutual Agriaultural Fire Insurance Society of

the East on i January 1916 3 44-4^

2. — Insurance against Hail in 1916 12 35-3^

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

1. — The Department for Civil and Military Vegetable Gar-

dens . .*

2. — Agricultural Wages during the War

3. — The Conditions of Rural I/ife in France

4. — The Increase in Agricultural Wages from 1914 to 1916.

5. — The Restoration of AS iculture in che Invaded Depart-

ments

6. — The Technical Re-education in Establishments Depend-

ing on the Ministry oi Agricultuie of Men Mutilated
in the War

7. — The Cancelling of Rural Leases . . . . ^

8. — TLe Department of Agricultural Labour at the Mi-

nistr\ of Agriculture . . '

9. —• The Conditions of Rural Life in 1913-] 914

A1.GERIA.

III. — Credii.
Credit for Colonization in Algeria 3 57-62

3

I18-II9

4

IO4-IO6

7

68-78

9

67-73

9

79-81

TO

56-66

10

78-79

10

79-Sl

II

64-74

— 46 —

N" ' Page

AI.GERIA AND Regency of Tunis.

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

The Central Algerian and Tunisian Fund for Agricultural

Reinsurance in 1915 3 4.3-'14

French Protectorate of Morocco.

I. — Co-operation and Assoc iaii on.
The Thrift Societies 10 12-13

Regency of Tunis.

I. — Co-operation and Association.
Native Thrift Societies in 191 5 2 25-30

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.
The Society of the French Farms of Tunisia during the War. 9 84-85

French Colonies.

III. — Cyedit.
The Discount and Ivoan Transactions of Colonial Banks . . 3 70-72

Germany.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

1. — Agricultural Economy in the Kingdom of Saxony i Juh'

1914 to 30 June 1915 I 1-5

2. — Housewives' Agricultural Associations and their Ac-

tivity I 20-21

3. -The General Raiflteisen Federation of Neuwied in

1914-1915 .

2

1-13

3

I-IO

5

25-26

4. — Some Facts as to the Co-operative Movement

5. — The Federation of Polish Co-operative Societies in the

Provinces of Posnania and We.st Prussia in 1 91 4 . 6 24-28

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

1. — The Piincipal Federation of Societies for the Insiu"ance

of Cattle in Bast Prussia

2. — The Baden Association for Insurance against Mortality

among Live Stock

3. — Insurance against Hail in the Principality of Hohen-

zoUern in 1915-1916

4. — The Damage caused by Hail in Wurttmberg in 1916. .

I

33-42

1

58-61

I

61-62

10

30-31

47 —

5. — A Memoir on the Transference to the State of the In-

surance of Live Stock raised for Slaughter .... ID 31-31

6. — The Results Obtained by the INIost Important Mutual

Societies for Insuring lyive Stock in 1916 . . . T . 11 27-30

7. — The Damage caused by Floods 11 31-32

111. — Credit.

I — The Bank of the Landschaft of Eastern Prussia at

Konigsberg in 1915-1916 1 74-78

2 . — Prussian Legislation as to the Rentengiiter and its Re-

sults from 1891 to 1914 7 41-45

3. — The Consolidation of Property in Prussia g 52-55

4. — The Prorogation of Mortgage Debts from 31 July to 31

December 1916 9 56-58

5. — The " Landwirtschaftlicher Kreditverein " of theKing-

dom of Saxony in 1916 10 53-55

6. — The " Landwirlschaft " of Po.sen from i January 1914

to I January igi6 12 1-8

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I. — The Subdivision of Land in Old Bavaria 4 77-83

2. — Reconstruction after the Destruction following on

Events of the War in Ea,st Prussia 8 56-65

3. — The Acti\ity of the Royal Commission of Colonization

for West Prussia and Posnania in 1910 9 81-84

Great Britain and Ireland.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

1. — The Agricultural Organization Society in England and

Wales

2. — An Irish Co-operation Societ)' for growing Wheat . .
3. — Co-operative Fishing in the Aran Islands

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I. — Agriculture and ihe War

2. — Women Workers on the Farm

3. — Agricultural Labour in Ireland and the Migration of

Irish Agricultural Labourers

4. — The Scotti.sh Land Court in 1913 .•

5. — Agriculture and the War

6. — Rates of Cash Wages ot Agricultural Labourers in Eng-

land and Wales

7. — The Corn Production Act, 191 7

5

15-24

7

24-25

2

9-13

3

86-93

4

106-108

5

77-81

6

64-74

7

79-84

9

74-78

0

67-71

N" Page

8. — Settlement of Ex-Ser vice Men within the Empire after

the War. . ii 75-8o

g. — Further Provisions ot the Corn Production Act 1917 . 12 74-78

10. — Wages Boards 4n England and Wales 12 79-82

AUSTRAIJA.

III.. — Credit.

The South Australian Land Mortgage and Agency Company

in 1916 8 49-5°

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I . — I,and Settlement and the Provision of Credit in Wes-
tern Australia, by Dr. J . W. Paterson (concluded) i 79-89

2. — Closer Settlement i 124-124

3. — I^and Settlement in 1 91 5-1 91 6 » 4 loo-ioi

British India.

I. — Co-operation and Assoctaiion.
— Co-operation in Travancore

2

31-34

2

34-35

2

35-36

3

25-26

4

1-6

6

21-24

9

12-13

10

10-10

10

10-12

The Madras Provincial Co-operative Bank, lyimited .

— Co-operative Distribution in Northern India . . .■ .

— The Progress of Co-operative vSocieties in Baroda State

— Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in 1914-1915 .

— The Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in India in
1915-1916

— The Acti\'ity of the Co-operative Societiesin 1915-1916

— The Activityof Co-operative Credit Societies in Cejdon

in 1916

9. — Co-operative Societies in Bengal in 1915-916 ....
10. — The Madura-Ramnad Central Co-operative Bank,

Limited 11 i?-i3

II. — Insurance and Thrift.
Cattle In.surance in Burma, by A. E. English, I. G. S. . . '. 2 50-54

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

1. — The Colonization of Canal Lands in the Panjab. ... 4 T01-103

2. — Land Tenures in the Panjab in their Original Foim and

as affected by British Rule, by J. M. Douie .... 9 51-60

British West Indies,

I. — Co-operation and Association.
Co-operation in Antigua : an Object Lesson, by W. R. Dunlop i 1316

— 49 —

NO Page

2

14-24

3

17-24

9

13-14

9

14-15

TO

1-9

IV. — Agrarian Ecmiomy in General.
The Progress of Land Settlement in Grenada 4 103-104

Canada.

I. — Co-operation and Associatio7i.

I — The Co-operative Sale of Wool

2 . — Recent Successes of Agricultural Co-operation in Canada

3.. — ^ Co-operative Trading in Saskatchewan

4. — Co-operative Stock Marketing in Alberta

5. — The Co-operative Marketing of Agricultural Produce .

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

-Municipal Insurance Against Hail in Saskatchewan.
- Agricultural In.surance in Saskatchewan in igi6 . . .

3. — Prevention of Forest Fires

4. — Agricultural Insurance in Alberta in 191 6

5. — Modification of the Legislation as to Insurance against

Hail • II 27-27

J II. ■ — Credit.

1. — vScheme foi the Organization of Riiral Mortgage Credit

in Manitoba, vSaskatchewan and Alberta * 3 63-67

2. — The Application of the Agricultural Act in British Co-

lumbia

3. — The Short Term Rural Credit Act of Manitoba . . . .

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I . — Discharged Soldiers and Agriculture

2. — Cold vStorage in Canada

5
8
8

37-48
24-26
26-28

10

29-30

4'

70-73

12

44-46

10

77-78

12

53-63

New Zeamnd.

IV. — Agrarian Economy iu Genetal.
vSettlement of Discharged Soldiers on the Land 3 1 20-1 21

Union of South Africa.

III. — Credit.
The Land Bank of vSouth Africa in 1 91 6 7 28-32

Hoi,i,and.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

Dutch Maiket-Gardeningandits Organization, by H. M. R.

Leopold, 9 1-6

4

5'^

N" Page

Ita];y.

I. — Co-operalion mid Association.

3
3

26-27
27-28

3

28-29

3

29-30

3

30-30

3
4

' 30-32
7-18

I. — Agricultural Co-operation and Social Assistance of

Peasants i 21-23

2. — The Position of certain Popular Banks in 191 5. ... i 23-26

3. — The Statistics of the Catholic Social and Economic

Institutions "... i 26-26

4. — The Resolutions of the National Meeting of the Agri-

cultural Co-operative Socielies at Milan

5. — The Collective Farm of San Giovanni in Croce. . . .

6. — The ((vSocieta AnonimaCooperativaper I'Bsportazione

del Prodotti Agricoli » of Jesi in 1915-1916 ....

7. — The Activity of the. Office of IvCgal Ad^•ice of the

« I^ega Nazionale delle Cooperative »,

8. — The Formation of the « vSocieta degli Enotecnici Ita-

liani^)

9. — The Development of the « Unione Cooperativa di Mi-

lan©»

10. —Collective Dairies

11. — A Meeting of the Representatives of the Catholic E-

conoftiic Organizations of ths Southern Provinces . 5 26-28

12. — The Pe4erations of the Catholic Rural Funds of the

Provinces of Bologna, Reggio d'Eniilia, Forli and

vSalerno in 1915-1916 5 28-30

13. — The Inspecting and Book-keeping Offices for Co-ope-

rative Societies 5 30-31

14. — Iva Pederazione Apistica Italiana 5 31-32

15. — The Constitution of « La Federazione delle Latter ie So-

cial! Cremonesi » 5 32-32

16. — The Development of the Co-operative Movement in

Italy according to Recent Statistisal Data as to the

«Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative" : 6 6-12

1 7. — The National Institute of Credit for Co-operation,

the Institute of Credit for Co-operative vSocieties
and th? National Bank of Italian Rural Funds
in 1916 7 8-13

18. — The Deliberations and Vuies of the Three Commissions

for Co-operative Production and Labour, Co-opera-
tive Con.sumption and Agricultural Co-operation,
nominated by the Congress of Italian Co-operative
Societies in December 1916 g ^5-16

19. — Co-operative Societies legally Constitueted on 31 De-

cember 1915 9 16-18

20. — The Position of Local Federations of Catholic Rural

Funds on 31 December 1915 9 18-19

9

21-22

9

22-22

9

22-23

9

23-23

lO

13-14

12

13-13

12

13-14

12

14-16

— 51 —

N" Page

21. — The Development of the Co-operative Movement in •'

the Abruzzi 9 ' 20-2C

22. — The « Federazione Italiana dei Consorzi Agrari » in

tgi6 9 20-2]

23. — An Office of Inspection and Aid for the Agricnltnral

Co-operative Societies at Bologna .9 21-2]

24. —The Formation of the « Federazione Nazionale delle

Unioni Agricole » "

25. — A Meeting of Agricultural Co-operative Societies at

Bologna •

26. — The Position of the Provincial Federations of the

Catholic Rural Funds of Bologna, Florence and

Pistoia

27. — Formation of New Societies

28. — The Co-operative and Mutual Agricultural Societies

in Italy on 31 December 1 91 6

29. — Facilities for the Leasing of Domanial Lands by Co-

operative Societies

30. ~ The Internal Reorganization of the Italian Co-opera-

tive Movement

31. — Collective Farms in the Province of Parma

32. — An Important Meeting of Agricultural Co-operative

Societies 12 16-17

33. — A Co-operative Association among Owners and Usu-

fructories of Woods 12 17-18

34. — The « Federazione Apistica Subalpina )< 12 18-18

II. — Insiirmice and Thrifl

1 . — The Mutual Funds for Insurance against the Acci-

dents of Agriculture i 43-55

2. — The Proposals of Senator Conti's Law for compelling

the Insurance of Land against the Accidents of

Peasants' Labour 3 46-48

3. — The Mutual Insurance of Live vStock intended for

Butchery. . 3 48-50

— The Rules for the District Offices of Agricultural
Mutuality • • •. 3 50-51

— A New Mutual Insurance Society against the Acci-
dents of Agriculture ^. . . . . 3 5^-51

— The Tuscan Federation for the Mutvial Insurance of

Live Stock and its First Results 9 26-30

7. — The Development of the « Mutua Agraria Grandine »

of Bologna 9 31-31

— The « Societa Italiana diMutuo vSoccorso contro i danni
della Grandine M in 1916 . . . , 9 31-32

— 52 —

N" Page

9* — Xlie Organization of the « Terra Italicai), a Mutual vSo-
ciety for Insuring against the Accidents of Agricul-
tural Labour 9 32-33

10. — The Provincial Federation for the Reinsurance of the

Mutual Live vStockvSocieties of the Province of Porto

Mavirizio 9 33-34

11. — The « Cassa Mutua contro gli Inf ortuni . Agricoli » of

Florence in 1916 9 34-3^

12. — Compulsory Insurance against the Accidents of Agri-
cultural'Labour II 18-26

III. — Credit.

I. — Italian vSavings on 30 June 1916

2. — The « Credito Agrario per il Lazio ))in 1916

3. — Loans to Agriculturists for growing Corn nd other Ce-

reals

4. — The «Federazione per il Credito Agrario neH'Umbria))

ill 1915

5. — ^The Development of the « Banca dell'Associazione
Agraria Parmense »

6. — ■ The « Banca di Credito Agricolo » of Florence in 191 6

7. —The Agricultural Credit of the Savings Bank of the

« Banco di Napoli » and the Agricultural Credit
Department of the « Banco di Sicilia » in 191 6. . .

8. — - The Activity of Institutions of Land Credit in 191 0 .

9. — - Recent Provisions as to Agricultural Credit

10. — The Institution of a System of Current Accounts and

Postal Orders 12 46-48

11. — ^The Provincial Fund of Agricultural Credit for Basi-

licata in 1 91 6 12 48-49

12. — The « Federazione per il Credito Agrario nell'Umbria » 12 49-49

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

I. — Recent Measursfe as to Agricultural Contracts . ... 2 11 7-1 18

2. — Rules for granting the Temporary Use of Agricultural

Machines 2 1 18-120

3. — The Foundation of an «Istituto Autonomo di Bonifica-

mento Agrario e di ftolouizzazione per la Sardegna » 2 1 20- 1 2 1

4. — National Charity for the Orphans of Peasants killed in

the War 2 1 21-123

5 — An Important Scheme for the Foimdation of a Pro-
vincial Institution of Social Aid 2 123-125

■5. — Institution of a National Labour Exchange 4 108-109

7. — A General Commissariat for Food Consumption . . . 4 1 09-1 10

3

51-53

8

50-52

8

52-52

8

53-53

8

53-54

8

54-55

9

39-50

II

49-53

12

37-43

— 53 —

Page

8. — The Protection given by the Province of Plorence to

the Orphans of Peasants killed during the War . . 4 i lo-i 1 2

g. — A Provincial Labour Office at Rome 4 112-112

10. — Recent Measures for Developing the Growing of Ce-

reals 7 80-81

11. — -The New Organization of the Ministry of industry,

Commerce and Labour 7 81-82

12. — Institution of a Provincial Labour Office at Ravenna 7 82-83
13. — ■ The New Measures for the Preservation and Increase

of the National Property in Woods 11 82-83

14. — ^ The Development of Improvements in the South . . 11 83-84

15. — ^ The Culti vation of Abandoned Arable Lands .... 11 84-85

1 5. ^ The Technical Education of Peasants 11 85-85

•

ITALIAN Colonies.

IV. — Agrarian Economy in GeneraU

I. — -Erythrea. Land Tenure and Colonization 2 67-88

2. — Italian Somali land. Land Tenure and Colonization . . 3 94-115
3. — Libya (Tripoli and Cirenaica). Land System and Colo-
nization 8 66-78

Japan.

I. — Co-operation and Association
The Pfesent Position of Co-operation in Japan 11 i-ii

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

Interior Colonization and the Progress of Agriculture in

Korea 6 75-79

Norway.

I. — Co-operation and Association.
The Agricultural Co-operative Movement , . 7 25-26

Rumania.

III. — Credit.
Agricultural Credit in Rumania 5 ^9-62

Russia.

1. — Co-operation and Association.

1. — Co-operativ.e Supply and Production of Agricultural

Machines i 26-29

2. — Mutual Credit vSocieties in Russia on 1 July 1915 . . . i 29-31

— 54 —

N" Page

3

124-127

4

19-27

5

33-34

7

14-21

8

12-20

9

7-11

lO

14-ib

3. — The Finnish Superintending Societies in the Years

1913-1915 3 32-33

4. — The Position and the Activity of the Grain Elevators

of the Government and the Railway Companies .

5. — Popular Co-operative Credit from 1914 to 1916 . . .

6. — -Finnish Co-operative Dairies in 191 5

7. — The Central Co-operative Union of Flax Growers . .
8. — The Russian Co-operative Movement During the War
g. —The Egg Trade and Co-operation in Russia

10. — The Co-operative Sale of Tobacco

11. — Insurance caul Thvift.

1 . — Finnish Societies for Insurance against Mortality among

Live Stock in 1913 3 54-56

2. — The Business done by Finnish Mutual Societies for In-

surance agBinst Fire and Mortality among Live

Stock 7 33-40

III. — Cvedii.

I. — ^ TheJOuestion of Forest Credit in Finland

2. — The Activity of the State Land Bank for the Nobility

in 1915

3. — The Activity of the Peasants' Land Bank

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.

1. — The Results of Interior Colonization in Finland (con-

cluded) I 90-113

2. — The Results of the New Agrarian Reform in Russia (Part

11) • • • • •

3. — -The Forests of Finnish Towns

4. — Government Aid to Home Industr}-

5. — The vSettlenient of Kirghiz Nomads on tl^e vSteppesof

Turkestan

6. — Food Control Committees

Serbia.

IV. — Agyarian Economy i)i General.
The Question of Forestry in the Kingdom of Serbia .... 1 114-122

Spain.

I. — Co-operation and Association.

I. — The Association of the Agriculturists of Spain and its

Work I 6-12

3

73-73

6

48-59

8

3^-45

0

34-50

0

89-107

3

121-123

4

112-114

4

114-115

12

S2-83

55

2. — The First Co-operative Cheese Factory 6 1-5

3. — The Co-operative Dairy of the « Casa de Ganadero.s » of

Saragossa 7 26-27.

IIT. — CrjdL.

The Organization of Agricultur.il Credit by the Formation

of a Central Fand 11 37-48

• Sweden.

IV. — Agyavian Economy in General.

I. — The AgricnUnral Labour Snpply in 1915. ...'... 4 115-T18

2. — Condition.s of lyife and Work among the Forests of

Varmland, Dalecarlia and Norrland 5 82-95

vSWlTZERI.AND.

1. — Co-operation and Associaiion.

1. — The Peasants' Uniori and Peasants' Secretariat in 191 6 6 13-20

2. — The Co-operative Cornniill at Leman 9 24-24

3. — The vSwiss Union of Raiffeisen Fimds 12 18-19

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

T. — Insurance against Hail in 1 91 5 i 62-63

2. — The Swiss Society of Agriculture and Insurance against

the Accidents of Agriculture in.i 91 6 10 32-33

3. — Agricultural In.surance in 1915- 12 25-34

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General.
Federal Aid to Swiss Agriculture ,. . . . 7 83-86

United States. .

I. — Cn-op^raiion and Associatimi.

I. — The Co-operative Marketing of Live Stockin Wisconsin i 31-32

2. — ^Tlie Development of the Co-operative A,ssociations
controlling Dairy Production in the United States
from 1906 to 1 91 6

3. — The Co-operative Purchase of Live Stock in Wisconsin

4. — North Carolina Rural Banks

5. — The Activity of the Jewish Agricultuuil and lndu.'<trial

Aid Society in T916

6. — ^ The American Society of Equity

7. — • Farmers' Co-operative Elevators in Minnesota . . .

8. — The California Peach Growers' Association in 191 6-1 7

2

37-39

4

31-34

4

34-35

5

35-36

6

28-29

8

i-ii

9

25-25

— 56 —

Page

g. — The Co-operative Production and Sale of Raisins in

California lo 16-18

10. — Co-operative Bull Associations 11 13-15

II.— The Essentials of Successful Co-operative Fruit and

Vegetable Canneries 11 15-17

12. — A Co-operative Cheese Manufacturing and Marketing

Association in Tillamook Country in Oregon ... 12 20-2,4

13. — The California Federation of Farmers' Co-operative

Marketing Associations 12 51-52

II. — Insurance and Thrift.

1 . — State Hail Insxirance in North Dakota 2 41 -49

2. — The General Conditions of Insurance Against Fire and

the Development of Mutual Insurance

3. — ■ Insurance against Frost in Iowa

4. — Mutual Agricultural Insurance against Windstorms in

Illinois

5. — The Unfavourable Results of In.surance against Hail

1916

6. — The Organization of Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance

Companies

7. — Mutual Insurance against Fire in Massachusetts . . .

III. — Credit.

1. — Federal Banks and Financial Organization

2. — Determination of Federal Land feank Districts. . . .

3. — The Subscription of the Capital of the Federal Land

Banks

4. — The First Year of the Federal Farm Loan Act ....

5. — The Federal Land Bank of Barkeley, California, and

Loans •n Orchards

6. — The Activity of the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis. .

IV. — Agrarian EconoDiy in General.

I. — Overtime in the Fruit and Vegetable Canning and

Packing Industry of Oregon 2 125-126

2. — Farm Tenancy in the United States, by Prof. Benjamin

H. Hibbard, University of Wisconsin

3. — Land Settlement in California . . .•

4. — Land Tenure and the Orgaiuzation of Agriculture on

Indian Reservations in the United States

5 . — The Regulation o4" the Fruit Trade

6.^ — ■ Interior Colonization in California

7. — The Rise in the Value of Improved Farm Land . . .

6

34-47

8

28-30

8-

30-3i

9

36-37

10

19-2S

II

32-36

4

55-69

4

75-76

4

76-76

II

54-56

12

19-20

12

49-50

4

90-99

4

118-120

5

63-76

7

61-67

9

59-66

9

86-87

— 57

Page

8. — The Oigatiization of the Sample Trade in Grain in

Minnesota ii 57-63

9. — The Improvement of Conditions among Inmiigrants

into California- 12 66-73

10. — Federal Food Control Act 12 83-84

Uruguay.

II. — Insurance and Thrif .

I. — The State Bank of Insurance and Insurance against

Hail 3 35-42

2, — The State Bank of Insurance and Insurance against

Hail 9 38-38

III. — Credit.

I. — The Mortgage Bank and its Activit3an Relation to Land

Credit in 1915-1916 i 65-69

2. — Mortgage Insurance 4 50-53

IV. — Agrarian Economy in General

The Reform of the Land Tax from the Point of View of

Agriculture and Breeding 2 ro8-ii6

4. 1,E March^ dks C6r6ales de Rotterdam (The Kotterdam Com Market)

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Do. 2nd Year, 1912. (1913, 994 pages, i6mo) 10 —

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Do. 4th Year, 1914(1915, I<XVIII + 1,020 pages, i6mo) • 10 —

Do. 5th Year, 1915 (1916, I<XXVXVI + 1,460 pages, ]6mo) 1 10 —

C — OTHER PUBLICATIONS.
(a) Publications of the I^ibrary.
I. Cataloguk de la BiBLiOTHfeQUE, Ann6e 1909 (Catalogue of the lyibrary, 1909).

(356 pages, 8vo) Frs. 3 —

t. I^isfB DES Revues et Journaux RtGULifeREMENT re^us par l'Institui,
1913 (List of Reviews and Papers regularly received by the Institute, 1913).

(84 pages, i6mo) t 0.50

(6) Publications of the Bureau of Statistics,
(i) Various publications
«. I, 'Organisation des Services de Statistique agricole dans les divers
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the Different Coimtries, Vol.1). (1910, 446 pages, with tables In addition

to the text, i6mo) 1 4 —

Do. Vol. II. (1913, 146 pages, i6mo) a —

8. Recueil de Coefficients pour la Conversion des Poids, Mesurks bt
Monnaibs au SYSTfeME M6trique D6aM.AL (Collection of Coefficients for
the Conversion of Weights, Measures, and Money Values into the Decimal

aletric System). (191 4, 84 pages, 32mo) i —

(2) Monographs (New Series).
I. Ij'Organisation de la Statistique du Commerce ext6rieur en Italib
(Organisation of the Statistics of Foreign Trade in Italy). (1913, 190 pages

i6mo) 3 —

a. I<e March6 DBS C£r6ales d'Anvers (The Antwerp Com Market) {1913,

62 pages, i6mo) • i —

3. I,BS Bourses des Produits Agricoles de Hambourg et Budapest (The

Agricultural Produce Exchanges of Hamburg and Budapest). (1913, 55

pages, i6mo) i i —

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RENTS Pays: Publications Statistiques, Teiritoires, Sortes de Commerce,
Provenances et Destinations des Marchandises (Notes on the Statistics of
Foreign Trade in the Different Countries : Statistical Publications, Territory,
Kinds of Trade, Source and Destination of Goods). (tgi4, 96 pages, i6mo) . • 2 —

3. I,A RfePARTiTioN Agricole des Territoires des diff6rents I'ay.s (Areas

under Crops in the Different Countries). (1914, 310 pages, i6mo) 5 —

(3) Other publications.

Ohbbrto Ricci : I,es Bases th6orique9 de la Statistique Agricole In-
ternationale (The«jretical Bases oi International Agricultural Statistics),

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai. Inteli^igence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXIII.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER i

JANUARY, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE
I917

Permanent Committee
OF THE International, Institute of Agriculture

President : Marquis Rappaele Cappei.li, Delegate oi Italy.
Vice-President : M. L,ooiS-Dop, Delegate of Prance.
List 0/ the Delegates oj the Permanent Committee :

1 i Germany

2 ; Argentine Repubi ic.

3 ' Austria

4 j Hungary

5 I Belgium

6 Brazil

7 j Bulgaria

8 Chile

9 China

lo Columbia

n Costa-Rica

12 Cuba

1 3 Denmark

14 Ottoman Empire

15 Egypt

16 Ecuador

17 Spain

18 United States

19 Abyssinia

20 France

21 Algeria

22 Morocco

23 Tunis

24 ' Gt. Britain & Ireland

25 1 Australia

26 Canada

27 1 British India

28 j New Zealand

29 Mauritius

30 I Union of South Africa

31 j Greece

32 I Guatemala

33 Italy

34 Eritrea & It. Somal.

35 ' Tripoli and Cirenaica

36 Japan

37 Luxemburg

38 \ Mexico

39 I Montenegro

40 I Nicaragua

41 I Norway

42 j Paraguay

43 1 Netherlands

44 i Dutch East Indies . . .

45 I Peru

46 1 Persia

47 I Portugal

48 roumania

49 Russia

50 t Salvador

51 I San Marino

52 ' Serbia

53 I Sweden

54 Switzerland

55 I Uruguay

I

I

I

I
IV

I
III
II

I

V

V

V
IV

I
II

V

I
I

V

I

V
V
V

I

III
II
II

IV

V
IV
IV

V

I

IV
IV

I

V

III

V
V
IV
V
IV
IV
V
IV
IV

I
I

V
V

III

IV
IV
V

Dr. T. Mueller, Privy Councillor.

Dr. Octavio Pineiro Sorondo.

Chev. V. DE Pozzi, Government Councillor.

E- DE Mikl6s, Sec. of State. Member of House of Magnates.

O. BOLLE.

Antonino Fialho, Ex-Deputy.

M. Stancioff.

Diego Duble Urrutia.

Wang-Tseng-Sze.

J. M. Hurtado, Minister Plenipotentiary.

Marco Besso.

M. A. INIartin Rivero, Minister Plenipotentiary.

A. DE Oldenburg, Charge d'affaires.
Dr. Mehmed Djemil Bey.

B. Chimirri, Senator, Delegate of Eritrea.
Marco Besso.

Enrique Rodriguez de Celis, Agricultural Engineer.

David Lubin.

Prof. G. CuBONi, Director, Station of Plant Pathology, Rome

Louis-Dop, Vice-president of the Institute.

Louis-Dop.

Louis-Dop.

Louis-Dop.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

Sir jAMtes Wilson K. C. S. I.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

Sir James Wilson, K. C. S. I.

M. CoROMiLAS, Minister Plenipotentiary.

G. Montefiore, Consul General for Guatemala.

Marquis R. Cappelli, Deputy, President of the Institute.

B. Chimirri, Senator.

B. Chimirri.

Baron Otori, Attache to the Embassy.

O. BOLLE, Delegate of Belgium.

G. A. Esteva, Minister Plenipotentiary.

G. VOLPI, Minister Plenipotentiary.

V. E. Bianchi, Consul General.

Dr. A. FjEL.sTAD, Counsellor to the Agricultural Department

Prof. Orazio Comes, Director Portici Agr. College.

Baron W. B. R. de Welderen Rengers, Minister Plenip.

Baron W. B. R. de Welderen Rengers.

Louis-Dop, Delegate of France. i^

A. del GallO, Marquis of ROCCAGIOVINE.

EuSEBio Leao, Minister Plenipotentiary.

Demetrius C. Pennesco, Counsellor to the Legation.

His Excell. G. Zabiello, Consul Geneial for Russia.

A. Bianchi Cagliesi, Vice-Consul.

His Excell. L. Luzzatti, Minister of State.

C. Scotti, Consul General for Serbia.

Baron C. N. D. de Bildt, Minister Plenipotentiary.
M. DE Planta, Minister Plenipotentiary.
Dr. E. RoviRA, Consul.

General Secretary: Prof Giovanni Lorenzoni.

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION.

Germany.

Agricultural Economy in the Kingdom of Saxony t July 1914 to 30 June 1915 Page
§ I. General Remarks, page i. — § 2. Statistics of Agricultural Co-operation in
Saxony, page 3.

Spain.

The Assocl^^tion of the Agriculturists of Spain and its Work ftcgf

§ I. The Organization of the Association, page 6. — § 2. The vSociety's Enter-
prise on behalf of its Members, page 9.

British Wkst Indies.
Co-operation IN Antigua : AN Object lyESSON, by W. R. DuNi.op Page 13

MiscEi.i<ANEous Information reIvATing to Co-operation and Associa-
tion IN Various Countries Page 17

Denmark : The General Union of Co-operative Consumers' Associations in 191 5, page 17.
Germany : Housewives' Agricultural Associations and their Activitj', page 20.
Italy : i) Agricultural Co-operation and Social Assistance of Peasants, page 21.

2) The Position of certain Pcpular Banks in 1915, page 23.

3) The Statistics of the Catholic Social and Economic Institutions, page 26.
Russia : i) Co-operative Supply and Production of Agricultural Machines, page 26.

2) Mutual Credit Societies in Russia on i July 191 5, page 29.
United States : The Co-operative Marketing of I^ive Stock in Wisconsin, page 31.

VI CONTENTS

PART II : INSURANCE AND THRIFT.

Germany.

The Principal Federation of Societies for the Insurance of Cattle in East

Prussia Page 33

§ I. General Report of Activity in 1914 and 1915, page 33. — § 2. Statistical Data
as to Business done in 1914 and 1915, page 35.

ITAI.Y.

The Mutual Funds for Insurance against the Accidents of Agriculture . Page 43
§ r. The Mutual Fund of Vercelli, page 44. — § 2. The Mutual Fund of Florence,
page 46. — § 3. The Mutual Fund of Milan, page 49. — § 4. The Mutual Funds
of Turin, Bologna and Rome, page 51. — § 5. The Private Societies for Insurance
against Accidents, page 52.

Miscellaneous Information relating to Insurance and Thrift in

Various Countries Page 56

Austrla and Hungary: The Insurance of Tobacco I'lantations against Hail in Bosnia

and Herzegovina, page 56.
Germany : i) The Baden Association for Insurrnce against Mortality among lyive Stock,

page 58.

2) Insurance against Hail in the Principality of HohenzoUcni in 1915-1916,

page 61.
Switzerland : Insurance against Hail in 1915, page 62.

Notices of Some Recent Publications concerning Insurance and
Thrift Page 64

Italy : M\galdi (V.) I^'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni, page 64.

PART III : CREDIT.

Uruguay.
The Mortgage B.\nk and its .\ctivity in Relation to I,and Credit in 1915-1916 Page 65

CONTENTS VII

MlSCEI<LANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT IN VARIOUS

Countries Page 70

Denm.\rk : The Working of the Danish I<and Credit Associations in 191 6, page 70.
Germany : The Bank of the I^andschaft of Eastern Prussia at Koenigsberg in 1915-1916,
page 74-

PART IV : AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.

Australia.

Land Settlement and the PRO\asiON of Credit in Western Australia, by Dr. J. W.

Paterson (concluded) Pasc ycf

§ 3. The Provision of Credit, page 79. — § 4. Corclusion, page 88.

Russia.

The Results of Interior Colonization in Finland (concluded) Page

§ 5. The Component Parts of the Property of Colonists, page 90. • — § 6. The Lia-
bilities of the Colonists, page loi. — § 7. Changes in Assets and Liabilities and
the Net Protit made, page 103. — § 8. Interest, Wages of Labour and Wages of
Enterprise, page 109. — Conclusion, page 112.

Serbia.

The Question of Forestry in the Kingdom of Serbl'v Page 114

§ I. Extent of Woodlands and Varieties of Timber, page 115. — § 2. The Ownership
of the Woods , page 117. — §3. The Utilization of the Woods, page 118. — §4. Fo-
rest Administration, page 121.

Miscellaneous Information Relating to Agricultural Economy
IN General in Various Countries Page

Argentine Republic: Formation of Agricultural Colonies for the Indians, page 123.

Australla : Closer Settlement, page 124.

Austria : Agricultural Labour in Dalmatia, page 124.

Part I : Co-operation and Association

GERMANY.

AGRICULTURAI, CO-OPKRATION
IN THE KINGDOM OF SAXONY i JIIIvY 1914 TO 30 JUNE 1915.

SOURCE :

BERICHT tJBER DAS VIERUNDZWANZIGSTE GeSCHAFTSJAHR I914-15 DES VERBANDES DER I,AND-
WIRTSCHAFTLICHEN GeNOSSENSCHAFXEN IM KoNXGREICHE SACHSEN, EINGETRAGENER

Verein {Report on the tiventy-fourth year of activity, 1914-15, of the Federation of Agricul-
tural Co-operative Societies in the Kingdom of Saxony, a Registered Union).

§ I. General remarks.

The Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Societies in the Kingdom
of Saxony comprised 499 societies on 30 June 1914, namely :
2 central co-operative societies.
79 collective loan and savings banks.
242 savings, credit and purchase tmions.
75 co-operative sale and purchase societies.
20 collective dairies.

6 co-operative societies for the essication of potatoes.
23 co-operative pasturage societies.
27 co-operative water-siipply societies.
II co-operative corn-threshing societies.
14 other co-operative societies.

499 co-oi:)erative societies comprising 34,779 members.

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

As regards the Provincial Co-operative Bank {Landesgenossenschafts-
kasse) it is noteworthy that in spite of the difficulties of the year the manage-
ment were able to obtain a balance of 133,994 rnarks (i) on its business.
If the amount of expenses and of dues for registering the by-laws, as well
as bills worth 33,931 marks, be deducted, there remains a credit balance
of 41,549 marks.

The balance-sheet shows the total sum of deposits by co-operative
societies to have been 11,984,424 marks as against 7,658,306 marks in the
preceding year. The debts of co-operative societies amounted, on the
other hand, to 2,738,276 marks as against 3,461,308 in the previous year.

The turnover was 136,212,182 marks in 1913-1914 as against 170,860,995
marks in 1914-1915.

During the year under review the Central Agricultural Co-operative
Society [Landwirtschaftliche Zentralgenossenschaft) considerably increased
its trade in cereals, dealing with 462,712 zentners (2) of the value of
4,645,949 marks, as against 313,525 zentners and 2,660,716 marks in the
previous year. In round figures therefore the increase was one of 150,000
zentners. Altogether this central co-operative society dealt with 3,359,046
zentners of the value of 16,289,767 marks as against 3,249,182 zentners of
the value of 14,033,613 marks in 1913-1914. The general increase was
therefore one of 109,864 zentners and 2,256,154 marks, that is of 3.38 per
cent, as regaids quantity and of 16 per cent, as regards value.

The balance-sheet shows a net profit of 76,114 marks as against 72,252
marks in the preceding year. This central co-operative society has resour-
ces of its own of the value of 571,446 marks. Of the 499 co-operative so-
cieties which belonged at the end of 1 914 to the federation 357, or 71.6 per
cent., belonged to this central co-operative society. Besides the Provin-
cial Co-operative Bank and the central institute 321 co-operative societies
had part, as in the previous year, in circulating the money.

As a consequence of the considerable increase of savings deposits
many co-operatives societies reduced the rate of interest on these on i
January- 1915. Others on the other hand established a balance bj* sub-
scribing largely to the war loan.

In the year under review 335 co-operative societies took part in oper-
ations for the purchase of merchandise, the purchases being distributed
among the various tj^pes of societies as follows :

Purchase of Merchandise

75 societies for purchase and sale, pro- zentners ar

perly so called 2,382,815 10,624,463

37 collective savings and loan banks . . 518,987 1,968,682

220 savings, credit and purchase societies. 2,536,888 10,301,019

3 other co-operative societies 188,631 977,440

Total 5,627,321 23,871,604

(i) I mark of gold = about 11 ^,4 d. al par.
[?.) 1 Zentner = 110.236 lbs.

AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN THE KINGDOM OF SAXONY

The share of the Agricultural Central Co-operative Society is 2,896,334
zentners and 11,643,818 marks ; and a comparison shows that 51 per cent,
of the merchandise bought bj' the co-operative societies belonged to it.
It is therefore evident that Saxon co-operative societies still derive a large
portion of the merchandise the}'- use from dealers.

Two hundred co-operative societies traded in cereals, namel}' :

46 co-operative purchase and sale societies,

properly so called

13 collective savings and loan banks ....

140 savings, credit & purchase association's . .

I co-operative mill

Zentners

Marks

1,036,879

8,712,934

II549I

1,142,148

431,584

4,110,318

31,278

267,964

Total .... 1,615,232 14,233,364

The collective dairies, the pasturage and the corn-threshing co-operative
societies showed good results at the end of the year ; but the co-operative
societies for the essication of potatoes had. on the other hand, to struggle
against grave difiiculties.

§ 2. Statistics of agricultural co-operation tn saxony.

As regards more particularly the statistics of agricultural co-operation
in Saxom' we report as follows :

a) Collective Savings and Loan Banfis. — In 1914-1915 the collec-
tive savings and loan banks numbered seventy-nine and they included
6,836 members. The total turnover of these societies was in this year
53,015,426 marks, net profits amounted to 117,143 marks, the loans granted
to 10,342,056 marks, and deposits to 17,391,398 marks.

The turnover was more by 3,923,062 marks than in the preceding year,
which gives an average increase of 33,141 marks for one society.

The loans represent 53.4 per cent, of the general property of the
co-operative societies. As compared with the preceding year they had
increased by 338,851 marks.

If the average for single societies and single members be calculated
the following results are obtained :

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Districts

I,oans

1914

Bautzen

Chemnitz

Dresden

I^eipzig

Zwickau

Kingdom of Saxony 1914
» » » 1 91 3

6,399,198

590,360

1,169,097

1,991,426

191,975

10,342,056

Average for a co-operative
society

6,129,413 164,082

593,488| 84,337!

73,069' 73,069'

142,245! 142,245

152,036

84.7S4

74.503

158,901

Average
for a member

1,5381 1,498

1,081 1,150

1,096 1,143

2,114 2,235

63,992' 63,992 60,482 1,587 1,463

— i 130,912

I i

10,003,2051 j 129,912

1,513 —

1,509

b) Savings and Credit Societies and Societies for the Purchase of Mer-
chandise. — This important group includes 242 co-operative societies
having 13,889 members, and a total turnover of 133,523,109 marks — which
gives an average of 9,614 marks for one society — , profits amounting to
256,288 marks, and deposits amounting to 19,746,969 marks — which
gives an increase of three and a third millions on the preceding 3^ear.

The average deposits of each co-operative society, member and saver
in each circle are, respectively, as follows :

Zwickau Kingdom

For a co-opera-
tive society.

For a member.
» )^ saver . .

88,895
606

Chemnitz

49,968

1,205

520

Dresden

60,516
1,234

499

I,eipzig

171.392
1,919

977

47.072
896

569

^1.559

1,278

644

The greater part of the sums received were converted into loans,
8,182,719 marks being lent for fixed terms and 1,385,010 marks on current
account. In addition merchandise to the value of 4,887,056 marks was
delivered.

The net profits amounted to 276,396 marks as against 249,675 marks
in the preceding year.

d) Co-operative Purchase and Sale Societies. — Of the seventy-five
co-operative societies which belong to this group, forty-five have furnished
financial data relative to the year from i July 1913 to 30 June 1914, the
others data for 1914-1915.

These seventy-five co-operative societies had 6,562 members and a
total turnover of 129,041,380 marks, which gives an average of 19,665
marks for one society. The value of the merchandise issvung from them
was 19,111,237 marks and their profits amounted to 124,522 marks.

Their total circulating funds amounted to 6,019,645 marks.

e) Co-operative Pasturage Societies. — The twenty-two federated
co-operative societies derived 144,320 marks from pasture dues and 38,246

AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN THE KINGDOM OF SAXONY

marks from other sources during the year. Administrative expenses
amounted to 99,221 marks and interest on borrowed capital to 43,793
marks. The net profits of nineteen societies were 18,169 inarks and
three societies closed their books showing a loss of 1,866 marks. The land
and real estate of eighteen societies represented at the end of 1914 a value
of 1,054,698 marks, while four societies rented their pasture land. At the
same date the estimated value of the shelters on the pastures was 99,319
marks. The total turnover was 766,028 marks as against 832,538 marks
in the preceding year.

Besides having their own circulating funds these co-operative socie-
ties have received help from the State, to the extent of 307,733 marks
lent on pasture land exclusively and more than 661,864 n^arks lent on mort-
gages.

/) Collective Dairies. — During the year under review the collective
dairies numbered 1,202 members, as against 1,164 ^^ the previous year,
and their turnover amounted to 75.880,973 marks as against 72,797,585
marks in the preceding year. The members furnished 72,729,741 kilo-
grammes (i) of milk and received 7,296,815 marks. The average price
paid for a kilogramme of milk was. 13.33 pfennigs (2). Receipts from the
products of the cheese industry amounted to 11,363,178 marks as against
10,981,601 marks in the previous j^ear.

g) Co-operative Societies for the Essication of Potatoes. — The fol-
lowing data have reference only to five of the six co-operative societies for
the essication of i)otates which belong to the Saxon federation, and they
concern the year from I July 1913 to 30 June 1914. The members numbered
996, the total turnover amounted to 3,316,746 marks and the receipts to
30,019 marks. L,ands and buildings represented a value of 369,529 marks
and machines one of 257,999 marks. The societies' own combined capital
surpassed 300,000 marks ; they used 232,835 marks of capital belonging
to others, and from the State they received 143,000 marks on mortgages
and 72,200 marks in loans.

h) Other Co-operative Societies. — The results of the year under
review do not differ much from those of the preceding year in the case of
the co-operative societies providing a water-supply, those undertaking the
essication of corn, the co-operative mills, etc.

Those concerned with the supply of water numbered twenty-six,
namely three more than in the preceding year, and comprised 1,166 members.
Those concerned with the essication of corn numbered eleven and
comprised 167 members. There were fourteen other co-operative socie-
ties having different aims and numbering 1854 members. The turnover
of these fourteen amounted to 17,452,437 marks, their profits to abou^
56,000 marks.

(i) I kilogramme = 2.205 lbs.
(2) I pfennig = o.oi mark.

SPAIN.

THP: association of the agriculturists of SPAIN
AND ITS WORK.

SOURCES :

NUEVO REGLAMENTO DE la ASOCIACION DE AGRICULTORES DE ESPAILA, APROBADA EN LA

JUNTA GENERAL EXTRAORDiNARLA DE 15 DE MARZO DE 1912 {N ew Rules of the Association
of Agriculturists of Spain, approved at the extraordinary general meeting of 13 March 191 2)
Imprenta de la sucesora de M. Mimusa de los Rios, Madrid, 1912.
BOLETIN DE LA AsociACiON DE AGRICULTORES DE EsPAUA (Bulletin of the Association of Agit-
culturists of Spam) Years 1912-1916, Madrid.

The Association of Agriculturists of Spain is perhaps, in virtue of its
age and its organization, the most important institution of its kind in rural
Spain. It was formed in Madrid in 1881, that is to say before the law of
1887 on associations, which gave an impulse to the movement for associa-
tion in this country, was promulgated. In spite of the many obstacles
which it had to overcome, in order to reach its goal, the example and the
propaganda of the Association of Agriculturists caused the formation of
numerous agricultural groups wliich were the forerunners of the existing
agricultural institutions. It need not therefore astonish us that it aspired
to the leadership of the social organization of Spanish agriculture, that
it desired to regulate the progress and direct the efforts of this movement.

One of the chief merits of this institution is that it has endeavoured
to adapt its organization to the new exigencies of rural development, and
thus has been able to fotmd for its members such enterprises as the exist-
ing credit fund and the mutual institution for insurance against hail
which will soon become active. It contains therefore a promise which
justifies a short description of its organization and chief activities.

§ I. The organization of the association.

The objects of the Association of the Agriculturists of Spain are, accord-
ing to its rules, a) to defend and protect the rights and interests of rural
producers ; b) to extend the relations and the union existing among indivi-
duals of this class, as among agricultural institutions ; c) to encourage the

THE ASSOCIATION OF THE AGRICUI.TURISTS

development and progress of agricultural production in all its forms, by
means of competitions, exhibitions, lectures, publications and all avail-
able methods of propaganda and instruction ; d) to bring about and to
faciUtate the formation of co-operative societies for the purchase of manures,
seeds, machines and foods for live stock, and for the sale and conversion
of agricultural products ; e) to found or help the foundation of co-oper-
ative agriculturists' credit institutions, institutions of mutual agricultural
insurance, and other institutions tending to improve the intellectual,
moral and technical equipment of the rural classes ; /) to furnish the State,
the pro\ance and the commune with all required social and agricultural
information.

The members of chis association belong to five classes : there are orig-
inal members, subscribing members, collective members, protective and
honorary members.

The original members are those who pay an entrance fee of 25 pe-
setas (i) and a monthly subscription of 2.50 pesetas.

The subscribing members are those who pay 1.50 pesetas a montli
if they live in ]\Iadrid, one peseta if they live in the country.

The collective members are the institutions who pay a monthlj^ sub-
scription of 1.50 pesetas if they do not comprise more than a hundred mem-
bers, and add 0.25 pesetas to their subscription for every sixty or
fraction of sixty members additional to a hundred they comprise, until
they reach the limit of five pesetas which is the maximum subscription
for a societ}', whatever be its membership. Collective members who are
grouped paj' a subscription equivalent to the sum of their individual
subscriptions or a sum as to which there has been a common agreement.

Persons who have made donations to the association of at least
500 pesetas may be nominated honorary members, as may any who have
rendered the association a distinguished service.

Onl}^ an application for membership and the consent of the associa-
tion's council are necessar}^ to admission (2). All members, to whatever
class the}' belong; have the same rights and obligations.

The members have a right to the association's support in any appeal
they make to the central, provincial or municipal administration, if such
appeal be recognized as well founded and as consistent with the general
interests of agriculture. They may buy the seeds, plants, animals and ma-
chines and all the other agricultural wares with which the association is

(i) I peseta = 9 — li. at par.
5

(2) At present the association has 742 members, distributed as follows : z protective mem-
bers, 68 honorary members, 50 original membeis, 450 subscribing members and 109 collective
members. Among the collective members are some important institutions, as the Sindicuto
dc Policia rural of Calvira which has 2,321 members, the Fomcnto agricola dc Andalucia which
has 2,900 members, the Commidad de Labradores of Villarcal which has 4,578 members, the
federations of the Catholic agricultural sj-ndicates of I,a Rioja and Palencia which comprise,
respectively, 113 and no syndicates, and otheis.

SPAIN - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

supplied in their interest, at the most advantageous prices possible ; may
avail themselves of all the association's existing and future enterprise;
may freely receive all the publications issued by the association at its own
cost, unless the council decide to place on these a price, which shall be
as near as possible to cost price ; and finally they may use the association's
reading-room and librar}'-.

]\Iembers are obliged to pay the subscription incident in the class
to which they belong. If they neglect to do so three times successively
they will be considered to have resigned but will still be liable for the omit-
ted subscriptions. They are further obliged to discharge all commissions
and trusts confided to them, imless they have a justifiable excuse for not
fulfilling this duty.

Single and collective members and the groups of these may, if they
live in the same district or province, unite to form an affiliated delegation
of the society which will forward the local social and agricultural interests.
With this aim such delegations will be able to found workmen's clubs which
will possess libraries and reading-rooms, and will do all that is possible
to strengthen the comradeship of their members, to facilitate the exchange
of ideas and to disseminate useful knowledge. These delegations will
moreover give an impulse to the formation of local agronomic labora-
tories and museums, with the official help of other and analogous institu-
tions. They are finally the connecting link between the members and
the association at IMadrid, to which they should remit a -report of their
work ever}^ three years.

The association's property is constituted by the members' subscrip-
tions, by donations and by any grants which it may receive. In the case
of its dissolution its available resources and the value of its moveable pro-
perty will be assigned by the council to some object covered by the asso-
ciation's general aims, the amount necessary to meet its debts being de-
ducted.

The association is administered by a general meeting and an adminis-
trative council. The ordinary general meetings are held annually in the
first fortnight in May in order to approve the council's report of its acti-
vity, to examine the accoimts for the preceding year, to determine the bud-
get for the coming year, and to deliberate on proposals with a view to real-
izing the association's general aims.

The administrative council is composed of a chairman, six vice-chair-
men, a general secretary, two assistant secretaries, a treasurer, a vice-treas-
urer, an accountant, a librarian-archivist and fifty voting members. The
chairman is the president of the association, is elected for six years and
ma}^ be re-elected. Half the other offices become vacant every three
y ears, in order of the seniority of the officials who are indefinitely eligible
for re-election. Offices in the council are honorar}" and unpaid. Officials

(i) In igi5-iQi6 members' subscriptions amounted to 13,487 pesetas and grants to 8,500
pesetas.

THE ASSOCIATION OF THE AGRICULTURISTS

must be chosen from the number of original members who undertake to
pay a monthly subscription throughout their term of office.

The council represents the association officially and manages and ad-
ministers its affairs in respect of all its engagements and of its various
aims.

§ 2. The society's enterprise on behaef op' its members.

The association conducts various enterprises in pursuit of its aims, in
order to meet the social, technical and economic needs of its members.
Some of these enterprises have the general character common to all insti-
tutions of this type. Thus members' appeals and requests are dealt with
and supported ; activity is guided towards social ends and the end of co-op-
eration ; and the sale and purchase of goods useful to agriculture and stock
farming is practised, as are the sale and purchase of machines and imple-
ments. Other forms of enterprise, which in practice have great importance,
need a special organization. They are the credit fund, the centre for
dealing with farmers' contracts, and the office of technical, agronomic and
legal advice. We will briefly examine these special enterprises.

Credit Fund. — This is the most recent enterprise of the society,
having been constituted only on 31 March 1916, but it is none the less the
most important hitherto established.

It was formed in response to the urgent need of Spanish agriculture
for capital, a need which grew daily and which was felt with exceptional
intensity owing to the European war. The war and the resultant excep-
tional situation of home and foreign trade have made provisioning a prob-
lem in Spain, a problem which has to be solved by an increased home
production. The archaic and defective character of most of the existing
systems of agriculture and the fact that agriculture is not industrialized
have become apparent, and these conditions are due to the insufficiency
or the total lack of capital.

It cannot be denied that since 1916 almost all districts of Spain have
come to be provided with agricultural sjmdicates who have worked to ame-
liorate the position by means of rural funds. But in most cases these at-
tempts did not met with the desired success, in some they have complete-
ly failed ; for the banks were suspicious of them and their guarantees
were not always such as to inspire confidence. The need was therefore
felt of a national institution which should not only afford agricultural
credit but should also act as intermediary between the rural groups and
the credit establishments. It was to supply this need that the Association
of the Agriculturi.sts of Spain, having first come to an agreement with the
Bank of Spain, formed its credit fund.

This fund is intended : i) to be an intermediary, connecting the capi-
tal available in urban centres with agricultural industries ; 2) to cause
the formation and development of local rural funds ; 3) to furnish the

10 SPAIN - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

societies forming these on economical terms with the resources they need
in order to begin their activities ; 4) to regulate the movement and
employment of the capital of associated institutions destined to afford
agricultural credit, by providing for its investment in the case of some
societies and rendering it available for others ; and 5) generally to study
conditions favourable to the development of agricultural credit in the
country.

The chief transactions of the fund may be classified as follows :

a) the granting of limited credit to agricultural institutions enrolled
as adherent to the association ;

b) the acceptance of savings deposits ;

c) the opening of current accounts bearing interest ;

d) the granting of loans on security.

Agricultural institutions which have adhered to the Association of the
Agricvilturists of Spain will enjoy a credit to be carefull}- fixed b}' the man-
agers of the fund, in accordance with the solvency of their members hav-
ing collective liability, and especially in accordance with their importance
to social agricultural enterprise. Institutions which have obtained credit
of this description will undertake : i) to give the association a commer-
cial guarantee signed by three members of the institution chosen for this
purpose among those having an open account ; 2) to remit to the institu-
tion a quarterly account of business done ; 3) to allow any inspection of
books and accounts which the association or its delegates may make,
whenever such inspection may be considered useful.

• Such credit once granted, the institutions may circulate the amount
accruing to them by bills on the association expiring in one year, each
having a maximum value of 20 per cent, of the balance of credit, or by
any other commercial instrument chosen by the managers. Sums with-
drawn from credit accounts will bear a fixed annual interest of from 3 14
to 6 per cent. The capital in shares of the Credit Fund is variable. It
has been fixed initially at a minimum of 250,000 pesetas, represented by
500 contributions of 500 pesetas each. At first and for the first five 3^ears
of the fund's activity these contributions will be exacted as parts of a foun-
dation fund, and will be entirely assigned to the operations of the societies.
They will gradually be converted into shares. This share capital may be
subscribed, in whole or part, by means of the personal acceptance of pecu-
niary and individual responsibility for the discharge of the fund's obliga-
tions. The members will be collectively liable for these contributions
which will be equivalent to the foundation contributions paid in specie.

The subscribed share capital of the fund surpassed from the outset
its initial minimum, for contributions amounting to 497,500 pesetas were
received at the time of foundation. Subscriptions have since continued
and in May IQ16 their amount was 614,000 pesetas.

Since the fund has exi.sted onl}^ for some months, data as to its work-
ing and development cannot be obtained ; but it may be taken to have
rendered great service to the individual as to the collective members of
the association and to agriculturists generally.

THE ASSOCIATION OP THE AGRICULTURISTS II

Centre for Farmers' Contracts. — Hitherto one of the greatest obsta-
cles in the way of the investment and use of capital in agricultural indus-
tries has been the difficult}^ of acquiring and selling rural property in Spain.
A very 'capable agenc^^ was necessary to determine the accuracy of the
facts indicated by lists of offers.

The intermediary agents responsible for the sale and letting of rural
properties merely supply the information given to them b}' the proprietors.

The cost of such work to the seller is excessive when the transaction is
important. Many agriculturists, very variously situated, asked the asso-
ciation to form for them a special centre for contracts of purchase and sale,
which should render constantly available guarantees of the description of
properties to be sold, and of the circumstances attendant on sale. In Nov-
ember 1915 the association therefore founded an office for the purchase,
sale and letting of rural properties, on the following bases :

a) A right to use the office will belong only to members, whether
individuals or societies, of the Association of the Agriculturists of Spain.

b) The association will supply detailed notes as to properties for sale
or to let, with photographs and anj- other necessary papers, and will guar-
antee the accurac}' of data contained in the offer, on the responsibility
of its technical expert.

c) The association keeps a register of offers and one of demands.
To make an entry in the former it is necessary : i) to belong to the associa-
tion, being either ersonally enrolled in one of its classes or the adherent
of a societ}' which is among its collective members ; 2) to pay the fee,
fixed at 100 pesetas, which covers the travelling and maintenance costs
of the expert who inspects properties, and the cost of obtaining photo-
graphs, verifying data, etc. ; 3) to apply to the association and facilitate
the work entailed by such verification.

d) The association's technical expert guarantees by his signature
the accurac}' of the data supplied as to the quality of lands, the kind of
crops they bear, means of communication, buildings, live stock, imple-
ments and machines, etc., but does not guarantee the area unless he receive
plans which allow him to investigate it on the spot. Further he is not
responsible for the price a landowner may ask, this point being left entirely
to the seller's discretion.

e) When once any transaction has been completed neither the seller
nor the bu^^er will be in any way liable to make any payment.

/) Offers and demands will be advertised in the association's bulle-
tin, in order that all members may become aware of them.

Technical- Agronomic and Legal Advice. — The association has placed
at the service of its members the offices of persons especially competent
in these two departments, a technical and a legal adviser, both of whom
are paid by itself. It is their duty to answer the questions of members
on economic, technical, legal and social points.

lyCgal advice is given quite freely. Technical advice is of different
kinds, as follows :

a) It is given quite freely to members. They benefit thus by con-

12 SPAIN - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

sultations, either verbal or by correspondence, as to agriculture and rural
industries; such service being looked upon as agricultural instruction or as
having a general character, and including lectures and short and practical
courses of instruction, etc.

b) The association offers the free services of its expert, but the mem-
bers are responsible for his travelhng expenses and honoraria and for the
pajTnent of any assistants he may have. Under this provision, schemes
for farming are drawn up, the cost being limited to 25,000 pesetas ; lands
are valued, when they have already been surveyed, the cost being Hmited
to 5,000 pesetas ; buildings are valued where no survey or measuring is
necessary, the cost being limited to 5,000 pesetas ; and permanent improve-
ments are valued, as are the disposition of water with a view to irriga-
tion, enclosures, farming roads, etc., the cost being Hmited to 2,000
pesetas.

c) For 33.33 per cent, of their total cost the association suppHes ser-
vices other than those which have been mentioned : it will thus survey
lands, make plans and undertake other business.

According to the association's last report legal and technical advice
was given in eighty-six and in fifty-four cases, respectively, and there were
two thousand legal and as many technical verbal consultations.

WEST INDIES

CO-OPERATION IN ANTIGUA (i) : AN OBJECT I^ESSON.

By W. R. DUNLOP,

Scientific Assistant, Imperial Department of Agriculture.

One of the most striking features of social and economic interest in
Antigua — in fact in the whole of the West Indies — is the strong tendency
in that island towards agricultural co-operation. The tendency there is
much stronger than in any other West Indian island, and the reason for it
is not difficult to find : Antigua has known to a greater extent than the other
islands what adversity means. Subject to severe droughts and possessing
in any case a limited rainfall on account of the island's topography, Anti-
gua has experienced bad years. Furthermore this island has been largely
dependent upon one industry — sugar production ; and the low prices that
have ruled for this product before the war and the relatively high cost of
production have rendered it absolutely necessary to adopt economical me-
thods.

The cumulative result has been to engender in the minds of planters a
sympathetic attitude towards co-operation and the application of science,
such as does not exist to the same extent elsewhere. This is shown by the
close relationship that exists between the Department of Agriculture and the
Agricultural and Commercial Society, and by the energetic and progressive
work effected by both of these bodies for many years past.

The greatest and first example shown by Antigua in connection with
the value of combination is to be found in the Antigua (Gunthorpes) Central
Sugar Factory. The history of this factory has been dealt with in the West
Indian Bulletin on several occasions by Dr. Francis Watts, C. M. G., who
was largely responsible for its establishment. Suffice it to say that it had its
origin in 1903 in a series of agreements between a group of owners of sugar
estates and a company formed in London. It was arranged that the contract-
ing proprietors should receive a first payment on their canes with a division
of profits at the end of each season. The scheme was supported by the gov-
ernment to the extent of what now amounts to a free grant of £ 15,000. The

(i) Written from information in the files of the Imperial Department of Agriculture
for the West Indies by direction of the Imperial Commissioner,

14 WEST INDIES - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

factory has made steady growth and in 1919 the original contractors may
reasonabh' expect the distribution amongst them of shares which represent
one half of the factory.

But besides benefiting the estate owners of Antigua, the central factory
has been of advantage to the peasantry. Both Gunthorpes Central Factory
and Bendals Factory entered into an agreement to purchase peasants' canes,
and to facilitate the growing of canes and other crops ; the government of
Antigua reser^^ed for peasants and rented on easy terms a considerable
acreage of land.

Thus the Antigua factory besides being a financial success is an object
lesson of considerable educational value. Above all it is a concrete argument
in favour of the extension of the British sugar industry within the empire.

From the point of view of financial and economic importance the An-
tigua factory just referred to stands alone. But there have been during
the past few years co-operative movements which seem to indicate more
forcibly the co-operative feeling in the presidency. Such a movement was
that started in 1913 to form an Onion Growers' Association. For years An-
tigua had been producing small quantities of onions of a verv^ satisfactory
kind and it was felt that the island possessed opportunities for development
in this direction. Such opportunities lay chiefly in the possibihty to sup-
ply the New York and Canadian markets before the Bermuda and other
crops came in, and to estabhsh an intercolonial trade with the more thickly
populated islands, like Barbados, in the West Indies.

In 1913, an association was formally established. A central grading and
packing house was arranged for, and it was agreed that the onion crops of "
members should be marketed on a co-operative basis through the association,
a first payment of i c. per lb. being paid on delivery, followed by a distri-
bution of the surplus profits. Agents were appointed in the different
markets and a system of cable advices introduced. It was made known
that the association's mark on each crate was a guarantee that the pro-
duce was sound, properly graded and packed. During the season 1913-14
the total weight of onions purchased by the association was 42,799 lbs. ; in
1914-15 it rose [to 186,198 lbs. or nearly four times the amount for the
previous 3^ear. Total payment amounted to £588 or 1.5 c. per lb. The
association has now established a firm connection in New York and in
the intercolonial markets, and Antigua onions are becoming known, and
justly so, as high class and uniform produce. It may be added as a
fact of agricultural interest that in Antigua large quantities of onions are
grown as a catch crop with sugar cane. Where this is done the cost of
production is greatly reduced.

The success of the Onion Growers' Association has no doubt been
partly responsible for those further co-operative movements in Antigua
during the present year in connection with the formation of Cotton and of
lyime-Growers' Associations, respectivel^^ The Cotton Growers' Association
which has now been formed, realh' originated in a resolution at the recent
West Indian Cotton Conference held in St. Kitts during March 1916. The
association includes in its membership all the principal cotton growers in

CO-OPERATION IN ANTIGUA : AN OBJECT LESSON I5

the island. There is a committee of management which has full power to
deal with all matters affecting the cotton industr>^ of the island. The asso-
ciation is affiliated to the Antigua Agricultural and Commercial Society
and to the Antigua Onion Growers' Association, but this does not imply
general distribution of responsibilities.

The Lime Growers' Association, which is at the present time in process
of formation, has, it appears, for its principal object, the establishment of
a small but profitable green lime trade wih New York, supplementary
to that of Dominica which has assumed big dimensions of recent years.
Antigua, it is supposed, profiting by the experiences of Dominica and guided
by her own knowledge of the value of combined action, intends to estab-
lish a central grading depot and to make beforehand, if possible, special
arrangements in regard to freight facilities. While this is commendable, it
is a question whether the production of limes in Antigua will ever attain
large proportions.

The present account of co-operation in Antigua would not be complete
without some reference to the Indian corn or maize industry of that island.
It had been felt for some time that the West Indian islands should
produce more corn and import less. Antigua, as might be expected, was
the first to lead the way to giving effect to this idea. The principal
difficulty was that, to keep, corn must be dried. This would necessitate
the establishment of a kiln-drying plant, and this the Antigua govern-
ment decided to do. In May 1914 the establishment was opened,
its efficiency having been previously demonstrated. Antigua kiln-dried
corn had been found to be as good if not better than the imported American
product. The terms on which local deliveries are accepted by the granary
are as follows : (i) the co-operative plan whereby a first payment of 2s. 6d.
per bushel of shelled grain is made to growers, to be followed by a distribu-
tion of the surplus profits of the undertaking after paying all expenses and
deducting 25 per cent, as the profit of the granary ; (2) the purchase of
corn for cash at the rate of 3s. 6d. per bushel of shelled grain ; (3) the kiln-
drying of corn for which a charge not exceeding 6d. per bushel is made.

Arrangements were made later for the erection of a meal-making ma-
chine.

The effect of the establishment of this granary was to increase largely
the area under Indian corn in the island. It cannot be said, however, that
so far the granary has been a financial success, nor is it likely to be until
corn is produced in large quantities in excess of the immediate local require-
ments. At present it is in the nature of a governement insurance of corn
growing and from that point of view should at least inspire confidence.

In connection with corn growing it may be noted that during the present
year an attempt to encourage the industry was made by holding a maize
show. This function was highly successful and may be expeceted to have
the desired result. ;,. v ,

In concluding this review of events in Antigua, we may^the more
appreciate their importance by considering for a moment their external as
part from their internal effects. The Antigua Sugar Factory was distinctly

l6 WEST INDIES - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

a pioneer or experimental project. Its promotion involved heav>' respon-
sibilities on the part of the originators. It proved a success, however, with
the result that a few years after its establishment another and similar fac-
tory was erected in the neighbouring island of St. Kitts. These factories
in their turn have served to encurage greater centrahzation of recent
years in Barbados.

Turning to the Antigua Onion Growers' Association we are able to re-
cord a most striking external effect. Last year an affiliated association was
formed in Montserrat and a similar one in the Virgin Islands, while Nevis,
if it has not an association, is endeavouring to develop its onion industry on
similar co-operative Hues to those followed in Antigua.

It will be seen therefore that a great deal of importance attaches to the
study of the economic conditions obtaining in Antigua. It is an island which,
though its prospects now are good, has been subject to adversities; but
combined action in the right direction has won. Even the fortunes of the
most flourishing colonies may suddenly take a turn in the wrong direction —
it may be through unavoidable causes or from unpreparedness to meet avoid-
able ones : in any case co-operation in Antigua provides a useful object
lesson that should not be neglected even by the most affluent of agricultural
communities.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

DENMARK.

THE GEXERAI, UNION OF CO-OPERATIVE CONSUMERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN1915 (i).

Following on our previous remarks regarding co-operative consumers'
societies in Denmark we give the essential results of the activity in 1915 of
the General Union of these societies.

On 31 December 1914, 1,407 associations • — almost all of those exist-
ing in Denmark — belonged to the General Union. Their members num-
bered 219,492.

A year later, on 31 December 1915, eighty-one associations, numbering
12,636 members, had acceded to the union. The following figures show the
progress of the movement since 1896.

1896
1901
1903

1905
1907
1909
1911

1913
1914

1915

Number
of Asscciations

belonging
to the Union

310

684

1,029
1,189

1,224
1,286

1.359
1,407
1,488

Number

of

their

Members

90,972
115,872
143,031
168,696
173,808
181,326

194.337
219,492
232,128

Amount

of Turnover

in Millions

of crowns (2)

4.2

13-5
19.8
26.3

364
41.7
48.8
62.0
69.6
71-5

The reserve funds of the associations which were 350,000 crowns on
31 December 1901, amounted on 31 December 1905 to 1,100,000 crowns; on
31 December 1910 to 2,775,000 crowns ; in 1912 to 3,657,000 crowns ; in
1913 to 3,987,000 crowns ; in 1914 to 4,276,000 crowns ; on 31 December 1915
to 4,583,000 crowns.

(i) Note sent by our correspoudeiit in Copenhagen.
{2) I crown = about is i y^dat par.

i8

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The General Union is not concerned only with trade but devotes also
considerable activity to industry. The following figures indicate its oper-
ations in its different spheres of action.

Commercial Activity.

(Value of operations in millions of crowns).

Section for colonial provisions

» )> manufactures

» » edge-tools

1) 11 grains

» » trade in wood

» » large merchandise

» » wines

» » packing

» » cycles

Total

1915

72.4

50-4

38.5

5-2

4-9

5.0

4-2

4.1

2.7

0.2

0.2

0.6

0.4

0.6

0.3

6.0

6.0

0.3

0-3

57-5

1913

Industrial A ctivity .

(Value of operations in millions of crowns).

Roasting of coffee

Manufacture of chocolate

» » sugar

» » tobacco & cigars

» » ropes

» » soap

» » chemicals (technical)

» » knitting

I) » margarine

Spice mills

Section for com

Packing

Total

2.9
0.8
0.4
i.o
0.6
I.I
0,2
0.2
6.1
0.4
0.2
I.I

15.0

1914

2.8

0.7

0.3
0.8

05
1.0
0.2
0.2

4-7
0.4
0.2
0.8

12.6

It will be seen that of late years the increase in the value of operations
has been distributed over almost all branches of activity, and that the profits,

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

19

which in 1912 were 2,846,000 crowns, rose in 1913 to 3,048,000 crowns, in
1914 to 3,825,000 crowns, and in 1915 to 5,005,000 crowns. In terms of the
percentage of the figure representing the business done, that is of the value of
the purchases giving a right to a share of dividends, the associations belong-
ing to the union received 5.5 per cent, in 1912, 5.5 per cent, in 1913, 6 per
cent, in 1914, and 7 per cent in 1915.

We will conclude by reproducing the balance-sheets of the union,
dated i January 1916, 1915 and 1914.

Balance Sheets of the General Union .

(in millions of crowns).
Credit.

Stock of merchandise

In hand

Inventory ....

Properties

Credit

Total

Debit.

Co-operative societies' account

Reserve funds' »

Dividends »

Debit » for loans

Insurance » (against lowering of prices)

Reduction in value of buildings

Insurance account

Insurance renewal account ,

Insurance account (against disturbance of activity) .

lyoans on properties

Various creditors

Carried over from last year

Net excess

Total . . .

igi6

1914

0.93

0.80

0.78

4-58

4.27

3-99

0.23

0.18

0.15

1.99

2-34

2.90

0.57

0.27

0.20

350

3.50

3.00

O.IO

O.IO

O.IO

0.50

0.50

0.50

0.30

O.IO

—

0.99

1. 00

1.32

6.37

3.81

3.65

0.52

0.04

0.04

5.00

3.83

3-05

25-58

20.74

19.68

20 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

GER3IANY.

HOUSEWIVES' AORICUT^TURAE ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR ACTIVITY. —
Boehiu, Elisabeth, in Blatter fiir Genossenachajtswesen. Berlin, ib September 1916.

The aim of the first agricultural association of housewives in East
Prussia, which was founded nearl}^ twenty years ago and composed of
town and countrv' members, was to inculcate in its members the princi-
ples of a sound economic education, and to institute an office for the sale
to town housewives of fresh country' provisions. Countrywomen were
thus enabled to sell their produce more profitably than heretofore while
the large towns found themselves more amply and more economically
provided with foodstuffs.

The selling offices further affect agriculture in that they induce those
interested in it to increase the cultivated area and to emplo3' the soil scien-
tifically, and in that they allow a large sale of small quantities of vegeta-
bles and fruit produced on distant farms.

At present there is at least one housewives' association in each district
and a selling office in every small town. For the whole province the turn-
over of these organizations amounted in 1915 to 1,330,000 marks (i).
There are also twenty associations in West Prussia, thirteen in Pomerania,
twelve in Silesia and as mauA' in Schleswig-Holstein and in the pro\dnce
of Saxon^'. These have, following the example of East Prussia, grouped
themselves in provincial federations which have adhered to a Prussian
provincial federation. In all the other Prussian provinces and German
States a series of these associations are found, so that there are altogether
more than 120 of them founded on similar bases and working as free socie-
ties. This free form seems to suit the organizing activit}^ of women better
than the co-operative form, which invariably exacts a larger measure of
work and of responsibility than housewives are able to supply. In spite
of the unsuccessful experience at Hildesheim of a housewives' association
organized as a co-operative society, new attempts in this direction have
recentl}- been made in Hanover, which is the province par excellence of co-
operative organization. At Hanover itself, at Liinebourg and at Osna-
briick housewives' associations and selling offices, which are co-operative
in form, have been instituted.

The financial results of the enterprise cannot as 3"et be estimated.
It is however certain that when several selling offices are established the
turnover of the smallest towns increases, while on the other hand the gene-
ral costs diminish. The free associations at first deduct 10 per cent, for
general costs, but subsequenth' often effect a reduction to 8 per cent. It
is found that the latter percentage will allow the maintenance of itinerant
instructors, and the institution of establishments for making jams and pre-

(1) I mark = about 11 3/4 d. at par.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 21

ser\-es and of others for hatching eggs, as well as grants to social enterprises
and to the daughters of poor members for their instruction in domestic
economy.

In their monthly meetings the town and countn,- members discuss
prices together, and thus for the first time townswomen are able to parti-
cipate in fixing prices. The shops of the associations have distinguished
themselves during the war by maintaining fair prices, often lower than
those which obtain in markets.

ITALY.

r. AGRICUI^TURAI, CO-OPERATION AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE OF PEASANTS.—
La Cooperazionc ItalianU; Milan, No. 1212, 6 October 1916.

The Congregation of Charit> recently took important decisions in
favour of promoting agricultural co-operation in the management of the
lands owned by charitable institutions, and of ensuring to peasants habit-
ually emplo3'ed on the congregation's own farms a minimum of social assis-
tance correspondent to modern needs. The provisions in <]uestion are
courageous and are destined to produce the best results. The}' could eas-
ily be adopted by the administrators of all charitable institutions which
own rural land, and several congresses have already declared themselves
to this effect (i). We think therefore that it "nnll be intercbting to describe
them.

Above all the council of the congregation affirmed the dut}' of pubhc
administrations owning rural property to endeavour to raise the level of
the intellectual, moral and enconomic life of the peasants working on their
land. The council was further of the opinion that the best means o* doing

(i) In Bologna, on the 15th of last October in a meeting of the representatives of labour or-
ganizations, held to discuss the letting of rural lands owned by charitable institutions ar.d the
r Jations between agricultural and labom co-operative societies, an order of the day was approv-
ed, which affirmed thj power of the public administrators of the province to give a preference
in litting agreem nts to the co-operative societies, particularly to the local federation which
was th;ir b;st known nucL^us, and which invited the delegates of the public administrations of
the labour organizations to nominate a mixed technical commission charged a) to formulate
" general regulations for letting " which should legitimately" safeguard public interests and the
particular interests of the contracting parties ; 6) to act permaraentlj- in an arbitrating capac-
ity in order to prevent ditferences which might arise as to such leases. The congress further
expressed a desire that the provincial federation should oblige its adherent co-operative soci-
eties to become more and more doselj' connc-cted with the organizations exis'ing specificallj-
for collective pro\ isioning and sale of the articles and commodities necessary to agriculture
and derived from it (agricultural un'ons, autonomous commtmal 'nstitutions, co-opetative
consumers' societies, etc.), thus gradually eliminating the ustless niiddkmtnwho burden
production as much as consumption. See in this connection La Cooperazionc Itahana, Milan,
No. 1215, 27 October 1916.

22 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

this was to entrust the management of lands to the co-operative societies
formed by the agricultural labourers, whenever these gave proof of an ade-
quate technical and financial capacit5^

In order to guarantee that co-operative societies undertaking the man-
agement of the congregation's farms would be faithful to the principle of
co-operation, and that their technical, book-keeping and economic duties
would be regularly discharged, these societies were advised to join the Feder-
ation of Agricultural Co-operative Societies which has offices at Milan and
which proposes to aid agricultural co-operation in the matter of technique
and bookkeeping, financing it and assisting the societies' collective pur-
chases and sales.

Further, in order to aid peasants working on farms let to individu;ils,
the council resolved :

i) To render obligatory the contracts as to settlements and the
labour agreements in force in the respective districts, especially as regards :

a) minimum wages in kind and money and in shares of profits ;

h) hours of labour and of rest ;

e) guarantees and insurances in cases of illness, accident, disablement
and old age ;

d) the registration of contracts of settlement and labour bj^ employ-
ment offices ;

e) the decision of disputes between employers and peasants by submit-
ting these to the commission of conciliation and arbitration annexed to the
employment offices.

2) The council resolved that persons farming lands in districts in
which special settlement contracts and labour agreements were not in force,
should appl}^ the most favourable conditions as to hours and wages - both
in money and in kind — which were locally customary.

They should annuall}^ deposit with the administration of the congre-
gation a copy of the contract made with ever}^ labouring family, which
should conform to a model furnished b}' the administration.

The guarantees must be given to the peasants, to provide for the cases
of sickness, accident, disablement and old age, which we have already men-
tioned under letter c).

Disputes arising between employers and peasants, and outside the ter-
ritorial sphere of the arbitrating commission, should be submitted for ami-
cable settlement to the president of the congregation's technical office.

The share of the administration in the costs of these provisions for the
peasants will be :

i) A quarter of the premium for insurance against accidents.

2) One lira for each peasant registered or to be registered by the
National Thrift Fund (Cassa Nazionale di Providenza), such lira to dimi-
nish that minimum share of the registration fee which will be chargeable
to the peasant.

3) A third of the premium for the insurance against fire of the
moveables, implements, clothes and food of a peasant, the other two thirds
remaining chargeable to the employer and to the peasant, respectively. The

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 23

total sum of these contributions, estimated for each propert'>^ should be
taken into account at the time of the expert valuation of the dues burdening
rent, and should be part of the sum annually deducted from these dues, to
the credit of the employer.

All the above provisions will be comprised in the lists of stipulations
as to properties let in the current year ; and since their effects can be realized
rapidly and can reach a large number of peasants, the council decided to
invite employers enjoying current leases to apply the conditions which fa-
vour peasants from the beginning of the coming agricultural year.

Finally to complete these provisions the council decided :

i) to vote 600 liras (i) to the employment offices for peasants, tak-
ing such sum from the reserve on the balance-sheet of 1916, and to include
a Uke contribution in the budgets for future years ;

2) to found an itinerant chair of domestic economy, with the object
of giving rules for rational housekeeping to families labouring on the lands
of the administration ;

3) to promote and subsidize enterprises tending to the spread of cul-
ture, such as evening and Sunday courses of elementary instruction in the
farms, circulating libraries, courses of technical instruction, etc.

4) to occasion an agreement with other charitable enterprises own-
ing rural lands, for the purpose of instituting an agricultural inspectorate
which will see that the rules stipulated in leases in the interests of peasants
are effectively applied, that the laws of hygiene and sanitation are
observed, that there is compulsory education, etc.

*
* *

2. THE POSITION OF CERTAIN POPULAR BANKS IN 1913. — Credito e Cooperazione,
oigan of the Assodaztone fra le Banchc Pnpnlan, Rome, No. iq, 1 October 1916.

The Agricultural Bank of Mantua (2). — The report accompanying
the balance-sheet for 1915 (45th year) of this bank opens bj^ drawing at-
tention to the rapid decline in deposits in the first months of the year — from
eighteen and a half millions at the end of 1914 to fourteen millions in the
following May — ; and to their no less rapid increase after the beginning
of the war, so that in October 1915 they again reached eighteen millions
and in December twenty-one and a half millions. Thus in the first half-
year there were difficulties due to the diminution of resources, and other
difficulties in the second half-year due to the plenty of money, much of
which was deposited only on a precarious title. These difiiculties, and the
necessity of being prepared to face the eventual withdrawal of part of the
deposited sum, showed the bank's administrators the path they must fol-
low. In the first place securities were prudently reduced and then the

(i) I s = 1. 261 1 liras at par. •

(2) La Banca Agricola Mantovana.

24 INFORMATION REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

normal course of dealing with them was resumed, such investments being
preferred as were not only safest but also most readily realized. The re-
sults of this prudent management are evident in the balance-sheet, of
which the principal figures can be resumed as follows :

Shareholder's property : 1,262,704 liras — including 443,000 Uras
in share capital and ordinary reserve, 136,000 Uras in repaid shares and
profits, and a special fund of 683,000 hras.

Deposits : 21,453,391 liras — including small savings amounting to
more than ten millions, five millions of ordinary savings deposits, more
than five millions on current account and 776,000 liras in interest-bearing
bonds.

Altogether resources amount to about twenty-two and three quarter
millions, as to which sum the following investments should be noted :
securities on 31 December, ten and a half million; the bank's title-deeds,
more than seven million ; advances remaining, four million hras. Net
profits amounted to 65,784.50 liras; and of them 18,767 liras were assigned
to the shareholders, namely 5 per cent, on their shares which is the maxi-
mum allowed by the by-laws, and 37,149 liras to the fund destined to guaran-
tee values, while the rest was placed at the council's disposition for the
employees' thrift fund, and for renumerations, allocations, etc.

The Popular Mutual Bank of Teramo (i). — This is one of the oldest
establishments for popular mutual credit, having originated in 1881. The
difficulties which it had to overcome in 1915 were not trifling. They did
not however prevent it from developing an activity beneficent both to the
city and to its own clients : it placed large means at the disposal of the
commune for the acquisition of grain ; it repaid to depositors in less than
ten months a million and a half liras, and it invested in national loans — all
this without neglecting local needs and those of small commerce, in the
interests of which the rate of discount was always kept within moderate
limits — ; and finally it strengthened its banking business by a consider-
able sum of net profits.

To resume the bank's enterprise in this year we will give the following
figmes from its balance-sheet :

The total capital amounted to 634,837 liras, including 150,000 liras
of capital in shares (3,000 shares of 50 liras each held b}' 1,234 sharehold-
ers), 75,000 liras of ordinary reserve, 397,000 liras of extraordinary re-
serve and a reserve of 13,000 liras to provide against oscillations in values.

Deposits on current account amounted to 146,000 liras and savings
deposits to 2,283,463 liras. There was a reduction of 789,000 liras in the
savings deposits, as compared with the preceding year. Not only the
state of war, but also the diminished remittances of emigrants, the local
agricultural crisis caused by the failure of the harvest and the vintage
which obliged agriculturists to withdraw their deposits, and finally the
issue of the national loans, were responsible for the decline in saving.

(i) I,a Banca Mutua Popolare di Teramo.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 25

Securities at the end of the 3^ear gave a balance of 2,494 bills for
2,423,336. liras, including 2,022,231 liras on bills expiring within three
months and 401,105 liras on those expiring later. Bills discounted in
1915 numbered 10,972 and were for more than eleven million liras. The
diminution in the discounts effected, as compared with 1914, was 42,000
liras. Dishonoured bills for the year are represented in the balance-sheet
by only 23,000 liras.

The title deeds of the bank's propert}" amounted to 678,000 liras, '
660,000 liras thereof being invested in treasury bonds. As regards the
profit and loss account, the net profits amounted to 61,000 liras, of which
sum 11,887 liras was assigned to the shareholders at the rate of 4 liras a
share, 43,000 liras went to augment different reserve funds, 2,000 liras
was granted to beneficent objects and 2,000 liras to the industrial school.

Tlie Popular Mutual Bank of Verona (i). — This is one of the oldest
popular banks in Venetia, having been founded in 1867, that is at the
beginning of I/uigi IvUzzatti's organization of a propaganda of popular
credit. It has alw^ays remained faithful to its early principles, and thaiiks
to prudent administration it has attained morally and materially to a lead-
ing position. lyike kindred institutions it felt last year the effects of the
country's economic crisis as determined by political events : the sums
deposited in this bank were at first reduced, and later, when calm had re-
turned to the market, it had to find the best investments for the consider-
able sum which the plentiful return of deposits placed at its disposal
However it was able to overcome transitory embarassments, by rediscount-
ing largeh' and frequentl}' the securities of similar banks, by subscribinj5
to the national loans, or by reducing the rate of interest paid on deposits
of each category in order to lessen their superabundance. By such mea-
sures the hard times were successfully passed. The figures on the balance-
sheet are most satisfactory and show the institution's flourishing condi-
tion. We will quote the principal of them :

The shareholders' property was 756,470 liras of which 484,308 liras
represents the capital (13,453 shares of 36 liras each) and 272,162 liras the
reserve.

Deposits amounted to twelve and a half million liras, two million on
current account and ten and a half in savings deposits. The increase
shown by this item as compared with 1914 is of 1,400,000 liras.

Securities held at the end of the year gave a balance of 4,236,092 liras,
showing a diminution of 800,000 liras as compared with the preceding
year's balance. We have abready noticed the reasons for a limitation of
activity, and these also affected the year's profits. .

The bank holds title-deeds of its property for 2,373,873 liras, all offer-
ing the surest guarantee and being readily realizable.

The net profits amounted to 79,392 liras ; of which 30,000 liras went
to augment the reserve, 24,205 liras were assigned to shareholders at the

(i) I,a Banca Mulua Popolare di Verona.
3

26 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

rate of 5 per cent, on their paid-np capital, and the remainder was
divided among the council and the employees.

The profit and loss account shows that this bank also spent during
the year more than 3,000 liras on beneficent objects.

3. THE STATISTICS OF THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS. —
Azione Sociale, orgRV. of the Social and Economic Union of Catholic Italians, Fatnza, No. 14
November 1916.

The Unione Economico-Sociale jra i CaUoUci Italiani is compiling
general statistics as to social and economic associations in Itaty. With this
object it has already circulated a special form of questions, asking the
name of a given society, its site and address, data as to its constitution
— whether legal or merely actual — , the number of its members (including
those under arms), its collective property on 31 December 1915, its re-
ceipts in 1 91 5, the assessment of members, the assessments or premiums
received in 1915, its expenses in 1915.

.Societies of the following categories are the objects of the enquiry' :
mutual aid societies, mutual insurance societies (of live stock and against
fire and hail), agricultural unions for collective purchase, consumers' co-op-
erative societies, labour and producing co-operative societies, co-operative
societies for agriculture and collecdve letting and for building popular
dwellings, and trade organizations (including offices of labour and secre-
tariats of the people and of emigration).

National federations adhering to the Union have also been invited to
supply data relative to 1915 or of later date, in order that a complete pic-
tture of Catholic economic organization may be obtained. In due time we
willfshow the chief conclusions drawn from these important statistics.

RUSSIA.

I. CO OPERATIVE SUPPLY AND PRODUCTION OP AGRICULTURAL MACHINES.

1) KoBA.itB.JI. (Koval v. D.): Co-oPERATrvE Trade in AGRicuLTtjRAL Machines in Ma-

iiiiiHa B73 cejlL-CKOMij Xo3HiicTB'fe (The Machine in Agriculture) N°. i, Kiev, 15
Januarj' 191 6 ;

2) JlEniEBOii M. (Dechevoj M.): The Agrictxltuk.al Machine Industry in Russia, ibid :

Nos. 10 and 11, 31 May and 15 June 1916 ;

3) Zt-oj M. (D-oj M.) : The Dissemin.'vtion of Agricultural Machines and Implements

BY Co-oper.'^tive Credit, ibid : Nos. 14 and 15-16, 15 August and i and 30 September
1916.

The collective supply of agricultural machines and implements in Rus-
sia is now chiefly undertaken by the co-operative credit unions, who have

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

27

been empowered by a statute of 1895, having reference to 1905, to conduct
such enterprise. The number of co-operative credit unions who take upon
themselves the task of providing agricultural machines for the rural popu-
lation increases year by year, as does the sum of money which they thus
employ. These facts appear from the following table :

Number of Co-operative
Supply Associations

Sums they spend on buying
Agricultural Machines

1910.
1911.
1912.

1913-
1914.

3,200,000 roubles
4,900,000
6,346,000
0,638,000
14,000,000 "

Last year co-operative suppty was responsible for lo.S per cent, of
the whole trade in machines.

The sums which the co-operative unions lend to their members for the
purchase of agricultural machines vary in amount. According to an en-
quiry made by the Distribution of Agricultural Machines the following sums
were lent with this object in 191 2 by the co-operative credit unions and the
savings and loan funds to their members :

by 7,754 co-operative credit unions.
» 1,558 savings and loan funds. .

in all. .

8,635,921 roubles (i)
3.029,850 »

11,665,771

Of the 3,000 co-operative unions (20 per cent, of all the credit unions),
which in 1914 undertook the supply of agricultural machines, only 723
were combined in the eleven following federations of co-operative unions :

(i) I rouble cf gold = about 2S i ^ rf at psr.

28

INFORMATION REI^ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Year

of

Foundation

Number

of

Co-operative

Unions

combined

Sums spent on'
Agricultural

Machines

of Kiev

Jekaterinburg .
Melitopol. . .
Berdjansk . .
Tersk ....
Nikolaiev . .
JekaLerinoslav
Nijni-Novgorod
Kiibanj. ...
Zlatoust . . .
Blagodarinsk .

1907
1907
1903
1901
1911

1915
1911
1911
1911
1911
1907

190
74
34
25
86

9

60

106

23
20

27

140,000 roubles
333.760

79,484
55.690
10,438

20,012
26,829
59.278
93.747
73.959

723

975,197 roubles

The co-operative supply of agricultural machines has developed most
importantly in the east in the federations of Jekaterinburg and Zlatoust,
and in the south in the federation of Kiev. The amount of the sums spent
on agricultural machines is not alway directly related to the number of
single co-operative unions which a federation combines, a circumstance to
be explained by the fact that unfederated co-operative unions also supply
their demand for agricultural machines by availing themselves of the ser-
vices of the federations as central purchasing organizations. This practice
becomes increasingly prevalent as the co-operative instinct grows and the
co-operative unions spread. In 1914 the co-operative federations were
responsible for seven per cent, of all the co-operative supply of agricultural
machines. All signs point to a ver^^ notable increase of this percentage
in the near future ; for the whole course of co-operative supply tends indubi-
tably to the formation of co-operative federations and thus assures the
fruitful development of the co-operative supply of agricultural machines.
It is symptomatic in the case of several federations — those of Kiev, Je-
katerinburg, Tersk, Nijni-Novgorod and Kuban j — that the}' are not content
merely to supph^ machines, but wish also to teach the scientific use of
these, after they have come into the hands of the peasants, and thus to bring
about good methods of farming. To this end they engage agricultural
experts, set up stations where advice may be had as to agriculture, initiate
co-operative tmions for machines and so forth ; all of which measures are
calculated, like the machines themselves, to intensify and improve agricul-
ture on the peasants' farms.

An effort which is now being made by the co-operative unions to aim

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

at the production of machines themselves may hold much promise for the
future ; for the import from foreign countries of machines, on which annual-
h' a sum of 63,800,000 roubles was expended, has been almost stopped.
The co-operative federations in Jekaterinburg and Melitol should be
mentioned in this connection as pioneers. They have already worked
out plans for establishing machine factories which have the necessary
strong backing. A co-operative factory which turns out 1,000 corn-winnow-
ing machines a year is now at work in Melitopol. In view of the present
large demand for machines it may be taken as certain that this factory
will soon be followed bv others.

2. MUTUAL CREDIT SOCIETIES IN RUSSIA ON i JULY 1915. Cbo3:i> Ba-iaHCOBi,
OrbmecTB'B BaaiiMHaro Kpe;3;HTa ;],'feHCTByK)in;HX'i> bb Poccii-i na i Iiojih 1915
TOjia. — MiiHiicxepcTBO OHHancoBi,. (Hn;i,aHie Oco6eHHoii KanuejinpiH no
Kpe;;HTHOH HacTii) (Collection of Summarized Financial Statements of the Mutual
Credit Societies operating in Russia, showing their Condition on 1 Jtily 1915) Special Oflfice
for Credit Business, Petrograd, P. P. Sojkin, 1916 (folio) 39 pp.

We take the followdng most prominent data from the half yearl}'
report, based on figures, which has been issued by the special office
for providing credit of the Ministr}' of Finance, as to the position and acti-
vity of existing credit societies on i July 1915.

The credit societies which were modelled on the Brussels " Union de
credit " in Petrograd in 1864, and of which the first fifty years of life were
honoured at the appropriate time in our Review (i), ntmibered 1,179 ^^ ^^^
the Russian State on i July 1915. Thirty-one of them were in Petrograd,
eight in Moscow, about 170 in the capital towns of governments and provinces,
and 970 in those of districts and in small countr}^ places. Their existence
in the last named — the circumstance that these societies are foiind
even in small market towns — has particular interest for us ; for thus they
enter into business relations wdth the rural population, who are able to
seek credit from them. The existing credit societies have by the law of
II May 1898 been empowered to accept promissory notes secured by land
and in this way to make short-terra credit accessible to farmers. Excep-
tionally and with the permission of the Minister of Finance they ma}^ give
credit not only to their own members, most of whom are tradespeople and
small manufacturers, but also to the rural connnunities and the peasants'
co-operative societies.

Of the 1,179 societies 1,039 published their reports punctually. The
other 140, of which some have their spheres in territory now held by the
enemy and some have been abandoned, have partialh' discharged their
functions but they could not intimate what results they had obtained on i
July 1 91 5.

(i) See International Review of Agriculture. December 191 4.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The number of members enrolled by these societies amounted to 566, 182.
The societies in the principal towns had of course the largest member-
ship : in the First Society of Petrograd there were 8,137 members, in the
society of the district zemstvo of Petrograd 5,824, in the Society of Trades-
men of Moscow 3,390, in the First Society of Odessa 5,477 and in the
First Society of Riga 3,576. The smallest membership — thirty-six — was
shown by the society of Golodaev in the Don district.

The societies and their membership were distributed as follows in
the different territories :

Name of Region

1. Northern

2. Moscow manufacturers

3. Central farmers

4. On and beyond the Volga ....

5. White Russia and Ivithuania . . .

6. Little and »South Western Russia .

7. Region of Southern Steppes . . .

8. Kankasas

g. Siberia

10. Central Asia

11. Baltic Provinces

12. Kini^dom of Poland

Total . . . 1,039 566,182

As can be seen the majority of existing credit societies, and those hav-
ing the largest membership, are scattered over Little Russia and the south
and south western part of the State, that is over the districts which are
noted as providing corn to Europe — the governments of Poltova, Tcher-
nigoff, Kiev, Bessarabia, Tauria and PodoUa.

The capital of the societies amounted to 144,268,000 roubles
115,791,000 roubles constituting the working capital, 15,579,000 roubles
the reserve funds, and 12,898,000 roubles special capital. The capital of
the First Petrograd Credit Society was 4,644,000 roubles, that of the
Second Petrograd vSociety 4,327,000 roubles, and that of the Moscow
Tradesmen 5,259,000 roubles. Their deposits reached 586,738,000 roubles,
188,615,000 roubles being withdrawable after notice had been given, and
398,123,000 — which was on current account — without notice. Their
loans amounted to 106,318,000 roubles.

Discount being the chief business of the existing credit societies,
493,727,000 roubles under the head of exchange was more than half
the whole sum on the credit side of their accounts. They lent 115,960,000

Number
of Societies

Membership

n

52,662

27

13.541

43

17.794

65

33.720

79

26,563

244

140.033

248

162,862

136

63,998

30

12,805

18

5.883

49

26,395

23

9,926

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 3 1

roubles on paper securities ; 35,526,000 roubles on merchandise and certi-
ficates of merchandise ; and 71,015,000 roubles on real estate, of which
5,575,000 roubles was lent on promissory notes secured by land. The
value of the paper securities was entered in the books as 23,918,000 roubles.
These few leading facts are enough briefly to indicate the position and
the activity of the existing credit societies on I July 1915. Their signifi-
cance, as regards their methods and the operations they conduct, is for the
most part local.

UNITED STATES.

THE CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING OF I,IVE STOCK IN WISCONSIN. —R. M. Orchard
in The Banker-Farmer, Vol. Ill, No. 7, June 1916. Champaign (Illinois).

Farmers' associations for the marketing of live stock in the United
States now number about 500 and have had some excellent results.

The Muscoda Farmers' " Shipping " Association may be taken to be
typical of organizations of this kind in Wisconsin. Its members are a group
of farmers who have agreed among themselves to market their live stock
together. In November 1913 they came together and chose a president, a
secretary-treasurer or manager, and a yard man.

A farmer desiring to sell by the medium of the association gives a
list of his stock to the manager, who keeps a register of the names of as-
sociated farmers, the number and kind of animals they have to market,
and the approximate weights of these. When the manager sees from his
register that he has a truckload of hogs, cattle or sheep ready to be marketed
he engages a truck from the railway company by telephone for a particular
day : and then, also by telephone, instructs the farmers to deliver their
stock in time. On the appointed day it is received, weighed and marked
by the yard man, who keeps a list of it and of the owners, weights and marks.
The animals are then loaded and sent to Chicago or Milwaukee, according to
their number and quality. On the same day the manager sends to the com-
mission house, which will dispose of the stock in the central market, an in-
voice in which the names of the owners and the weights and marks of the
animals are indicated. When the truck reaches the central market it is
unloaded and the animals are fed and watered. If they are cattle they are
then sorted according to their owners ; if they are hogs it is considered more
profitable to grade them according to quality. The animals are afterwards
weighed and sold ; and the commission agent to whom they have been con-
signed pays, on the very day of the sale, the money due for them into the
account which the " Shipping " Association has at a bank. He afterwards
makes a report of the sale to the manager of the association, stating the costs
of freight, yard accommodation, insurance and food, as well as the arnount
of the commission, all of which have been deducted from the gross price.

32 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

On receiving this statement the manager in his turn draws up a report set-
ting forth the weight of the animals before their journej^ and at the central
market, the price obtained at the central market for all the stock and for
that of individual owners, the individual's share of expenses on the journey
and at the market., the commission charged b\' the association and the share
of this falling on individuals. He then prepares a statement and draws a
cheque for each individual owner.

The charge for feeding the animals on their journey is based on the num-
ber loaded in a truck and the amount of food given them. For hogs the
usual charge is from five to eight cents a head. The commission charged by
the association to cover expenses and form a small reserve fund is three per
cent, on the price of cattle and hogs and 15 cents a head on calves. A
farmer not a member of the association may market his stock by its means
if he pay a commission of 5 per cent, on the price of cattle and hogs and
25 cents a head on calves.

The sums thus received pay the manager's salary a:id the wages of
the yard man and his helpers and cover any losses incurred by the death or
depreciation of animals during their journe^^ Thus it may be said that by
exacting from the owners a small premium the association insures the
live stock against the risks of transport.

In 1915 the association sent out 56 truckloads of stock, as against
43 in the previous 3^ear ; and 155 farmers availed themselves of its services.
Precise figures cannot be given as to the amount of extra profit which the
farmers derive from such co-operative marketing but it may be estimated
approximately at from 5 to 25 per cent. This extra profit might however
become a loss if the manager did not watch the market very closely.

Part 11: Insurance and Thrift

GERMANY.

THE PRINCIPAL FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES
FOR THE INSURANCE OF CATTLE IN EAST PRItSSIA.

SOURCES :

Maktens, Administrator : Vom Hauptverbande Ostpreussischei Viehversichemngs-vereinc.
Berichte fiir 1914 und 1915 {The Principal Federation of East Prussian Societies for the In-
surance of Cattle : Reports for 1914 and 1915). Georgine, nos. 65-66, 69-70 and 77-78 of 14
and 28 August and 25 September 191 5 and nos. 39-40 and 41-42 of 13 and 20 Ma^' 1916,
Koenigsberg.

§ I, General report of activity in 1914 and 1915.

The federation was definitely founded on 11 November 1913 by the
union of sixteen societies, and after having freed itself from the guardian-
ship of the Chamber of Agriculture it reached the important position of
an independent enterprise, deriving profits from its reinsurance fund and
the subsidies allotted to it by the Chamber of Agriculture and the province,
in the form of sums assigned to administrative ends.

It was obliged at the beginning of the war to limit to the transaction of
current business its federal activity but this could resume its former course
from 15 December 1914. In the first year of its existence the federation
did no more than extend insurance within the territory of the province, prii.-
cipally by founding new societies in favour of which it pursued an energetic
propaganda. But since the war continued, the following year — 1915 —
could not but be devoted to an effort to maintain the status quo and to re-
conquer lost ground. This was why the federation was obliged to confine

34 GERMANY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

itself to seconding, by its actions and b}^ support in the form of advice, the
federated societies and to reinforcing their interior organization . The res-
toration of societies which had not been able to survive the crisis had also
to be secured.

Already small proprietors were represented as well as agricultural la-
bourers, the betterment of whose peculiar economic conditions is one of the
first tasks of local societies for the insurance of cattle.

The large landowners tended to form societies among their employees
and cause the small local agriculturists to adhere to these. They adhered
to them themselves because they wished to encourage their development ;
they assumed the duties necessary to their conduct and showed their in-
terest in them on ever}- occasion. The need for insuring the cattle of the
employees of large estates, and the profit the employer derived from such
insurance, were increasingly recognized.

The principal efforts of the federation were towards generalizing its
own scope. But among the old societies of the province more difficulty was
encountered thrm in districts where societies were freshly founded : the old
societies very generally looked upon the federation as an enterprise having
a compulsor}^ character and enclosing the seeds of a greater or less restriction
of liberty. A meeting of insurance societies had the effect of dissipating
these prejudices ; and made clear the principles on which were based the
terms of affiliation and the consequence of the measures which facilitated
the decision to affiliate.

Since the Minister of Agriculture attached particular importance to
the insurance of pigs, the federation undertook encpturies into the scope such
insurance would have and the question of whether or not it would supply
a need. If the federation should extend its activity to this branch of insur-
ance it propo.ses to keep its risks entirely separate, that is to differentiate
cattle and pig insurance because the latter is attended with very serious risks,
especially in East Prussia. Consequenth^ a part of the reserve fund —
10,000 marks (i) — has alreadj'^ been earmarked for pig insurance.

In spite of its comparatively small number of members the federation
believed itself able to do without larger guarantees, and therefore rejected
for the time a scheme cherished by the province of Brandenburg of group-
ing provinces in one vast Reinsurance Federation. This scheme embraced
East Prussia and Silesia in addition to Brandenburg.

The federation's technique of insurance has been tested in the past
years. It tends to secure within the federation equal losses or compensa-
tion for losses, the favourable condicions with regard to losses which ob-
tain in some societies compensating for such as are less favourable in others.

If losses indirectly due to the war be left out of account — although
the period which has passed may be considered normal as regards casualties
among the live stock — it maj'^ be concluded that succeeding years will see
this S3^stem of compensation realized, even if important casualties should

(i) I mark =^ about 11 ^/^ d at par.

PRUSSIAN FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES FOR THE INSURANCE OF CATTI.E 35

occur, and that after the first period of insurance — that is at the end of
five 3^ears — the system will have been entirely tested.

Having completely covered its costs of foundation the federation could
keep its reinsurance fund of 64,616.99 marks intact ; and was thus able to
participate to the extent of 40,000 marks in the fourth war loan.

§ 2. Statistical data as to business done in 1914 and 1915.

The following figures resume the statistics for twent3-eight and thirty-
one cattle insurance societies, on 31 December 1914 and 31 December
1915 ■

1914 1915

Number of members , i,oog 931

Number of insured animals 1,202 1,082

Insured sum :

a) total sum marks 393,064 369,649

b) average for one animal " 327 342

Premiums:

a) total sum: " 6,384.61 7,018.05

b) percentage of insured sum " 2 % 2 %

Casualties :

a) indemnities:

total number " 32

relatively to number of insuied animals " 32.66 %

b) slaughtered animals : " 25

c) indemnities in terms of percentage . . 80 %

d) gross indemnities " 8,152.50

e) profits from slaughtered animals :

total sum " 2,223.75

percentage of insured sum " ' 24.72

/) net indemnities " 5,958.75

Costs of veterinary attendance : " 1.57 %

a) total costs: " 700.78

b) percentage of insured sum: " 0.18 %

Costs of Administration:

a) total sum : " 189.69

6) percentage of insured sum " 0.05 %

39

33-

60 %

zo

80

%

9

,686.

90

3

.265.

.85

33.

.04

6

,421,

05

I.

.74 %

569.

50

0.

.10 %

88.83

0,

.02 %

36 GERMANY - IXSURANCE AND THRIFT

1914 1915

Sum held :

a) total sum : " 3,145.43

h) percentage of insured sum " o.So %

Deficit :

a) total sum: " 3,185.19

b) share of federation (* 5) : " 2,548.10

c) shave of societies " 637.09

Causes of casualties :

a) accidents: 5 = 16 %

b) parturition : 7=22%

c) piilmonarv affections ■ — —

Tuberculosis: 5 = 10 %

' d) consequent on aphthous fever .... 3 = 9 %

e) affections of the circulation : .... 2 = 6 °/o

/) meteorization 2=6% - —

Foreign bodies: — — 1= 2.56 %

Affections of the stomach and intestines . . ■ — — 9 = 23.08 %

g) other internal diseases : 7= 22% 9= 23.08 %

h) other external diseases: — — — —

i) unknown causes i = 3 % — —

3,517-41

0.0= °o

2,31017

1,855-37

463.80

6

= 15.38 %

4

= 10.26 %

3

= 7-69 %

3

= 7.69 %

2

= 5.13 %

2

= 5-13 %

Total niimber of dead animals . . 32 = 100 % ^9

Scope ;

On 31 December 1914 the federation comprised thirty-four societies,
of which twenty-eight were active, had 1,009 members and insured
1,202 cattle for a total sum of 393,064 marks. Of these twenty-eight
societies onh' five were of old foundation and had adhered to the federation ;
twenty-three had been founded by it. The war prevented six societies

— having 105 members, 148 cattle to insure and an insured sum of 48,000
marks — from becoming active.

On 31 December 1915 the federation comprised thirty-five societies
of which twenty-six were active, among them the three new societies of
Althof-Insterburg, Deubben and Geierswalde.

Of the other societies two, those of .Siesiack and Monczen, resumed on
I January 1916 the activity which the}' had been obliged to interrupt in
consequence of the war ; and three societies, also obliged to suspend business

— those of Gerkichnen, Prostken and Kakowen — , as well as two new soci-
eties — of Augustponen and Enzuhnen — , will probably have had part in the

PRUSSIAN FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES FOR THE INSURANCE OF CATTLE 37

operations of 1916. Two other societies were founded at the end of 1915
{Bledan and Schwanis) and these also became active on i January. The
twenty-six active societies comprise altogether 931 members and 1,082
heads of cattle insured for 369,649 marks. These figures show retrogress-
ion in comparison with those for the previous 5"ear (1914) ; but it is right
to note the difference in this respect between the movement of business
within the societies during the year, and the total cessation of the activity
of societies fnlh^ active in the previous year. In the case of the former the
reduction in the number of members was one of only tliirty-one, that of ani-
mals was of forty-five and that of the insured sum 4,875 marks. As of
these fortj'-five heads of cattle indemnities were paid for thirty-nine the re-
trogression should be expressed as one only of six. In the second case, in
which we include societies not yet active and those which had ceased to
be so since the preceding year, the retrogression is certainly very marked,
the reduction being one of 150 members, 211 heads of cattle and 33,400
marks.

The difference between the number of members and of heads of cattle
shows that it is not only owners of single cows— for whom tliis organization
was especially intended - who have adhered to the various societies. The
statistics allov/the further conclusion that small societies, insuring only
twelve, fifteen or eighteen heads of cattle, have been founded. The princi-
ple of admitting small societies, on wliich the federation rests, has entirely
withstood proof.

The federation has adopted an important principle — that namely
which obliges members to insure with their societies all the cattle they
possess on the land within the society's sphere, of course in the measure in
which the animals allow of insurance. Although this rule is not always easy
to apply, and is often an obstacle to the foundation of new societies and espe-
cially to the adherence of existing societies insuring cattle, the federatioti
judges it necessary not to depart from it because only its unerring and in-
flexible observation can ensure to the small landowners all the advantage
which insurance is capable of affording them..

Insu'/ed Value :

The total sum insured was 393,064 marks in 1914, that is 327 marks
per insured animal which gives a reasonable standard. The same may be
said of 1 91 5 when this average was 342 marks It is however to be antici-
pated that it will be much raised owing to the increase in the price of cattle.
We here touch on a question as to which it is not always easy to give weight
to the federation's principle in the model by-laws of the societies

On the one hand live stock must not be insured above its value lest too
great risks be assumed ; on the other it must not be insured below its value
if it be desired to give to the insurer real help which will allow him, if a
casualty occur, to procure an animal to take the place of that lost. The
case of undei-insurance is met with most frequently : people tend to insure
their beasts below their value because they are unwilling to pa}- a premium

^8 GERMANY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

which seems to them excessive before the}' arc face to face with the dreaded
occurrence of a casualty. It is this state of mind which it is attempted to
combat.

The federation makes a point of the insurance of cattle up to their full
value, even when this has been increased, because only thus can the eco-
nomic aim be fully realized.

Premiums :

Two per cent, has generally been exacted during the first period of
insurance. This rate has been universally applied to newly founded societies,
but in the case of old societies already' adherent to the federation it has
been possible from the beginning to charge a lower rate.

It is probable that after the first period and at the end of each succeed-
ing one the level of premiums will be quite different in the different soci-
eties : it varies according to the measure in which the societies have had to
bring the federation under contribution during the past period of insurance.
The societies which, thanks to good farming, have gone onh' a very
little beyond that normal rate of casualties for which the federation
compensates to the extent of four fifths, or have had no casualties at aU
to register, can count on a reduction of the premium bringing it below
two per cent. On the other hand those which have not been able to
make up for the various 3'ears during which the}- went be3'ond the normal
rate, by economies in other years during which the}'' did not reach it,
must face the prospect of increased premiums in the succeeding period of
insurance

Casualties ;

In 1915 indemnities were paid for thirt^'-nine animals, that is 3.60 per
cent, of the total number insured, as against thirty- two or 2.66 per cent, in
1914. Of these thirty-nine animals twenty were slaughtered. The gross
sum of the indemnities was 9,686.90 marks or 80 per cent, of the insured
value. The sum realized for the slaughtered animals was 3,265.85 marks
or 33.04 per cent, of the gross amount of indemnities, the net amovint of
these being therefore only 6,421.05 marks or 1.74 per cent, of the total
value insured.

In this connection it should be stated that the percentage of the gross
sum of indemnities realized from the slaughtered animals was much higher
than in the preceding year — 33.04 as against 24.72 per cent. It is suscep-
tible however of a yet greater rise in value.

Experience shows generally that during a quinquennial period an
insurance societ}' has one or two good years in which it does not even reach the
normal level of casualities, two medium years in which it receives only a
little more than the sum which it has to pay out in indemnities, and one
or two bad A^ears in which indemnities much surpass the amount of premiums.
The differences in the proportion of the profit from enforced slaugh-

PRUSSIAN FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES FOR THE INSURANCE OF CATTLE 3q-

tering to the total sum of indemnities are sometimes so great that they
cannot be explained only by the varying quality of the meat sold: they are
due to the diversity of the causes leading to the animal's death but they
give rise to a certain doubt as to the skill with which some societies conduct
commercial transactions.

It is true that some districts have still to submit to the knacker's
exclusive right to the carcase for which, as a rule, he pays a very small
indemnity or none at all. The federation however does all it can to stimulate
the societies to obtain the maximum profits from slaughtered animals,
in order thus to reduce total losses to the strict minimum.

Costs of Veterinary Attendance :

These amounted in 1915 to 569.50 marks or o.io per cent, of the round
sum insured.

In comparison with 1914, in which 700.78 marks or 0.18 per cent, was
spent under this head, they had certainly diminished ; but tliis should not
lead to the conclusion that most veterinary surgeons in discharging their
duties observed the precepts of general interest which are at the basis of
the activit}' of the insurance societies. The diminution is to be ascribed
to the fact that veterinary surgeons were summoned less frequently, for
the good reason that they were not to be found evers'where where the}' were
wanted.

Conditions resultant on the war — the generally inferior quality of
live stock — j^roduced a conviction that in regard to the question of risks the
introduction of a compulsory veterinary examination is absolutely necessary.
Unfortunate!}' this measure would in many cases be a dead letter, for in
numerous if not in all districts no veterinary' surgeon is available, so that
insurance which provided for the compulsory examination would be im-
practicable. Where a veterinar}' surgeon is to be had his services would
involve the societies in a large additional expense. It was necessary there-
fore to give up the project of making the compulsory examination general,,
merely exhorting the societies to exercise the greatest caution when there
was question of their accepting new animals for insurance.

Costs of Administration :

Like the costs of veterinary attendance those of administration form
a part of the expenses which, if losses keep within their normal limit of
70 per cent., ought to be covered by receipts; and they should naturally, in
the interest of the societies, be kept as low as possible. Their total sum —
88.83 iiiarks or 0.02 per cent, of the w'hole insured value — shows a decrease
as compared with 1914 when such percentage was 0.05. This item of the
societies' expenditure will in the future be perceptibly increased: for hith-
erto the societies have not had to send representatives to large meetings,
pa3'ing their travelling expenses ; and they will have gradually to increase
their stock of printed matter, with which the federation initialh' provided

40 GERMANY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

them, free of cost. The condition necessary to keeping administrative costs
as low as possible is that of gratuitous servdce.

The society has been preserved in a good condition financially because
the A-ear 1915 allowed the principle of compensatory losses — which, as we
have seen, is fundamental to the federation — again to be observed. This
result is due, it is true, to the grant of a sum of looo marks by the ' ' Notstands-
fonds " of East Prussia, as indemnit}^ for losses indirectly caused b}' the
war, and to the effect of the subsidies accorded b}" the Minister of Agricul-
ture in aid of the societies in embarrassed circumstances. For this
object the federation receives an annual grant of 3,000 marks. But dur-
ing these two years the whole of this amount has not been used, and it
has been possible to pa^^ the sum so saved into a relief fund, which is intend-
ed to allow aid to be given at the end of the period of insurance to soci-
eties then in the debt of the federation for advances. In this way these so-
cieties will not have to raise their premiums paj'able in the succeeding pe-
riod in order to redeem the debts thus incurred. A request made to the
minister for fixed financial support, which would allow costs of administra-
tion and former printing costs to be met, was however not granted.

Causes of Casualties :

In this respect 1915 showed improvement as compared with 1914.
The societies can have no influence except as regards casualties caused b}^
accidents , difficult parturition and the swallowing of foreign bodies. The
accidents have certainly increased in number by one; but the casualties
consequent on parturition have diminished by three, those consequent
on tuberculosis by two and those consequent on aphthous fever bj"
one. By putting into execution its plan of adopting the method recognized
by the State, as being the best for the fight against tuberculosis and that
which those interested can themselves follow, the federation v/ill reduce
the ill effects of this devastating disease on the total sum of losses.

But this plan cannot be put into execution before the return of normal
circumstancs.

The federation can also exercise a certain influence in favour of the re-
duction of casualties consequent on accidents and it will not fail to do so.
The accidents are usually due to the carelessness if not to another fault
of the insurer. The federation devotes much attention to a revision, as
comiplete and extensive as possible, of all the rules concerning its rigorous
inspection of the care given to animals and of the manner in which they are
lodged and fed.

Diseases of the digestive organs (intestinal tumours, appendicitis,
twisted intestines, obstructions, digestive troubles) were responsible for
nine casualtis in 1915 — a very large number, perhaps explained by the
bad quality of the forage har\^est. Among other internal diseases occur
cardiac affections, dropsy, affections of the matrix, inflammation of the
spinal cord, fistulae of the salivary glands, and blood poisoning.

PRUSSIAN FEDERATION OF SOCIETIES FOR THE INSURANCE OF CATTEE 4I

Financial Position. Number of Casualties beyond the Normal Limit,
Compensation for Risks {the "fifth") :

The total expenditure of the societies under the head of casualties,
costs of veterinar}- attendance and costs of administration — premiums paid
to the federation being included —, amounted — when the receipts from
premiums paid to the societies, the slaughtering of animals and the minis-
terial subsidies left over for 1915 had been deducted — to a sum of 2,319.17
marks (3,185.18 marks in 1914); and in this outlay the federation participated
to the extent of four fifths or 1,855.37 marks (2,548.10 in 1914), and the
societies to that of one fifth or 463.80 marks (637.09 in 1914). The federa-
tion has not yet had to exercise its right, conferred on it by the by-laws,
to make societies, which have had to pay extraordinarily high indemnities
owing to bad farming, participate in payment for the excessive casualties
to the extent of two fifths.

The total stun advanced by the federation to the societies during the
five 3-ears for which the period of insurance lasts is covered by the soci-
eties' reserves. If they have no reserves — that is if a'^ry year their number
of casufilties be above the normal — , or if their reserves be insufiicient —
that is if their bad years have been more frequent than their good — , they
are not bound to make special payments to cover the federation's advances.
They have recourse to an expedient less felt by their members, namelj''
they increase the premiums for the next period of insurance. The amount
which a society pays to the federation is thus augmented, and little by little
the debt contracted with the federation is redeemed by payments spread
over five years and not by a single payment.

The proportion in which the premium is increased varies naturally
with the size of the debt. In view of the ministerial aid given to the less
wealthy societies, which have had to sufier particularly bad years through
no fault of their own, this debt should never reach an exorbitant level,
and there should be question only of a fraction added to the percentage
payable as premium and of the payment of pfennigs (i) by the insurers. There
are federations of which some societies have been able to reduce to 0.85 per
cent, the rate of their premiums which was at first 2 percent. The respon-
sibility of societies for casualties surpassing the normal limit shows that they
are no longer interested in the economical management of common funds.
Precaution is justified ; for if the federation placed itself in a position to pay
for all casualties surpassing the normal Hmit the societies might easily
adopt such methods of administration that prudence and thrift would be
the least of their cares. The largest reserve fund would be unable to hold
out for long. To compensate for risks with the premiums of the various
societies and within the federation is to give to the technique of insurance
its one and only firm basis. It may be noted in this connection that the ex-
cess of casualties over the normal limit is influenced, in the societies and con-

(i) I pfeimig := ,01 mark.
4

42 GERMANY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

sequently in the federation, by the fact that ministerial aid is given to so-
cieties having to face financial difficulties. :

The total sum held by the societies was 3,5i7.4i"marks in igis/that is
0.95 per cent, of the insured value, and shows progress as compared with
1914 when it was 3,145.43 marks and 0.80 per cent, of the insured 'value.
Only four societies are in debt to the federation and they are so to no impor-
tant extent. All the others have reserve funds : some very small — 6.33
marks, other as much as 334.86 marks.

It should be mentioned that, contrary to its first intention of calling
in advances only at the end of the period of insurance, the federation has
decided, in order to avoid the conse(]uent loso of interest, to ask the societies
for repayment in future as soon as better times have brought them excess
profits and made it possible for them to think of a repayment, however gra-
dual, of their debts.

ITALY.

THE MUTUAIv FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS

OF AGRICUIyTURE.

SOURCES :

Ferrari (Prof. Prospero) ly'assiciirazione contro gli infortuni sul lavoro in agricoltura (In-
surance against the accidents of agricultural labour), Rome, 1914.

Atti del Congresso per le Mutue infortuni sul lavoro, con statuti e istruzioni per la
costituzione di'casse mutue infortuni sul lavoro (Proceedings of the Congress of the Mu-
tual Societies for the Accidents of lyabour, with statutes and instructions for the consti-
tution ot mutual funds for the accidents of labour). Milan, 19 February 1911. National
Committee of Agrarian Mutualitj'. Milan, Arti Grafiche, 1911.

Statutes and Reports of the various Mutual Funds in Italy.

A recent vote of the general council of the Istituto nazionale per la
muttwlita agraria, that the government might present to the chamber
as soon as possible the scheme for a law vi^hich vi^ould extend compulsory
insurance against the accidents of labour to fieldworkers (i), has revived
in Italy the discussion of this important problem which for long years

(i) See in this connection, La Mutualitd Agraria, the organ of the Istituto Nazionale per
la Mutualitd, Agraria, Rome, no. 21, 30 Septembei IQ16. Recentli' the General I,abour Confe-
rence resolved as follows : " The directing council of the General I<abour Conference will reaf-
firm the preceding votes as to the necessity for that comprehensive insurance of labourers
against sickness, disablement and old age which will complete the insurance against accidents.
It will press the government to promulgate the pi-omised law as to the accidents of agriculture,
taking into account the principal requests which the organizations have made from time to
time namely :

a) ihat the insurance be compulsory and protect without distinction all tillers of the soil
and farm labourers, including small labourer-proprietors.

b) that the right of agricultural labourers to insure against temporary disablement be
recogn-zed ;

c) that insurance be entrusted to the compulsory mixed unions, their function being
completed by the insurance of the National Accidents' Fund ;

d) that simultaneously with the promulgation of the law as to the accidents of agricul-
ture more equal representation be given to labourers, on the council and committee of the
National Accidents' Fund.

44 ITAI,Y - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

has awaited a statutory solution (i). Pending legislation some pro-
prietors and directors of agriculture have long provided spontaneously
for the insurance of fieldworkers, having united for such end in special
mutual societies. There are six of these : one at Vercelli which had the
merit of being the pioneer in 1902, and the others at Florence, Mi-
lan, Turin, Bologna and Rome. Today when the question is again being
mooted we tliink it useful to give some data as to their organization and that
of societies of other kinds which do business in the same branch of insurance.
We will thus show the manner in which private initiative has been able in
Italy to face and to overcome difficulties both ingeniously and economi-
cally, in the absence of an organic law, and will show also the difficult}^ of
the problem.

§ I. The mutual fund of vercelli.

It was the Associazione fra gli Agricoltori del Vercellese (2) which in
1902 took the initiative in Italy in organizing insurance against the acci-
dents of agriculture, even before in 1903 that law (29 June 1903, no. 243) had
been promulgated which compels insurance in the case of several kinds of
agricultural labour (threshing by machine, felling in woods, work done
with the help of motors, etc). The Associazione instituted the Mutual Fund
of Vercelli in the form of a co-operative society, and mau}^ agriculturists
adhered to it. Impelled by a sentiment of humanity or a desire to free them-
selves from possible civil liability they thus guaranteed just indemnities in
cases of accident to their dependents. The fund became active on i June
1903, insuring about 15,000 labourers for total wages which amounted to
3,000,000 hras a year. The law which has been mentioned was passed,
and the fund, wishing to undertake the compulsory insurance it enacted,
transformed itself into the fund of a union, legally recognized by a royal
decree of 10 August 1904, and having by-laws which allowed it to
extend its action to the agricultural labourers whom the law did not
compel to be insured.

The fund indemnifies, in cases of death and of permanent disable-
ment, whether total or partial, all workmen, both casual and permanently

(i) Many proposed laws tending to extend compulsory insurance against the accidents of
labour to fieldworkers have at various times been brought before the Italian parliament, on
the initiative of parliament and of Ihe government. But for various reasons none of them has
as yet been passed. The last was brought foiward in December 1915 and was due to the depu-
ties Borromeo, Venino and Belotti. See in this connection our article, " A New Bill for Compul-
sory Insurance ag:iinst Accidents in Agricultural Labour ", in our issue for Jime 1916, and the
article of the deputy Bartoli B jlotti, " Per I'assicurazione obbligatoiia degli infortmii sul lavoro
agricolo", in the Nuova Antologia, Rome, N>.. 1073, i October 1916.

(2) Association of Vercellese Agriculturists.

iQog • ••

. liras 8,442.52

1910 . .

» 25,433.26

1911 . .

» 28,073.05

1912 . .

» 42,568.70

1913 . .

. » 58,628.15

MUTUAI, FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICULTURE 45

employed, in the measure fixed by the law for compulsory insurance
(31 Januarj^ 1904, no. 51) now in force, namely :

i) in the case of death an indemnity equal to five years' wages ;

2) in the case of total permanent disablement an indemnit}^ equal to
six 3^ears' wages and never less than 3,000 liras (i) ;

3) in the case of partial permament disablement an indemnity equal
to six times the amount by which the yearly wages have been or may be
reduced, and never less than 500 liras.

Up to 1909 indemnification for temporary disablement was excluded.
It was then admitted and extended to cover workmen not compelled by
law to insure, and under this head about 2,600 liras was paid in 1913 in
indemnities for 1,350 working days.

The sum of 239,412.05 liras was paid in ten years for various accidents
as follows :

1904 liras 2,855.00

1905 » 10,248.00

1906 » 15,568.35

1907 » 23,855.12

1908 » 17,839.90

Premiums are fixed according to the area of the land and the
cultivated land, and — reimbursements being taken into account — they
have varied from 0.52 liras to 0.62 liras a hectare (2).

The chief merit of the Mutual Fund of Vercelli, apart from that at-
taching to the position of pioneer, is that it has based insurance not only
on the value of the wages of each single labourer, but also on the sum of
the labour required bj' a determined area according to the mode of its cul-
ture. Consequently a premium attaches to an area independently of any
identification of particular labourers ; and therefore the pay-books and the
registration of labourers, on which the institutions insuring industrial work-
ers insist, have been abolished.

When the amount of labour required for a crop has been determined
as well as the area it occupies within a farm, the particular system of rota-
tion of crops being taken into account, average sums for a hectare can be
computed.

In Vercelli and adjacent lands these have been fixed at 157 liras and
175 liras a hectare. At the rate of 5 per cent, they give the amounts of
the initial preventive premiums as 0.785 lira and 0.875 lira a hectare, which
amounts have been reduced to 0.52 lira and 0.62 lira by the effect of reim-
bursements.

The financial year of the fund begins on ii November and ends on 10
November, thus corresponding to the farming year. When the books are

(i) IS = 1. 261 1 liras.

(2) I hectare = 2 acres i rood 35.383 poles.

46 ITALY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

balanced annually the difference between the receipts (premiums and any
other sources of revenue) and the expenditure (payment of indemnities
and administrative and other expenses) is, as to three tenths, assigned to
a reserve fund, and is restored, as to seven tenths, to the members of the
society proportionately to the premiums they have respectively paid. If
there be a deficit the members are asked for a supplementary^ premium
proportionate to that they have already paid. There may be no trespas-
sing upon the reserve fund until it has attained to the sum of the premiums
in the first year of the society's activity.

At first the fund's activity reached only the arrondissement of Vercelli ;
then it was extended to the arrondissement of Novara and to Ivomellina,
and thereafter successively to the arrondissements of Biella, Casale Monfer-
rato, Pa via and Abbiategrasso.

Only those may belong to it who are directly or indirectly engaged in
agriculture, as farmers or agents. For admission a written application is
necessary in which the total area of the land under cultivation must be
stated. The whole number of the members constitute the society's general
meeting. The society is administered by a directing council composed
of a president and six members, elected by the general meeting by secret
ballot and a majority of votes. The president holds office for three years
and is always eligible for re-election. The other members of the council also
hold office for three years : one third of them are elected every year and
they are not eligible for re-election for a year after they have ceased to
hold office. The general meeting also elects six arbiters, of whom three
determine wages according to declared area and three pay indemnities. The
arbiters hold office for three years, a third of them are elected every year,
and they are always eligible for re-election. The meeting also elects an-
nually from among the members three legal representatives and two depu-
ties for these. All offices are unpaid, but the arbiters have the right to be
reimbursed for expenses incurred in the course of their duties.

§ 2. The mutual fund of Florence.

The mutual fund of the rural proprietors of Tuscany for the insurance
of persons employed on farms against the accidents of labour (i), wliich has
its offices at Florence, was constituted on the initiative of the local agrarian
committee by a resolulution of 4 December 1908 and received the status of
a " moral body " by a royal decree of 25 February 1909. It began its
activity on 5 April 1909, including within its scope all Tuscany, that is
to say the provinces of Florence, Arezzo, Sienna, Lucca, Pisa, Livorno
and Grosseto. The fund completed on 29 February 1916 its seventh year,
and it appears from its last pubhshed report that at that date, which term-

{1) Cassumutuadei proprietaridi fondirustici in Toscana per I'assicutazione del personate
dellc aziende agrarie contro gli infortuni sul lavoto.

MUTUAI, FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICULTURE 47

inated its year of business, it had 768 enrolled .members, and insured g6i
farms which comprised 12,634 pieces of land having a total area of 318,607
hectares. The distribution according to the kinds of cultivation was as
follows :

Sowed land, vines, olives hectares 86,404

Sowed land only " 53,650

Vines and special crops " 2,464

Underwood " 94,452

Forest trees " 30,261

Fallow, pasture " 51,376

This fund insures all persons, whether compelled to insure or not, who
are employed* in any kind of agricultural labour, permamently or casually ;
and since almost everywhere lands are held on the metayage system, the in-
surance comes to comprise not only all the members of the cultivators' fa-
milies but also all the casual labourers, the hraccianti, and the labourers
employed on building, forestry, threshing etc :

The total number of these persons was computed on 28 February 1915
to be 119,938 cultivators, of whom 44, 455 were males over thirteen, 34,931
adult women, 32,192 men and women over sixty-five, and 8,360 boys under
thirteen whom the insurance did not cover. There were also about 6,800
casual labourers who were enrolled by the fund.

The annual premium is fixed according to the area of the farm, the va-
rious types of ctdtivation being taken into account, as well as the relation
between the area and the rural population, and special risks attaching to
any type of cultivation, to operations for the conversion of products, or
to the use of machines etc.

The complexity and the variety of agrarian conditions in the different
Tuscan provinces has rendered it necessary to establish tariffs or premiums
var^ung from 0.30 lira to 1.50 liras a hectare for lands bearing grass crops,
and joined to lands on which plants of the tree family are grown ; while
fixed premiums of 0.40 lira and 0.20 lira have been adopted in the case of
woods and underwoods.

Since I914 premiums have been reduced by 20 per cent., the result of
previous years allowing svich reduction to be effected without danger to
the safety of the Mutual Fund. This fund has further provided for the
constitution of a reserve formed from admission fees of o.io lira for each
hectare of cultivated land and of 0.05 lira for each hectare of woodland and
pasture, and from the interest on the sums on deposit. At the end of the
seventh year of the Mutual Fund, that is on 29 February 1916, such reserve
amounted to 124,035.44 liras, and this when joined to a special reserve of
10,000 liras gives a sum of 134,035.44 liras.

The Mutual Fund of Florence indemnifies, in cases of death and total
or partial permanent disablement, anyone incurring such in the course of

4^ ITALY - IXSURAXCE AXD THRIFT

labour (i), whether or not he be compelled to insure. It also paj's indem-
nities to persons temporarily disabled in the course of labour, but only if
they be subject to the obligation to insure. However in the case of grave
accidents, happening to labourers who are not compelled to insure and en-
tailing expenses for hospital or other medical treatment and prolonged
temporary disablement, the fund grants fitting subsidies.

These indemnities are payable to the victims of accidents arising in
the course of labour who are not subject to the obligation to insure.
To those within the scope of the law of 31 Januars' 1904, no. 51, as to acci-
dents of labour, indemnities are paid at the rate of six times the amount
of annual wages for permanent total disablement, and five times their amount
for death. From T909 to 1915 indemnities paid in response to the claims
which were met amounted to 361,438.17 liras, namely :

Year

1909
I9IO
I9II
I9I2

1913
I9I4

I9I5

Claims Met.

Indemnities Paid.
Liras.

92

9.99546

220

25.36373

328

49,850.49

410

62,740.10

513

81,722.81

547

97,978.78

3I8

33,786.80

Total . . . 2,428 361,438.17

The classification of the causes of the accidents has a certain value
because statistics of this description are almost entirely lacking. The
data as to the Mutual Fund of Florence, which we here reproduce, explain
its activity in a district of very complex agriculture and have therefore a
particular importance. The kinds of labour in the course of which acci-
dents were incurred were as follows :

(1) If a member meet with an accident he must notify the fact on a special form, on the
back of which the doctor must give the necessary facts as to the nature of the injurj' and its
consequences and the term of disablement. In the case of every accident the member is oblig-
ed to bear the cost of the first medical certificate and attendance. \\TieE the doctor's certifi-
cate testifies that the victim has been permanently disabled the Mutual Fund invites him to
receive a visit from .he fund's skilled doctors, who together investigate and estimate the de-
gree of partial disablement , the corresponding deduction in labour [lower, and the indemnity due.

MUTUAI, FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICULTURE 49

Accidents distributed according to the labour which caused them.

Woodcutting

Falls from carts, transport.

Falls from trees, pruning .

Building

Work in cellars

Work of herds

Cutting forage

Falls in general.

Tilling =oil, bringing it under
cultivation

Harvest and hay harvest

Various agricultural labour.

Threshing

Quarries, claypits. . . . .

Presses, mills

Carpenter's work

Supervision and keeper's
work

Various causes

Total . . .

I I II III

1909-10 I 1910-11 1911-12

43

23
17
16

14
13
II
10

190

III

41
24

53
12
22

16
25

18
44
23
20
6

4
6

6
12

443

162
60
56
73
16
26
26
51

58
48
18
17
4

2

24

659

IV

1912-13

166
86
68
73
35
59
30
37

38
69
28
44
14
9
9

788

V

I9I3-I4

VI

1914-15

170

89
85

77
52

73
40

78

53
58
75
40
22
6
14

6
20

958

223

88

99
80

59

76

46

100

78

63

112

40

15

18

13

30

I148

VII
I9I5-I6

202

80

94
63
15
51
39
90

53
74
60
20

15
12

16

9
26

Total

919

1077
467
443
435
203
320
208
391

308

364
321
186

79
60

69

38
136

5105

From this complexity of facts the rich economic and social results to
which the Mutual Fund of Florence has attained can easily be understood,
results which have had the great merit of introducing Tuscan agriculturists
to the principle of mutuality, and of stimulating the metayer's activity by
interesting him and by binding him more closely to the soil which he tills.

§ 3. The mutuaIv fund of milan.

The lyombard Mutual Fund for Insurance against the Accidents of
Agricultural I^abour (i) was founded on the initiative of the local association
of proprietors and managers of properties. It sby-laws date from 21 May
1910 and it began its activity in November of the same year.

(i) Cassa tniitua lombarda di Assicuraziune conlro gli infoihiyii snl lavoto nell'agricoltuia.

50 ITAIvY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Its activity extends over the Lombard district which presents a great
variety of forms of agriculture. Subsequently to its foundation it fixed
its annual premiums, based on area, in accordance with these forms and the
respective risks they entail.

The insurance covers cases of death and of permanent total disable-
ment ; partial disablement is not considered unless it is equal to ten per
cent, of total disablement ; indemnities are paid after twenty-one days
for temporary total disablement.

The indemnities are as follows : in case of death — to a man 2,000 liras,
to a woman 1,000 liras, to a child 500 liras ; in case of permament total disa-
blement — to a man 2,500 liras, to a woman or child 1,200 liras ; in case of
temporary disablement — i lira a day to a man, 0.50 lira a day to a woman
or child, the latter being defined as a person between twelve and eighteen
years old.

At the end of 1914 the fund had 416 members. In this year claims
were made for 207 accidents and 183 of them were acknowledged. Of these
176 were met by temporary indemnities which amounted to 3,919 liras;
one non-indemnifiable fatal accident caused a grant of 400 liras ; and six
claims on account of permament partial disablement were indemnified by
a total sum of 1,040 liras. The victims included thirty children, 161 men
and sixteen women, their ages being as follows :

from 18 to 20 years 17 from 61 to 65 years 7

" 21 to 30 years 38 more than 65 years 7

" 31 to 45 years 49 of indefinite age 13

" 46 to 60 years 46 children from

12 to 14 years 30

The accidents occurred in the months in which work was most intense
and in which special works, such as the rearing of silkworms, are usually
accomplished.

The classification of the causes of accidents is peculiarly important.
It results from it, according to the opinion of experts, that the gravest risk
in agriculture is not so much one due to the use of machines as a risk in-
herent in the very nature of the industry. Thus fifty-six accidents occur-
red through falls from carts or haylofts, thirty-seven were attendant on herd-
ing animals, twenty-five on transporting products, fourteen on the labours
of the hay-harvest and nine on those of forestrj^ while only thirteen out
of 207 involved injuries by agricultural machines or implements.

The injuries which had such origins affected different parts of the body
as follows :

feet 51 accidents arms 16 accidents

head 8

" face 6

" eyes 3

groin I

hands . .

. . 46

trunk . .

. . 38

legs . . .

. . 38

MUTUAI. FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICUI^TURE 5 1

The statistics as to indemnities are as follows :

Years
1910-11 1911-12 1912-13 1913-14

For death — — — i

" permament disablement — i 5 6

" temporary disablement — 6 57 176

Without indemnity 5 — — 5

Pending decision — — i ig

Total 5 7 63 207

If it be taken into account that in four 3^ears 10,623.19 liras was paid
and 1,670 liras was put on one side for accidents as to which a decision
was pending, it results that an accident implied in general an average
cost of 39 liras, to which must be added 3 liras for expenses, giving a total
of 42 liras. Finally if we compute the cost of accidents according to their
consequences we find that, in addition to expenses, the average cost of
temporary disablement was 26.50 liras, of permament disablement 258
hras.

§ 4. The MUTUAI, FUNDS OF TURIN, BOI.OGNA AND ROME.

Following the example of the funds of Vercelli, Florence and Milan,
three others, of which we will speak briefly, soon arose.

The Piedmontese Mutual Agricultural Insurance (i). — On the initia-
tive of the Piedmontese Agricultural Co-operative Syndicate this fund was
instituted by a resolution of 20 June 1910 for mutual insurance against the
accidents of labour, especially in the provinces of Turin, Alexandria and
Cuneo. Its working is like that of the Milanese fund.

The Mutual Agrarian Accidents' Society of Bologna (2). — This society
was promoted by the Interprovincial Agrarian Federation, was constituted
by a resolution of 21 April 1910 and was authorized by a royal decree of
II May 1910. Its activity extends especially to the provinces of Bologna,
Rovigo, Mantua, Ferrara, Modena, Ravenna and Parma. It follows al-
most the same rules as the funds of Vercelli, Florence and Milan. Premiums
are paid proportionately to the area of the insured land and in the
society's last year of business varied from o.io lira to 0.50 lira the hectare.
This figure covers the insurance of labour-ers bound to insure (those
employed on threshing machines, on steam forage-presses, on wood-cutting
etc.) and that of those not subject to such compulsion.

In the case of special works or of factories for the conversion of agri-

(!) U Assicurazione Mutua Agricola Piemoniesc.
(2) La Mutua Agraria Infortuni di Bologna.

52 ITALY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

cultural products an additional premium is paid, proportionate to the in-
crease of the risk.

Members who, according to local custom, take their own machines
to work on the land of other members need pay no supplementary premium ;
but if they thus work on land of which the owner is not a member they must
pay a slight supplement.

The indemnity paid to labourers who are the victims of accidents
varies according to whether or not they be subject to the compulsion to
insure.

If they be thus compelled, the indemnity is that fixed by the law.
If they be not thus compelled the indemnit}^ is fixed as follows : in case of
death 2,500 liras ; in case of permament total disablement 3,000 liras ; in
case of permament partial disablement a fraction of 3,000 hras propor-
tionate to the reduction of working power.

Insurance against cases of temporary disablement are not included,
but members who apply for it can obtain it by paying an additional pre-
mium of 70 per cent.

This mutual fund also guarantees its members, in return for a small
additional premium, against all liability they may incur by their own
acts or those of their dependents, whether towards labourers employed on
their farms or in any other case contemplated by the civil code.

The Roman Mutual Fund for Insurance against the Accidents of Agri-
cultural Labour (i) This fund, which was constituted on the initiative of
the Agrarian Committee of Rome by a resolution of i July 1914, extends its
activity over the Roman province. It became active in November 19 14, fol-
lowing the rules of other mutual funds except in the matter of indemnities
which are fixed by the by-laws as f ollws : in cases of death, 2,000 liras for
a man and 1,200 liras for a woman ; in cases of total permament disable-
ment, 2,500 liras for a man and 1,200 liras for a woman or a child between
twelve and eighteen years old. Indemnities are paid for permanent partial
disablement only if full working capacity have been reduced by 20 per cent.

§ 5. The PRIVATE SOCIETIES FOR INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENTS.

In the preceding paragraphs we have briefly shown the organization
of the mutual funds for insurance against the accidents of agriculture which
were founded on the initiative of various agricultural associations. It
is necessary also to indicate the manner in which the same insurance is
effected by private societies, on the system of premiums proportionate
to area and collective policies.

Assicuratrice Italiana {Italian Insurance Society) . — This society, which
has its offices at ]\Iilan, instituted at the end of 1908 insurance pohcies for
all the labour of a farm, whether or not works which compelled insurance
were practised on it. Premiums are fixed by contract, proportionately

(i) La Cassa Mutua Romana di Assicurazione contro gli injortuni sul lavoro neU'agrtculiuta.

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICUI^TURE 53

to the cultivated area and the kinds of cultivation, the basic premium of
2 liras a hectare being capable of reduction when the agriculture is not
very intensive. Indemnities are paid in accordance with contracts. They
vary from 2,000 liras to 3,000 liras in the case of death, according to the
kind of work on which the victim was engaged ; from 2,500 liras to 4,000
liras in the case of permament total disablement; and from 1.50 liras to 2.50
liras a day in the case of temporary total disablement.

Among insurance societies this one has the merit of having been the
first to deal with the optional insurance of agricultural labours by making
premiums proportionate to areas, and thus eliminating the obligation to
keep pay-books and registers which is" burdensome to agriculture.

Societd anonima italiana di assictirazioni contro gli infortuni {Italian
joint Stock Society for Insurance against Accidents, Milan) : — This society
in 1905 extended its activity to accidents in the course of agricultural la-
bour not subject to the obligation to insure, charging a premium propor-
tionate to the cultivated area. It pays in the case of death an indemnity
equal to 1500 times the daily wage of the victim up to a maximum of 2,500
liras; in the case of permament total disablement one equal to 1800 times
such wage up to a maximum of 3,000 liras ; and in the case of temporary
disablement one lira a day.

Unione Interprovinciale Agricola {Cremona). — This society began to
insure against the accidents of agriculture in 1907, charging 1.50 liras for
a hectare of land. This sum was afterwards reduced to 0.75 lira. An in-
demnity of 1500 liras is paid in case of death and one of 2,000 liras in case
of permament total disablement; wliile in the case of temporary disablement
one lira a day is paid to the head of a family and 0.50 lira to its other
members for a period limited to six months.

La Fondiaria {The Land Society), Florence. — This society, well known
for its insurance of life and against hail and fire, undertook in 1910 the
collective insurance of agricultural labour, charging premiums varying
from 0.90 lira to 2.25 liras according to the risk and the type of policy. The
average premium is 1.25 liras a hectare.

Indemnities are fixed as follows : in case of death 2,000 liras for a man
and 1,000 liras for a woman, in case of permament total disablement 2,500
liras for a man and 1,200 liras for a woman ; in case of permament partial
disablement an indemnity proportionate to the reduction in working ca-
pacity if this be not of more than 20 per cent. ; in case of temporary disa-
blement one lira a day.

Insurance to which such premiimis and indemnities attach refers ex-
clusively to agriculturists and labourers employed on agriculture, other
than those contemplated by the law of 31 January 1904, No. 51, (persons
employed on threshing, woodcutting, motor machines) whom it is necess-
ary specially to insure with the society.

Cassa Nazionale di Assicurazione per gli infortuni degli Operai sul la-
voro {National Fund for Insurance against the Accidents occurring to Work-
people in the course of Labour), Rome. — This institution, which has a pub-
lic character, was formed by the law of 8 July 1883, No. 1473. It is the

54

ITALY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

official agency for insurance against the accidents of labour and industr>%
and it was authorized by the royal decree of 14 May 1914, No. 547, to effect,
experimentally, insurance against accidents to labourers employed on farm
work not contemplated by the law, already cited, of 31 January 1904,
No. 51. The insurance implies the premiums and indemnities which we
shall mention.

Following the example of the mutual funds the National Fund
adopted a tariff proportionate to area. The premiums payable on a
hectare are fixed according to the kinds of cultivation and are given in the
appended table. They vary from 0.75 lira to 3 Hras a hectare in the case
of grass crops ; from 1.50 to6Uras a hectare where plants of the tree family
are cultivated; from 0.80 lira to 1.60 liras a hectare, without distinction
among risks, for rotatory crops; from 1.25 liras to 2.50 liras for woods
of forest trees; and from 0.75 lira to 1.50 hras for underwood.

These diverse premiums attach to three types of insurance which en-
tail maximum, medium and minimum indemnities, as follows :

In case of death:

Men liras 2,000

Women

Children and old people

In case of permament total disablement :

Men

Women )

Children and old people ^

In case of permament partial disablement :

Men iNo indemnities No indemnities No indemnities

Women . . . . ' of less than of less than of less than
Children and old I 5 per cent. 11 per cent. 21 percent.

Indemnities

Maximum

Medium

Minimum

2,000

2,000

2,000

1,000

1,000

1,000

500

500

500

2,500

2,500

2,500

1,200

1,200

1,200

people

In case of temporary disablement :

Men I lira J

Women 0.5 »

Children and old people — \

if if No

disabled disabled indem-

for more for more nity.

than 5 days than 20 days

Relief for 90 days in case of sickness,

Men I lira

Women 0.50 »

Children and old people 0.50 »

No

No

indem-

indem-

nity.

nity.

MUTUAIv FUNDS FOR INSURANCE AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRICULTURE 55

Children are taken to include persons between nine and fifteen years
old, men and women persons between fifteen and seventy, and old people
those over seventy.

These indemnities are due only in the case of accidents which occur
in the course of agricultural labour or by violent means connected with
such labour. All persons within the scope of the existing law as to accidents
are excluded from the insurance unless a special contract be made to in-
sure them.

Sindicato per I'assicurazione mutua degli operai contro gli injortuni
sul lavoro fra gli imprenditori di tagli di boschi {Syndicate of ivoodcutting
contractors for the mtitiial insurance of ivorkmen against the accidents of labour),
Rome. — As is known, the law of 31 January 1904 included woodcutting
among the works in the case of which insurance is compulsory, if the la-
bourers employed on it numbered more than five. The relevant tariff
was however fixed at the somewhat high rate of 90 liras for every
thousand liras of wages.

The syndicate in question was formed by a resolution of 20 February
1905 and began its activity on 15 March of the same year. Its by-laws
rule that it pay indemnities in the measure fixed by the law, that is five
times the annual wage in case of death, six times the annual wage in case
of permament total disablement, and half his dail}^ wages to a man who is
temporarily disabled.

Members pay for each labourer they employ a cautionary fee of 10
liras, and a monthly premium equivalent to from 25 to 30 liras for each
thousand liras of wages, according to whether the men are employed on
making cross-beams or staves or on woodcutting, charcoal burning, etc.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE
AND THRIFT IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

THE INSURANCE OF TOBACCO TI^ANTATIONS AGAINST HAII^ IN BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA. — Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung (Viennese Agricultural Jour-
nal) Vienna, No. 79, 30 September 1916.

For many year.s an endeavour has been made to solve the problem of
insuring tobacco plantations against hail in Herzegovina, where the tobacco
harvest and the vintage may be said to supply the rural population with
the whole of their revenue. Since for fiscal reasons the tobacco monopoly
could not consider indemniying for damages by paying a higher price
for tobacco, some other means of protecting the tobacco planters against
the loss caused by such natural causes as hail had to be chosen.

At first no scheme of the sort could be realized owing to the conser-
vatism of the native producers. Only a comparatively small number of
the communes which grew tobacco decided to enter into voluntary con-
tracts for insurance against hail. In 1910, therefore, an ordinance compell-
ed all the planters of the regie of Bosnia-Herzegovina to insure their to-
bacco plantations. The following are the chief provisions of this ordinance :

Insurance of tobacco plantations against damage by hail is obligatory
for planters of the regie and is based on the principle of mutuaUty.
Broadly, the following are the chief features of the S3^stem. When
the planters deliver their tobacco to the regie they pay a quota thereof,
proportionate to the quantity they deliver, into an insurance fund.
The premiums thus have the form of deductions from their normal profits.
The sums intended to indemnify them for losses by hail are taken from
this insurance fund, the damage sustained being estimated by valuation.

The insurance premium is i per cent, of the normal return made by
the monopoly for the tobacco, and is paid, as has been said, into the insur-
ance fund. If however such premiums do not suffice to compensate for
the damage, they may be increased until the}^ are equal to 3 per cent, of
the return. The weakening of the insurance fund by the pa^^ment of in-
demnities is counterbalanced by loans bearing no interest from the pro-
vincial treasury.

If when the premium-quota has been raised to 3 per cent, obligations
can still not be met — that is if losses cannot be indemnified and loans

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 57

repaid — the amount of losses, as established by the accounts depart-
ment, must not be covered fully but onlj^ to the extent of a percentage
to be determined b}^ the ratio existing between resources and obligations.
If on the other hand the insurance fund reach dimensions which more
than allow all obligations to be discharged, the premivmi-quota may be
reduced, or obligations may be increased so as to protect the tobacco
plantations against damage by wind.

An eventual distribution of the tobacco growing communes into zones
of more or less risk is contemplated, so that the highest premiums will be
paid in the districts most exposed to damage by hail and the lowest in the
most favoured and sheltered districts.

The technical and administrative documents attaching to this system
of insurance are the responsibility of the agencies and offices of the State,
and the insurance fund may incur no charge in connection with them.

Notice of damage by hail to tobacco plantations must be given within
fort^'-eight hours of its occurrence to the competent department ; which
must investigate the loss and communicate the results so obtained to the
competent official of the regie. Tobacco leaves and fragments of them
which have been injured b}' hail must — when they have been collected,
treated and dried according to the instructions of the offices of the tabacco
regie — be carefully separated from the intact portion of the harvest, and
thus delivered, at the same time as the rest of the harvest, to the com-
mission of purchase.

The damage caused by hail is held to be equivalent to the difference
between the actual sum paid for tobacco which has suffered from hail, and
the value of the normal intact crop, determined by its estimated qualit}^
and quantity, that is the value of the crop if no hail had fallen on it.

The quality and quantity of the crop are estimated by technical officials
of the commission of purchase in co-o])eration with a person of trust.

If the planter dispute their estimate another is made, a new person
of trusc, who is chosen by the president of the commission, taking part in
it. In case of a necessity for a third estimate he is chosen by the manage-
ment of the tobacco regie.

As early as 1910 it was found that the premium-quota of i per cent,
was far from adequate to the payment of the estimated losses, and the pro-
vincial treasury had to advance a round sum of 100,000 crowns (i) as a
loan without interest repa5'able in three annual instalments, to the insurance
fund. Consequently in the following year (1911) the premium-quota was
raised to 3 per cent, at which level it has remained.

The population are beginning to appreciate the advantages of this sys-
tem of insurance more and more. It should be regarded as a first attempt
to protect the tobacco planter against the elements. Experience will
lead to an adaptation of insurance to real needs and to an improvement

4
(i) Austrian crown of gold =10 — d at par.

25

58 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

which will profit the regie as much as the planters. The following are the
views on this subjects of the writer of the article :

1. The planter should be made secure of indemnification for all loss
occasioned by hail, and not only of a compensation fixed when the tobacco
is bought. That is not the time for an estimate by the technical official
of the loss occasioned by a fall of hail in July.

2. The valuation af the crop — that is to sa}^ the estimate of the pro-
bable crop — is made by the financial insurance departments together with
experts chosen from the population, and is revised by officials of the regie.
If the fall of hail occur after this estimate has been made the future sale
and the quahty of the crop can be computed. There is here an indication
as to the manner in which losses should likewise be determined.

3. Although there is much to criticize and to blame in this manner
of determining the crop it yet gives the official responsible for computing the
damage some opportunity of fixing it near its real figure. But if the fall of
hail occur before the estimate has been made the question appears in quite
another light. How can the normal crop then be determined ? An estimate
can be based only on the trustworthy evidence of the oldest planters, for
in some cases the crops on parcels of land are literally rased to the ground.

4. The purchase of the merchandise by the regie and the determin-
ation of damages should be effected rapidly, for the work to be done is con-
siderable. It is impossible to generalize on this subject, yet it may be said
that to use data as to the average yield of a commune incurring damage
over a period of five or ten years would give a much firmer and a juster
basis of valuation. An average figure of this sort would also be generally
profitable to the stabilitj^ of the insurance fund, and would meet a certain
sceptism on the part of the planters as to official estimates. The figures as
to losses thus obtained would not be subject to variation.

GKRIvIANY.

I. THE BADEN ASSOCIATIOX FOR INSURANCE AGAINST MORTAI^ITY AMONG
lylVE STOCK IN 1915. — Deutsche Schlacht und Viehhof- Zeitung. Berlin, 16 August 1916.

At the end of 1915 this association numbered 451 societies and local
funds. During the year one fund, formed by fifty-seven members and in-
suring 321 heads of live stock, resigned, but the adherence of a new society,
having seventy-nine members and insuring 301 heads of live stock, was
recorded.

In 1915 the insurance covered altogether 168,419 heads of live stock
and indemnities were paid in 4,410 cases. lyosses amounted thus to 2.62
per cent, and were higher by 0.15 per cent, than in the preceding year, a
fact due to different causes — insufficient care of the animals owing to the
absence of owners, scarcity of certain articles of food, impossibility of
procuring veterinary attention, spread of aphthous fever.

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 59

The claims for indemnities numbered 4,548, and of them 4,248 or 94.13
per cent, were justified, 129 or 2.84 per cent. (0.16 per cent more than in
1914) were partially so, and 138 or 3.03 per cent (2.18 per cent, less than
in the previous year) were unjustified. The total sum of indemnities for
which local funds became liable, as a result of claims not or only partially
recognized, was 24,431.22 marks (i), of which amount 2,169.16 marks was
recovered as the product of the sale of the remains of the animals.

Of the 4,410 heads of cattle for which indemnities were paid :

3,745 or 84.92 per cent, were slaughtered for urgent reasons,

430 » 9.75 » » died,

235 » 5-33 » » were slaughtered normally (insurance of live
stock raised for butchery by Article 40

4,410 100.00 of the law).

The number of cases in which animals were slaughtered for urgent
reasons fell by 3.15 per cent, as compared with 1914, that of those which
died rose by 2.62 per cent, and that of the insured animals slaughtered
normally rose by 0.53 per cent.

Animals slain for urgent reasons:

A r, , , i. • J.- -L No. of Cases Percent. No. of Cases Percent.

After treatment or examination b}'' a _ __ _ _

veterinary surgeon 3,068 81.92 i

Without treatment or examination by ^ 3,745 = 89.70

a veternar}^ surgeon • 677 18.08 j

Animals which died:

After treatment or examination by a

veterinary surgeon 118 27 44 j

Without treatment or examination by 430 = 10.30

a veterinary surgeon 312 72.46 )

4,175 = 100.00

The number of animals treated or examined before death by a veterin-
ary surgeon was less by 19.30 per cent, than in the previous 3'ear, namely
by 8.51 per cent, of cases of slaughter for urgent reasons and by 10.79 P^^
cent, of cases of natural deaths.

The following table gives the causes of death or of urgent slaughter
in the case of 4,175 insured heads of live stock for which indemnities were
paid.

(i) I maik = about is at par.

60 INFOR1MA.TION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Number of Deaths Percentage Order

I. Contagious and infectious diseases 692 16.57 3

II. Diseases of the nen-ous system. . 141 3.38 7

III. » )) » respiratory organs 122 2.92 9

IV. » » » digestive « . 1,408 33-72 i
V. )> » )) circulation .... 79 1.89 ii

VI. » » » urinary organs . . 129 3.09 8

VII. )) » » sexual » . . ']']'] 18.61 2

VIII. » » » locomotive « . , 240 5.75 4

IX. » » )' skin 24 0.58 12

X. Poisoning . . . ". 8 0.19 14

XI. Tumours and constitutional defects 206 4.93 6

XII. Animal parasites 108 2.59 10

XIII. Exterior causes 217 5.20 5

XIV. Undetermined causes 24 0.58 13

4,175 100.00

Cases of indemnities paid for insured an-
imals raised for butchery 235

4,410

The most numerous deaths were caused, as in 1914, by diseases of the
digestive organs, namely 1,408 or 33.72 of the whole number, which gives
an increase of 0.24 per cent. Of these 1,408 deaths 594 were due to diseas-
es caused b}- foreign bodies. Deaths due to flatulence among live stock
also increased notably, the reason for which must be sought in the fact
that in many cases feeding had to be left to inexperienced persons incap-
able of correctly regulating the amount of nourishment given to animals.

Diseases of the sexual organs occupy the second place as having caused
777 deaths, that is 18.61 per cent, of their total number, or less by 2.47 per
cent, than in 1914 when such percentage was 21.08.

Contagious and infectious diseases account for 692 deaths or 16.57 P^^
cent, of the whole number, showing an increase of 1.07 per cent, on 1914.

Included among, them are :

a) Tuberculosis which alone caused 390 deaths. This figure excludes
235 cases of tuberculosis found among animals normally slaughtered.
Thus the total number of deaths due to tuberculosis was 625, or 14.17 per
cent, of all the deaths. The figure shows an increase of 12.24 per cent,
as compared with that of the previous year.

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 6l

The increase is due, among other causes, to remissness caused by the
war in the superintendence of the inspecting veterinary surgeons, employed
by the .State for the campaign against tuberculosis.

b) Aphthous fever. The number of deaths caused by this disease have
increased from the forty cases reported last year to 124.

The increase in the deaths from osteopathyrosis (fragility of bones)
is even more pronounced, their number actually surpassing that for 1914
by 100 per cent. The number of indemnities paid in cases of general dropsy
has increased, as compared with that of 1914, by 200 per cent. The
cause of these diseases is connected with feeding and should be looked for
in the insufficient feeding which has resulted on the scarcity of concentrat-
ed forage, especially in the case of young animals.

2. INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN THE PRINCIPALITY OF HOHENZOLLERN IN
1915-1916. — Mitteihtngen der Centralstelle fur Landwittschaft itnd Gewerbe in Hohenzol-
lern. Sigmaringen, 5 April 191 6.

The following table shows the development of insurance against hail
in the principality of Hohenzollern as a consequence of the preferential
contract concluded at Berlin from 15 to 23 May igoo by the Provincial
Commission {Landesaiisschuss) with the Mutual Association for Insurance
against Hail of North Germany :

Administrative Sphere

Sigmaringen. . .

Hechingen. . . .

Gammertingen. . .

Haigerloch. . . .

Number '

Number

Insured Value

Premiums

Insured Area

of Policies

of subscribers

(in marks)

(in marks)

(in liectares)
(I)

1,369

1405

2,831,642

28,163

5,651

1,003

1.034

955,472

10,478

1,599

471

493

1,047,905

10,671

2,242

268

807

835,458

6,995

1,417

1915 3-III 3-739 5,670,477 56,307 10,909

1914 2,693 3,236 4,437,419 - 9,643

Increase in 1915. . 418 483 1,233,058 — 1,266

As regards the number of claims met and the amount of indemnities,
it should be noted that 1915, like the two preceding years, was among the
most unfortunate years ever encountered in the principality of Hohenzol-
lern. The following are the figures of the balance-sheet which refer to the
claims met ;

(i) I hectare = 2 acres i rood 35.383 poles.

Number
of Claims met

Number of Pieces

Area injured

Amount

of Land
injured by Hail

by Hail
(in hectares)

of Indemnities
(in marks)

628

2,985

1,512

160,190

255

897

134

20,511

139

913

324

34.493

39

154

20

3,432

1,061

4.949

1,990

218,626

612

5.700

1,482

206,503

545

4,837

I.514

102,677

62 INFORMATION REI.ATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Administrative Sphere

Sigmaringen ....

Hechingen

Gammertingen . . .
Hagerloch ....

1915

1914

1913

Thanks to the particularly favourable atmospheric conditions, which
have prevailed throughout the greater part of the sphere of activity of the
Association for Mutual Insurance against Hail of North Germany, and
thanks also to the administrative provisions of some years ago for the form-
ation of reserve funds, the association has been able, for the first time in
twenty years, to avoid a lev}' of additional premiums.

This result is the more satisfactory because the total sum paid in in-
demnities is very high.

SWITZERLAND.

INSURANCE AGAINST HAIIy IN 1915. — Schweizerisches Finanz-Jahrbuch, 1916, 17th
year, Beine, Neiimann and Ziinmemiann, 1916.

We have already in another issue of this Review dealt with the Swiss
Financial Yearbook for 1916, the sixth part of which is given up to insur-
ance. Of the different branches of insurance — life, accident, fire and
transport insurance and reinsurance — it is insurance against hail which
furnishes the facts most interesting to us. This form of insurance, which
we have studied in numerous articles in this Review (i), has its place in
this yearbook.

As is already known insurance against hail is afforded in Switzerland
by two mutual aid societies : the Schweizerische H agel-Versicherungsge-
sellschaft of Zurich and the Paragrele of Neuchatel. The former of these
extends its activities over the whole territory of the Confederation and in-
sures all agricidtural products against the risks of hail ; the latter Umits
its action to the canton of Neuchatel where moreover it insures only vine-,
yards against hail.

(i) Monthly Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence, November 1915, " Agricixllural
Insurance in Switzerland in 1913 ".

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 63

The Zurich society reports having received premiums in 1915 to the
amount of 1,298,096 francs ; the Paragrele to the amount of 34,007 francs.
These figures are much the same as those for the previous year. Damages
amounted for the former society to 1,392,482 francs, for the latter to 316
francs. The Zurich society, which closed its 3^ear's accounts with a loss
of 116,921 francs, was informed of some 9000 cases of loss, 1,327 occurring
on the single day of 2 August. On this occasion its reserve fund was of
great use to it. This had in the previous year been augmented by 603,393
francs derived from surplus receipts. To meet the needs of 1915 the so-
ciety drew on it to the extent of 305,662 francs. Its amount at the end of
1915 was 4,490,822 francs as against 3,832,510 francs at the end of 1910.

The year 1915 was very profitable to the Paragrele which was appris-
ed during its course of only one case of loss. Its reserve fund, already
augmented by 9,000 francs in 1914, received almost the total sum of the
premiums. Tliis happy event brought its total to 108,750 francs, as
against the total of 66,750 francs to which it had been reduced at the end
of 1913.

NOTICES OF SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING
INSURANCE AND THRIFT.

ITALY.

MAGAIyDI (V.) : L'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni. Extract from the Rassegna d'Assi-
curazione e Previdenza Sociale, 3'^ year, 16 July 1916, 16 pages.

In this interesting pamphlet the author, who for many years has so
competent!}' filled the office of General Director of Credit and Thrift in the
Ministry of Agriculture, Industrj^ and Commerce, shows that insurance
— and especially Ufe insurance — has everj-where greatlj^ developed, and
that State intervention has seemed necessar\' for the regulation of its
conditions. The legitimate nature of such intervention follows on the fact
that free competition does not suffice to prevent the constitution of insurance
enterprises which do not technically reach the standard of today and
which, by their lack of frankness or even of good faith, cause bitter disap-
pointments to the insured persons and thus impede the growth of thrift.
Moreover insurance institutions need careful watching, for they accumu-
late large capitals which in truth represent the savings of individuals. In
Europe the point has not been reached of creating by law pubHc institu-
tions charged to insure individuals, save in the case of several tentative
efforts, as in Bavaria where b}^ the law of 13 February 1884 a pubUc State
institution was formed to insure against damage by hail, and in Switzerland
where the compulsory insurance against fire is exercised under the rule of
the State monopoly. In Itah' a typical example of institutions of this kind
is given by the Istituto nazionale delle assicurazioni, formed by the law of
4 April 1 91 2. This institution enjoys the conditions of a monopoly and
practises life insurance in every possible form, the authorization given
to private firms, which were legally practising such insurance on 31 De-
cember 1911, to continue their activity for ten years from the date of the
said law being safeguarded. This national institution, of which this
pamphlet makes clear the most saHent characteristics, began work on i
January 1913, when it insured capital of the value of 800 million francs,
ceded to it by the various ItaHan and foreign companies which had ceased
to operate in Italy.

Part III: Credit

URUGUAY.

THE MORTGAGE BANK AND ITvS ACTIVITY
IN REI.ATION TO LAND CREDIT IN 1915-1916.

SOURCES :

De una relacion enviada por la Oficina de EsTADiSTiCA y Publicaciones del Ministerio
de Indiistrias de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay al Institute Intern'acional de Agri-
cultura [Repot t sent to the International Institute of Agriculture by the Bureau of Statistics
with the publications of the Ministry of Industry of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay) .

Recently we gave some notes on that reorganization of the Mortgage
Bank of Uruguay wliich was decided by the law of 15 October 1915 (i).
We then made clear that the essential bases on which the reform of the
organization of this establishment was framed were the simultaneous exten-
sion of its function in the same direction as that of modern banks, and
reinforcement of the safeguards tending to ensure its financial soundness.

We will now examine, with the aid of some data sent to us directly
by the Ministry of Industry of Montevideo, the results of the activity of
this bank in the year 1915-1916 in relation to land credit, with which sub-
ject the reform is especially concerned. The figures which we will give
cannot of course afford an exact idea of the influence which the reorgan-
ization in question may have on transactions, for, as has been said, the law
enforcing it was promulgated in October 1915, that is to say when the finan-
cial year to which these figures refer was half over. But the figures will

(i) See International Review of Agricultural Economics, August 1916, page 78.

66 URUGUAY - CREDIT

serve to show the importance of those transactions of the bank which are
concerned with land, and also what the bank has done to lessen the distur-
bance of the national economy of Uruguay due to local factors, and, even
more importantly, to the European conflagration which has profoundly
affected all credit transactions in the country.

When we come to examine the increase in the operations in land credit
conducted by this institution, we find that during the year 1915-1916 the
bank made loans of a total value of 3,562,400 pesos (i) as against 2,032,700
pesos in the preceding year, which gives an increase of 1,529,700 ])esos or
75 per cent. This increase is yet more conspicuous if it be remembered that
in the year 1914-1915 the requests for rural loans received by the bank
from individuals were for a total amount of 5,140,400 pesos and the amount
lent was, as has been said, 2,032,700 pesos, while in the year 1915-1916 the
total requests were for 8,404,100 pesos and the sums lent amounted
to 3,562,400 pesos. Thus in 1914-1915 the loans actually made repre-
sented 39 per cent, of those for which application was made, and in 19*5-
1916 42 per cent., a circumstance which proves that the increase in the
loans granted last year, as compared with those granted in the preceding
year, was due not to greater willingness to accord them but to a greater
demand for them.

During the year under review the bank granted 157 loans secured by
rural mortgages. The average sum lent was 21.62 pesos a hectare (2),
and the average annual interest on mortgages was 1.73 pesos. These aver-
ages calculated on the hectare, and corresponding to the value of the mort-
gaged properties as fixed by the bank's experts and to their annual returns,
were 49.29 pesos and 1.99 pesos.

The following table gives detailed data with regard to the mort-
gages reaHzed by the bank in the nineteen departments of the repubhc of
Uruguay.

(i) Peso = about 4s 3d at par.

(2) I hectare = 2 acres i rood 35.383 poles.

THE MORTGAGE BANK AND ITS ACTIVITY

67

Mortgage Loans in 1915-1916.

Departments

Number
of Mortgages

Number of Mortgaged
Properties

Total
Area

Estimated
Value

Returns

of

Properties

according

to tne

Bank

Sums for

which

Proprietors

applied

Sums lent
by the
Bank

Amount

of Annual

Interest

on

Mortgages

hectares

pesos

pesos

pesos

pesos

pesos

Montevideo . .

6

8

298

133.331

4,335

62,500

34,000

2.725

Ortigas. . . .

6

6

12,246

339.496

16,841

183,500

169,000

13.549

Camelones . .

II

12

2,430

308,123

13.328

164,000

148,800

11,930

Cerro I,argo .

3

3

786

35.004

1,262

20,000

15,000

1,182

Colonia. . . .

12

14

2,489

231.834

8,690

92,500

74,900

6,006

Durazno . . .

7

II

15,249

729,268

23.693

256,000

247,500

19,843

Flores ....

4

4

1,692

130,534

4.960

63,000

49,000

3,928

Florida. . . .

5

5

1,413

91,650

2,968

23,800

15,800

1,266

Maldonado . .

2

9

1,171

45,291

2,251

25,000

19,500

1.563

Minas ....

15

26

8,082

432,364

18,021

256,300

189,200

15.196

Paysandii. . .

34

59

51,715

2,402,418

97.634

1.253.500

1,060,6 0

85.035

Rio Negro . .

8

II

17.674

1,075.758

47,233

615,500

529,000

42,413

Rivera ....

3

3

1,440

46,082

1,824

30,000

22,000

1.763

Rocha ....

4

9

1,902

68,401

2.503

45,000

30,500

2,445

Salto

3

7

17,008

612,817

26,250

3 77,000

331,000

26,538

San Jose . . .

II

14

3,135

302,868

13,037

125,000

118,000

9,460

Soriano. . . .

4

4

7.143

434.440

16,144

244,000

183,000

14,672

Tacuaremb6 .

13

22

15,689

589,348

23,206

352,200

275,400

22,105

Treinta y Tres

6

9

3.279

112,390

4.650

102,500

50,200

4,024

Total . . .

157

236

164,750

8,121,427

328,839

4,291,300

3,562,400

285,653

This table shows that while the bank was not niggardly in the matter
of granting loans it made them only on the largest and on the safest secu-
rity possible.

It should be noted that during 1914-1915 the total sum of the loans
granted surpassed 100,000 pesos only in seven departments, whereas in
the year which ended in 1916 it did so in ten departments. In the two
years the total sum of the loans reached its maximum in the departments
of , Paysandii . and Rio Negro.

68

URUGUAY - CREDIT

If the distribution of loans according to their importance be examined
the following facts are obtained :

Distribution of Loans according to their Importance.

From

Categor3-

Number
of
Mort-
gages

Number
of
Mort-
gaged
Proper-
ties

Amount
of I. cans
granted

Pesos

Percentage
of Total
Amount
of Icoans
granted

100

to

1,000

pesos .

3

3

2,700

0.08

1,001

»

2,000

» . .

17

17

27,200

0.76

2,001

))

5,000

»

29

31

124,800

3-50

5,001

»

10,000

))

45

68

351.800

9.88

10,001

))

20,000

»

24

45

358.700

10.07

20,001

))

30,000

»

13

21

330,700

9.28

30,001

»

50,000

»

9

II

400,500

11.24

50,001

))

70,000

»

2

2

121,000

340

70,001

»

100,000

0

8

13

677,000

19.00

100,001

))

140,000

»

3

5

366,000

10.27

140,001

))

200,000

))

3

16

575.000

16.15

200,001

»

400,000

»

I

4

227,000

6-37

Total.

• 157 236 3,562,400

We see that the maximum sum of the loans were in the category of
those between 70,001 and 100,000 pesos, the average here being 84,625
pesos on a mortgage. However it may be said that the generality of
loans, if their amounts be regarded, were in the category of those from
10,000 to 100,000 pesos, which comprises 52.99 per cent, of the total sum
lent.

As regards the redemption of mortgages the year 1915-1916 gives the
following figures :

THE MORTGAGE BANK AND ITS ACTIVITY

69

Redemption of Rural Mortgages in 1915-1916.

Number

Number

of

of

Departments

Mortgages

Properties

Montevideo . .

3

4

Ortegas . . . .

I

I

Camelones . .

9

10

Cerro I^argo .

4

18

Colonia . . .

4

3

Durazno. . .

17

105

Flores. . . .

6

5

Florida . . .

12

30

Maldonado. .

2

2

Minas. . . .

2

3

Paysandti.

3

3

Rio Negro. .

2

2

Rivero . . . .

• —

— ■

Rocha . . . ,

—

—

Salto ....

2

5

San Jose . .

3

6

Soriano . . .

9

6

Tacuarembo .

3

4

Treinta y Tres

2

2

Total. .

84

209

Amount

of
Loans

Percentage

Repaid

of Total

—

Sum Repaid

Pesos

—

23,100

2,24

6,900

0.67

6.4,900

6.29

17,400

1.69

14,200

1.38

187,100

18.13

96,600

Q.36

287,700

27.88

2,300

0.23

9,700

0.94

89,500

8.67

23,900

2.32

23,000

2.23

16,000

1-55

125,800

12.19

39>400

3.89

4,200

0.41

1,031,700

—

The maximum number of redeemed mortgages is found in the cate-
gory comprising loans of from 30,000 to 50,000 pesos. The redemptions
in this category amount to 30.37 per cent, of the total. It should be said
however that many loans between 5,000 and 50,000 pesos were repaid,
the repayments in this category amounting to 78.75 per cent, of the total.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

DENMARK.

THE WORKING OF THE DANISH I,AND CREDIT ASSOCIATIONS IN 191 6.

In our issue for April 1911 we published a detailed study of the organi-
zation of rural land credit in Denmark; in that for January' 1913 we includ-
ed a note on the activity of the Danish land credit associations in 1911-12 ;
in that for February 1914 an analogous note on the year 1912-13 ; in that
for January 1916 a note on 1914-15. We have now the information which
enables us to establish similar statistics for the year 1915-16. To make
comparisons easy we have as usual distributed our facts in two tables, of
which the second gives statistical information as to land credit associations
which grant only loans on first mortgages, while the first includes all the
mortgage associations founded with the especial object of granting loans at
low rates of interest on second mortgages. It should be remembered
that all these associations are based on the principle of mutual sohdarity.

It will be seen that the amount of the loans granted on first mortgages
by the fourteen associations in the second table was in round figures 1865
million crowns (i) at the beginning of 1916, that is more by 367 million
crowns than in 1910. Since several of these associations do not distinguish
between urban and rural loans we cannot give exact information as to the
debt with which rural landed property is burdened, but it is estimated as
half the total debt (2).

As regards the activity of the Mortgage Bank of the Kingdom of Den-
mark we note that on 31 August 1912 it contracted a new debt of 10,800,000
crowns and was thus enabled to buy from the Treasury bonds for State loans
to small farmers {Jordlodder til Landarbejdere) . The bank held on 31 i\Iarch
1915 bonds of associations for land credit to the value of 33, 144,000 crowns,
and Jordlodder til Landarbejdere bonds to the value of 16,932,000 crowns.

(i) I crown = about is i Y^^d at par.

(2) See International Review of Agricultural Economics, 1914, VI. 67.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

71

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INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

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74 INFORMATION REI^ATING TO CREDIT

GERMANY.

THE BANK OF THE EANDSCHAFT OF EASTERN PRUSSIA AT KOENIOSBERG IN

igi5-iqi6. — Dcr Deutsche Ockonomist, Berlin, 29 July iyi6.

When once the pre-war conditions of administrative Hfe had been re-
estabHshed in Eastern Prussia economic life could resume a more normal
course within this bank's sphere, thanks to State support and to the antici-
pated payment of indemnities for losses by the war. The bad harvest of
1915 certainly made recuperation slow, and agriculture had still in many
respects to siiffer from the measures rendered necessary by the war.

The war gave a particular character to economic life. The flocks and
herds could not be maintained at their formier level : in many cases it was
impossible to procure manures and concentrated forage in sufficient quan-
tities, and on the other hand the sale of live stock and agricultural products
reached important dimensions. Many products which were used for pro-
duction in time of peace were converted into money which flowed into the
banks and savings banks. The quite extraordinary^ increase in the deposits
of the Bank of the Landschaft of Eastern Prussia is thus explained. For the
same reason a reduction was noticeable in several cases in the investments
on current account and other investments, which were transferred to credit
accounts : although after recurrent oscillations the total decrease was more
important at the end of the year, particularly as a consequence of subscrip-
tion to the war loan. The funds entrusted to the bank and the impor-
tant sums paid into it by savings banks necessarily remained available owing
to their particular character, and were consequently used to buy Prussian
and German interest- bearing treasury bonds. At times the bank held more
than 47 million marks (i) in these bonds. The issue of bills naturally de-
creased owing to the interest taken in the war loans. The banks could there-
fore grant considerable quantities of bills at moderate rates, gradually
put a term to those financial operations of the Landschaft which were pend-
ing at the beginning of the war, and take back the bills issued b}' the Land-
schaft.

(i) I mark — 11 3/^d. at par.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

75

Financial Statement for the year ( i April 1915-31 March 1916).
The following are some items from the profit and loss account :

Receipts.

rt) Profits on Title-Deeds.

1. on title-deeds themselves 8,216.42 maiks

2. on inteiest on title-deeds 526,696.57 »

3. on commissions on operations with ti-

tle deeds 66,469.96 »

601,382.95 marks

h) On Commission — Commission Account.

1. on advances 17,352.20 marks

2. on deposits 102,613.50 »

3. on mortgage operations 1,199.15 »

4. on sureties 1,765.90 )

5. on current accovmts 89,469.62 »

6. on various receiving and banking oper-

ations 14,201.91 »

226,602.28 »
320,327.14 .)

c) On Interest. — Interest Account.

d) On Discounting -~ Interest on Securities Account.

1. Interest on securities 301,852.20 marks

2. Interest on treasury bonds 823,041.64 » 1,124,893.84 s

e) Excess Profit on Management of

Real Estate 47,422.83 »

/) On Credit held and redeemed . . 57)7oo-8o »

Total Receipts. . . . 2,378,129.84 »

76

INFORMATION REI^ATING TO CREDIT

Expenditure.

a) Costs of Adininistratio7i {including branches).

I. Salaries 243,208.95

£. Indemnities and costs of transcription. 194,010.03

3. Carriage, stamps, telegrams, telephone. 14,899.88

4. Printing and duplicating 22,661.73

5. Heating, light, water 13,153.74

6. Taxes and exchange tax 62,527.11

7. Advertisement, subscriptions to nevvs-

Papeis 8,671.59

8. Office material and binding 14,152.73

9. Shaie in costs of the general council

of the province and the commission

of accoimts 76.00

10. Costs of meetings of general council

and travelling exiDenses 2,664.10

11. Travelling expenses and indemnities
paid to officials of cential establish-
ment and branches 15,796.33

12- Rent 73,615.30

13. Costs and shaie in salaries of I^and-

schaft 70,000.00

14. Various 51, 572,. 89

b) Amortization.

on moveables 42,482.40

>■ real estate 126,000.00

» current accoimt. . . . '. 121,001.00

» advances 1. 47,110.00

» sureties 10,245.00

various 242,604.47

c) Payments for life insurance of
employees.

Total expenditure . . .

marks

787,010.36 marks

589,442.87

9,637.65

1,386,110.88 »

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT ']']

The excess of receipts over expenditure (profits) amounted thus to
992.018.96 marks, as against 558,313.30 marks in 1914-1915 and 742,926.32
marks in 1913-1914. Deducting the shares due to the dismortgaging
funds (21,466.30 marks) and 159,160 marks due to the manager and the
employees, we find that the net profits amounted to 811,392.10 marks.

This sum is distributed as follows :

1. To the bank's savings reserv^e fund 28,879.11 marks

2. Three quarters to the special fund of the lyand-
schaft of East Prussia (entered on debit side of
balance-sheet) 586,884.74 »

3. One quarter to the bank's general reserv^e fund 195,628.25 »

The Savings Bank. — The Landschaft is responsible for investments
in the savings bank, which has the recognized power of receiving trust funds.
It had the activity expected of it. In spite of much variation in the sums
entrusted to it, owing to the investment of savings in the war loans and
the subscription of 4.5 million marks to the third and fourth of these loans,
the total amount of savings was increased by about one and a half million
marks during the year and was at its close more than nine and a half
million marks. The profits of the savings bank were much reduced by the
amortization of its title-deeds. The amount of its investments was :

on I April 1915 (11,723 savings bank books) 8,027,701.77 marks
on 31 March 1916 (13,509 » » « ) 9,605,115.14 »

(including credited interest amounting to 319,391.73 marks)

The savings reserve fund is invested at the Landschaft in Prussian
Ivoan consolidated stock and in the public debt, etc. : Its amount was :

on I April 1915 186,097.00 marks

on 31 March 1916 (including total profit for 1915-

1916 of 28,879.11 marks) 222,779.10 ;;

The bank's general reserve fund passed during the year under review
from 961,844.33 marks — including interest and the quarter of the net pro-
fits — to 1,199,426.56 marks.

The bank's total profit is noticeabl}^ more than in the preceding year,
the increase corresponding to that in the circulation of funds and the sums
on the balance-sheet. In addition to the profits reahzed as commissions
on subscriptions to the war loans, which more than compensated for the
depreciation of title deeds by the lowering of the currency, and indepen-
dently of the increased profits on other commissions, the increased sum com-
ing under the head of interest decided the results of the year. Costs of
administration certainly increased noticeably, owing to the increase in
taxes, in contributions to enterprises of public utility, etc. Before the bank's
net profit was determined sums destined for the amortization of its buildings

78 INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CREDIT

and their contents were deducted. 5o,oqo marks was paid into the employ-
ee's pension fund, which amounted on i April 1915 to 100,440.67 marks
and which, thanks to interest, was 104,180.67 marks at the end of March
1916. If the sum paid into it as above be included, its amount was 154,180.67
marks.

As appears from the mortgage account, real estate was mortgaged for
351,000 marks. The office for mortgage loans dealt with operations fewer
by 420 than in the previous year. The bank sent to the loan funds all the
correspondence and authorities received from those interested in the land
register and from the creditors, so as to focus all the register's operations ;
and it encouraged recourse to credit by creating second mortgages, together
with loans on bills, and by granding extraordinary credits.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

AUSTRALIA.

IvAND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT
IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA (concluded) (i)

by

Dr. J. W. Paterson,

Professor of Agriculture in the University of Western Australia.

§ 3. The provision of credit.

Land, labour and capital are the elements of production. With his own
hands the settler in Western Australia usually provides his own labour,
and the government supplies the land on easy terms ; it also goes a ver>'
long way indeed to finance the farmer by means of loans.

The Bank Acts. — By the Agricultural Bank Act, 1894, a bank was
estabhshed for the purpose of promoting the occupation, cultivation and
improvement of farm lands within the State. This Act with a number of
subsequent amendments was repealed by a consolidating Act in igo6
which placed the bank on a new footing. Under the new Act the bank
was placed under three trustees appointed by the governor in whom is
vested the whole of the bank property'. The necessary funds are chiefly
provided by the issue of mortgage bonds to the Government Savings Bank
at a rate not exceeding 4 per cent. At later dates they have been partially

(i) See the first part of this article in our issue for December 1916.

8o AUSTRALIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GEN'ERAL

derived from the General Loan Fund at a slightly higher rate of interest.
Since its re-constitution under the new Act, the operations of the bank
have rapidly increased. The amount authorised to be raised under the 1906
Act was £1,000,000 but by amending Acts of 1907, 1909, 1910, 1912,
1913 and 1914 its capital has been successively raised to its present level
of £4,500,000.

Objects for ivhichloans are granted. — Under the consoHdating Act of 1906
advances were made to settlers, if the trustees thought fit, for specific
objects such as ring-barking, clearing, fencing, draining, water conserva-
tion, discharging existing mortgages, also the purchase of stock for breed-
ing purposes. Purchase of machinery was added later. Advances to any
individual could not exceed £500. Under an amending Act, 1912, the pro-
\nsions were extended in various directions and now read as follows : —
« Subject to the provisions of this Act the bank may make advances to
persons engaged in the business of farming or grazing, or in agricultural,
horticultural or pastoral pursuits, to an amount not exceeding £2000, or
in any industry that the governor ma}' by proclamation declare to be a
rural industr^^ for any purpose incidental to or in aid of any such business,
pursuit or industry, including the erection of a dwelling house for the bor-
rower on any land occupied or used by him in connection with such business,
pursmt or industrs' ». As a matter of fact, however, the main objects for
which loans are granted are those named in the original Act. The maximum
limit of loans has been greatly increased.

Agricultural hank methods. — Applications for loans must be made
on a prescribed form and contain full particulars of the objects, such as
clearing, fencing, stock, machinery,', etc., for which the advance is required.

Each application must be accompanied by a fee of i per cent, of the
sum appHed for. Loans are granted for sums of £25 or any multiple thereof,
but at no time shall the advances to any one person exceed £2000. The
security' taken b}' the bank is a first mortgage over the property. A bill
of sale by way of collateral security is required over all stock and machin-
ery' purchased with the bank's funds. INIortgages are prepared free of
charge to the borrower, but the latter are required to pay the statutory
fees for registration of their securities, amounting to a few shilUngs. The
whole amount of an approved loan need not be paid at once, but progress
pa3'ments are made against improvements on the certificates of approved
neighbouring landholders. This last provision has sometimes been abused.
The minimum instalment of a loan payable at one time is £10.

Relation of hank to the settler. — The contact of bank and borrower
begins with the occupation of the land, but crown lands being valued and
classified prior to selection, the bank is enabled to give an opinion quickly
before the settler selects the land. While the trustees are empowered to
fix advances on land, it is not obligatory on them to do so in ever}- case.
They may use their own discretion when the security is considered unsafe
either on account of the inferior quality of the land, inadequate area for
maintenance of a home, situational disadvantages, or, in the case of special
advances, low sale value or insufficient development. Needless to sa3%

I.AND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT

selectors almost invariabh^ choose a block which will carry an advance
from the bank. Loans, once made, are only Hable to recall for breaches of
the mortgage covenant.

Rates of interest, surrender of securities etc. — Loans made for improve-
ment purposes carry interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum. The rate
chargeable on advances made for other purposes, such as stock, machinery etc. ,
is 6 per cent, per annum. Interest is calculated on the daily balance and is
payable on the first day of January and the ist. of Juty in each j^ear. A closing
fee of IDS. 6d. is pa3^able on the discharge of ever>' mortgage, and a production
charge of 5s. is made in connection with the lodgement of documents of
title for the registration of outside dealings.

Currency of loans. — All loans made against improvements have a
currency of thirty 3'ears, and are amortisable by fiftj^ equal half -3' early instal-
ments, the interest only being payable for the first five years. Stock and
machiner\' loans are repayable b}' ten equal half-3^early instalments com-
mencing three years from date of making the advance. It is, however,
the privilege of the borrower to repa3' the whole or an3' portion of the loan
at an3' time without notice.

A typical transaction. — The following entries in connection with
an advance to a settler in the Coorow district will serve to illustrate the
nature of the improvements effected and the S3^stem of progress payments.
Ever3' inducement is offered to the new settler by prompt progress pay-
ments, so that on taking up land he ma3' immediateK' find emplo3'ment
as his own master.

82 AUSTRALIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Transactions in connection with loan of £500.
cooRow district.

ist. Loan, £125 approved.

Date Payments Improvements

29-7-08 £30 Well, 35 ft.

26-8-08 25 Fence, 80 chains, 6 wires at 6s, 6d.

8-£0-o8 20 Fence, 53 chains, 6 wires at 6s. 6d.

— — Ring and scrub 70 acres at 3s, 6d.
3-10-10 15 Clearing 10 acres.

— — Ring and scrub 30 acres.
17-5-11 35 Clearing 35 acres.

£125

2nd. Loan approved.

26-9-10 44 Fencing 147 chains, 6 wires at 6s.

9-1-11 146 Clearing 10 acres at 20s.

21-2-11 60 Clearing 140 acres at 20s.

— — Fencing 150 chains, 6 wires at 6s.
4-4- II 25 Fencing 103 chains, 6 wires at 6s.

— — Well, 28 ft. timbered.

£27:

;^rd. Loan approved.
2-3-11 100 Mares

Total . . . £500

Stock and machinery loans are granted in the wheat areas only when
250 acres, worth 20s. per acre, have been cleared and rendered fit for the
plough. lyoans for the purchase of stock and machinery are limited to
£100.

Extent of the bank's operations. -~ The following statement, compiled
from the annual report of the trustees, shows the total amounts advanced
to farmers up to 30 June of each of five years, the amounts repaid and
the outstanding balances at the same dates.

IvAND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT

83

Table VII. — Operations of agricultural bank 1910-14.

1910 1911

1912

1913

1914

Advances to date

Repayments to date

Outstanding Balances

£ £
1,257,082 1,540,241
321,122 563,430

935,960 976,811

i

£
1,946,184
665,452
1,280,732

£

2,582,937
698,980

1.883.957

£

3>o89,575

757,624

2,331.951

With the wider objects for which the bank now grants loans, the
greater maximum advance made possible by the amended (1912) Act,
and above all owing to the greater number of settlers, the operations of
the bank have steadily increased during recent years.

Purpose Of the bank loans. -■ Advance?; may be made for effecting
certain improvements already referred to, and also to a more limited
extent for the purchase of stock or implements. Advances may also be
made to lift existing mortgages to private institutions to an amount not
exceeding three fourths of the value of the improvements already made on
the holding, but purchase money is not regarded as a liability under the
Act. The following table shows the various purposes to which bank ad-
vances were applied during the year ending June 1913. The last column
of the table shows the total amount which had been expended on the
several objects up to date.

Table VIII. — Purposes to ivhich hank advances were applied.

For year ending
30 June

Total amount
to date

Liabil'ties taken over

£124,056
67,941

9,732

435,024

£231,353

246,495

6,494

14.578

3.278

2,080,739

For purchase of stock

For purchase of plant

For purchase of implements

For purchase of fertilisers

For developmental purposes

£636,753

£2,582,937

The amotmt s])ent on the development or improvement of farms
co\-ered a variety of items. As usual the estimated value of the improve-

84

AUSTRALIA - AGRICULTUR.\L ECONOMY IX GENERAL

ments was considerably greater than the bank advances given to effect
them. Table IX taken from the report shows the value of these improve-
ments during the same year. The last column also shows the value of
the several improvements effected by the help of the bank up to date.

Table IX. — Improvements effected laith the assistance of bank funds.

For year ending
30 June

Total amount to date

Clearing

Culti%'ating

Ring-barking & scrubbing . .

Fencing

Draining

Water supply

Buildings

Orchard

Blackboy & poison grubbing

285,350

360

338,816

chains
227,815

acres
10,529

£
289,066

no
97,429

68,145

286

35,096

3,207

1,606

1,174.521
214,398
1,706,435
chains
1,452,918

321

£494,945!

costing

£
1,471,636

120,572

246,4 72

429,782

5,945
138,615

87.075

4,321
13,786

£2,518,204

Proportion of loans granted. — During the year ending 30 June the
board of trustees held fifty meetings and dealt with 4,009 ap})lications from
new and old clients, aggregating £923,885. The loans authorised numbered
3,442 involving a sum of £660,765. Of these, sixty-three applications
representing the sum of £11,159, were subsequently cancelled at the
appUcants' request, and undrawn loans to the value of £155,734 were
also cancelled, leaving a net capital appropriation of £493,872 for the
year. Applications amounting to £184,255 were declined in full.

Number of clients. — The accoxmts closed during the financial year
I913 aggregated 133 as against 461 for the preceding term. New accounts
to the number of 1358 were opened, making the total number of accounts,
current as on 30 June, 8326, and the average amount of borrowers'
balances £226 5s. 6d.

Loans to farmers in other States. — In each of the Australian vStates
the local government has established a system under which financial aid

LAND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT

85

is rendered to the farmers. In every instance the scale of operations has
steadily increased in magnitude during recent years, and in 1914 involved
a large outstanding balance. The position of Western Australia relatively
to the other States will be gathered from the following tables which are
compiled from figures furnished b3^ the Government Savings Bank of
Victoria.

Table X. — Government advances to farmers (1909-10 to 1913-14).

state

Aggregate advanced to 30 June

1 910

igll

1912

1913

Iyl4

N. S. Wales (i)

1,362,853

1,617,192

1,948.885

2,423.955

3,531,263

Victoria

Queensland

S. Auitralia (2) "

W. Australia

Tasmania

Common wealt h

2,657,713 2,797,323 2,954,618
235,793 306,944 430,403

i,544,946| 1,786,762
i,25y,o82f 1,540,241

9.1S7

7,067,574

14,610

2,064,583

3,208,9031 3,491,008

623,498 851,600

2,370,076 2,601,450

1,946,184, 2,582,937 3,089,575

18,636

8,063,072 9,363,309

23,915

11,233,284

41,004

13,605,900

(i) For years ending December prior, except for year 1914.

(2) Includes loans to other producers arui to local bodies on the security of their oxvn rates.

All of the States have made heavy advances to their farmers. Deduct-
ing the amounts of loan moneys repaid in the several States at different
dates from the amounts advanced, the outstanding balances have been
estimated. The facts are stated in Table XL

86

AUSTRALIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Tai3LE XI. — Government loans to farmers (iQog-io to 1913-14).

Balance outstanding at 30 June

1912

N. S. Wales (i) . . . .

Victoria

Queensland

S. Australia (3) . . . .

W. Australia

Tasmania

Commonwealth

(2) 795,113

(2) 1,308,425

163,640

710,316

935,960

8,521

928,086
1,306,657
206,997
819,818
gy6,8ii
13,561

1.074.358

1.343,834
305.652
966,670

1,280,732
16,592

3,921,975 4,251,930

4,987,838

1.396,336
1,511,798

470.795
1,150,020

i,S83,957\
21,089

2,297,981

1,676,432

636,790

1,264,417

2,331,959
36,965

6,433.9951 8,244,544

(i) At 31 Dec. prior, except in 1914.

(2) After deduction of special principal payments in advances.

(3) Includes balances to farmcis, and other producers and to local bodies on the security of the

At the latest date for which returns common to the States are avail-
able. Western Australia had greater outstanding balances with its farmers
than any other State.

Loan operations relatively to number of farms. — When the loan oper-
ations of the bank are contrasted with those of the other States, the
figures become still more striking when account is taken of the actual
number of farmers in the various States. In Table XII are stated the total
number of holdings of all sizes alienated or in process of alienation in the
several States in 1914, the outstanding loan balances in the same year,
and finally the amount which each farm would carry if the balance in each
State were equally distributed among the holdings. The data for Queens-
land are not available.

LAND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT

87

Table XII. — Government loans and number of holdings (1914).

N. S. Wales
Victoria (i) .
S. Australia .
W. Australia
Tasmania . .

Number
of holdings

92,665
66,811
21,369
15,620
13,371

Balances
outstanding

2,297,981
1,511,798
1,264,417
2,331,959
36,965

Calculated loan

advance

per holding

24.8
22.6
592

149-3
2.8

(I) 1913-

Such a comparison gives a general view of the situation, but lays no
claim to completeness. It embraces all holdings irrespective of size, and
some vStates have a greater preponderance of small holdings than others
Examination of the details show that Western Australia has relatively
somewhat fewer of the smaller sizes than the oldei States. Its differences
in this respect, are, however, trivial when compared with the proportionate
advance per holding, and it is clear, therefore, that in proportion to their
numbers, the government there has gone much further in providing credit
for its farmers than have those of the .sister States.

Newness of farms in Western Australia. — The results found in the
preceding paragraph pay, at first sight, a poor compliment to the farming
conditions prevalent within the State. It should be recollected, however,
that agriculture in Western Australia is very largely a new development,
and that its operations (Table I.) and its number of holdings (Table VI)
have increased with great rapidity during recent years. The newness of
its agriculture is also indicated by the rapid increase in the area of its
lands already alienated or in the process of alienation (Table V). This
increase is not onh' relatively, but also absolutely, greater than the corres-
ponding increase in any other State. This can be seen from the following
statement where the total area of land ahenated and in process of alien-
ation is stated for each State at 1901 and again at 1913 - the last year
for which complete data are available.

88

AUSTRALIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOM V IN GENERAL

Table XIII. — Lands alienated and in process of alienation
in the different States at different dates.

state

I^ands alienated & in process of alienation

Increase in 12 yrs

N. S. Wales
Victoria . .
Queensland .
S. Australia .
W. Australia
Tasmania . .

48,039,242

23,797,226

16,325,132

8,088,897

9,585.144

4.893,961

57,818,023(1)
31,171,956
26,081,018
12,451,709
21,362,546 (i)
6,341,817

9,778,781(0
7.374.730
9,755,886
4,362,712
ii,y7y,402{2
1,447,856

(i) To 30 June.
(2) In II V2 years.

Government loans are not intended to bolster up incompetent farmers
in old settled districts, but to finance new enterprise and open up new
fields for the settler. Regarded in this light, the table shows that of late
years Western Australia has taken a lead in the establishment of new farms,
and consequently has had heavy demands made upon her credit. Reference
to Table XI shows that at the date of the latest returns her existing loans
to settlers exceeded those of anv other State.

§ 4. Conclusion.

Land settlement has proceeded in the vState with great rapidity partly
for technical and economic reasons previously discussed, but very largely
also as a result of the vigorous land policy of successive governments,
and the liberal character of its agricultural loans. Whether in certain in-
stances its land policy has been too vigorous and its loan system too
generous, are matters with which this article is not intended to deal. Its
object is to record facts. Present indications suggest that the loan policy
will be modified at an earlj' date owing to the growing stringency of the
money market resulting from the war.

Effect of curtailing loans. — Should the loan policy of the government
be curtailed for the reason stated, it is possible that a number of new
settlers, possessing no resources other than their credit with the bank,

I,AND SETTLEMENT AND THE PROVISION OF CREDIT 89

may repudiate their obligations and abandon their holdings. This is the
prime danger of a generous loan policy which, if carried too far, may de-
feat its own end. The bank holding the mortgage can, of course, sell any
properties reverting to it with the improvements thereon. As the advances
were made against the improvements, it need not necessarily incur loss.
It may do so, however, and it will lose the settler. During 1914, eighty
securities reverted to the bank in this way, fourteen unsold properties were
carried over from the previous 3'ear, and sixty were resold, within the year.
If the bank's operations must necessarily be curtailed, the number of those
resales is almost certain to increase in the future.

Prospects for the future. — Under the conditions indicated, a premium
will be placed upon the possession of private capital by new settlers seeking
for land in Western Australia. At the present time good wheat lands are
very appreciabl}^ cheaper there than similar lands in the eastern States.
Should a period of temporary depression now supervene, in the event and
as the result of curtailments by the bank, the difference will become
relatively greater. Depreciation of land values in the west can be only
temporar3^ At the time of writing the wheat yield of the State for 1915
is officially estimated at 13.5 bushels per acre over a record area. A factor
likely to affect prices in the future and promote settlement is the opening
of land connection with the eastern States over the trans-continental
railway promised for the close of the present year.

RUSSIA.

THE RKSUIvTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINI.AND.

{Concluded) (i).

§ 5. The component parts of the property of coeonists.

Having distinguished between the two factors in colonization in Fin-
land, the man and the land, and studied them in every aspect, we will now
turn our attention to the results of their joint action, and the question
of whether or to what extent they advance the work of colonization. We
will do it best by inspecting more closely the individual forms of capital
which go to make the complex assets and h abilities of farming and also the
capital invested in households, secondary businesses and the like. From the
increase and decrease of such capital and groups of capital, from the
changes suffered by all assets from the time the colonists' lots were taken
over until the close of the enquiry, we will attempt to construct a picture
of the results attained by the new Finnish colonists and of their limitations.
We will examine the component parts of the property in the order in which
these were placed at the eiid of § 2.

I. Capital in real estate of the farms.

The capital in real estate is composed of capital in land, capital in soil
and capital in buildings.

a) Capital in land. When the lots were taken over the average gross
price a hectare (2) for the total 219,628 hectares comprised by all the land of
the colonies, and for the appurtenant buildings, woods and hunting and fish-
ing rights, varied according to the grant from yy to 136 Finnish marks (3).
The average price a hectare in the seven colonies investigated was, as we have
already seen (4), 86 Finnish marks, that is 22 per cent less than the general
price. The price of land was of course distincly higher in the case of torp
holdings which had already been long settled before the beginning of the

(i) The first part of this article appeared our issue for November 191 6.

(2) A hectare = 2 acres i rd. 35.383 pos.

(3) 1.2611 Finnish marks = is at par.

(4) International Review of Agricultural Economics, November 1916, page 119.

THE RESTJLT OF INTERIOR COI.ONIZATION IN FINI.AND QI

colouizing enterprise, than in that of the newly allocated lots : it was in the
case of the former, according to facts furnished by the Finnish lease offices
(Helsingfors 1915), 642 marks for a hectare of arable land near the demesne
land of the estate, and varied according to its situation from 423 to 783
Finnish marks. For abandoned torp lands the price varied from 328 to 528
Finnish marks. For meadowland near the demesne land of the estate an
average price of 333 Finnish marks a hectare was paid and for meadows some-
what remote that of 239 Finnish marks a hectare. The average price
for a hectare of woodland was, according to its situation in relation to the
demesne land of the estate and according to the grant, from 163 to 125 Fin-
nish marks. A comparison of these prices with those obtaining in Russia
proper when the new agrarian reforms were carried out, or those accompany-
ing the colonization of new lands in other countries, shows that hitherto
colonizing enterprise in Finland has succeeded in securing land at relatively
low prices, and shows too the circumstance, connected with this one, that the
prices of land in Finland are as yet generally lower than in other countries.

During the time of the enquiry the following alterations took place in
capital in land. By the inclusion of woodland the possible taxable value
of arable and meadowland in the investigted colonists' lots rose by '>,']
Finnish marks a lot.

As a result of permanent improvements — such as breaking new land
and clearing it of stones, the construction of larger drainage ditches, the
laying out of gardens, the addition of loam to moorland soil — the capital
in land increased in value by 176 Finnish marks a lot.

Altogether the value of the capital in land rose during the time of the
enquiry by 18,113 Finnish marks, an average of 213 Finnish marks a lot,
or of 8.95 Finnish marks per hectare of arable and meadowland. The
average yearly increase in the value of the land of the colonies was 44 Fin-
nish marks for each lot, 7 Finnish marks of this sum having arisen by an
extension of area at the expense of woodland and 37 by permanent
improvements of the soil.

b) Capital in soil. According to the author's investigations the most
important part of capital in soil consists of the value of manure. When the
land was taken over the total value of the manure was 76.2 per cent, of that
of the capital in soil ; at the end of the enquiry it was 58.3 per cent. The
relative value of the manure was lower when the enquiry closed than when
farming began because the earlier computation was made in spring, the
later on i July.

The total capital vahie and the percentage of it represented by manure
varies not only in the different colonies but even more in the different lots
within one colony. This is because some lots were made on settled lan(f,
previously cultivated and therefore more or less manured ; while others
were made on virgin soil. The succession of crops has contributed to the
same end.

The total value of the stock in cultivated soil when the lots were taken
over averaged 411 Finnish marks a lot, and 1,161 Finnish marks on i July.
The total increase in capital value during the period of enquiry amounted

92

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

to 69,779 Finnish marks, namely an average of 750 Finnish marks a lot, or
155.38 Finnish marks for a hectare of arable land and 67.36 Finnish marks
for a hectare of arable and meadowland. A relative diminution of capital
in soil is to be noted in Koskipaa colony, where owing to the remoteness
of the arable land, as compared with the other colonies, and the preva-
lence of the three field system, the live stock could not be increased as much
as elsewhere. The increase in value of capital in soil, both annual and
total,^can be seen from the following table.

Increase in Value of Capital in Soil.

Total
increased

Value
Finnish.

marks

Annual increased Value

Components

By hectare | By hectare of arable
■°y '°* of arable land | and meadowland

of Capital in Soil

Finnish p-rcent ^^innish
marks ^^ercent. ^^^^^

Percent.

^^S percent.

In a number of years.

Total value of manvire

Costs of clearing dit-
ches

Costs of laying out clo-
ver grass fields . . .

Costs of transporting
loam

30,952
2,537
2,744
1,187

87
6

7
3

50.6

3-5
4.0

1-7

8.54
0.94
0.92

0-34

42.7
4-7
4.7
1.7

7-55
0.60
0.60
0.25

49.2
3-9
3-9
1.6

In one year.
Costs of labour . . .

Seeds

Manures

13,431

".275

1,635

35

30

4

20.5

17.4

2.3

4-57
4-15
0.52

22.8

20.8

2.6

323
2.77
0-34

21. 1

18.1

2.2

Total . . .

63,779

172

1 00.0

19.98

lOO.O

15-34

1 00.0

The annual increase in value of the capital in soil averaged 172 Finnish
marks for a single lot, 19.98 Finnish marks for a hectare of arable land,
and 15.34 Finnish marks for a hectare of arable and meadowland taken
together.

If the lots be classified according to their size the capital in soil at
the end of the period of enquiry is found to average as follows for one hec-
tare of arable land :

In lots having an area of less than 2.5 hectares — 350 Finnish inks, for

" " " " " " from 2.5 to 5 " — 201 " "

" " " " " " " 5 " 7.5 " — 158

" " " " " " " 7.5 " 10 " — 155

" " " " " " 10 " 15 " — 161 " "

" " " " " " 15 and more " — 173 " "

hectare

THE RESUI^TS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINI.AND 93

Thence it appears that the vahie of the capital in soil in the smaller hold-
ings, those of less than 5 hectares, is relatively greater than it is in the larger
farms ; a circumstance due, according to the author, to the fact that on
the smaller holdings live stock is relatively more numerous than on the large
farms.

c) Capital in buildings. When the 85 lots which were investigated were
taken over the value of the capital in buildings was as follows :

Buildings appurtenant to the lots 17,660 Finnish marks

Buildings taken over with the land 39, 801

Taxable value of sites of premises and of roads . . 630

Total . . . 58,091

On I July 1912 the value of such capital had risen as follows :

Buildings 187,867 Finnish marks

Taxable value of sites of premises and of roads 1,299 " "

Total . . . 189,166

Thus the total increase in value was 131,075 Finnish marks. If the
average for a single lot be calculated it is found to be as follows :

When the lots were taken over. —

Buildings appurtenant to them 208 Finnish marks

Buildings taken over with the land 468

Taxable value of sites of premises and of roads. . 7

Total ... 683

On I July 1912.

Buildings 2,210 Finnish marks

Taxable value of sites of premises and roads . . 15 " "

Total . . . 2,225

The average increase in value on a lot is therefore 1,542 Finnish marks.

These figures are to be regarded as representing the addition made to

the value of the capital in buildings solely by the colonists' activity in farm-

94 RUSSIA - AGRICUI,TURAI< ECONOMY IN GENERAIv

ing their holdings during the period of the enquiry. The market value of
the buildings — the effect of a general rise in prices — has been disregarded
in accordance with the aim of the whole enquiry as already stated.

As regards single colonies the increase in value of capital in buildings
was greatest in vSeppala, where it averaged 2,758 Finnish marks a lot ; and
least in Nipuli, the average there being 427 Finnish marks a lot. The num-
ber of dwelling houses on the 85 lots investigated was 98 and they comprised
224 rooms. Thus there was an average of 2.5 weather-tight rooms for each
lot and 2.3 for each dwelling house. An average of 255 cubic metres,
measurements being taken outside, was devoted to dwelling house room
on each lot, namely 236 cubic metres to Uving-rooms and kitchens and
19 cubic metres to masonr3\ On an average 2.2 members of a family
inhabited each living-room, 1.7 being over twelve years old.

In all the 85 lots there were 188 stables and byres, that is an average
of 2.2 a lot. This average is high because, as already stated, many colonists'
lots have arisen out of earlier torp holdings which usually included several
buildings.

The buildings for storage comprised, when measured from outside, an
average of 62 cubic metres for each lot, storerooms, granaries and cellars
being included.

The value of buildings averaged for each member of a family 175 Fin-
nish marks, or 270 for each of such of them as were over twelve years old. The
author observes that these figures represent very low values even according
to Finnish standards ; and that in the case of capital in buildings, as in that
of capital in land, colonizing enterprise in Finland has succeeded in keeping
costs very low, especially where it has been possible to bu}' up older build-
ings cheaply.

2. Farming Capital.

The farming capital of the colonists can be analysed as capital in
machines and implements, in live stock, in other stock, in shares in the
co-operative funds and in cash. We will briefly consider these components
individually.

a) Capital in machines and implements. When the colonists' lots were
taken over the machines and implements were worth 15,642 Finnish marks.
During the course of the enquiry their value rose to 22,439 Finnish marks
and on i July 1912 it had reached the sum of 38,081 Finnish marks. Its
greatest increase in value up to that date occurred in Seppala colony, where
it was 735 Finnish marks, its least in Nipuli colony where it was 199
Finnish marks. The average annual increase in the different classes of
property forming capital in machines and implements, on a single lot and
on a hectare of arable and meadowland, can be shown as follows :

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND

95

Per single lot
Finnish marks

Per hectare of arable
and meadowland

Finnish marks

8.15

14-25

2.40

075
11.30
14.60

1-75
6.10

0.74

1-33
0.20

Inventory of stables

0.03
103
1.28

Invi ntory of dair>'

Carts etc

Housi hold implements

Othi-r implements

0.14
0.56

Total . . .

59.30

531

The total value of the machines and implements increased on an aver-
age during the period of enquiry by 264 Finnish marks for each single lot
or by 23.43 Finnish marks for a hectare.

If the various values of the capital in machines and implements in
the investigated lots be compared with the size of the holdings, it appears
that such capital is notably greater in the larger than in the smaller of
these ; yet when the average for a single hectare of arable and meadowland
is calculated there is no great difference in value to be observed. These
facts appear from the following table :

Average Cask value of Machines and Implements according to the Size of the
Colonists' Lots and for 1 hectare of Arable and Meadowland.

Area of lots

No. of lots

Average value in Finnish marks

Arable and meadowland

For a single lot

For I hectare of arable
and meadowland

Up to 2.5 hectares . . .
From 2.5 to 5 » ...

» 5 » 7.5 » ...

» 7.5 » 10 •> ...

» 10 » 15 » ...

» 15 » 25 !> ...

25 and more » : . .

2
II
22
II

22
13

3

257
148
368

378
501

757
800

115
35
55
42
40

43
20

For whole area . . .

85

448

42

96

RUSSIA - AGRlCuivTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL

b) Capital in live stock. The capital in live stock rose in value between
the time when the lots were taken over and that at which the enquiry
was completed from 53,549 to 100,190 Finnish marks. Thus the increase
was one of 47,641 Finnish marks or 87.1 percent. The average value on each
lot, when taken over, of this capital was 630 Finnish marks, and on i July
1912 it was 1,179 Finnish marks. For a hectare of arable and meadowland
the average value was 63.38 Finnish marks at the earlier and 110.37
Finnish marks at the later date. The live stock was of least value in Siika-
jarvi, where it averaged 651 Finnish marks a lot, and of greatest value in
Koskipaa, where it averaged 2,245 Finnish marks a lot. The total increase
in the value of the capital in live stock averaged 549 Finnish marks a
lot, varying from 145 to 983 Finnish marks in the different colonies.

If the live stock be divided into the two groups of cattle and horses,
and their value from the time when the colonies were first established until
the close of the period of enquiry be calculated, the average increase in
their respective values on a single lot and on a hectare of arable and
meadowland is as follows :

Cattle.

For a lot

» I hectare arable and mead-
owland

Percentage of whole capital in
live stock

Horses.

For a lot

» I hectare arable and mead-
owland

Percentage of whole capital in
live stock

When land
was taken over

Finnish marks

429
43-25
68%

201

20.13
31.9 %

I July 1912
Finnish marks

763
71.44

64-7 %

416

38.93
35-3%

Amount of increase
Finnish marks

334

28.19

215

18.80

It thus appears clearly that the capital in live stock has greatly in-
creased on the colonists' lots. The value is distributed among the groups of
holdings, classified according to size, as follows :

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND

97

The Capital in Live Stock on Holdings of Different Sizes.

No. of lots

Average value per

Area of arable and meadowlana

Lot

I hectare arable
and meadowland

Up to 2.5 hectares .
From 2.5 to 5 »

» 5 » 7.5 » • •

» 7.5 » 10 »

» 10 » 15 »
15 » 25

» 25 and more

2

II
22
12
22
13
3

551
613
801

925

1,387
1,766

3,337

248
152
116
107
115
105
90

For whole area .

• •

85

1,179

no

c) The capital in other stock.

Unlike the capital in the groups hitherto examined that in stock other
than live stock has remained unaltered on the colonists' farms, and is even
found to have undergone a slight diminution if its average for one hectare
be reckoned. This is chiefly due to the circumstance that the inventory
was taken at the end of the period of enquiry and therefore in the summer,
a time when stock is notoriously at its lowest in farms. Further the beds of
manure were reckoned as constituting not capital in stock but capital
in soil.

In the 85 lots investigated the capital in stock was of the value of 8,882
Finnish marks, averaging 105 Finnish marks for a lot and 10.51 for a hec-
tare of arable and meadowland. The increase relatively to the outgoings
varied according to the colonies.

In NipuU and Kaskipaa colonies the capital in stock diminished in va-
lue from 103 to 80 Finnish marks a lot, while in Seppala and Sippola it
increased from 92 to no Finnish marks. The increase depends cliiefly on
the presence of woodland products, such as firewood, building materials, etc.

d) Co-operative shares and cash.

The co-operative shares of the colonists on the investigated lots were
very trifling : when the land was taken over their value averaged 3 Fin-
nish marks for a lot and, on i July 1912, 13 Finnish marks, giving an in-
crease of 10 Finnish marks. In Sippola and Kaskipaa such average value
was almost three times that of the general average, being 27 and 29 Finnish
marks,but in Muddais on the other hand there was no co-operative enterprise
whatsoever.

As regards capital in cash it was naturally greater when the lots were
taken over than on i July 1912, when the enquiry closed. The money which

98 RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

the colonists brought with them came, during the time of the enquiry,
to be represented by the different forms of capital invested in the farm. When
the land was taken over the capital in cash amounted to 11,296 Finnish
marks, averaging thus 133 Finnish marks for a lot and 13.25 for a hectare of
arable and meadowland. In Koskipaa the colonists possessed more than the
average sum, namely on an average 224 Finnish marks a lot ; in Siika-
jarvi the average amount possessed on a lot was less than the general aver-
age, being not more than 30 Finnish marks.

On I July 1912 Koskipaa colony still held most capital in cash, aver-
aging 177 Finnish marks a lot ; while Nipuli, where such average was only
48 Finnish marks, held least. For all the colonies the decrease in capital
in cash per lot varied from 37 to 107 Finnish marks and averaged 43. An
increase in the average amount of cash held with a lot occurred only in Mud-
dais and Siikajarvi colonies.

3. Capital not directly invested in Farming.

The changes suffered by capital not directly invested in the farms,
but connected with the agriculture of the colonists and therefore
influencing the course and the results of their farming activities, will
be mentioned shortly.

a) The capital in household goods and implements had the following
value :

When the land was taken over

Household goods 3, 519 Finnish marks

implements. . . 2,139 » »

5,658 Finnish marks

On I July 191 2

» goods 3,592 » »

implements. . . 5,695 » »

9,287

Total increase in value 3,629 » »

The increase is chiefly due to a multiplication of implements. The
yearly increase averages 9 Finnish marks for a lot and 0.79 Finnish marks
for an acre of arable and meadowland.

b) The capital invested in other businesses decreased in the course
of the enquiry from 34,590 to 9,692 Finnish marks ; and such decrease was
made largely at the expense of the money invested in banks. When the
land was taken over the savings deposits of the colonists averaged 280
Finni.sh marks for each lot ; and on i July 1912 the deposits had been almost

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND 99

entirely withdrawn, and the average amount remaining in the banks
was for each lot only 38 Finnish marks. On the other hand the sum paid
for life insurance rose during the period of enquiry from 1,020 to 1,790 Fin-
nish marks, that is by 779 Finnish marks, an average of 9 marks for a lot.

When the land was taken over the average amount of capital invested
in other businesses was 407 Finnish marks for each lot. In Muddais
colony it was highest, namely 1,023 Finnish marks; in Siikajarvi it was
lowest — 66 Finnish marks. In 1912 the average for a lot had fallen to
115 Finnish marks.

The author reckons as capital in other businesses that invested in
accessory industries and leasehold and other rights.

c) The capital in personal belongings, such as clothes and furniture,
was worth 28,484 Finnish marks when the land was taken over, giving an
average of 335 marks for a farm or family. On i July 1912 it had not no-
tably increased, being 33,269 Finnish marks, which gave an average of 391
marks for a family. The annual increase therefore averaged 11 marks for
a lot and seems very trifling. The reason for its slightness is, according to
the author, that after the lots had been taken over the colonists were much
occupied in setting their farms in order and had little time in which to supply
themselves with clothes, furniture and other personal possessions.

d) The service of paying woodland dues, that is woodland rents
and amortization payments attached to the earlier debt with which
woods were burdened, was during the period of the enquiry of the value
of 30,615 Finnish marks, an average of 360 marks for a lot and of 33.72
for an acre of arable and woodland.

Payments of this description are highest in Koskipaa colony where they
average 1,053 Finnish marks a lot, and lowest in Siikajarvi and Nipuli where
they average 214 Finnish marks a lot.

Finally as regards hereditary payments and presents these occurred
in onty three colonies — Siikajarvi, Nipuli and Koskipaa — and amounted
to 3,580 Finnish marks.

In the following table all the capital of the colonists represented b}^
their farming, before and after the lands were taken over and on i July
1912, is set out.

100

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENER.'^L

«

HI

>.

3
l->

n
o

Per-
centage

1 i Ji

1

tx Mfn oKi-idK

M 11 C^ i-i N

§

Average

per
hectare

of

arable

and mead-

owland

III ^

r*1 ^NO -*f^M<nM
CO Nf) O\rooo«^

M « M

1

<

\ \ % °2-

•V.

o>

VO"

tx <>. w -a- « «

hT C^ M*

1

H

' ' 1 i

1

00 Ol>0 mOOvINMI 1

« to c^ oo" d oo" M fC 1 1
m >0 Co to O 1

o

S
t

i

a

<

<u
■ &e

p. §

M CJ\
1 1 VO to

g

M O O O M M O

od 16 in o> to 6 ■*

1

Average

per
hectare

of

arable

and mead-

owland

^ §

o
m
to

CO

tn -^ M oo M in m 1
to t> «^ oi u, to r.
00 =0 00 to o o to

IT) 1 VO M ^O HC M 1

to

s ft ^

11^- sis

N M 1 to

-4- to rj- O « to to
t^ 1 Oo 00 CO O to

1

rt
1

vo oo

1 1 « '°-

0\ 00

i|
00

\n N c< oi t< g\ lO

o o. * -* oo o\ oi
oo 1 o vo m 00 « N
oo" oo" in to oo" m"

to in M m M

i-i

1

>
o

s
a

V

1

PQ

ft g

m m
1 1 lO to
1 1 M cc

o
o

■n in q to c; in j

1 1 id * 6 oo" 6 6 ! 1

Average
per
hectare

of

arable

and mead-

owland

lis 1

o

Ol

t

o IH 00 M m m
1 1 ^ "? <r> "? *? fJ

O 00 to O O CO

1

V

oo m
lis ^

"8

00 ll- o m to to 1
1 1 O 00 to o to 1

1 1 « « lO M M 1

o
H

1 1 t^ Ol

I-I 00

00

lO ^ ^ OO ON Ol

1 1 lo lo m 00 « N

1 1 tC in to oo «

H M in 1-

,

a

1 r ^ 1

ft != 0 ft

'J

Capital in
land :

Capital in
land . . .

Increased va-
lue of capi-
tal in soil .

Capital in
buildings .

Farming ca-
pital:

Machines
and imple-
ments. . .

Live stock .

Other stock.

Co-operative
shares . .

Cash . . . .

S \

o

^ 1

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND lOI

§ 6. The LIABILITIES OF THE COLONISTS.

During the period of enquiry into the colonists' lots not only the
property but also the liabilities of the colonists underwent changes, in the
manner which will now be described.

1. The State debt on the land.

When the colonists were settled the vState granted the lots as bearing
their full taxable value. The amount with which the farms (woodland being
excepted) on the 85 investigated lots were burdened was 174,236 Finnish
marks, giving an average of 2,049 Finnish marks for a lot and 206.19 Finnish
marks for a hectare of arable and meadowland. This debt on the land (prior
debt) has been lessened by annual payments in redemption, but on the other
hand has been increased when woodland has been subjected to agriculture
and the area farmed thus extended. Altogether the debt to the State has
diminished only by 4,826 Finnish marks, giving for each lot an average
decrease of 56 marks. These low figures are explained by the circumstance
that the State, in the first years after the lots had been taken over, did not
compel the colonists to make payments in redemption.

At the end of the period of enquiry this prior debt was of 169,410
Finnish marks, giving an average of 1,993 marks for a lot and 186.57 ^o^ a
hectare of arable and woodland.

2. Loans from hanks and private persons. Debts of this category have dur-
ing the period of enquiry altered, in respect of their total amount and the
average for a single lot and for a hectare of arable and meadowland, as
follows :

I02

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

When the land
was taken over

Finnish marks

1 1

On I Julj' iyi2 ! Increase

Finnish marks Finnish marks

Total amount.

Debts to banks

Other debts

3,Olo
5,080

17,475
24,436

14,465
19,466

Total . . .

8,090

42,091

33,931

Average per lot.

Debts to banks

Other debts

35
60

205
289

170

229

Total . . .

95

494

399

Average per hectare of arable and
meadowland.

Debts to banks

Other debts

356
6.01

19.24
27.03

15.68
21 02

Total . . .

9-57

46.27

36.70

Most colonists have received credit from the co-operative funds and
savings banks and only few loans from individuals. On i July 19x2 Tak-
kula and Niptili colonies were most indebted to banks, their debts of this
description averaging 130, increased from 57 Finnish marks, for a lot. The
increase of indebtedness to banks in Nippuli is to be ascribed to the fact that
nine colonists became burdened with a debt of 4,000 Finnish marks as a
result of fraudulent discounting, and implicated their property in conse-
quence.

Loans from private persons are very considerable in the colonies of
Muddais (average yearly increase of 117 Finnish marks a lot), Seppala
(of 78 Finnish marks), Takkula (of 43 Finnish marks) and Nipuli (of
39 Finnish marks).

3. Current debts. The author reckons among these debts such as have a
more accidental character and do not bear interest. Such is the credit
which the country tradespeople afford for goods ordered by the colonists.
These debts were relatively very great in Nipuli colony where their annual
increase averaged 2S6 Finnish marks a lot. The average annual increase
in current debts among all the lots investigated was 30 Finnish marks per
lot or 2.80 Finnish marks per hectare of cultivated land.

3. Debts incurred to the forests. Since it was the aim of the whole en-
quiry to discover the action on agriculture only of such capital as was in-

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND

103

vested in farming, the forest dues were reckoned among the liabiHties the
colonists incurred b}^ forestry, as against the uses they made of their wood-
land possessions.

The total value of the forest dues from the time the land was taken
over until the close of the period of enquiry was 52,434 Finnish marks.
The yearly average for a lot was 138 Finnish marks, or for a hectare of cul-
tivated land 13.05 Finish marks. From the total sum of the forest dues
79.7 per cent, must be deducted as the value of the woodland products
(fuel) and 20.3 per cent, as that of pasturage.

The firewood used on the farms is for the most part gathered from the
fallen wood, and wood having a market value is seldom used as fuel.
In Muddais, where there is less woodland than in the other colonies, the
colonists take firewood from their wood most sparingly. It has happened
that firewood has been sold by the colonists outside a colony, being
transported by water. In Takkula the colonists procure their firewood
from distant forests and therefore are very careful in their use of it. The
costs of importing wood are a considerable burden on the farming of the
colonists. The yearly value of the woodland pasturage in the different
colonies for single lots is computed by the author as follows :

Muddais

Sippola

Siikajarvi

Nipuli

Koskipaa

Takkula

Seppala

Average for a lot

Houses
Finnish marks

12
I

3

Cows
Finnish marks

22
16
16
24

39
12

9

Sheep
Finnish marks

The sum of inheritances and presents received by the colonists during
the time of the enquiry was 5,687 Finnish marks, an average of 67 Finnish
marks for a lot or 6.27 for a hectare of land.

§ 7. Changes in assets and liapilities and t?ie net profit m.\de.

The two preceding sections have given the alterations in the single as-
sets and liabilities and the groups of these. We will now resume and com-
pare all assets and liabilities as they were both before and after the lots were

104

RUSSIA - AGRICULTUKAl, ECONOMY IN GENKKAL

taken over and at the close of the period of enquiry. The net profit will
then appear.

For whole area.

Before lands were taken over . . .
After » » » » . . .
On I July 1 91 2

Average for i lot.
Before lands were taken over . . .
After » » » » . . .
On I July 1 91 2

Average for i hectare cultivated land.
Before lands were taken over . . .
After » » » «...
On I July 1912

Assets

Liabilities

Net profits

innisb marks

Finnish marks

Finnish marks

176,060

11,055

165,005

350,296

185,291

165,005

644.235

281,051

366,184

2,071

130

1. 941

4,120

2,179

1,941

7,614

3,306

4,308

203.22

1307

195-15

414.41

219.26

195-15

712.89

309.50

403-39

From this it appears that assets, liabilities and net profits were notably
increased during the period of enquiry. The relative values of single assets
and their alteration can be seen from the following figures ;

Before After

lands were taken over lands were taken over

I July 1912

Farming

Household

Secondary businesses ....

Personal possessions

Debts recoverable by colonists

Total . .

60.9 %

3.2 %

19.6 %

16.3 %

100 %

80.3 %

1.6 o/^

9-9 %

8.2 o/„

100 o/^

86.6 %

1-4 %
1.6 %

5.1 %
5.3 %

100 %

The largest part of this property was thus bound up with farming and
its proportion to the whole capital invested increased from 60.9 per cent.
before the land was taken over to 86.6 per cent, on i July igi2.

In the individual colonies the course of this process was various, ac-
cording to whether before the lots were taken over there were already farms
on their sites or not. In Koskipaa, Nipuli and Siikajarvi the colonists found
small farms ready-made at the time of colonization, and therefore the
farming capital in these places was already considerable before the land was
taken over. The same holds good for Seppala colony where most of the
colonists were previously torpars. Conditions were different in the colo-
nies of Muddais, Sippola and Takkula where, before the land was taken

THE RESUIvTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND

105

over, the capital invested in secondary businesses was most important.
After the lots had been taken over the class of capital previously domi-
nant continued to form a high percentage of the whole value involved,
yet the distribution of the components of capital tended to be somewhat
equalized in the different colonies, except in Seppala colony where at the
close of the enquiry the farming capital was in distinctly higher proportion
than in the others.

The following table makes these facts clear :

Proportionate Distrihution of Component Parts of Capital invested
in the Colonies.

Components of Capital

Sippola

Sii-
kajarvi

Nipuli

Kos-
kipaa

Seppala

Before land was taken over

Farming

Household

Secondary businesses. .
Personal belongings . .
Forestry etc

411%
2-6%

38.1 %

18.2 o/„

54-7%

3-4 %

24.6 %

17-3 %

71.6 % 74.3 %
5.1% 3-8%

(>-9 %
16.4 %

6.5 %
15.4 %

78.6 %

3.7%
6.2 %

11-5%

60.5 %

2-3%

17-6%

19.6 %

76.1 %
2.8%

9.1 %
12.0%

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

100%
2,679

100 %
2,781

957

100 %
1.309

100 %

100%

100 %

2,908 2,450 1,380

After land was taken over:

Farming

Household

Secondary businesses

Personal belongings

Forestiy etc

693 %
1-3%

19.9 %
9.5 %

76.3 %
1-8%

12.9%
9-0 %

84-9 %
2.7 %
3-7%
8.7 %

86.3 %
2.0 %

3-5 %
8.2 o/^

87-6 %
2.2 0/0
3.6%
6.6 <^x

78.1%
1-3 %
9-8 %

10.8 %

94-0 %
o-7%
2.3 %
3.0%

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

)o % 100 % 100 %
,132 5.305 1,794

100 % ' 100 % 100 %
2,457 5,050 4.405

On I July 191 2

Farming

Household

Secondary businesses
Personal belongings .
Forestry etc. ....

87-1%
1-7 %
i-i %
5.9%
4-2 %

87-4%
1-4%
2.5%
5.8 %
2.9%

86.9 %
1-5%
o.S <%

4-7%
6.1 %

87.8 %
1-3 %
0.1 %
5.3 %
5.5i%

100 %
5,470

8i.o:%

0.8 o^

4.0%
13.0%

83.8 %

1.6%
4-7 %

6.4 %

3.5 %

92.6 o/q

1.2%

0.4 %

3-7%
2.1 %

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

100 %
8,386

100 %
8,607

100 % 100 %
4,269 3,994

100 %
10.545

100 %
8,926

100 %
12,168

io6

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAI,

For the purpose of a comparison with these figures the author gives also
data as to the total assets of Siberian colonists. In Popov (i) these averaged
in the colonists' lots investigated by him 1,365 roubles (2) a lot, distributed
as follows :

Cattle and poultry

Farming implements, carts etc. . .

Buildings

Clothes

Crockery and furniture,

Total

387 roubles

322

316

286

54
i;365

28.4 %

23-6 %

23-1 %
21.0 %

3.9 %
100 %

The average percentage of the Habihties in the lots investigated was
as follows :

When
lots were taken over

After they
had been taken over

1 July 1912

Debt on the land

Other debts bearing interest . .
Current debts

Percent.

73-1
26.9

Percent.
94.0
4-3
1-7

Percent.
6C.3
14.9
4.1

20.7

Use of woodland. .......

100

100

ICG

Thus when the land was taken over debts to savings banks and pri-
vate persons predominated. After it had been taken over these items be-
came, as compared with the debt on the land, almost negligible, but on
I July 1912 were quite noticeable. The debt on the land although at first,
as we have already said, there was no obUgation on the colonists to make an-
nual payments towards redeeming it, sank from 94 per cent, to 60.3 per cent,
of the total sum of the liabilities.

The oscillations of these liabilities in the single colonies appear in the
following table :

(i) Angaben iiber die budget-wirtschaftliche Untersuchung von 75 Vbcrsicdlermrtschaften
in den Kreisen Kustanaisk, Aktjnbinsk und Uralsk. Orenburg, 191 1, pp. 10 et seq.
{2) I rouble = about 2s. ^Vod. at par.

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND

107

Relative Percentage of Chief Liabilities of Different Colonies.

Liabilities

Muddais

Sippola

Sii-
kajarvi

Nipuli

Kos-
kipaa

Takkula

Seppala

Before lands were taken over:

Debt on land

Debts bearing interest

59.0
41.0

30-5
69.5

44-4
55-6

99-9
0.1

ICO

100

100

Forest dues etc

—

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

100
144

100
121

100
187

100
123

100
ID

ICO

89

100
262

A fter lands were taken over :

Debt on land

Debts bearing interest

Current debts

94-5

3-2

2.3

95-5
1.4

3-1

81.7

8.1

10.2

90.3
9.6
0.1

99-5
0-5

95-6
4-4

94-0
6.0

Forest dues etc

— .

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

100
2,597

100
2,645

100
1,025

100
1,271

100
2,152

100
2,044

100
4,352

I July 1912 ;

Debt on land

Debts bearing interest

Current debts

Forest dues etc

66.4

17.8

0-5

15.3

72.5
5-7
6.8

15.0

39-3
10.2

I3-I
37-4

50-9
19-3
12.5
17-3

53-4
9.9

36.7

53.8
28.8

17-^

69.1
II. 6

19.3

Average for i lot in Finnish marks

100
3,552

100
3,472

100
2,196

100
2,297

100
3,478

100
3,521

100
5.853

Altogether assets have on an average increa,sed by 84.8 per cent, of
the vakte of the capital when the land was taken over, and liabilities by only
51.7 per cent. When the land was taken over the liabilities amounted to
52.9 per cent, of the total capital and on i July 1912 to 43.4 per cent. The
debts have increased relatively onl}^ in Nipuli colony, namely from 51.8 per
cent, to 57.5 per cent. Yet even here there was an increase of net profit.
The increase of debts was to that of assets in the ratio of 32.3 to 100.

For one hectare of cultivated land the average increase of assets is
valued at 298. 48 Finnish marks, that of liabilities at 90.27 Finnish marks.

io8

RUSSIA - AGRICUIvTURAIv ECONOMY IN GENERAL

As the size of the farms increases so does the amount of both the as-
sets and the habihties, yet if the average for one hectare of cultivated land
be calculated it is found that both decrease with the size of the farms.

The yearly increase of assets and liabilities in the single colonies ap-
pears from the following figures :

In Seppala yearly increase

Sippola
" Takkula

Muddais

Siikajarvi

Koskipaa
" Nipuh

Average assets for a lot.
of

1,252
Q87
847

751

741

665
455

Finnish marks

Average liabilities for a lot.

In Siikajarvi yearly increase of
ISiipuli
Seppala
Takkula
Sippola
Muddais
Koskipaa

349
306
281
277
247
220
162

Additional figures will answer a question which has great interest for
the whole enquiry. What was the colonists' net profit from the time the lots
were taken over until i July igi2 ? The difference between the assets and
liabilities gives this information:

In Seppala

yearly increase

of

971 Finnish marks,

i. e. 5.33

» Sippola

i> »

»

740

» 3-33

.1 Takkula

» »

»

570

" .5-33

» Muddais

»

"

531

» 4-33

» Koskipaa

>, •

»

503

» 8.17

» Siikajarvi

„

»

392

» 3-33

■■< Nipuli

»

»

149

" 3-33

This order is almost exactly that in which the colonies stood to each
other in respect of their assets ; except that Siikajarvi and Koskipaa co-
lonies have changed places, the former from the fifth to the sixth place, the
latter from the sixth to the fifth.

It is also interesting to establish the number of the colonists as com-
pared with the increase in net profits, classified according to its extent, when
the land was taker over and on i July 191 2 :

THE RESUI<TS OF INTERIOR GOI.ONIZATION IN FINI.AND

109

When land was taken over.

I July 1912

Increase in net profits

Number

of
Colonists

Average

in

Finnish marks

Number

of
Colonists

Average

in

Finnish marks

Up to 500 Finnish marks
From 500 to 1,000 » «
1) 1,000 » 1,500 11 »
11 1,500 11 2,000 " 11
» 2,000 11 2,500 3 »
11 2,500 11 3,000 » 11
» 3,000 » 4,000 " »
11 4,000 » 5,000 11 !>

1) 5,000 11 6,000 11 !)

11 6,000 11 7,000 » 11
11 7,000 » 8,000 11 11

u 8,000 >' 9,000 11 11

» 9,000 11 10,000 ■■> 11
10,000 and more » »

8
21

15
12

7
6

3
9
4

312

735
1,245

1.735
2,328

2,705
3.239
4.489
6,234

3
3
9
8
6
8
8
10

^

7

2
6

I
5

366

833

1,233

1.826

2,237
2,810

3,651
4.381
5,599
6,337
7.404
8,469
9,368
11,640

Average . . .

85

1.941

85

4.308

From this table it appears that the large number of colonists whose net
profits when the land was taken over were between 500 and 2000 Finnish
marks, was notably increased before the close of the enquiry. The colo-
nists having net profits between 2000 and 6000 Finnish marks also became
more numerous, in spite of the number whose profits came to be from 6,000
to 10,000 Finnish marks and more.

§ 8. Interest, Wx\ges of i^abour and wages of enterprise.

After he has shown the total results of the colonists' farming and the
total increase of their propert5^ the author seeks to describe the origin and
constitution of this increase. As has been stated several times the ground
rent is not included in the net profits of the colonists as here established by
the author. The net profits have three constituents : interest on the capi-
tal invested in the farm, wages for the colonists' agricultural labour and wa-
ges for their enterprise.

As to the last two of these constituents it has been impossible to de-
termine them because there are no data from bookkeeping and calculable

8*

no

RUSSIA - AGRICUI,TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

facts as to the part taken by the colonist families in the work on and outside
the farms, and the returns of the farms to the families. It has been possible
to calculate only the interest on the capital invested in the farms. As the
result of the enquiry into the net profits of the 85 lots the>' have been, from
this point of view, classified in three groups. The first group includes five
colonists' farms which have suffered a reduction of capital : namely two in
Muddais where such reduction has been of I per cent, and 4 per cent. , and
three in Nipuli where it has been of 2 per cent., 6 per cent, and 34 per cent.

The second group includes two farms which show at most a net profit
of 5 per cent, on the capital invested in them. They are a colonLst' s lot in
Nipuli and one in Koskipaa on which the yearly increase is 2 per cent,
of the capital.

The third group comprises 78 farms of which the capital has increased
animalh'' by 5 per cent, or more of its amount. In this group the colonists'
farms have made a return not only of such 5 per cent, interest on capital
but also of a surplus, distributed among the lots as follows :

Number of

lots

Amount of surplus calculated for a lot

Average

27

CJp to 200 Finnish marks

115

Finnish marks

20

From

200 » 400 » »

318

»

»

12

»

400 » 600 1) »

511

»

»

9

»

600 » 800 » »

710

»

»

7

»

800 » 1,000 » »

915

»

3

»

1,000 and more » »

1,088

"

»

If the proportions obtaining within single colonies be studied the sur-
plus, after 5 per cent, interest on capital has been deducted, is found to
be as follows :

Name of Colony

Amount of surplus on a lot

Average for i lot

Niptdi

Koskipaa

Siikajarvi

Takkula

Muddais

Sippola

Seppala

Average for whole area

15 'o 358 Finnish marks

77 » 714 »

82 » 550 » »

23 » 937 » »

43 » 1,101 »

74 " 1.070 » »

472 i> 1,094 " "

15 to 1,101 Finnish marks

84 Finnish marks
284
314

396 »

407
565
783

355 Finnish marks

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND III

The animal gross profits of the colonists' farms are employed as follows :
i) the colonists' families have their livelihoods ;

2) they discharge their liabilities ;

3) they receive 5 per cent, interest on the capital invested in the
farm, household and secondary businesses as well as

4) a yearly surplus averaging 355 Finnish marks for a lot.

*
* *

The author also endeavours to bring the amount of the net profits, as
these vary with time, into relation with the factors influencing the farming
of colonists, in order thus to establish a certain relation of cause and effect
between these factors and the increase in the value of the property.
General conclusions cannot here be drawn because the material for research
and the data derived from bookkeeping are relatively too slight. It has been
possible to discover only a tendency and to offer a cursory introduction
to later studies.

Next the size of the lots is considered, and the absolute conclusion is
at once made that the yearly increase in net profits rises with an extension
in the area of the farms. But the development shows a tendency to an equal-
ization of net profits with the original net profits of the time when the land
was taken over.

If taken absolutely the original net profits are directly related to the
yearly increase : the greater thej^ are, by so much the greater are the yearty
net profits. If taken relative^ the increase is found to be greater in farms
which had at first little value.

The available labour power in colonists' families has not notably
influenced either absolutely or relatively the yearly increase in net profits.
If the family be large it uses a proportionately large amount of the farm
products, and various of its members must find exterior employment which
seldom offers opportunities for saving. The amount of consumption and
the available labour power of the families have however influenced the an-
nual increase of net profits in the sense that the latter is proportionate to
consumption. This relation, the connection between the growing value
of the propert}' and the needs it supplies, cannot be explained by the ma-
terial of the enquir}^

The relation of the net profits to thedift'erent origins of single colonists'
farms is shown as follows. The highest annual increase in value, absokite
and relative, occurs in farms established on former sites of the dwellings
of cottagers and labourers. Next come such farms as stand on laud previously
cultivated but having had no buildings ; thirdly the farms formed on land
which had not been cultivated previous!}^ ; and lastly those on the sites
of the labourers' leaseholds, the earlier torps, which show the least increase
in annual profits.

Here also no general conclusions can be made ; first because the num-
ber of the inve.stigated lots is too small ; and secondly because the effects

1 12 RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAI. ECONOMY IX GENERAL

of this factor of the origins of the farms is influenced — strengthened or
weakened — by other forces. Thus most of the torps — 31 of them alto-
gether — lie in the colonies in which farming is at its weakest, namely in
Nipuli and Koskipaa.

The circumstance is nevertheless noteworthy that the yearly increase
in value of the farms on the entirely new sites is higher than that of those
occu])ying the sites of torps.

Conclusion.

We will now briefly resume all that is contained in the foregoing para
graphs.

The enquiry into the lots colonized by peasant smallholders has very
indubitabl}^ given the information that the colonizing enterprise of the State
has been crowned with success. Bj' the institution of an especial credit
fund for the landless population, by furnishing the colonists with cheap
land credit, by the formation of a lease office, and by enlisting the aid of
co-operation for the purpose of acquiring land, colonizing enterprise has
succeeded in strengthening the position of the colonists as farmers of the lots
they have acquired, in providing them with a sure livelihood, and in attach-
ing them to their native soil. The happiness which once they sought over
seas, which once called them to America, that belauded country, they now
find more easily within their own land. Naturally much energy, activity
and intense industry is demanded of the colonists : but nowhere can a man
advance himself if he keep his hands in his pockets ; and from the social
point of view the efforts which colonists nmst make on the land are
certainly not more injurious to them than those incumbent on workers
in factories and State industries. There must be economy, every step
forward must be accomipanied by economical housekeeping, if the deve-
lopment of a colonist's lot is to be at all reasonably profitable. But the
awakening of an agricultural sense, the education in thrift especially of
the unendowed populace — these constitute, as the author observes, so
lofty, so important and so educational an aim, that it alone gives great
significance to colonizing enterprise.

When the new State colonizing enterprise in Finland was initiated
Profes.sor Hamer Gebhard (i), the well-known creator of the P'innish
co-operative movement, wrote as follows :

" There are too many families in Finland who own neither land nor
house. There are at the same time vast extents of uncultivated territory
of which part might be cultivated... It behoves that with the help of capital
these two factors, the man and the land, be united : the result will be for

(i) Atlas df statistique socialc sur Ics communes rurales dc Finlandc en igoi. Hel-
singfors, 1908. p. 57.

THE RESULTS OF INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN FINLAND II3

Finland such hitherto unsuspected strength and new wealth as will contri-
bute to making a better future for the country. It should be mentioned that
the government and the representatives of the nation have taken this
problem seriously, and they will doubtless find for it in the near future a
happy solution ".

It is with satisfaction that we can state that this prophec}' already
begins to be fulfilled and that colonizing activity has already borne good
fruit. It has led, as we have seen, to a progressive development of the
property of the colonists, and in so doing has indicated the lines which
the colonizing policy of Finland should follow in the future.

SERBIA.

THE QUESTION OF FORESTRY IN THE KINGDOM OF SERBIA,

OFFICIAI, SOURCES :

CTaTiiCTiirKii roAiiiiiH>aK sa 1907/8 {Statistical Yearbook for 1907-8). Belgrade, 1913.
Hapo^Ha IIpiiBpe/i;a y Hpircajej];Hr£>eHHM06jiaCTnMa {National Economy in the New
Territory). Belgrade, 1914.

OTHER SOURCES :

Vasic D. E. M) : La sylviculture en Serbie {Sylviculture in Serbia). Belgrade, 1911.
lovANovic (D. G. S.) : Oahoch H3Mery npiipofle ti iiiyMa y Kpat.eBirHit Cp6HJH

{Nature and the Woods in the Kingdom of Serbia). Belgrade, 1903.
Vasic (D. M. S.) : Hauie niyMe (The Serbian Woods). Belgrade, 1904.
Vasic (D. M. S.) : IIIyMe y Tapn {The Wood of « Ta!a«). Belgrade, 1908.
Vasic (A. M. S.) : OvKaiiiiraBibe niyMa y Cp6iiJH {The Delimitation of the Woods in

Seibia). Belgrade, 1909.

Before examining the condition of sylviculture in the kingdom of
Serbia it is necessary to note the two following facts :

1) Sylviculture in Old ySerbia, that is within the land of the kingdom
as it existed before the Balkan Wars, differs somewhat from sylviculture in
the recently occupied country in respect of the wooded territory, the
quality of the timber and the method of cultivating it.

2) All statistical data as to sylviculture in Old and in New Serbia
have not the same value. Some are certainly ver}' precise and very
detailed, but others are summary and approximate.

Those which relate to the extent and the quality of the woods in Old
Serbia are precise, for there the departmental administrative body care-
fully drew up the cadaster with a view to ascertaining these points ; but
the data relating to the ownership of the woodlands should be considered
as approximate and only partially exact. The commissions, which are
called Commissions of Delimitation and were formed for the express pur-
pose of determining on the ancient territory the limits of the properties
of the State, the communes and individuals, have not yet brought the la-
bours of the cadaster to an end everywhere, although they have existed
for twenty-five years, and dependable statistical data are available
onh' for the woodlands in which they have completed their task.

THE QUESTION OF FORESTRY II5

As regards the utilization of the woods in Old Serbia there are exact
data only for the domanial forests. Those for the forests in private owner-
ship are no more than approximately accurate.

Only summary data are available as to sylviculture in the recently
occupied territory. Immediately after the occupation a commission was
nominated to study sylviculture in the new territory. The departmental
forest administrations, formed at the same time, were charged with the
preparation of a pro\dsional cadaster. The reports of this commission and
these administrative bodies contain data as to the condition of sylvicul-
ture in the new territor}^ but having been collected in only one year they
cannot be more than summary and approximately accurate.

§ I. Extent of woodlands and varieties of timber.

Old Serbia. — Old Serbia has an area of 4,830,260 hectares (i). Of
this the woods occupy 1,517,000 hectares, that is 31.4 per cent., and they
comprise every species of tree which grows in Central Europe but espe-
cially beeches, oaks, Scotch and spruce firs and juniper-trees.

Beeches occupy 60 per cent, of all the woodland and are most numerous
in the north. The fir woods which cover only 12 per cent, of the territory
are most frequently found in the west (departments of Uzice, Ciacik and
Kruscievaz) . The oak woods form 23 per cent, of the woodland and are
in the south (departments of Kruscievaz, Nish and Toplitza). This distri-
bution is however not absolute but comparative : all the species enumera-
ted may be said to exist all over the country.

More than half the woodlands — 60 per cent. — is formed of mixed
trees. There are woods of beeches and oaks, and of oaks, beeches and firs.
Only 40 per cent, of the woodlands consist of trees of a single kind.

All the woods of Old Serbia are mature and ready to be cut.

The most imi)ortant wooded zones are the following :

i) In the east :

a) Miroci, a beach wood of 27,000 hectares :
h) Deli-Jovan, a beech wood of 7,000 hectares ;
c) The wooded territory between the Porecika and the Danube
and between the lines joining the towns of Golubaz, Despotovatz and Bol-
jevatz, all beech wood and extending over 120,000 hectares.

2) In the west :

a) Maljen, a wood of beeches, oaks and firs having an area of 20,000
hectares ;

b) Bozania, a wood of 15,000 hectares, of beeches and oaks ;

c) Tara, a fir wood of about 25,000 hectares.

3) In the south-west :

a) Gocz, a wood of mixed firs on the slope and of beeches and oaks,
having an area of more than 20,000 hectares.

(i) 1 hectare == 2 acres i rood 35.383 poles.

II 6 SERBIA - AGRICUI^TURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAL

b) Golija, Cemerono and Copoanic woods, which occupy together
70,000 hectares and are of mixed firs and oaks.

4) In the sonth-east :

Jastrebaz, TopHza, Kukaviza, Suva Planina and Stara Planina, woods
of mixed oaks and beeches which have a combined area of 130,000
hectares.

New Serbia. — New Serbia has an area of 3,800,000 hectares, of
which 570,000 hectares or 15 per cent, are wooded.

It should be noted that in a period which is not yet very remote New
Serbia. was extremely rich in woods. During the last ten or fifteen years
they have'^been burnt and destroyed by private persons and by govern-
ment agents, by the former in order to gain pasturage for live stock and by
the latter in order better to get rid of the comitadjis who infested the
country-.

The commission nominated b}^ the vSerbian government, to study the
condition of sylviculture in New Serbia, has established that 22,800,000
hectares — that is 60 per cent, of the woodland — are fitted exclusively
for sylviculture which might become a verj' lucrative branch of industry.
The commission has proposed that all this land be reforested.

In respect of the quality of the timber New Serbia is like Old Serbia :
the same trees are found although in slightly different proportions.

In New Serbia the beech and oak woods are most numerous. They
cover almost equal areas and constitute together 80 per cent, of the wood-
land. The fir woods occupy only 15 per cent and are met with most fre-
quently in the south (woods of Morihovo, Marijano and Malesc).

Most of the woods are mixed (woods of beeches and oaks, woods of
firs and beeches). Woods of a single species of tree are very rare (Zlabar,
Garvan, Korituic and the mountainous summits of Morihovo and Marijano)

The most important wooded zones are the following :

i) In the north :

a) Zlatar, a fir wood having an area between 6,000 and 7,000
hectares ;

b) Jarut, a wood of beeches and oaks, having an area between 4,000
and 5,000 hectares ;

c) Slona Gora, a fir wood of from 3,000 to 4,000 hectares ;

d) Rogosma, a wood of oaks and beeches of from 12,000 to 15,000
hectares ;

e) Copaonic, a wood of oaks and beeches — 15,000 to 20,000 hectares ;

f) Ciciaviza, a wood of beeches and oaks of 10,000 hectares.

g) Prapastiza, oaks and beeches — 12,000 to 15,000 hectares.
2) In the east :

a) Lisaz, a wood of beeches and oaks of from 4,000 to 5,000
hectares ;

b) Placiacavita. a wood of oaks and beeches of from 15,000 to 16,000
hectares ;

c) Garvan and Goben, woods of beeches and oaks having a combined
area of from 6,000 to 8,000 hectares.

THE QUESTION OF FORESTRY II7

3) In the south :

a) Marijansca Planina, a wood of firs with beeches and oaks on the
slope, of from 10,000 to 12,000 hectares ;

b) Morihovo, a fir wood of 15,000 hectares ;

c) Petrinske Planina, a wood of oaks and beeches of from 6,000 to
8,000 hectares ;

d) Baba and Buscieva Planina, a wood of beeches and oaks of from
5,000 to 6,000 hectares.

4) In the west :

a) Zegavaz, a wood of beeches and oaks of from 8,000 to 10,000
hectares ;

b) Caradaj, a beech wood of from 8,000 to 10,000 hectares;

c) Milanovaz, a wood of beeches and oaks of 10,000 hectares ;

d) Blet, a wood of beeches and oaks of from 6,000 to 8,000 hectares.

§ 2. The ownership of the woods.

Old Serbia. — As has already been said Commissions of DeUmita-
tion, charged to determine property rights in the woodlands, were fovmded
by the law of 1891, that is twenty-five years ago.

They began work in 1892 ; but their activity was limited to two or
three months a year — July, August and September — and as it has not yet
come to an end the ownership of many woods is still uncertain. It follows
that the relevant statistical data are exact only for the woods in which the
delimitation has been executed and approximate for all the others.

Most of the woods belong to the State and the communes. The State's
property has an area of 620,000 hectares, that of the communes 580,000
hectares. The remaining woods belong to churches and convents as to
60,000 hectares and to private persons as to 257,000 hectares.

Nei& Serbia. — Statistical data as to property rights in the wood-
lands are entirely lacking for this territory'. The commission charged to
study the condition of sylviculture there neglected the question of owner-
ship, for this is connected with the agrarian question which is the object
of an enquiry by another commission.

Property in land in New vSerbia has retained features characteristic
of the feudal regime, and these are found in the woodlands.

The typical forms of landed property in New Serbia are the following :
i) Domain — that is the property of the State, administered and en-
joyed by the State directly.

2) Mefat -— the property of the State of which the use is left pubHc.

3) Baltalic — the property of the communes. It is always doubtful
whether the communes are owners in fact, or are merely usufructories of
land jurisdictorily owned by the State.

4) Vakouf — the property of churchers and convents. In the case
of these also there is doubt as to whether the churches and convents are
true owners or merelv usufructories.

Il8 SERBIA - AGRTCUI.TURAI, ECONOMY IX GENERAL

5) Coria — private propert}'.
Coria is found in three different forms :

a) Property in the true sense of the word, based on a legal title.

b) Property resultant on usufruct, that is the property of a usufruc-
tor>' of the State who declares himself owner.

c) Detention following on illegitimate occupation of lands belonging
to the State or the communes (Mefat, Baltalic), the detainer having, after
some years, declared himself owner.

The proportion in which these various kinds of ownership, of usufruct
and of possession as the result of prolonged occupation exist, is unknown.

§ 3. The utilization of the woods.

Old Serbia. — Until 1891, that is until the new law as to the woods
was voted, it may be said that profit was derived from them by means of
thefts of wood.

In the communal woods felling, which was effected without any State
intervention, was considered to be the incontestable right of all indivi-
duals belonging to the commune. The mayor gave formal leave for it
as need arose. The leave specified only the number of trees which might
be cut down : their choice was left to individual discretion.

For tree-felling in State woods special leave from government officials
was necessar3^ It was allowed freely on the sole condition that the timber
should be used for the feller or his famil}^ if he were recognized to be poor ;
otherwise he had to pay a small due.

In the form granting permission to cut down trees belonging to the
State the number which might be felled was indicated. There was no
restriction on choice.

It is not astonishing that this method of administering the woods
caused their progressive disappearance, but the destruction was less than
might be supposed. The smallness of the population and the lack of
means of transport were obstacles to this unscientific employment of the
woods.

The law of 1891 put a stop to it and gave a better basis to the uti-
lization of woods.

According to the rules laid down b}^ this law the State woods can be
utiHzed only on the following conditions :

i) Before felling is allowed a scheme for it is drawn up b\' the Forest
Administration .

2) The form giving permission to cut down trees not only specifies
the number which may be cut down but also the condition that none ma}'
be felled except such as are indicated by the competent Forest Admin-
istration.

3) Tree-felling for a commercial or industrial object and on a large
scale cannot be effected without reforestation, for which a scheme is drawn
up b}' the administration.

THE QUESTION OF FORESTRY IIQ

4) The use of mountain pasturages and the utihzation of acorns are
limited as to season and area. The Forest Administration fixes the parti-
cular woodland and the time — that is when and where the animals may
graze.

In addition to these rules, determining the utilization of the State
woods, the law of 1891 is concerned with the communal woods and those
in private ownership. Felling in communal woods is conditioned as in
State woods. In woods in private ownership the conditions are a little
less strict but in these also only trees indicated by the competent Forest
Administration may be felled.

*
* *

The official statistics distinguish between wood cutting of three kinds :
i) w^oodcutiing for firewood ;

2) woodcutting for domestic uses ;

3) woodcutting for commercial and industrial objects.

By woodcutting] for firewood is meant only the cutting done by the
peasants, to obtain wood winch they or their families burn or which they
sell in the towns in small quantities.

By woodcutting for domestic uses cutting done by peasants is also
meant, in this case in order that they may make furniture or utensils or
parts of agricultural tools (§ 46-50) (i).

Woodcutting for commercial and industrial objects comprises :

a) Such felling of large quantities of timber as is habitual to mer-
chants.

b) The woodcutting of industrial workers and labourers whose
material is wood.

c) Woodcutting by merchants dealing in wood.

Woodcutting for firewood and domestic uses and woodcutting by
workmen whose material is wood occur in all the departments, in the State
woods as in the communal woods and in those in private ownership.

Woodcutting by merchants dealing in wood takes place especially in
the departments of Golubaz and Alessinaz where more than 80 per cent,
of the timber felled altogether in Old Serbia is cut down.

Woodcutting for purposes of industry and by merchants dealing in
wood takes place in the departments of Baina Bascta, Uzize, Pascka, Kral-
jevo, Procuplje, Kruscevaz and Pirot. In Prouplje and Kruscevaz oak-
wood is cut down, in all the others firwood. Both kinds of felling take
place almost exclusively in the State woods ; such felling in the communal
and private woods is quite negligible.

(i) While natural economy was in foice woodcutting for domestic uses had a great
importance which however is now diminishing more and more.

120

SERBIA - AGRICUIvTURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAL

We show the amount of timber of the different categories derived
from the felHngs of 1911 :

73,651 cubic metres (i)
17,020 » ))

120,000

1. Woodcutting for firewood

2. )) )) domestic uses. . . .

3. » » commercial and in-

dustrial purposes :
a) woodcutting for firewood ....
» by merchants, in-
dustrial workers and workmen whose
material is wood 310,000 » «

520,680 » »

Woodcutting for firewood and for the material of industry has met
all the needs of the country in these respects.

The foreign trade in firewood and wood as material was at first unim-
portant, but latterly there has been a change. While in the past Serbia
imported all her luxurious furniture from abroad, she has in recent years
begun to export her wood and her imports of furniture have diminished
more and more.

The following table gives data as to the export and import of wood.

Import

Export

Firewood

Wood

as

material

1908
1909
1910
19H
I912

45.580
195,686

164,341
340,936

"3,335

473,395
375,984
329,498
536,184
507,122

395,355
269,751
260,009

1,033,051
839,318

134,829 11,569,254
137,962 I 246,691
145,360 450,280

166,368
255,413

184,950
389,415

1,229,893

1,214,835

956,340

422,245

999,416

Pasturage in the woods and the utilization of acorns are enjoyed on a
large scale but the relevant statistics are known only as to the State woods.
For 1915 they are as follows :

(i) I cubic metre = 1.308 cubic y;'.id~.

THE QUESTION OF FORESTRY 121

Pastured sheep 157.336

V cattle 21,786

>> goats 13.438

» horses 2,680

» pigs 6,550

in addition to 23,583 pigs'fed on acorns (i).

New Serbia. — The utihzation of the woods of New vSerbia consisted
fundamentally, as in old Serbia, in the theft of wood.

It has been said that the large woods were burnt and destroyed. This
was done :

i) By the " cipcije ", the land serfs, who, since the}' held no land and
cultivated the land . of feudatories under the obhgation of pa3'ing feudal
dues, set fire to these woods in order to obtain new pasturage for their
live stock, the keeping of which — since live stock were free from taxes —
was their most lucrative form of activit^^

2) By government agents who burnt the woods in order that they
might not shelter comitadjis.

In the period of Turkish domination the government and the private
woods were regularlj- utilized, but most unscientifically and without the
exercise of any guardianship on the part of the State. So much was this
the case that leave to cut wood in the government woods was obtained
easily : b^- pa^'ing a very small due one might cut down at one's own dis-
cretion as much as one chose. As for private woods the vState con-
cerned itself not at all with them : the wood was cut at the full and abso-
lute discretion of the owners.

Woodcutting was at this time undertaken to procure :
a) firewood,

h) green branches for feeding live stock,
c) various kinds of wood.

Woodcutting for the two first of these objects was by itself very im-
portant ; that for the third was quite negligible.

In all New Serbia there were in this period only two saw-works, namely
in the wood of Ozany which belonged to the convent of St. Troiza and in
the wood of Maistorsca Tora which belonged to the manufacturer and mer-
chant Necib Draga.

It is probable that the pasturage in the woods was very important,
but no data allow a precise idea of it to be formed.

§ 4. Forest administration.

The ancient territory of the kingdom of Serbia is divided into twenty-
four forest districts, each of which has its particular administration.

(i) The utilization of the acorns in the woods has been very imporlanl in the last
twenty years during which the meat of the pigs called « paloziie » has been much exported,
but such exportation is diminishing piogressively.

122 SERBIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Kach district administration comprises a cliief administrator who is
at its head, several subordinate administrators and a suitable number
of keepers. The chief administrator must have studied in a secondary'
and the subordinate administrators in a secondary or primary school of
forestr}', while the keepers must have followed simple courses of instruc-
tion in forestry. As there are no schools in Serbia for this branch of know-
ledge the administrators, both chief and subordinate, must have studied
abroad ; but the courses of instruction in forestry for the keepers take
place in Belgrade.

The central forest administration is part of the Ministry of Agricul-
ture, Industr3' and Commerce, forming that one of its five sections which
is called the forestry section. This has economic and jurisdictory^ divisions,
of which the former directs the forest policy of the country, while
the latter has charge of the delimitation of forest landed property' and of
summonses to appear in cases of contravention of the law in matters pe^
taining to forests.

*
* *

If we study sylviculture in vSerbia with any depth we perceive its two
principal defects :

i) The division into forest departments, that is into forest departmen-
tal administrations, is inadequate. The departments are too vast : it is
impossible for the administrator to superintend and control forestry
within one of them and to adopt opportune measures in good time. This
division must therefore be completely recast, less extent must be given to
the departments, and the staff employed in each of them must be increased.

2) Reforestation, which has certainly been somewhat neglected, should
be the object of more care. We have stated that the woods of New Serbia
occupy only 15 per cent, of the total area while more than 60 per cent,
is fitted for sy-lviculture. It is therefore necessary to reforest if not all
the extent of territory admitting of reforestation at least a considerable
part of it.

In OldvSerbia, where the woods occupy 31.4 per cent, of the total area,
the problem is easier to solve : the matter is merely one of building up the
woods in proportion to the amount of tree-felling done. The law makes
reforestation compulsory only in the case of felling for a commercial or in-
dustrial object All other felling, whatever its object, has the effect of
thinning the woods. It is therefore absolutely necessary to render refor-
estation compulsory in every case, and in every wood, whether public or
private.

MISCEIvIvANEOUS INFORMATION REI.ATING TO AGRICUIvTURAL
ECONOMY IN GENERAI, IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

FORMATION OF AGRICUI^TURAI, COI^ONIKS FOR THE INDIANS. — Boldin oficial,
Buenos Ayres, Number 6764, 9 August 1916.

The incorporation of the native population in civil life has for long
constantly preoccu])ied the Argentine government, on account both of its
social and of its economic advantages.

Recent decrees have attempted, within the limits allowed b}'' the laws
now in force, not only to solve the problem for the native groups in the south
of the republic but also to form colonies which aim especially at giving a
stable position to the Indians of the north.

As a consequence of colonizing necessities this undertaking has become
particularly urgent, and a proposed law, submitted to the congress, aims
at protecting the Indians from the manoeuvres of unscrupulous merchants
and at encouraging their definite establishment in certain zones appro-
priated to them. Pending the voting of this law however administrative
measures have been taken to obtain the same result immediately. Among
them is the decree of 26 July 1916 which forms for the Tobas and Pilagaes
Indians two colonies for arable and live stock farming.

Numerous groups of these natives have expressed their desire to bene-
fit by the arrangements made for the Indian tribes and to establish them-
selves at certain points of the Chaco and Formosa territory which they
occupy already. After an enquiry made by government officials, which
ascertained that these lands were appropriated to agriculture, two colo-
nies for arable and live stock farming were formed, one in Chaco having an
area of some 53,000 hectares (i), and the other reaching on the south to
the Rio Pilcomayo and comprising about 85,000 hectares.

A new step has thus been taken towards the civilization of these tribes:
they abandon the nomad state and agree to establish themselves in a
fixed place and give themselves uj) to the work of agriculture.

(i) hectare = 2 acres 1 rood 35.383 jjoles.

124 INFORMATION REI,ATING TO AGRICCI.TURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAL

AUSTRALIA.

CLOSER SETTLE:VIENT. — Dalgety's Review. Sydney, July 1916.

One very material effect of the war has been to check the subdivision
of large estates suitable to closer settlement. As regards New South
Wales, returns from the leading centres in each district show that the pro
cess of cutting up the larger estates has practically ceased. A few smaller
properties have been sold in blocks, principally to adjoining holders, but
the movement towards subdivision which was general a few years ago has
stopped for the time. A few districts report that no estates large enough
for subdivision are left, but generally the stoppage is ascribed to the finan-
cial stringency caused by the war, while in some centres the bad .season has
been another deterrent. The check is, of course, only temporary, and
with the return of normal conditions closer settlement will again become
important.

In the north generally subdivision is practically at a standstill. Part
of the Conningdale estate in the New England district was for sale in seven
blocks, aggregating 5,200 acres, of which four were sold to adjoining owners.
A few station properties were sold right out, and a few homestead farms
changed hands.

In the Warialda district there has been no subdivision, but it has been
decided to subdivide some of the larger properties of which a few portions
have already been sold privately. Holdings previously subdivided are
being sold piecemeal, but the business is generally slack.

In the south the situation is practically the same, most centres report-
ing " nothing doing ". The Clifton estate. Young, which comprised 5,000
acres was divided among five buyers. Woodlyn, Beckour, was cut up
into four farms and sold ; and Ringambil, jMirrool, is said also to have been
sold for closer settlement. A few stations have sold, notably Willie Ploma,
Gundagai, and Talbingo, Tumut, but generally there has been little busi-
ness in this direction. In the Hillston district surveyors have been bus}-
on the proposed railway from Griffiths to Hillston. A large area is expect-
ed to be thrown open to closer settlement shortly and the construction
of this line is bound to lead to a closer settlement of the central division
In the west it is expected that subdivision will be resumed.

AUSTRIA.

AGRICULTURAL LABOUR IX DALMATIA. — Katjcky (M). Die landwiHschaftliche
Lohnarhcit in Dalmatien. Der Arbeitsnachweis . Vienna, Year 1916, Part. 5.

Dalmatia, which suffers permanently from a great scarcity of labour,
is not only that one of aU the Austrian crown lands which is poorest in fertile
land, but is also that in which wages are highest.

INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 1 25

The high wages seem to be due to three causes :

(i) The absence of a real labouring class. — This is due to the circum-
stances that the peasants were, even before 18^8, free from all subjection ;
that the Southern Slav institution of the " Hauskommission ", partially
preserved, ensures to each man a share, however small, of landed property ;
and that the extent of the common lands — pasturage and heath —
provides even the poorest with the minimum indispensable to life. Further
the nearness of the sea affords various sources of profit.

In the time of Venetian rule the noble landowners already complained
of the high wages, which, they alleged, made the profitable cultivation of
vines impossible. This is the reason for the extraordinary extension of
metayage in Dalmatia. That land should be farmed by the holder's family
is the rule ; and holders who are not farmers, or who cannot cultivate their
lands through the members of their f amihes, usually grant them on lease to
metayers. In these conditions there is only a limited demand for wage-earn-
ing labour.

(2) The technical character of the agriculture. —- Dalmatia has always
been a ^ine country, that is a country of intensive agriculture in which
secondary crops are insignificant and most frequently much neglected,
and live stock has little importance. The result has been an unscientific
distribution of labour which entails sometimes unemployment, sometimes
high wages, without relation to the conditions of life among the rural
population in the seasons of their principal labours — those of the vintage
and of weeding. The vintage can employ women and children, but
weeding needs the strength of a grown man, and it is in the period in
which it is practised that the highest wages are paid. When this season
is past the need for labour is less, and wages sink to some extent, chiefly as
regards the part of them paid in kind.

3) The emigration to America, Australia and New Zealand- which is
principally caused by the crisis in viticulture. — The desire to emigrate has
taken deep root and become inherent in the Dalmatian mentality.

It ma3' be affirmed that ten per cent, of the agricultural population,
that is some 50,000 persons who include the best elements of the Dalmatian
people, are employed in foreign countries. The resultant and constant lack
of labour cannot be counterbalanced by the use of machinery, for machines
are not to be thought of in cultivating vines. The same limitation applies,
except in a few districts, to the other crops, a fact sufiiciently explained by
the configuration of the soil of Dalmatia.

An occasional fall in the price of wines, such as occurred some ^-ears
ago, was not followed by a noticeable fall in wages. Its only marked result
was a recrudescence of emigration to America and an aggravation of the
scarcity of labour. Mticulture depends on a permanent investment of
capital and allows small scope to the adjustment of labour according to
the probable yield. Therefore wages must be looked upon not as costs of
production, properly so called, but rather as costs of upkeep for which
there should be compensation in good years.

The present war has caused on the whole an important rise in wages.

126 INFORMATION REI^ATINCx TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

At Ivissa in the middle of March 1914 they were from 5 to 5.50 crowns (i)
a day, in addition to breakfast and a midday meal which included wine.
Therefore for a working day, lasting from seven in the morning until
five in the evening, the actual value of the wage was more than 8 crowns. In
some cases it was even 10 crowns.

The wage generally comprises the labourer's keep, valued at from 2
to 2.4 crowns a day, as well as from 1.20 to 2 crowns a day in cash.

When several labourers of unequal strength, skill and energy are en-
gaged together they usually receive a uniform wage. Cash wages and
keep — that is total wages — vary greatly in different districts.

Seasonal migrations to the Dalmatian vineyards are unimportant as
compared to the need for labour. In the south Montenegrins have
hitherto thus migrated to the Gulf of Cattaro and the Ragusa district.

In the north and centre of Dalmatia there is, on the other hand, a
seasonal migration of labour from Zagorje, the Dalmatian hinterland and
the home of the valued Dalmatian servants. The population is here chiefly
occupied by live stock and cereal farming and therefore lacks employ-
ment at the exact time at which work is in full swing in the vine district.

In Zagorje itself, where the conditions of existence are primitive, wages
are much lower than elsewhere in Dalmatia, but as regards the work they
provide the labourers of this district are far behind those of the coast dis-
tricts and the islands.

In Zagorje a rise in wages is also to be observed, for the cultivation of
vines is gaining ground in the valleys which have a good exposure, and emi-
gration is increasing steadily. Moreover the saw-works of the Bosnian for-
ests and the cement factories of the coast have an undeniable attraction for
the border populations. The construction of the proposed railways will
have the effect of further raising wages.

(i) I crown = about iO(^ a'l par.

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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai, Intei,I/IGEnce

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BXnXETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXIV.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 2

FEBRUARY, 1917.

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I917

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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
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VOLUME LXXIV.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 2

FEBRUARY, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE

I917

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION.

Germany.

Thk Gener.\l Raiffeisen Federation of Neuwied in 1914-1915 Page

§ I. The Central Bank, page 3. — § 2. District Co-operative Banks for Co-operative
Societies other than Credit Societies, page 7. — § 3. The Co-operative Stores,
page 9.

Canada.

The Co-operative Sale ov Wool Page 14

§ I. Government Action for the Grading of Wools, page 14. — § 2. Data as to the
Grading and Sale of Wool in several Canadian Provinces, page 16.

Regency of Tunis.

Native Thrift Societies in 1915 Page 25

§ I . Receipts, page 26. — § 2. Credit Account of the Societies on 31 December 1915,
page 27. — § 3. General Observations on the Work of the Societies in 1915,
page 29.

MiscEivi/ANEous Information relating to Co-operation and Asso-
ciation IN Various Countries Page 31

British India : i) Co-operation in Travancoie, page 31.

2) The Madras Provincial Co-operative Bank, I^imited, page 34.

3) Co-operative Distribution in Northern India, page 35.
France : A New Syndicate for Mechanical Agriculture, page 36.

United States : The Development of the Co-operative Associations controlling Dairy
Production in the United States from igo6 to T916, page 37.

IV CONTENTS

PART II : INSURANCE AND THRIFT.
United States.

State Hail Insurance in North Dakota '..... Page 41

§ I. The Act, page 41. — § 2. The Act m Operation, page 43. — § 3. Balance Sheets,
page 45.

British India.

Cattle Insurance in Burma by A. E. EngUsh, I. G. S Page 50

PART III : CREDIT.

Austria and Hungary.

Agricultural Credit in Bosnia and Herzegovina . Page 55

§ I Rural Credit in Bosnia and Herzegovina under Turkish Domination, page 55.
— § 2. Development of Agricultural Credit in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the
Austrian and Hungarian Occupation, page 57. ■ — § 3. The Institutions of Rural
Credit, page 58.

PART IV : AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.
Erythrea.

I,and Tenure and Colonization Page 67

§ I. Administrative Organization of the Colony of Erythrea, page 69. — § 2. Agri-
cultural Conditions in Erythrea, page 71. — § 3. The Eand Regime, page 77. —
§ 4. Colonizing Experience, page 85.

Russia.

The Results of the New Agrarian Reform in Russia (Part II) Page 89

§ 5. I<and Organization on Nadiel Eands, page 8g. — § 6. I^and Settlement on the
Eands of the Peasants' I^and Bank and on Crown I<ands, page 93. — § 7. Financial
Support of the Peasant? under the Eand Settlement, page 95. — § 8. The
Economic Position of the New Peasants' Holdmgs in Severalty, page 96. —
§ 9. Agricultural Assistance and the Extension of Co-operation, page 100. • —
§ 10. Agiiculture in the Newly Formed Peasants' Fanns, page 103. — §11 Con-
clusion, page 106.

CONTENTS

• * Uruguay.

The Reform of the I^and Tax from the Point of View of Agriculture and Breed-
ing Page io8

§ I. The New I<aw as to the Contribution of Real Estate, page 109. ■ — § 2. Breeding
and the Tax on Real Estate, page 113. ■ — § 3. The I<and Tax and I^andowners not
resident in the Country, page 115.

MiscEi/ivANEous Information rei^ating to Agricui^turaIv Economy in

GENERAiv IN Various Countries Page 117

Italy : i) Recent Measures as to Agricultural Contracts, page 117.

2) Rules for granting the Temporarj- Use of Agricultural Machines, page 118.

3) The Foimdation of an " Istituto Autonomo di Bonificamento Agrario e di Colo-

lonizzazione per la Sardegna ", page 120.

4) National Charity for the Orphans of Peasants killed in the War, page 121.

3) An Important Scheme for the Foiuidation of a Provincial Institution of
Social Aid, page 123.
United States : Overtime in the Fruit and Vegetable Canning and Packing Industry
of Oregon, page 125.

Part 1 : Co-operation and Association

GERMANY.

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED

IN 1914-1915.

SOURCE :

JAHRESBERICHT DES GENERALVERBANDES LANDLICHER GENOSSENSCHAFTEN FUR DEUTSCH-
LAND E. R. FUR 1915 UND STATISTIK DER RAIFFEISENSCHEN GeNOSSENSCHAFTEN FUR 1914

{Annual Report of the General Federation of Rural Co-operative Societies in Germany for
191 5 and Statistics of Co-operative Societies of the Raiffcisen Type in 1914).

At the end of 1915 there were in Germany 28,652 rural co-operative
societies of which 5,680 or 20 per cent, belonged to the General Raiffeisen
Federation, 16,857 or 58 per cent, to the General Federation of German
Rural Co-operative Societies of Offenbach, and 6,115 or 22 per cent, to the
nine independent district federations.

The General Raiffeisen Federation includes members of two kinds,
direct and indirect members.

Its direct members are : one central bank ; fifteen central co-opera-
tive societies of which six are co-operative banks and nine co-operative
stores ; thirteen district federations, of which two have their headquarters
at Berhn, and one each at Brunswick, Breslau, Dantzig, Erfurt, Frankfort-
on-Maine, Cassel, Coblentz, Koenigsberg, I^udwigshafen, Niiremberg and
Strasbourg.

The indirect members are 1,598 co-operative credit societies ; and 1,066
co-operative societies not transacting credit operations, namely sixty-five

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

consumers' societies, 489 societies for the sale of agricultural products, 445
societies of labour and production, and sixty-seven mixed societies.

The General Raiffeisen Federation underwent several changes in 1915.
Eighty-four new indirect members, of which forty-eight were co-operative
credit societies, adhered to it ; and twenty-three members, eight of them
co-operative credit societies, ceased to belong to it. The net increase was
thus one of sixty-one members, forty of them co-operative credit societies
and twenty-one of them co-operative societies of other types. The net
increase was one of 137 in 1914, and one of 196 in 1913.

The changes were as follows in as far as thej^ concerned direct members :
the two Mecklenburgs separated themselves from the district federation of
Berlin and a special federation was founded in them; two new co-operative
stores were founded.

The business of all these co-operative societies has been much affected
by the war. In the annual report the management signalizes the following
events as having had a great influence on their acti^dty :

1. Economic activity and the demand for credit have diminished,
owing to mobilization, to the economic blockade which has cut off Ger-
many from foreign markets, to the reduction of purchases to the absolutely
necessary minimum., etc :

2. The increased circulation of paper which rose from its level of 4.8
thousand milHon marks (i) at the beginning of the war to one of 6.9 million
marks at the end of 1915.

3. The reduced demand for credit and the increased circulation of
paper have caiised uninvested large capital to be sent to the banks instead
of to co-operative credit societies. This has disturbed the equilibrium of
the relations between the banks and their clients. Debtors' accounts have
diminished and those of creditors have increased. In order to invest this
money which comes to them profitably the banks have lent considerable
sums to the communes and the State.

4. State intervention in the economic life of private citizens has no-
ticeably increased, especially as regards the trade in foodstuffs. This is
monopolized by the State, or rather by institutions created to such end, of
which at the end of 1915 there were about thirty. The^^ have used the co-
operative stores which has increased the amount of business done by these.

5. Mention should finalty be made of the constant or temporary in-
terruption of the work of co-operative societies within the war zone.

Having made this general review we will now give a more detailed
account of the different types of co-operative societies.

(i) I mark = about ii^jid at par.

THE' GENERAI, RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED

§ I. The central bank.

The Central Bank {Landwirtschaitliche Zentraldarlehnskasse in Neuwied)
Stock Society maintains a balance of credit among all co-operative so-
cieties belonging to the General Raifi'eisen Federation.

Its shareholding members are all the co-operative credit societies be-
longing to this federation ; saving that :

i) it does not include as shareholding members sixty Bavarian and
158 Pomeranian co-operative societies although they belong to the General
Raiffeisen Federation,

and 2) it does include as shareholding members, although they do
not belong to this federation, 256 co-operative credit societies which were
at first members both of the federation and of the Central Banks but have
ceased to belong to the former while remaining in the latter.

The sphere of the Central Bank includes not only its shareholding mem-
bers but also all co-operative societies belonging to the General Raiffeisen
Federation, that is all of them other than the credit societies, all the co-
operative banks and all the co-operative stores forming part of the General
Raiffeisen Federation.

The headquarters of the Central Bank are at Neuwied. It has branches
in all the district federations, one in each. Until 1909 there was a stores
attached to each branch, as a section of it. From 1909 these stores were
replaced in Berlin, Breslau, Brunswick, Dantzig, Erfurt, Cassel and Co-
blentz by independent co-operative stores, but at Koenigsberg, Frankfort-
on-Maine, Ludwigshafen, Niiremberg and Strasbourg they are still open
as sections of the respective branches

At the end of 1915 the Central Bank had 4,636 shareholding members.
In 1914 it had 4,785, that is 149 more, which is because in 1915 sixty Bava-
rian and 158 Posnanian co-operative societies ceased to belong to it while
it was joined by ^ty-nine new members.

Up to 1913 the capital in shares was of 10,000,000 marks. On 13 June
1913 a vote was given in favour of raising it to fifteen million marks. Of this
sum 12,453,750 marks had been paid up at the end of 1914. During 1915
the remainder, namely 2,546,250 marks, was paid up ; and in December
1 91 5 the increase of the capital to twenty million marks was voted.

The movement of money between the Central Bank and its share-
holders, the rural banks, has been noticeably accelerated in comparison
with previous years, as is seen from the following figures :

1913 359,608,000 marks

1914 318,297,000

- 1915 691,269,000

If such total movement be analysed into its component parts, that is
receipts and expenditure, it is seen that during the war the increase of re-

GERMANY - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

ceipts has been much larger than that of expenditure. While before the
war receipts were alwa^-s less than expenditure, the converse has been true
during the war, as is seen from the following data :

1913 1914 1915

Receipts 178,186,000 marks 183,051,000 marks 390,605,000 marks

Expenditure . . . 181,422,000 " 155,246,000 " 300,664,000 "

Excess of Receipts. — 3,236,000 " +27,805,000 " +89,941,000 "

The excess of receipts over expenditure would have been even greater
in 1915 if important siuns had not been deducted for the purpose of sub-
scribing to the public debt. The following sums were subscribed to it in
the Central Bank, its branches and the rural banks :

10,000,000 marks to ist. war loan

45,000,000 " " 2nd.

85,000,000 " " 3rd " "

127,000,000 " " 4th. " "

It is calculated that for the purpose of these subscriptions the sum
of 132 million marks was taken from the Central Bank; which is to say
that ordinary expenses amounted only to 168,664,000 marks, or 221,941,000
marks, less than the receipts.

The deductions for the purpose of subscription to the pubHc debt
are very noticeable if the amounts 01 monthly expenditure be considered.
They were as follows :

January 7,587,000 mark'; .July 13,329,000 marks

February 6,907,000

March 36,339,000

April 47,319,000

jMay 6,404,000

June 9,191,000

August 8,053,000

September 103,321,000

October 30,607,000

November 10,251,000

December 21,356,000

In the months of April, September and October, those namel}^ in which
subscriptions were made to the public debt, the sum taken from the Cen-
tral Bank was from six to ten times greater than in the other months.

Since receipts exceeded expenditure there was a disturbance of equi-
librium as regards the leciprocal relations between the Central Bank and
its shareholders. While before the war the Central Bank was always the

THE GENERAIv RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED 5

creditor of its shareholders, it has become during the war their debtor, as
is shown by the following figures which refer to marks :

31 December 191 3 31 July 1914 31 December 1914 31 December 191 5

Debit Account . 79,009,000 79,100,000 96,281,000 166,744,000

Credit " . 82,004,000 83,900,000 72,737,000 45,300,000

Excess of Credit Excess of Debit

Account . . 3,031,000 4,800,000 Account . . 23,544,000 129,144,000

The movement of money between the Central Banks and the co-oper-
ative societies other than credit societies, and such movement betweec
the Central Bank and the district co-operative banks, has the same charais
teristics, although the disturbance of equiHbrium, which has been shown, n
in this case only to be foreseen and not yet accomplished. The Central
Bank is still the creditor of these co-operative societies, but its credit with
them has much diminished.

a) The Central Bank's account with the district co-operative hanks.

31 December 1914 31 December 1915

Credit Account marks 4,340,000 3,140,000

Debit » " 440,000 940,000

Excess of Credit Account " 3,900,000 2,200,000

b) with co-operative societies other than credit societies.

31 December 1914 31 December 1915

Credit Account marks 10,238,000 6,038,000

Debit » " 720,000 1,343,000

Excess of Credit Account . " 9,518,000 4,695,000

The movements of money between the Central Bank and the co-oper-
ative stores has an entirely contrary aspect. Since the trade of these
stores has, as we shall presently see, increased, their debts to the Central
Bank have increased also.

At the end of 1915 these debts amounted to 5,565,553 marks as against

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

a credit of only 141,088 marks. This represents an increase of three million
marks on the debts at the end of 1914.

The same causes have led to an increase of the capital emploj'ed in the
trading sections of the branches of the Central Bank. At the end of 1914
only 4,700,000 marks was thus emploj-ed but on 31 December 1915 this
sum had come to be 8,500,000 marks.

The movement of money between the Central Bank and the large
banks, that is those furnishing money in the form of loans, has an aspect
like that, alread}^ described, of the movement between the rural banks and
the Central Bank. Since receipts exceed expenditure and there is thus
a balance of money, the Central Bank instead of taking loans pays mone}'' in
quantities to these large banks, so that from their debtor it has become
their creditor.

The debit and credit accounts of the Central Bank with these banks
give the following figures :

31 December 191 3 31 December 1914 31 December 1 915

Debit Account . . . marks 20,984,000 3,060,000 3,000,000

*
Credit " ... " 824,000 3,281,000 15,658,000

Excess of Debit Ac- Excess of Credit

count " 20,160,000 Account marks 2,221,000 12,658,000

Since the Central Bank has a considerable balance in mone^^ its credit
with these large banks would be yet more important if this balance were
not employed on investments to which before the war there was little or
no recourse.

It has been invested in a) State b^lls ; b) loans to communes ; c) parti-
cipation in the bitsiness of co-operative producers' societies.

On 31 December 1915 the bank held State bills of the value of 18,839,166
marks ; whereas on 31 December 1914 the value of those it held was
7,800,162 marks, and on 31 December 1913 it was 3,680,616 marks.

Its loans to communes amounted on 31 December 1915 to 83,272,574.62
marks. It then participated in the business of co-operative producers'
societies to the extent of 920,050 marks.

Togiyeaclearer idea of the business of the Central Bank we reproduce
some items of its balance-sheets :

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED

Number of shareholdtrs

Paid-up capital

Turn-over of bank

State bills held

Credit account with rural banks

Credit accoimt with non-credit co-
operative societies

Including credit accoimt with pro-
ducers' co-operative societies .

Credit account with communes . .

Credit account with large banks . .

Debit account with rural banks . .

Debit account with non-credit co-
operative societies

Debit account with large banks . .

;i Decemt)er 1,13

31 December 1914

31 December 1915

4,700

4,785

4,636

11,485,250

12,453.750

15,000,000

1,398,300,000

1,424,500,000

3,398,300,000

3,680,616

7,800,462

•18,839,166

82,041,701

73,366,856

45,299,833

16,019,038

18,614,365

17,675,864

?

10,238,000

6,038,000

—

?

83,272,575

824,304

5,281,028

15,657,948

79,010,442

96,367,740

166,744,206

1,988,561

5,756,727

5,877,249

20,984,324

3,059,944

3,000,000

§ 2. District Co-operative Banks for Co-operative Societies other than
Credit Societies [Zentralkassen filr Betriebsgenossenschaften).

As has been seen the Central Bank grants loans to co-operative so-
cieties. Before 1912 however its relations with these societies were little
developed for its by-laws did not allow it to grant loans on current account.

In order that these societies might command credit of this description
co-operative banks for non-credit co-operative societies were formed wher-
ever there were branches of the Central Bank, and they acqtnred the
legal form of registered societies of limited liability.

All co-operative societies other than credit societies in the district,
that is all belonging to the local district federation, are accepted as share
holding members of these banks. Co-operative societies not belonging
to the federation and individuals may be admitted to the same status
exceptionally.

The co-operative banks maintain a balance of credit among their
members.

In practice they have shown no great xntaUty. This is due to the fact
tiiat the credit necessary to the producers' co-operative societies is of a
different -kind from that required by the credit co-operative societies. The
producers' co-operative societies need large capital to be used for building
machines etc : that is capital which may be sunk permanently — and this
involves a need of long-term loans. Thej'^ rarely command free capital
which they can place at the disposal of the bank having the duty of main-
taining the balance of credit.

Since these co-operative banks could not satisfy the needs of the pro-
ducers' co-operative societies, the by-laws of the Central Bank were modi-

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

fied in 191 2 to allow it to grant loans on current account to these societies,
and to issue bonds based on these loans. Since 1912 the business of the
Central Banks with non-credit co-operative societies has increased, while
the business of the credit banks has diminished more and more and several
of them have been wound up.

At the end of 1914 there were six co-operative banks for non-credit
co-operative societies in Breslau, Dantzig, Cassel, Ludwigshafen and Stras-
bourg, but the three latter are being wound up.

On 31 December 1914 the number of members was as follows :

Total.

Breslau 187 13 200

Dantzig 86 35 121

Cassel 16 5 21

Cologne 8 9 17

Ludwigshafen ii 10 21

Strasbourg 6 7 13

314 79 393

On 31 December 1913 the capital in shares was as follows :

Number of Shares Paid-up Capital

Breslau 5.234 1,055,480 marks

Dantzig 1,867 370'i62 »

Cassel. 865 173,000 »

Cologne 584 . 5,840 »

lyudwigshafen 4,946 98,920 »

Strasbourg 462 9,260 »

Number of Members.

Producers'

Co- operative

Societies

other

Co- operative

Societies

&

individtials

187

13

86

35

16

5

8

9

II

10

6

7

13,958 1,712,662 marks

The working capital was as follows :

1913 23,852,966 marks

1914 19,856,625

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED

The business of the co-operative banks is shown by the following table
which gives several items of the_balance sheet of 1914. The numbers
refer to marks.

Turn-over

Credit Account with
members

Credit Account with
banks

State bills held

Debit Account with
members

Debit Account with
banks

Deposits

Breslau

Dantzig

Cassel

51,469,266

331,000,000

42,177,000

5,640,236

7,573.065

1,480,381

—

35,000

84,406

3,937

136,932

11,192

517.982

3,206,000

257,602

1.714.273

122,000

—

2,378,182

4,632,000

969.314

Cologne

500,000
468,476

I,udwigs-
haten

448.339

Strasbourg Total

1,224,500 5,187,200
1,522,147
83,000

25,561

1,335.662
442,725

58,014

839,553
90.393

431,557,966

17.704,815

202,406
152,061

4,065,159

4,01 r, 488
8,960,953

As statistical data for 1915 are lacking, changes brought about by
the war cannot be shown ; yet it may fairly be stated that the war has
produced in the business of these institutions the same changes as those
we have noticed in the business of the Central Bank.

§ 3. The Co-operative Stores (Zentralwareninstitut). — The co-operative
stores, of which the first was formed in 1909, aim at ensuring to the rural
co-operative societies the advantage of buying and selling in the gross.
They have direct relations only with the co-operative societies, that is to
say they buy and sell merchandise on behalf of the societies, not on behalf
of the members of these. Until 1909 the purchase and sale of goods on behalf
of the societies was practised by the Central Bank, by means of its sections
which were especially responsible for the goods. Since that year the Cen-
tral Bank has sought to supersede these special sections by the co-operative
stores which it is endeavouring to form.

At the end of 191 5 there were nine co-operative stores of which two had
been formed in December, so that onty seven practised the purchase and
sale of goods in 191 5. These stores are at Berhn, Brunswick, Breslau,
Dantzig, Erfurt, Cassel and Coblentz. The special sections belonging to
the Central Bank still exist at Frankfurt-on-Maine, Koenigsberg, Ludwigs-
hafen, Niiremberg and Strasbourg.

The legal form of the co-operative stores is that of registered societies
of Umited Hability. Only one of them, that at Berlin, is a stock com-
pany (i).

(i) In 1914 a Centre of the Co-operative Stores was formed with the object of buying and
selling merchandise on behalf of these stores.

10 GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

All co-operative societies belonging to the General Raiffeisen Federa-
tion are admitted as shareholding members, as are individuals in the case
of a special permission. On 31 December 1915 the seven co-operative
stores numbered altogether 2,575 members; 2,397 of these being rural
banks, eighty-five of them non-credit co-operative societies, and ninety-
three of them individuals. As compared with 1914 the increase was
one of 151 members.

The co-operative stores buy and sell merchandise oh behalf of their
members, and on behalf of all the co-operative societies constituting the
General Raiffeisen Federation, even if these be not members.

The activity of the co-operative stores and of the sections of the Cen-
tral Bank which deal in merchandise extended before the war over the
following field :

1. The sale of merchandise in the market on behalf of the co-opera-
tive societies.

2. The purchase of merchandise in the market on behalf of the co-
operative societies.

3. The purchase of merchandise from the co-operative societies and
the sale thereof to them.

Beyond such business the sale in the market of merchandise bought
there is effected from time to time, but only in the case of a stores having
miscalculated the demand and the supph- of co-operative societies.

Since the beginning of the war changes have been introduced into the
business of co-operative stores : a) their trade on their own account, that
is their sale in the market of merchandise bought there, has increased ;
b) trading commissioned by the State and the communes has been intro-
duced. The activity of the co-operative stores and of the sections deal-
ing in merchandise has, as we shall see, increased during the war, and con-
sequently it has been necessary to increase the capital in shares. The five
co-operative stores have increased their capital in shares as follows :

Berlin from 800,000 marks to i, 00c, 000 maiks of which 941,000 marks is paid up

Breslau " i,ooc,ooo " '' 1,500,000 " " " 1,200,000 " " " "

Dantzig " 1,500,000 " " 1,800,000 " " " i,8co,ooo " " " "

Erfurt ■' 1,000,000 " " 1, 500, ceo " " " 1,013,750 " " " "

Cassel " 500,000 " " 1,000,000 " " " 612,750 " " " "

At the same time the working capital has been increased from
21,527,240 marks to 31,093,246 marks.

The Central Bank has similarly increased the capital employed in its
commercial sections from 4,700,000 marks to 8,500,000 marks.

The trade of the co-operative stores and the commercial sections has
noticeably increased, as is shown by the following table.

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEUWIED

I I

The value of the merchandise bought and sold was

1913
1914

1915

135,721,137 marks

157,630,291

299,272,490

The statistical data do not distinguish between trade on behalf of
the co-operative trading societies and trade on commission on behalf of the
State and the communes. If however the trade in each kind of merchandise
be considered separately, it is seen that the increase we have indicated has
been caused exclusively by the trade on commission on behalf of the State
and the communes, while the trade on behalf of the co-operative societies
has rather diminished than otherwise.

In order better to observe the influence of the war on the business of
these estabHshments we think it will be well to compare their trade in the
period before the war with their trade during the war. We will take, as an
instance, their trade in the period between i January 1913 and 30 June 1914,
and will compare it with that which they accomplished between i July 1914
and 31 December 1915.

Quantities in Zentners (i)

Difference in terms

I Jan. 1913 —
30 June 1914

I July 1914 —
31 Dec. 1915

of percentage

Manure

16,313,519
5,660,237

132,589
15,292,752
11,198,776

10,419,045

5,599,451

125,379

16,249,109

19,182,257

— 36.1

I I

Forage

Seeds

— 5.4
+ 6.3

+ 71.3

Combustibles

Com

Total . . .

48,597,873

51,575.241

4- 6.1

(i) Zenliier = 110.25 lbs.

12

GERMANY - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

Articles of Merchandise

Value in Marks

I Jan. 1913 —
30 June 1914

I July 1914 —
31 Dec. 1914

Difference in terms
of percentage

Manure '. .

Forage

Seeds

Combustibles

Com

Total

Machines

Other articles

Total

53,571
38,763
4,258
10,798
90,194

197,582
9,633
8,647

215,862

35,582

64,770

4,530

10,876

237.879

353,641

6,119

14.987

374,748

+

33-6
67.9
- 6.5
4- 0.7
+ 163.7

+ 79.2
— 36.5
+ 73-3

+ 73.6

If we examine the trade in each kind of merchandise separately we
arrive at the following conclusions : ^

1. The trade in manure has diminished during the war, m quantity
as in value. The diminution in quantity has however been greater than
that in value, which is to sa^^ that prices have risen. The diminution of
the trade is due to : a) the fact that importation from abroad has become
impossible (saltpetre, guano) : b) the large quantities of manure emploj'ed
for military purposes (azote, sulphuric acid).

2. The trade in forage has diminished in -respect of quantity but only
to an insignificant extent, in spite of importation from abroad having been
impossible. The pre-war trade in imported forage has been replaced by
commissioned trade on behalf of the State : large quantities of bran have
been sold and distributed by the institutions on behalf of the vState.

As regards the value of the trade in forage it has increased b}^ 67.9 per
cent, during the war, which is to say that prices have risen noticeably.

3. The trade in seed has diminished in respect of quantity but, on
the other hand, has increased in respect of value. Hence prices have
risen here also.

The diminution in quantity is due to the fact that importation from
abroad has become impossible.

4. The trade in combustibles has slightly increased, but such in-
crease depends partly on the commissioned trade on behalf of the State and
the communes.

5. Very great changes have occurred in the trade in corn, an article
of merchandise in which the trade has been monopolized by the State.

The trade in corn shows an increase during the war of 71.3 per cent,
in respect of quantity. This figure refers exclusively to trade on commis

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION OF NEL'WIED 13

sion for the State. As regards value the trade has increased by 163.7 P^^
cent., which is to say that prices have risen ver\^ much.

6. The trade in maclxines duringe the war has diminished in respect
of value by 3.5 million marks, that is b}^ 36.5 per cent. In the annual re-
port it is noted regretfully that the diminution is not due to a decreased
demand but to a decreased supply, the importation of machines from Great
Britain and the United States having become impossible during the war.

7. The trade in goods comprised by the heading " other articles "
has increased by 73.3 per cent, during the war. The whole of such increase
is in the commissioned trade in potatoes on behalf of the State, as is seen
by the following table which shows the trade in potatoes of the co-operative
stores of Brunswick, Dantzig, Koenigsberg and Nuremberg (i).

Quantity Value

I Jan. 1913 to 30 June 1914 .... 35'5,48i zenlneis 955,000 marks
30 June 1914 " 31 Dec. 1915 .... 563,434 " 2,542,000

As is seen by these figures the quantity has increased by 58.5 per cent
and the value by 166. i per cent., which is to say that prices have risen.
We are therefore in a position to draw the following conclusions :

a) The trade on behalf of co-operative societies in all articles of mer-
chandise has diminished in respect of quantity. In respect of value, only
the trade in manures has diminished, while the trade in all other articles
of merchandise has increased owing to the considerable rise in prices.

b) The trade on commission on behalf of the State, which is a quite
new form of activity for these institutions, has been very important espe-
cially where it has concerned corn and potatoes, and in fact all foodstuffs.

(i) The other institutions gi^■e no figures retiardiiig the trade in potatoes.

CANADA.

THE CO-OPERATIVE SALE OF WOOL.

SOURCES :

The Work of the Co-operative Wool-Marketing System, in The Farmer's Advocate,
No. 1256, lyondon, Ontario, 19 October igi6.

Stjccessfxill Co-operation by Sheep Breeders in Quebec, in The Farmer's Advocate,
No. 1245, lyOndon, Ontario, 3 August 1916.

Co-operative Marketing of Wool, in The Agricultural Gazette of Canada, Ottawa, Oc-
tober 191 6.

Arkell \y. Reg.): Chief of Sheep Division, PreliniLnarj- Report of Wool-grading Oper-'
ations, 19 16, ibid.

§ I. Government action for the grading of wooes.

The enthusiastic support given by the Canadian government to the
development of co-operation witliin its territor}' is well known, as are the
excellent results already obtained by the organizing work it has inspired.

Wool production and the trade in wool afford another example of the
usefulness of co-operation to farmers. An effort which had its co-ordinated
beginning only three years ago has given rise to a new situation which is
full of promise for the future and is already of great benefit to the producers
as well as to the wool industr3^

The central government's propaganda and that of the provincial gov-
ernments in favour of the co-operative sale of wool has been fruitful more
or less everywhere, although in some provinces this method of sale is still
in its initial period.

Most farmers having a flock of sheep were formerly at the mercy of
woolmerchants who wandered about the country, from farm to farm, mak-
ing offers which the producer was in most cases obliged to accept, however
little he Hked them, unless he wished not to market his produce. The prices
paid on the spot by these dealers or their agents were naturally much lower
than those obtained in the large markets, and the small sheep-farmer was
thus deprived of the greater part of the profit wliich ought to have accrued
to him. It followed that he almost ceased to take interest in the improve-

THE CO-OPERATIVE SALE OF WOOL 1 5

ment of his flock and was at no pains to inform himself as to the condition
and the needs of the wool trade.

The organization of the co-operative sale of wool did away with these
disadvantages. In the measure of its still Hmited adoption it has ensured
to farmers owning sheep a just price for their produce. It has, in the first
place, eliminated the middleman ; either because — as is notably the case
in Saskatchewan and Manitoba — the Department of Agriculture under-
takes to sell the wool sent to it by producers, or because the responsibiUty
of marketing the wool of members has been assumed by a large associa-
tion of sheepfarmers. The latter expedient is employed in Alberta, Quebec
and Prince Edward Island. Centralization has solved the problem of trans-
port, complete car-loads of wool being made up, and a considerable economy
has thus been effected.

But it soon became apparent that for the remunerative marketing of
wool there was another necessary condition. Co-operative selling of wool,
without preliminary grading of its different classes, is an improvement on
individual selling but can be of only limited benefit to sheepfarmers. The
Dominion Department of Agriculture made a new forward step possible
when it placed expert graders freely at the disposal of the provincial govern-
ments who asked for them. Thus a uniform system of grading has been
established in various Canadian provinces and has allowed a firm basis to
be given to the value of wool.

The scientific grading by experts has further enabled those numerous
improvements to be ascertained, wliich it was necessarj^ to introduce into
the methods of shearing and of preser\'ing and packing fleeces in order
entirely to obviate their deterioration. Carefully drawn-up rules have
been communicated to the farmers as being the sine qua non of the sale of
their wool by the Department of Agriculture. Short courses of instruction in
the rural centres, lectures and practical demonstrations — organized or
provided by the Department of Agriculture — have produced a tendency
towards the modification of sheepfar:ning in accordance with the princi-
ples of .science. Farmers have become aware of the importance of selecting
the breed of their sheep with a view to wool production and they attempt
to remedy the defects of their wool. Thus the flocks of Canada increase
while their intrinsic value is augmented.

Such are the general results of government intervention in favour of
the co-operative sale and the grading of Canadian wool.

Altogether, according to the official Preliminary Report of Wool Grad-
ing Operations in 1916, the government experts, who have worked in
all the provinces of Canada, have graded 140,178 fleeces, weighing 1,004,512
lbs. and produced on the farms.

The importance of this form of co-operation, now in course of develop-
ment, cannot be too much emphasized, especially at the present time.
Facts concerning it are instructive because it is fitted both considerably
to increase the production of wool and to improve its quality ; and might
well be adopted in man}^ countries and contribute to augmenting their
wealth in sheep.

1 6 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

We will now give details as to this enterprise in the Canadian provinces
in which it has beconae important

§ 2. Data as to the grading and sale of wool in several Canadian

provinces.

Province of Alberta. — The Alberta Sheep Breeders' Association has
held three co-operative wool sales. Their inauguration and success were
made possible by the help given by the provincial government towards
organizing and maintaining the association, and by the action of the Domin-
ion Live Stock Commissioner's branch of the Dominion Department of
Agriculture in placing at the disposal of the association, without charge,
experts who graded the wool. The manner in which these services have
been rendered has established a confidence between the association and the
buyers which would have been diffictilt to secure without the official grad-
ing by the government officials.

As regards profits some farmers who sold through the association re-
ceived in 1915 as much as 32 cents (i) for a poimd of wool, while their neigh-
bours sold wool of equal quahty privately for 18 cents a pound.

The association charges no commission on sales, but assesses the mem-
bers for the cost according to the quantity each remits. The cost of hand-
ling the wool was in 1916 one cent a pound. This included the wages of the
staff while the wool was being sorted, weighed and loaded on cars, insurance,
printing, general ofiice expenses, and the cost of bags and twine.

The association issues a tabulated statement showing the quantity'
of wool of each grade sold and the prices received by individuals. Members
can thus see how their wool compares with that of their neighbours ; and a
number of them become anxious to know how they can improve the qual-
ity' of their wool and so increase their profits. These tabulated state-
ments have moreover helped to establish wool values : individual buyers
who still travel from farm to farm are now compelled to offer much better
prices to farmers than they would have done before the inauguration of the
association's sales.

The following figures show the improvement in the quahty of the wool
sold by the association from 1914 to 1915 :

(i) I cent ^ about V2 ^ ^^ par.

THE CO-OPERATIVE SALE OF WOOL

17

Years

No. of Sellers

No. of Fleeces

Carloads

Value

Average price
per lb.

1914

1915

1916

21

88
335

2,500

14,500
42,489

V4

5

13

$ 3,192.190
26,837.61
83,867.00

19.00 cents

27.77 '•
29.09

(i)$ =

4.73 s at par.

The following facts show the details as to the prices received per pound
of wool b}^ quahty :

Fine combing

clothing

medium combing, firsts .
" clothing,

combing, seconds
clothing,
combing, firsts .
clothing,

combing, seconds
clothing
L,ow " combing ....
" " clothing ....

Coarse

Lustre

Rejects

Gray and black

Locks and pieces

Tags

Dead wool

28 Y2, cents

18 1/2

33 Y2

27 Vi
29

271/2

35

31

28%

30 y;
301/2
30
30

27
26

12
15

Province 0/ Saskatchewan. — Saskatchewan is generally recognized
to be the great grain-growing province of the dominion, but she has given
considerable attention to sheepf arming. There are now upwards of 1,500
flocks in the province, varying in size from the small farm flock to the
ranch of ten thousand head. Statistics compiled by the Provincial Depart-
ment of Agriculture show that there are 192,000 sheep in the province.

Three years ago it was quite a problem to market the wool of these
flocks. The sheepfarmers are scattered all over the province ; the only
markets are in East Canada and the United States ; few neighbourhoods
produce as much as a carload of wool. The wool therefore was sent long

1 8 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

distances and high freights were paid. Many of the owners, who came
from practically all parts of the civilized world, had little experience in
sheepfarming. Breeds were various and grading unknown : the poorest
wool often sold as well as the best and naturally high prices were not paid.
In the autumn of 1913 an enquiry was made b}^ the then newly created
Co-operative Organization Branch of the Provincial Department of Agri-
culture. The fact was revealed that^ the wool clipped that year had been
sold at from 8 to 13 cents a poimd, 10 cents being about the average price.
The department thereupon decided that it was necessar^^ to introduce a new
sj^stem of marketing which would ensure economical management and the
grading of prices according to quality.

A list of the sheepfarmers in the province was at once compiled and
early in March T914 a letter was sent to each, announcing that the Co-oper-
ative Organization Branch was prepared to act without charge as market-
ing agency for the sheepfarmers who would prepare their wool according
to its directions. The practice of tying fleeces with binder twine and other
sisal cord, and despatching them in coarse jute sacks was one of the chief
causes of the low prices received. The sisal fibres, which became mixed
with the wool, would not take the die as the wool did, and the result was
the manufacture of inferior cloth. The branch, to overcome this difii-
culty, undertook to supply to those who would use its marketing facilities
paper fleece twine and closely woven jute sacks at cost price.

The following are the instructions sent to persons who intimated that
they would market their wool through the branch :
" I. Roll and tie the fleeces carefully :

" a) Removing all manure or paint-clotted locks,

" b) Rolling the fleece with the fiesh side out,

" c) Tying each fleece by itself with paper fleece twine.
"2. Pack the fleeces in the sacks supplied being careful to

" a) Include only dry wool in your consignment.

" b) Pack the fleeces from the ewes, wethers and bucks, respec-
tively, in separate sacks as far as possible. When it is necessary to pack two
or three kinds of fleeces in one sack place sheets of strong paper between
the different kinds.

" c) If two or more breeds of sheep are kept pack the wool from
each breed by itself, or when necessary pack in the one sack and separate
with paper as above described.

" d) If you wish to forward the tags (manure or paint-clotted locks
clipped from the fleeces) or black or brown fleeces, always place them in
sacks by themselves.

" e) Pack the wool tightly into the sacks. A 40-inch by 90-inch
sack should hold at least thirty fleeces.
"3. Prepare for market by :

" a) Filling out two shipping labels for each sack, being careful
to give name and address of shipper, name of breed from which wool is
taken, also number, kind and net weight of fleeces.

THE CO-OPERATIVE SALE OF WOOL IQ

" b) Placing one inside the sack and sewing the sack up, using
strong, hard twine.

" c) Sewing the second shipping label securely to the side, not to
the end of the sack.
" 4. Storing.

" a) Store the sacks where they will be kept dry until ready
to ship.

"5. Shipping.

" a) Forward the wool by freight, via the most direct route, to the
Co-operative Organization Branch, Department of Agriculture, Regina,
making the shipment between June 19 and July i. No shipment should be
forwarded later than July i.

" b) Either prepay the freight to Regina or forward the shipment
freight, charges collect, and the Department will pay the freight and de-
duct the amount from your cheque before making the final settlement.

" c) As soon as the shipment is made, forward the bill of lading at
once by mail to the Co-operative Organization Branch.

In 1914, 180 sheepfarmers prepared and forwarded their wool accord-
ing to these directions. Their total consigment, amounting to 69,404
pounds, was assembled in Regina and sold at a flat price of 17 ^/^ cents a
pound. This, after local freight from the producers' stations to Regina
and the cost of twine, sacks, storage, handling etc. had been paid, brought
the producers an average price of 16 14 cents a pound. In 1915 the work
was carried on in practically the same way, and 306 sheepfarmers marketed
altogether 148,339 pounds of wool through the branch, obtaining a flat
price of 25 cents a pound.

In 1916 the Dominion Live Stock Branch undertook by arrangement
to provide expert graders to classify the wool, and the same instructions
were issued to producers as formerl5^ Four hundred and eighty-seven
owners of flocks marketed through the branch their wool (176,601 pounds)
which was sold by tender. The following figures summarize the total
weight of each grade handled and the price realized for it.

20 CANADA - CO-OPE RATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

Grade

Fine combing

clothing

medium combing, firsts. .

clothing, " . .

combing, seconds.

clothing, "

combing, firsts .

clothing,

combing, seconds.

clothing

Low " combing

Coarse

lyiistre

Rejects • • •

Gray and black

Locks and pieces

Tags

Range

Mohair

Pounds

Price per pound

■ 6,623

33 cents

10,896

29 '

11,883

36 '

3,631

34 '

21,093

34 '

8,080

^2 '

21,288

37 '

1,767

34

33,160

34 '

4,088

31 '

15,415

34 '

3,574

32 '

10,344

31 '

14,160

24 '

1,519

28 '

914

24

2,758

II '

5-363

31 '

145

20 '

Under the grading system the cost of handling the wool was conside-
rably higher, being practically one cent a pound, but this was to be expected
as it was necessary to unpack all the wool, grade each fleece and then re-
pack it. It is however quite evident that the price obtained by grading
more than compensates for the extra expense.

Province of Manitoba. — ^lanitoba farmers have long since recog-
nized the value of the co-operative principle, and it is not surprising to
find the flockmasters adopting the co-operative grading system as a solu-
tion of their wool-marketing problem.

Western wools are sold unwashed. When the buj^er estimates the value
per pound he estimates also the shrinkage, and then appraises the wool by
comparison with scoured wool of like qualitj^ in the eastern market.

All sheep owners in the province were suppHed early in April 1916 with
a circular setting forth in detail the conditions of the wool marketing
scheme. As in Saskatchewan all wool was ordered to be despatched to the
Department of Agriculture in June, but this year June was so wet that much
of it was not sent until the middle of July. The directions for packing
were identical with those issued in Saskatchewan. Freight was prepaid
in the majority of cases.

The Dominion Department of Agriculture siipplied an expert to do the
grading, a record of which was kept on especial forms known as Domestic
Wool Grading Sheets. When the wool reached the warehouse it w.is
weighed in the presence of the official grader and a representative of the
Provincial Department of Agriculture. The consigner was then notified
and an advance payment of 20 cents a pound made, the balance being paid

THE CO-OPERATIVE SALE OF WOOL 21

after the wool had been sold and fully paid for. The wool was immediately
graded and packed in wool sacks. On each sack the weight, grade and Do-
minion mark were stencilled by the grader.

The wool was open to inspection at all times ; and large buyers all over
the American continent were notified of the amount for sale, its average
quality, and the date at which tenders would be received. Bids were re-
ceived ty closed tenders and the wool sold to the highest bidder. The sale
was made on the bases of the grades, as classified by the Dominion represen-
tative, acting in this respect for both seller and buyer. The wool was sold
for cash, 5 per cent, being paid by the purchaser at the time of sale and the
balance when it was despatched.

The expenses for printing, advertising, postage, drays, labour, insur-
ance and freight were estimated after the sale had been completed, and de-
ducted from the price received.

In 1916 nearh^ 160,000 pounds of wool were sold, of which 154,000
pounds were officially graded. The ungraded wool was sold locally for
the best price available. The following figures give the number of pounds
of the different grades of wool sold and the prices received for them.

Fine clothing

medium combing.

clothing

combing

clothing

Low " combing

Coarse

Lustre

Gray and black. . . .

Rejects

Seedy and dead. . . .

Locks and pieces . .

Tags

Mohair

Owing to the war there is an abnormal demand for coarser or combing
wools, the clothing wools being somewhat less in demand and used chiefly
for making finer materials and broadcloth.

One of the outstanding features of the whole scheme is the number of
small sheep owners who benefit by it. More than half the wool of all the

Pounds

Price per Pound

2,859

30 cents

6,726

33 "

6,581

30 "

57.230

34 "

11,642

30 "

37.400

34 "

1,639

32 "

15.542

30 "

3,111

22

2,044

24 "

2,471

22

2,989

22

1,280

10 1/, "

120

28 "

22 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

flockmasters of Manitoba — estimated at over a thousand — was marketed
through it in 1916. Careful breeding, attention to the health of the flock,
and care and cleanliness in handling the wool, might increase the price paid
for Manitoba wool by fully 5 cents a pound.

Prince Edward Island. — The co-operative grading and selUng of wool
was attempted for the first time in Prince Edward Island in 19x5. Fifty
farmers delivered 5,500 pounds of wool which were ver>^ satisfactorily sold.
The work was in this year undertaken rather late, but after the harvest
there were constituted in the west of the island societies for the co-operative
sale of wool and lambs and for community breeding. In other parts of
the island the farmers' institutes and the breeding associations became
busy over the same problem. Efforts are being made to combine all local
societies under the Sheep Breeders' Association, thus placing all the work
on the producers. During the wdnter a representative of the Federal Live
Stock Branch gave a number of demonstrations on boxing fleeces, and
pointed out how wool might be increased in value by proper care during
the winter. This department agreed to do the grading in 1916 as in the
previous year, and stations for receiving the wool were opened at Summer-
side and Charlottetown.

The chief obstacle to progress seems to be the time farmers have to
wait for payment, for they used to sell the wool directly to merchants for
cash. One of the bankers has however agreed to help the associations.

In 1916, 369 farmers took advantage of the organization. Altogether
28,302 pounds of wool or 4,411 fleeces were sold, for a total price of
% 10,949.47. The prices of the different grades varied from 43 cents a
pound for medium clothing to 10 cents a pound for tags.

Province of Quebec. — The Wool Growers' and Sheep Breeders' Asso-
ciations in Quebec have again successful^ graded and marketed their wool.
In order to facilitate the work and improve the quality of the product
instructors have gone through the province and explained to the farmers the
rules they must follow in preparing their wool for sale, shearing etc. :

Six hundred and forty-seven new members have been added since

1915 to the associations ; a new association has been formed in Megantic
count}^ and the total output of wool was 169,839 pounds in 1916, showing
an increase of 65,647 pounds as compared with 1915. The wool was sold in

1916 for S 71,092.70. Medium and fine medium combing grades sold at
43 cents a pound, black and gray and rejects at 38 cents. The average
price for all grades, including rejects, was 41.8 cents a pound. These
prices were all F. O. B. at the despatching points. Since local prices for
ungraded wool ranged from 31 to 35 cents a pound, a gain of 7 to 12 cents a
pound, or 40 per cent., had been secured.

The associations are on a f)urely co-operative basis. The membership
fees are based on the amount of business which each member does with the
association. Four cents a fleece has been found to be sufficient to cover
all expenses.

The results obtained have been an improvement in the quality of the
wool and in its preparation for sale, and its marketing at higher prices.

THE CO-OPERATIVE SAXE OF WOOL

23

The followdng figures show the production of single associations.

Association Number of Pounds Produced

Pontiac -. .

Compton

Richmond

Sherbrooke

District of Bedford

Stanstead

District of Beauharnois

Argenteuil

Megantic

Total .

51.564 ^2

24.471

Vz

17.567

16.885

16,621

V2

14.252

13.350

V2

11,191

3.937

169,840

As regards the proportion in which the different grades were produced
it is enough to state that medium combings account for 49.4 per cent,
and low medium combings for 34.5 per cent, of the total quantity.

The following are further data as to the associations and their produc-
tion and sale.

Association

Number
of Members

Number
of Fleeces

Average

Weight

per Fleece

Average

Price

per Fleece

Average

Price

per Pound

Pontiac

Coniplon

Richmond

Sherbrooke

District of Bedford . .

Staxistead

District of Beauharnois.

Argenteuil

Megantic

282
167
133
153
125
"3
107

49
1,617

7,216
3,489
2,364
2,238
2,226
1.965
1.545
1,481
486

23,010

Pounds

7.02
7.06
7-43
7-53
7.42
7.22
8.79

7-75
8.1

7-59

F3.04
3.00
3.10

3-19
3.08
3.06
3.62
3.10
3-45

318

42.8 cents

42.4 »
41.7 »
42.3 »

41.5 »
42-3 »
41. 1 »
40.0 »
42.5 »
41.8

24 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Nova Scotia. — The co-operative selling of wool was undertaken in
two counties of Nova Scotia in 1916, in Antigonish and Guysboro. In both
the Department of Agriculture has representatives who organize the work.
In Guysboro merely a beginning was made, the total sale amounting to a
little less than 2,000 pounds. In Antigonish it was the second year in which
wool was sold co-operatively, and about 15,400 pounds were graded and
sold. The average price received was 41 ^/g cents a pound. The expenses
amounted to slightly more than half a cent a pound.

REGENCY OF TUNIS.

NATIVE THRIFT SOCIETIES IN 1915.

OFFlCIAIv SOURCE:

Direction Generale des finances: Compfe rendu des op<'rafions des soctefes indigenes de
pievoyance en 1915. [Financial Statement as to the Work of the Native Thrift Societies
in 1915). Txuiis, 1916.

The native thrift societies, to which all native agriculturists are obliged to
belong, date from 1901. In those days there was question only of an experi-
ment, and in 1905 onl}^ fifteen societies were at work. The benefits of the
scheme were extended to the whole regency by a decree of 20 May 1907. The
first article of this decree states that the Tunisian societies are enterprises
of "agricultural mutual aid" — thus presuming for them a large programme
of collective activitj^ — and specifies their power to form among their mem-
bers agricultural co-operative associations. Article 21 lays down that
such co-operdtive societies may enjoy the benefit of special advances
from the sums annually due to the Bank of Algeria, exactly as do the
planters' co-operative societies. The thrift societies play, towards the
co-operative societies and in respect of these advances, exactly the role of
the district banks of agricultural credit.

But the Tunisian legislature has aimed especially at organizing credit
for natives. The decree states verj^ clearly in the first place that loans are
to be made exclusively to members of the thrift societies (articles 3 and
13) . These loans are in ;the form of seeds and of specie : the members can
borrow even to extinguish prior debts, if necessary, on the security of mort-
gages, so that they can at once free themselves from dependence on usurers.
Further the decree of 20 May 1907 is concerned with providing the thrift
societies with the resources necessary to their credit operations : it deducts
from an advance of one million francs (i) made by the Tunisian govern-
ment to the Bank of Algeria a sum of 50,000 francs as reserved to these
societies ; and to this a decree of 26 January 191 1 adds the half of the an-
nual dues. From these sums the societies can receive free advances equal

3
(i) I franc = <) — i/ at par.

26 REGENCY OF TUNIS - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

to half the sum of the centimes additional to taxes which they have col-
lected as assessments. Since these resources may be insufficient, the same
decree of 26 January 191 1 authorizes the societies to open current credit
accounts in quarters approved bj' the Director of Finances. It also deter-
mines the procedure for the realization of long or short term loan operations,
whether secured by a mortgage or not.

The relief given by Tunisian thrift societies should be noted. It is
limited in its scope and may not be granted directly. Article 10 states that
in the case of a famine the societies may make advances, which are repay-
able, to the necessitous ; and that it will subsequently be the part of the
government to remit to the borrowers, at the request of the societies, all
or part of the advances so made.

The amount of the assessments of centimes additional to the native
taxes varies in the different societies from 5 to 17 per cent, of such taxes.

§ I. Receipts

The receipts of the native thrift societies which have increased their
credit were in 1915 as follows :

i) Recoveries on the credit of former societies Fr. 1,441.61

2) Additional centimes on mediba tax 6,746.53

3) Quota of the recoveries of temporar^'^ assess- ,

menta due to the native thrift societies 118,058.60

4) Additional centimes on canoiin tax on olive

and date trees:

Years prior to igio 3i4-i3

Years 1910 and later 72,351.08

5) Additional centimes on achonr tax :

Years prior to 1910 748-37

1910 and later 87,692.05

6) Additional centimes on djerba tax 9,328.42

7) " " " mradjas " 2,561.21

8) Recover^' of costs of management and commissions:

a) for loans of seeds 2,806.58 i

72,665.21

5,440.42

b) for mortgage loans 53,362.67 - 56,951.54

c) for advances to affiliated societies. . . 782,29 )

Total . . . Fr. 356,193-54

NATIVE THRIFT SOCIETIES

27

Independently of these receipts the societies recovered 3, 765, 887. 52 francs
in 1915 of the amount of their loans, such sum being distributed as
follow :

i) Loans of seeds 1908-1909 Fr. 3;950-32

2) " " 1909-1910 4,308.48

3) " " 1910-1911 21,107.24

4) " " 1911-1912 7,450.10

5) " " 1912-1913 137.005.94

6) " " 1913-1914 228,949.56

7) " " 1914-1915 3,230,430.11

8) " maintenance 1912-1913 53-00

9) " " 1913-1914 36,986.00

10) " " 1914-1915 131,020.00

11) Mortgage loans 43,970.04

12) Advances to affiliated societies 5^.676.73

Total . . . Fr. 3,896,907.67
Carried forward from receipts increasing credit of societies 356,193.54

Total sum of receipts in 1915 Fr. 4,253,101.21

§ 2. Credit account of the societies on 31 December 1915.

Since no expenditure in 1915 had diminished the amount of the re-
ceipts increasing the credit of the societies these amounted to the net sum

of ; Fr. 356,193-54

Add to this the amount of the scx:ieties' credit when the

books of the previous year were closed 4,595,721.89

The total credit of native thrift societies on 31 Dec-
ember 1915 was therefore Fr. 4,951,915.43

28

REGENCY OF TUNIS - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

This sum was distributed as follows :

i) In hand in specie Fr.

2) Ivoans of seeds in 1908-1909 still to be recovered

1 909-1 910

1910-1911 "

1911-1912 "

1912-1913 "

1913-1914 "

1914-1915 "

in 1912-13

" 1913-19^4

" 1914-1915

12) Mortgage loans

13) Sums advanced to affiHated societies

14) Sums spent before 31 December 1915 on loans of
seeds in 1915-16, not 3'et distributed among the

3) '

4) '

5) '

6)

7) '

8) '

9) '

' maintenanc

10) '

' "

II)

'

borrowing societies.

1,514.073.48

49,709-37
28.190.53

04,57875

980.16

466,176.01

199,333-54
3,280,695.68

58,173-98

30,003.70

4,086,450.64

1,577,232.70

31,666.16

916,313.88

Total

Fr, 12,333,578.5s

From this must be deducted :

i) Sum due to the Revictiialling Account (i) and
advanced for the loans of seeds in 1914-
1915 I^r. 3,295,212.51

2) Sum due to the State and
advanced for the loans of
maintenance in 1914-1915. . Fr. 4,086,450.64

Remainder .

7,381,663.15

Fr. 4,951,915.43

(i) See the arlicle on the "Revictualling Accoiuit" in our issue of June 1916, page 113.

NATIVE THRIFT SOCIETIES 29

§ 3. General observations on the work of the societies in 1915.

i) Receipts. — The results obtained by the native thrift societies in the
matter of receipts during 1915 may be considered satisfactory, for it should
be remembered that the harv^est in certain districts left much to be desired
owing to drought and hail, and that the state of war has caused special con-
ditions. The net amount of the credit of the societies. was 4,951,915.43
francs on 31 December 1915, and this sum has since been surpassed.

This capital surpasses that anticipated at the foundation of the so-
cieties, namely four million francs ; but it was nevertheless inadequate to
the needs of the season 1914-1915, during which the societies were obliged to
accept State aid in order to ensure the loans of seeds and maintenance to
the natives, which loans constitute their first and their chief object.

It must however be anticipated that the societies will soon, in addi-
tion to their present provision of necessary credit to various enterprises
of mutual aid, be called upon to help other organizations ; which will doubt-
less arise from a need for economic expansion subsequent to the war.

The societies should therefore continue to observe the principles of
economy and prudence which they have followed liitherto. In consti-
tuting reserve funds for future needs the}^ give a salutar^^ example in thrift
to their members. In order not to compromise the success of their enter-
prise they are careful always to be sure that their advances will be repaid.

2) Loans of Seeds and of Maintenance. — In the farming year 1914-1915
the loans of seeds represented the sum of 6,511,125.79 francs, those of main-
tenance 4,217,470.79 francs. The prices were by quintal (i) 34.50 francs
for wheat, 24.40 francs for barley, 34 francs for beans and 23.91 francs for
maize. These prices should be considered satisfactory for they include the
price of sacks and all costs of management, transport, storage, guarding etc.

The loans of seeds were represented in early years by the following
sums :

Season 1907-08 25,628.70

- 1908-09 1 .750,360.39

1909-10 670,563.42

- 1910-11 1,737,52349

- 1911-12 • 55,620.80

- 19^2-13 1,786,550-37

- 1913-14 451-17582

The loans of maintenance amounted to :

in 1908-09 381,960.81

in 1910-11 118,465.72

in 1912-T3 5S>435-48

and in 1913-14 83,459.75

(i) I quintal =: 220 lbs

30 REGENCY OF TUNIS - CO-OPERA.TION AND ASSOCIATION

Although the cereal harvest in 1915 was in general good, certain dis-
tricts which had suffered from drought or hail applied for loans which were
granted to them. A total expenditure of 1,566,749 francs — the price of
32,899 quintals of wheat and 24,297 quintals of barley — was thus incurred.

In distributing this grain the administrators aimed especially at buy-
ing cereals in the districts in which they were to be distributed, a procedure
which had the double advantage of furnishing borrowers with seeds suited
to their local climatic conditions and of considerably reducing the costs
and difficulties of transport. Unfortunately it could rarely be applied, for
there is usually a lack of cereals in the districts in need of loans.

3) MortgaQe Loans. — The native thrift societies haX'e continued, in
view of the continuation of the state of war, to abstain on principle from lend-
ing on m.ortgages. In the exceptional case however of five requests for
loans, made by the natives of Nefzaoua before the war, the total sum of
38,789.95 francs was lent in 1915.

During the 3'ear 1914-1915 " small mortgage loans of maintenance "
were instituted in the caidate of Sousse in order to allow small proprietors
to obtain food without recourse to usur\-. In the period from 5 February
1915 to 14 August 1916 forty-two such loans were made of sums between
twenty and 500 francs, totalling 2,310 francs.

4) Co-operative Associations. — In spite of great difficulties, due espe-
cialh" to an insufficient staff and the obstacles placed by the war in the way
of providing industrv^ with primary and other material, most of the co-oper-
ative societies affiliated to the native thrift societies have developed their
activity in 1915.

Independently of the immediate aid thex' have been able to give their
members by placing at their disposal the capital they need, charging far
less than the usual rate of interest, these organizations have accustomed
the native artizans and traders to co-operation, that indispensable condi-
tion of indu.strial and commercial progress.

The advances they made amoimted to 41,185.29 francs in 1913 and
to 23,790 francs in 1914, and rose in 1915 to 115,987.49 francs. This
sum does not include the numerous advances made by the Revictualling
Account to various native enterprises, and especially to the Laboratory of
Industrial and Commercial Experiments in order to allow this institution
to ensure the activity of its various workshops and furnish important mi-
litary supplies to the Intendance.

MISCELIvANEOUS INFOR]\L\TION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

BRITISH INDIA.

I. CO OPERATON IX TRAVANXORP: (i).

The State of Travancore in Southern India adjoins the province of
Madras and has an area of 7091 square miles. In 190T the population was
2,952,157, having increased b}- 15 per cent, in the foregoing decade. Tra-
vancore ranks fourth among native Indian States as regards area and third
as regards population.

Provision for co-operation in Travancore is contained in a regulation
of 4 April 1914, and in the rules under Section 42 of this regulation which
were issued on 17 November 1915.

On 8 July 1916 twenty-three co-operative societies had been regis-
tered, one of them being a bank which included among its members not only
individuals but also societies, and had for its object the financing of the
latter. Of the remaining twent^^-two societies two were for production
and distribution, one for production only and two for distribution only,
while the other seventeen v»'ere credit societies all of which except one w^ere
formed on the Raffeisen model and on the basis of unlimited liability. Since
all these societies had been registered towards the end of the official year,
which begins in the middle of August, only a few had actually started work.
The bank, the producing and distributing society, one of the societies for
distribution only and seven of the credit societies were however in full
working order although they had not yet accomplished much.

All but one of the credit societies are intenderl to help agriculturists,
who seem, by all the evidence yet available, to take advantage of them.

By Section 4 of the regulation of 4 April 1914 " the liability of a so-
ciety, of which a registered society is a member, shall be limited ; the lia-
bility of a society, of which the object is the creation of funds to be lent
to its members, and of which no member is a register^ society, shall be

I'l) The facts rc.ijar.liii,ii co oi;craliim in Travancore luue b.in communicated to u-: by
M.-. O. Ciovinda I'iilai. R'-iislrar of Cooperative vSocieties in thi.- State.

INKv^RMA/llOX RELATING TO CO-Ol'EKATION AND ASSUCIATIUX

unlimited. Where the liabilit}' of the members of a society is Hmited by
shares, no member, other than a registered society, shall hold more than
such ]:)ortion of the share capital of the society as may be prescribed by the
rules, subject to a maximum of one fifth ; or have a claim or interest in the
shares of the society exceeding one thousand rupees (i) ".

The minimum membership of a society, which includes no registered
society among its members, is seven.

Where the liability of the members of a registered society is not lim
ited by shares, each member has one vote only. In the contrary case
he has as many votes as are prescribed by the by-laws.

Subject to any prior claim of the government in respect of land reve-,
nue or any mioney recoverable as land revenue, or of a landlord in respect
of rent or any money reco^-erable as rent, a registered society i? entitled
in priority to other creditors, to enforce any outstanding demand for any-
thing due to it from a member or past member : a) in respect of the supply
of seed or manure or of the loan of money for the purchase of seed or ma-
nure, upon the crops or other agricultural produce of such member or per-
son at any time within eighteen months from the date of such supply or
loan ; b) in respect of the svipply of cattle, fodder for cattle, agricultural
or industrial implements or machinery, or raw materials for manufacture,-
or of the loan of money for the purchase of any of the foregoing things,
upon an^^ such things so supplied, or purchased in whole or in part from
such loan, or any articles matiufactured from raw materials so supplied
or purchased, at any time within three years from the date of such suppl}''
or loan.

The liability of a past member for the debts of a registered society,
as they existed at the time when he ceased to be a member, continues for
a period of two years from the date of his ceasing to be a member.

The estate of a deceased member is liable, for a period of one year
from the time of his decease, for the debts of a registered society as they
existed at the time of his decease.

The government may remit any stamp duty with which instruments
executed by or on behalf of a registered society may at any time be
chargeable, as well as any fee payable under any law of registration.

The Trivandnim Central Co-operative Bank, Limited, to which we
have already alluded, aims at developing co-operative societies in Tra-
vancore ; financing them and carrying on banking business with them ;
controlling them when they have been affiliated to itself by careful and re-
gular inspection ; and encouraging thrift, self-help, and mutual trust and
confidence among its individual members.

The capital of the bank is 100,000 rupees, made up of 1,000 shares of
100 rupees each. Not more than 500 shares may be allotted to members
other than societies ; and no member may at any time hold more than ten
shares. No member mav withdraw or transfer a share which he has not

(i) I rupee = is. 4^.

IXFORlVL\TION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 33

held for at least one year. Every transfer of a share must have the sanc-
tion of the Board of Management and involves payment of a fee of 2 rupees.
The value of each share is pa3'able in five instalments of 20 rupees each,
the instalments being paid at intervals of at least three months.

The funds of the society must be utilized primarily for the granting
of loans to registered co-operative societies. lyoans may also be granted
to members i) on the securit}^ of their deposits or on their paid-up share
capital, not exceeding 90 per cent. ; 2) on the security of Government of
India promissory notes ; 3) on the personal security of the borrower and
two sureties from among the members.

No loan to an individual member shall be granted in the first instance
for more than three months, nor to a society member for more than two
years ; but the Board of Management may from time to time grant exten-
sion of loans, no extension exceeding the original period. The rate of in-
terest charged on loans shall not exceed 9 14 P^^ cent, per annum and
a rebate of 2 per cent, per annum shall be allowed on all punctual
repayments.

One fourth of the net profits of each year shall be carried to the credit
of the reserve fimd. One eighth shall be paid as honorarium to the secre-
tSLvy. Of the balance 10 per cent, shall be set apart to meet the charges
of inspection, the remainder being divided among all the members, subject
to a maximum of 12 per cent, per annum, according to the paid-up share
capital held by them during the year. The reserve fund shall be one and
indivisible : it shall not be drawn upon except to make losses good, and
shall be invested as the registrar directs.

This bank has now 85 members, namely 69 individual members and
16 societ}^ members — including 15 associations of agricultural credit.
Hitherto its loans on personal guarantees have been negligible but it has
lent to its society-members 27,560 rupees of which sum 27,310 rupees have
not yet been repaid. Its paid-up share capital amounts to 8,340 rupees
and its loans to the government to 29,800 rupees.

The Trivandrum Co-operative Distributive Society, Limited, is a society
of a different type. It has a capital of 5,000 rupees consisting of 1,000
shares of 5 rupees each. There is an entrance fees of six annas (i) a share.
No member may hold in the first instance more than twenty shares ; but
members may use the dividends earned by them in the purchase of addi-
tional shares until they hold altogether a maximum of twenty-five.

Profits must be disposed of as follows : one fourth shall be carried to
the credit of the reserve fund ; a bonus, not exceeding 10 per cent, of the
net profit or a maximum of 250 rupees a year, shall be paid to the secretary;
out of the remaining profits a dividend not exceeding 7 ^ per cent, a year
shall be paid on the paid-up share capital ; any balance shall be paid to
the members as a bonus, proportionately to the purchases made by them.

The following table shows the activity of agricultural co-operative
societies in Travancore in the year which ended on 15 August 1916.

([) I anna = i penny.

34

INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Activity of Agricultural Co-operative Societies in Travancorc.

Kind of Society

Number

of
Societies

Number | Amount ^ ^'"^
of of I/jans S^
Indi- on \ p°:
vidua! Personal ^ ,'f "
■Kt^^v, /^„„ 1 sold to
Memb- Gua- ,, ,

ers rantees *^^^''-

Pur-
chase of
Mem-
bers
Pro-
ducts

I,oans

not

repaid

Paid up
Share-
Capital

Costs
of
Admin-
istra-
tion

Unliniitedi,iabilitj' Societies
I<imited lyiability Societies .

17

I

551

27

Rs.

27,577
610

Rs.

4,276

Rs.
4,090

Rs.

27,210
610

Rs.

1,320
1,350

Rs.

421
384

Total . . .

18

578

28,187

4,276 4,090

27,820 2,670! 805

■2. THE \L\DRAS PROVINCIAl, CO-OPERATIVE BANK LIMITED. — M. R. Ry. M. Shi\a
Rao Avl. of Puttur, S. Canarn, in The Madras Bulletin of Co-oheration. Vol. VIII.. No. i,
September 191 6.

The Imperial Committee on Co-operation, whose report we resumed
on another occasion (i), suggested " the creation in every province of a
provincial or apex bank ", which should deal eventually with central banks
only and be directed by a board of management, but in which the ultimate
control should be vested in the federated societies. The committee was of
opinion that the Madras Central Urban Bank, Limited, could be convert-
ed, provided certain essential changes were carried out, into a Provin-
cial Bank, such as the committee contemplated. This proposal was not
however favourably received b}' the co-operators of the presidency, on
whom therefore it has become incumbent to form a Provincial Bank. It
is proposed to associate for this purpose all the co-operative societies in
the presidency in a central union, and the draft by-laws for the scheme
have been approved by the Registrar of Madras Co-operative Societies and
the Commissioner of Revenue vSettlement.

The capital necessary to the undertaking is estimated at 200,000 ru-
rupees, to form which each of the 2,000 societies in the presidency must
take on an average a single share of Too rupees. It is proposed to spread
the payments on account of shares over ten years, to treat half the amount

(i) Sue Intirnatinnal Review of iiiricuUiiral Econom-'cs. January and March 1916.

INFORMATIOX RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 35

of each share as reserve liabiHty in the case of agricultural credit societies
and supervising unions, and to require an entrance fee of one rupee, so that
any society wishing to take a share may remit 6 rupees — or ii rupees if
it be a non-agricultural society -- to its own Central Bank. One thousand
additional shares will be offered to indi\'idual capitalists, on condition that
in their case one tenth of the value of each share be paid with the applica-
tion and the rest on allotment, and with the further reservation that shares
will be allotted to individuals only after at least an equivalent number of
shares have been taken up by the societies. This provise will secure a
majority of votes to the societies.

It is hoped that if the Provincial Bank attain to a taorkino capital
of 1,000,000 rupees it will be able to lend to Central Banks at a rate not
exceeding 6 ^/^ per cent.

Deposits will be received by the Provincial Bank at rates not exceed-
ing the lowest now offered by Central Banks, namely 6 per cent, for long
term deposits and 5 ^ per cent, and 5 per cent, for short terms.

It is proposed that all the overdrafts now granted by the Bank of Ma-
dras to Central Banks be transferred to the Provincial Bank, the latter
granting in its turn an equivalent overdraft to each affiliated Central Bank
and charging either the same rate of interest as that now allowed by the
Bank o^ Madras or one quarter per cent. more.

Deposits received by Central Banks may be transferred, if there be
no outlet for their expenditure in such banks, to the Provincial Bank which
will protect the receiving bank from loss by paying the regvtlar rate of in-
terest on them.

If the bank rely mainly on society shareholders for its share capital,
it will not be necessary to declare a highef dividend than 6 per cent.

The board of management of the Provincial Bank will consist of re-
presentatives of individual shareholders, of Central Banks and of primary
societies, the two latter groups forming a majority. The board will elect
a standing committee of at least three members, who will, together with
the secretary, direct the business of the bank according to standing orders
issued by the board. The latter will probably meet once in three months.

3. CO-OPERATIVI': DI.STRIBUTION IN NORTHERN INDIA. — Mr. A. C. Cliatterjee
in Indian Journal of Economics , Apxi] 1916, quoted in I'hc Madras: BulUiin of Co-orercUion,
Vol. VIII. No. I, .September 1916.

Co-operative Seed Supp.y. — In the villages of Northerm India the
rural lender lends seed grain as well as money and to a large extent. Un-
fortui^ately the cultivator has, when be borrows the grain at sowing time,
absolutely no choice with regard to the quality of the .seed that he gets.
After a famine the lenders often refuse to advance it except at prohibitive

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

prices ; and generally the^^ take advantage of every possible circumstance
to exploit the cultivators as much as they can.

Under the alternative and co-operative system a credit society or a
central bank obtains a supply of approved seed through the Agricultural
Department. It is sold at market rates or at something above cost price
to selected members living within a convenient distance of the centre of
distribution. Only persons known to be good and careful husbandmen
are supplied and the cultivation is supervised by trained officials of the
Agricultural Department. When the crop has been harvested the seed
is cleaned and graded, and when it has been passed by experts it is bought
back by the bank or society at a slight premium over market rates. Ade-
quate arrangements are made for storage in specially constructed godowns.
In the following season a limited quantity of the stored seed is sold to se-
lected members while the bulk is disposed of at market rates to the general
body of members. The distribiiting agency stipulates that it ma}^ buy
back the produce of selected cultivators if tlais prove to be of sufficiently
good quality. I'he general body of members may dispose of their produce
in the open market. All transactions are in cash, and a member without
enough read}' money to buy must borrow from a credit society.

This system has had satisfactory results in freeing the cultivators
from bondage to the usurers and in notably improving the quality of crops.

Co-operative Water Supply. -- The Agricultural Department is bear-
ing the initial cost of an experiment in establishing a co-operative water
supply, namely of pumping water in Sultanpur District from the Gumti
to irrigate the fields of members of two or three adjacent credit societies.
The cost will eventually be repaid in instalments by the societies, who will
le\^ a rate from each member proportionate to the area irrigated.

If the experiment prove successful, as it promises to do, there is every
prospect of organizing water supply societies in suitable tracts to pump
water from rivers, streams and large, shallow lakes and supply it to agricul-
turists, whether or not they belong to credit societies, although if all of
them belong to such the collection of dues will of course be simplified.
There might be like organizations to allow pumping installations to be at-
tached to wells having large supplies of water, especially tube- wells, in tracts
where they can be sunk with advantage. It is not very often possible for
individual agriculturists to undertake the cost of a pumping installation,
but a number of them might combine to do so.

FRANCE.

A NKW SYNDICATE FOR MECHANICAL AGRICULTURE. — Journal d'agitculturc pri-
tiquc, Paris, ii Jamuiry 191 7.

A certain number of agriculturists in tlie nrrondissement of Pontoise
have formed themselves into a trade syndicate in order to acquire traction

INFORMATION RELA-TING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 37

engines and to undertake without delay ploughing and other agricultural
operations which have for the present been suspended.

The capital has been subscribed by the members in proportion to
the number of hectares (i) of arable land they hold and has allowed the
purchase of the following machines : *

18 Emerson 20 horse power traction engines

6 Arion 40 )/ » » »

2 Avery 35 » » « »

2 » 16 » » » ))

3 Avance 20 '> » » »
I Bull 16 )> » » »

that is 32 traction engines at a total cost of about 500,000 francs (2;.

The activity of the syndicate will affect twenty-two comnumes, and
about 7,200 hectares of arable land fitted for the intensive culture of
corn and sugar beetroot. The scarcity of agricultural labour in this dis-
trict — as a result of the mobilization of Belgian workmen, the proximity of
factories of war material and the prohibition to employ prisonners of war
which was long in force — decided the agriculturists to use these new-
methods of work as a matter of urgency.

Counting the traction engines already bought by individuals outside
the syndicate, there are now forty of these machines in the arrondissement
of Pontoise, and the possibility of shortly using double that number ought
to be realized.

UNITED STATES.

THE DEVEIvOPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS CONTROI,l,ING
DAIRY PRODUCl'ION IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1906 TO 1916 ~ Hoard's
Dairyman, Fort Atkinson, 3 November 1916.

The movement in favour of co-operative societies of breedeis and pro-
ducers in order to inspect the individual production of milch cows, for the
purpose of selection, began in Michigan in 1906 and has in ten years spread
through thirty-eight States. To-day there are 346 of these associations.

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.
(2) 1.261 1 francs ■-= is at par.

38

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

They are most numerous in the following States

Wisconsin 52

New York. ...-'. 47

Vermont 38

Iowa 23

Minnesota 22

Ohio 20

Pennsylvania ... 19

Oregon 15

Illinois 12

Maine 11

New Hampshire . . ii

Michigan 10

The following table shows the complete development of these associa-
tions since they were founded.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Development of the Co-operative Associations inspecting the Production
of Milch Cows in the United States from i July 1906 to 1 July 1915.

Number of associations active in

states

1906

1907 1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

Michigan

Miiine

New York

Vermont

I

4

2

3

I

5
4

I
2
2

I

9

I

4
3
3

8

5

3

ID
0
I

I
I

I

3
6
9

ID

4

2

10

0

I
I
0
I
4
3
3
I
I
I
2
2

4

5

18

II

8

4
8
0
2
2
0
3
.3
I

7
I
I
0
2
2
I
2
I

4

4

21

17
7
4

II

3

I
2

I

3
2
0
10
I
I
0
2
2
I
2
I

3

5

29

28

8

5

24

2

I

7

4

2

7
0

9

4

7

I

3
0

I
2
I
2
2
I
I
2
I
I

3

8

35
33
13

7

37

3

0

14
5
4
3
I

II
8

II
I
0
0
0

3
0
I

3
I

3
0
0

I
I

10
II

47
38
23

California

9

Wisconsin

Ntbraska

Colorado .

Pennsylvania

Ohio

Maryland

Illinois

Washington

Minnesota

Oregon

Utah

Massachusetts

Virginia

Kansas

Kentucky

Missouri

New Jersey ......

West Virginia

Connecticut

North Carolina ....

I,ouisiana

South Dakota ....

Nevada

Arizona

Rhode Island . . .* . .

Icaho

Mississippi

Montana

52

4
0

19
20

7

3

12

22

II

15
0

4
2
I

7
I
2
4
3
6
0
0

3
0
2
2
2
2
I
I
I

Tofal . . .

I

4

6

25

40

64

62

100

163

210

346

Part 11: Insurance and Thrift

UNITED STATES.

STATE HAIL INSUR.XNCE IN NORTH DAKOTA.

SOURCES :

Biennial Report to the Thirteenth I^egislative Assembly of the hail Commissioner
ON Hail Insurance for the term ending, December 31st, 191 2, Bismarck, N. D.

Biennial Report to the Fourteenth I,egislative Assembly of the Hail Commission
ON Hail Insurance for the term ent)ing December 31ST, 1914. Journal Publish-
ing C"., Devil's I,akc, N. D.

State Hail Insurance I<aw, North Dakota. W. C. Taylor, Commissioner of Hail Insur-
ance, 1916.

North Dakota has been the first and so far the only vState in the Union
which has placed a law for the State insurance of crops against loss or da-
mage by hail on its statute books. The venture is therefore highly impor-
tant as a test of the ability of the vState, from a practical standpoint, to com-
pete with privately ow^ned and managed insurance enterprises. We will
examine the provisions of the Act and the results as set forth in the
two biennial reports so far issued by the Commissioner of Hail Insurance.

§ I. The act.

The State Hail Insurance act of North Dakota first went into opera-
tion in January 1911, and after two years' experience was amended in 1913.

The law as it now stands pro\ndes for a Hail Insurance Department
which shall insure gro^nng grain crops in any county in the State against
loss or damage b}' hail. Count}*, township, city and village assessors, at the

42 UNITED STATES - INSURAXCE AXD THRIFT

time of listing property for assessement each year, are required to inquire
of the party assessed how many acres of crop such party may wish to in-
sure for the year, informing him that as a premium for tliis insurance a
payment of 30 cents for each acre insured must be made. As originally
enacted, the law had fixed the rate for insurance premium at 20 cents per
acre of grain insured, but the experience of the first two years indicated
that this rate was too low, and it was therefore raised to 30 cents, as above.

The assessor is required to fill in the forms for all such insurance agree-
ments, to collect the 30 cents per acre with an additional half cent per acre
as an application fee, and to forward these forms and moneys to the county
auditor, who files the applications and turns over the moneys to the county
treasurer.

The insurance is in force and effect from the time of filing the applica-
tion in the office of the county auditor until the grain is cut, but in no case
later than September 15th of each year.

On the 1st of June, July and August, the county auditors make a list
of all hail insurance applications filed with them, and forward same to the
Department of Hail Insurance at the State capital, Bismarck.

Meantime, the county commissioners at their April board meeting
shall appoint for each county a competent resident to act as official adjuster
of losses and damage caused by hail to any crop insured under the act.
The State Commissioner of Hail Insurance must be notified by the county
auditors of such appointments which only become vaUd on receiving his
approval, and he has power to remove or discharge any such oflicial adjuster
for incompetency or neglect.

It is the duty of these official adjusters to adjust losses or damages
caused by hail to crops within their districts insured under the act.

When any party thus insured has sustained loss by hail he promptly
notifies the Commissioner of Insurance, who directs an official adjuster
to visit the place and estimate and adjust such loss. In so doing it is his
dut}' carefully to inquire into the conditions of the crop before the loss oc-
curred, as to whether it was poor, medium, or good, and if he deems it ne-
cessary he has power to call witnesses to testify as to the said condition,
and he shall make his estimate and adjustment after ascertaining the con-
dition before and after the loss occurred. In estimating the loss the adjuster
shall allow as damages the proportion which the crop as damaged bears
to the crop if no such loss had occurred. If the total value of the crop in-
sured be less than eight dollars per acre then in case of total loss the insured
shall receive the total value thereof ; if the loss be partial he shall receive
that percentage of value which the loss bears to the total value of the crop
insured. If the value of the crop be more than eight dollars per acre, the
insured shall receive that percentage of the maximum of eight dollars which
the loss bears to the total value of the crop, proY-ided however that in no
case shall more than eight dollars per acre be allowed as the maximum for
wheat, flax, oats, barley, corn, rye, and other grains.

Should the party insured refiise to accept the adjustment made by
the official adjuster he shall have the right to appoint one disinterested

STATE HAIL INSURANCE IN NORTH DAKOTA 43

person as adjuster and the official adjuster shall appoint another, and the
two shall elect a third, and the three shall then proceed to adjust the loss
in the manner above described, the judgement of the majoritj^ to be binding
upon both parties as the final determination of said loss.

As compensation for their services the official adjusters receive five
dollars a day and actual expenses while engaged in the performance of their
duties, and all persons called to assist them in adjusting losses shall receive
$2 a day while so engaged.

The Commissioner of Hail Insurance, on receiving from the county
auditors the complete returns showing the number of acres insured for
the year, shall sum up the total hail insurance fund available for that year ;
when he shall have received a complete return from all of the hail losses
in the State as adjusted and allowed he shall sum up the total of such
amounts for that year, and he shall sum up the expenses of his office in
accordance with rvdes prescribed in the Act. The total of such expense ac-
count shall first be deducted from the total amount of the hail insurance
receipts for that year and paid, and if the balance remaining is sufficient
all hail losses shall be paid in full as allowed by the adjusters, but if the
expenses and hail losses shall exceed the amount of hail insurance receipts
for that year, the expenses shall be paid first and the losses shall be paid
pro rata. Should there be a surplus after paying expenses and losses, such
surplus shall remain in the State treasury in the hail insurance fund to be
drawn upon in future years in which there may be a deficienc}^

When the Commissioner of Hail Insurance has figured up the whole
year's business as indicated above, he shall prepare and furnish to the State
auditor a certified list of the losses arranged by counties, with the names
and addresses of persons who have suffered loss and are entitled to com-
pensation, the appraised losses, and the amount to be paid to each person.
The State auditor shall then draw warrants for these amounts upon the
State treasurer, to be charged to the hail insurance fund, and such war-
rants shall be mailed forthwith to the persons entitled thereto.

§ 2. The act in operation.

Hail Commissioner W. C. Galbreath in drawing up the first biennial
report dealing with the years 1911-1912 remarks :

« The fact that the State had entered the insurance field subjected
the law and its methods to criticism, and its low rate was made the target of
ridicule by those who were opposed to the measure. During the year igii
there were 1,011 policies written and % 26,109,144 collected in premiums.
When the expenses of conducting the affairs of this company, including
books, .stationery, salaries and fees for adjustment of losses, which amounted
to S 3,421,63, leaving a balance of S 1,129.33 for future contingencies,
were deducted, there was distributed among the policy holders the sum
of $ 21.188,03, or seventy cents on the dollar for the losses sustained «.

44 UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

The year 1912 showed a large increase of business over 1911 ; 2,205
poUcies were written; the total revenue received amounted to §64,840 and
the disbursements to § 63,164, leaving a balance of S 3, 175 in the State
treasury for future contingencies. The fees obtained were distributed as
follows :

Paid deferred losses of 1911 $358,40

Agents adjusting losses during 1912 2,447,62

Ivosses for 1912 57)936,69

Clerk hire 2,160,00

Postage 43,00

Printing 103,40

Advertising 9,95

1912 was an exceptionally hard year for hail insurance, and the losses
from this source were probably unprecedented in North Dakota. The State
Insurance department was therefore only able to pay fifty five cents on the
dollar for losses incurred but the adjustments were made on a very liberal
basis.

It was then that it became apparent that the rate of 20 cents per acre
insured was an inadequate premium, and it was urged that the charge should
be raised to 30 cents, which was done when the Act was amended in 1913.
An alternative to raising the premium suggested in the report for 1912 was
that the legislature should fix a minimum rate of five cents or less per acre,
and levy a general tax on all real estate in accordance therewith, thus
covering insurance for all, and making a rate so low and satisfactory^ that
hail insurance would not be a burden to any ; but, as we have seen, the
advocates of a higher premium rate won the day.

The second biennial report, issued in December 1914, sums up the four
years' work then accomplished as follows: the losses incurred in 1911 were
settled on the basis of seventy cents on the dollar ; in 1912 fifty-five cents
on the dollar ; in 1913 eighty-eight cents ; and in 1914 sixty-five cents
on the dollar.

These results must be considered as decidedly unfavourable, for if
appHed to a mutual hail insurance company they would mean that members
would be required to pa}^ in addition to the regular premium, extra assess-
ments respectively of 30 %, 45 %, 12 %, and 35 %, and by that time,
as the report points out, members would probably have had quite enough
of mutual insurance.

But in analysing the results of this venture into the realm of State hail
insurance certain facts and factors must be taken into account.

During the years 1911 and 1912 the rate charged by the State was
twenty cents per acre, or 2 ^ per cent on the dollar ; at the same time

STATE HAIL INSURANCE IN NORTH DAKOTA 45

the rates charged by the old stock companies ranged from 6 | o 'to 8 per
cent on the dollar. The State insured one hundred and sixty acres of grain
for thirty-two dollars and fixed the loss maximum at $ 1,280. The old
stock companies insured the same acreage for not less than sixty-five
dollars, \vith a loss maximum of $ 1,000. In other words, the State gave the
insured twenty-eight per cent greater value to his crop than did the private
companies, while the actual cost was very much less in the former than in
the latter case, based upon either total or partial loss. At the same time the
loss paying power of the vState, based upon the premium income, was insigni-
ficant from a comparative standpoint. State hail insurance reached high
tide in 1912, when the premium income amounted to $ 64,840 while the
income in this State of seven private companies averaged in excess of
$ 152,000 each.

Nor is that all. The stock companies will accept the hazard of only
a certain limited amount of insurance in each section or each township,
while the State takes the risk of the entire farm, even though it embraces
several contiguous sections. Finally, nearly all the private companies write
hail insurance in several States, and this wide diffusion of risk naturally
minimises the chance of loss.

Thus it wiU be seen that the State has laboured under the disadvantages
of a comparatively low rate, small income, and extreme chance of loss for
reasons above noted. On the side of expense of management the advantage
is decidedly in favour of State insurance ; but even this advantage is largely
theoretical on account of the .mall volume of business transacted.

§ 3. Balance sheets.

The following statements show the condition and affairs of the State
Hail Insurance department for the four years 1911 to 1914 inclusive.

46 UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

191 1. — Receipts.

Receipts by State Treasury during igii from

country treasurers $26,119,54

Amounts overpaid by county treasurers :

Divide county §10.00

Bottineau county 10

Morton county 4.80 14.90 26,104.64

Disbursements.

Paid for losses $21,188.03

Paid agents for adjusting losses 864.55

Clerk hire 1,580.00

Postage 237.88

Printing 384.75

Advertising 36.15

Office supplies 170-95

Hxpress 47.35

Total . . . $24,609.66

Refunds to Bottineau county 10

to Divide county 10.00 24,619.76

^

Balance on hand Jan. ist, 1912 . . . $1,49^.78

Amounts not paid. lyoss adjustments not ap-
proved 322.00

Adjusters' fees not approved 43 65

Refund due Morton county 4.80 370-45

Surplus or excess of assets over liabilities . . . $1,129.33

STATE IIAir. INSURANCK IN NORTH DAKOTA 47

Poi.rCY EXHIBIT.

Nuiiibfr of policies issued in irjii 1,011

Number of losses reported in 191 r 131

Number of losses allowed in 1911 130

Nmuber of j^oHcies effected 13T

Total ainoiuit of losses allowed for season of 1911 .... $30,780.63

]vx])ense ])aid for adjusting same 1,011.70

making it cost 3.28% to adjust the losses.

Approved adjustments were paid at 70 % of loss allowed for if)ii.

1912. — Income.

Cash in hands of State Treasurer December 2i.st, 1911 . . $1,499.78

Cash received as payment of ])olicies in 1912 64,840.37

Total amount received during the year $66,340.15

DiSBUR.SEMENTS.

Paid losses incurred during the year 191 1 . . $3,58.40

Paid agents for adjusting same 47-^5

Paid losses incurretl during the year 1912 . 57>93^^-^9

Paid agents for adjusting same 2,447.62

Clerk hire 2,160.00

Postage 43-00

Printing 103.40

►Advertising 9.95

Refund to Morton County 4.80

.Sl)ecial adjuster's expenses .53-25

Total amount of disbursements during the year 1912 63,164.26

Balance cash on hand Jan. ist, 1913 $3-175%

48

UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Policy exhibit.

Number of policies issued in 1912 2.505

Number of losses reported in 1912 433

Number of losses allowed during 1912 . . . 411

Number of policies effected 391

Total amount of losses allowed for season 1912 $105,339.54

Expenses paid for adjusting same 2,447.62

making it cost 2.32 % to adjust the losses.

Approved adjustments were paid at 55 % of loss allowed in 1912.

Income.

Cash in hands of State Treasurer Dec. 31st, 1912 .... $3,175.89

Cash received as payment of policies issued in 1913. . . . 27,214.37

Total amount received during the year . . . $30,390.26

Disbursements.

Paid losses incurred during 1912 ... . . . $1,559.42

Paid losses incurred during 1913 24.890.78

Paid agents for adjusting same 694.53

Clerk hire 1,927.50

Postage 53-86

Printing 377-00

Express 21.22

Total disbursements during 1913 . . . $29,524.31
Balance cash on hand Dec. ist, 1913 $865.95

Policy exhibit.

Number of policies issued in 1913 733

Number of losses reported in 1913 91

Number of losses allowed in 1913 89

Number of policies effected 88

Total amount of losses allowed for the season of 1913 . . $28,284.98

Expense paid for adjusting same 694.53

making it cost 2.45 % to adjust the losses.

Approved adjustments were paid at 88 % of loss allowed for 1913.

STATE HAII< INSURANCE IN NORTH PAKOTA 49

1914. — Income.

Balance, cash in hands of State Treasurer Dec. ist, 1913 . $865.95

Cash received as payment of poHcies issued in 1914. . . . 27,771.72

Total amount received during the year . , . $28,637.67

Disbursements.

Paid W. D. lyukins, official adjuster Williams County for

adjusting one loss for 1913 10.00

Paid losses incurred during 1914 . . . . . . 24,985.39

Paid agents for adjusting 1914 losses .... 871.71

Paid clerk hire 1,800.00

Paid postage 89.98

Paid printing 80.67

Paid miscellaneous supplies 10.25

Paid for publishing notices of condition of

Hail Department for 1913 14.09

Total disbursements during year 1914 . . ' $27,862.09

Balance cash on hand Dec. rst. 1914 775-58

POUCY EXHIBIT.

Number of policies issued in 1914 761

Number of losses reported in 1914 114

Number of losses allowed in 1914 113

Number of policies effected 114

Total amount of losses allowed for season of 1914 .... $38,439.07

Expense paid for adjusting same 871.71

making it cost 2.26 % to adjust the losses.

Approved adjustments were paid at 65 % of loss allowed for 1914.

BRITISH INDIA.

CATTI.E INSURANCE IN BURMA.

by A. E. English, I. G. S.
Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Burma.

After some six years' experience in the introduction of co-operative
credit into the various districts of Burma it became clear that one of the
chief causes of indebtedness was the loss of plough cattle by death from
disease or accident. In accordance with the obvious fact that insurance
providing for the replacement of cattle so lost, and for the evolution of a
spirit of corporate responsibility for the tending of cattle, was preferable
to the mere granting of credit to replace such dead beasts, efforts were
made to discover a simple and suitable system of insurance of plough
cattle suitable for Burma.

The matter was complicated because Burma has a variety of climates,
crops, crop seasons, cattle and systems of cultivation and methods of
cattle tending. Speaking broadly there is the southern wet zone where rice
is cultivated in the rains (June to November), where the rainfall varies
from 80 to 150 inches and where it is never cold ; then there is the northern
wet zone comprising five hilly districts where the rainfall averages 80 in-
ches and rice is the main crop, and where there is a distinct cold season;
and between these there is the central dry zone with a rainfall varying
from 15 to 40 inches, liable, where not irrigated, to serious droughts and
having for two or three months a very high temperature (100 to 115
degrees. F.). In this dry area there is a large variety of crops. On the
uplands are grown cotton, sessamum, ground-nut, jowar etc. in the rainy
months (June to November) ; sugar-cane, rice, onions and pulses are grown
throughout the year under irrigation; and pulses, potatoes, chillies, and
other miscellaneous crops are raised in alluvial land along the river in the
dry weather (November to April).

In the north and south wet zones the buffalo was till recently the prin-
cipal draught beast. In the Delta districts, however, the buffalo's suscepti-
biHty to rinderpest has brought about an ever extending use of bullocks,
and there is now a large annual export of bullocks bred in the dry zone to
IvOwer Burma for ploughing and carting purposes. In the northern wet

CATTI,E INSURANCE IN BURMA 5 1

zone, where soils are heavy and weeds strong and where cattle are also
used for timber extraction, the buffalo remains in favour, but the village
herds are still Uable to terrible epidemics of rinderpest.

The S3^stems of cattle tending differ widely in the wet and dr>' zones.
In the southern wet zone the grazing ground system is the rule. Each vil-
lage has an area, generally uncultivable, allotted to it for grazing purposes,
and in this area the village cattle have to pick up a precarious living. In
many cases these areas are in the rains seas of mud, covered with a trampled
growth of coarse muddy grasses. They provide the best possible means for
spreading infectious disease and the cattle that have to exist on them
naturally have an excellent chance of dying from disease, starvation, or
exposure. The mortality in such districts is very high and many cultivators
regard four years as the working life of an imported beast. It is probable
that a premium of 15 per cent would not cover the risk in this part of the
country. In the northern wet zone the area of " jungle " available for grazing
is as a rule much larger and there is a certain amount of segregation during
grazing. Violent epidemics are unusual except from the unusually infectious
disease of rinderpest. These jungles, however, contain a danger from which
the southern grazing ground is free and that is wild cattle — bison, deer and
pigs from which anthrax and other diseases are undoubtedly communicated
to tame cattle. If insurance be ever extended to the northern districts a
high rate of premium will be necessary. In the dry zone districts the custom
is that draught cattle, which are almost entirely btdlocks, are stall fed, while
cows and calves are grazed in herds in scrub jungle near the villages. The
stall fed draught cattle are carefully fed and housed and seldom suffer
» from epidemics. The breeding herds are tended with much less care and
suffer from scanty fare, bad housing and dirty pens. In a season of drought
the cows and calves die in large numbers. Disease also kills them off in
quantities. Except in a few very restricted areas cows are not used by the
Burmese for milking purposes and it is somewhat surprising that with the
treatment they get they produce such good draught stock.

In view of the above conditions it was obvious that the first experiments
in insurance must be restricted to draught cattle, and to such cattle only
in selected dr>' zone districts where the stall feeding and careful tending
of such animals was the rule. The Registrar of Co-operative Societies sug-
gested the adoption of a system whereby animals would be valued half-
yearly and insured for a half-year at a time, and it was decided to hmit
the experiment in the first instance to five adjacent districts, i. e. Mandalay,
Shwebo, Sagaing, Kyaukse and Meiktila, in all of which such statistics as
were available showed that violent epidemics of infectious disease among
draught cattle were unusual.

Co-operative cattle insurance was discussed at the Provincial Agri-
cultural and Co-operative Conference held at Mandalay in 191 1, after six
mutual co-operative cattle insurance societies had been formed, and it
was resolved that insurance was desirable and feasible and that the scheme
should be proceeded with. In the period between July 191 1 and June 1912
seventeen, and in the year 1912-1913 thirty-six societies were formed. It

52 BRITISH INDIA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

then became evident that in the early years, to render certain payment
of part at any rate of the indemnity, reinsurance was essential. It also
appeared that insurance would not become really popular unless deaths
from rinderpest were covered.

The whole subject was again discussed at the Agricultural and Co-
operative Conference held at Mandalay in August 1913 : and in a meeting
which over 300 chairmen of agricultural credit societes attended it was
then resolved that the premium rate should be raised from 3 ^/g per cent,
to 5 per cent, per annum, and that rinderpest deaths should be covered ;
that a central reinsurance society was essential ; and that to eliminate
the risk of fraud membership of cattle insurance societies should be re-
stricted to persons who are members of co-operative credit societies.

The sanction of the Secretary of State for India to the grant, by way
of an interest free loan, to the central reinsurance society of assistance to
enable it to meet indemnities in the early years, was received early in 1915.
The amount to be drawn in any one year is not to exceed Rs. 25,000 (i) and
repayments are to be made from the sixth year onwards from the central
society's reserve fund.

Cattle insurance was again discussed at the Agricultural and Co-oper-
ative Conference held at Mandalay in August 1915 ; and it was resolved
that the central reinsurance society should be formed, that in the
five districts to which operations were at present to be confined every credit
society should form an annexed cattle insurance society, and that for
purposes of supervision a cattle insurance society should be admitted into
the union to which the credit society, to which it was annexed, belonged.

The Upper Burma Central Co-operative Cattle Reinsurance Society,
Limited, was registered in August 1915. The membership consists of some
fifteen honorary members — persons interested in co-operative and agricul-
tural improvement — and of affiliated village cattle insurance societies. It
receives half the premia paid to societies by members and insures half the
risk undertaken by such societies. Indemnities due are paid by the manager
on receipt of a cattle death report giving full details. It is managed by a
general meeting, committee and a manager. For the present the registrar
is acting as honorary manager. To safeguard the interests of government,
a government representative is a member of the general meeting and has
five votes. It has a general fund, consisting of the current year's premium
income, and a reserve fund consisting of the net proceeds of past years.
The latter fund is banked with the National Bank of India and the general
fund is kept in the Upper Burma Central Co-operative Bank. Societies
submit to the manager of the central society half-yearly statements show-
ing the names of members and number, descriptions and value of cattle
insured.

The by-laws of the village mutual cattle insurance societies are based
on those used by French mutual societies. There are the usual exceptions
of deaths from war, theft etc., and societies do not pay indemnities where

(i) I rupee = IS Ad,

CATTI,E INSURANCE IN BURMA 53

the sanitary' regulations as to contagious disease have been broken. Mem-
bership is restricted. Valuations are made half-yearly by three experts
appointed yearly by the general meeting. Substitution is permitted if values
are equal. The premium rate is 5 per cent, per annum payable half-
yearly in March and September. Funds are deposited with the local credit
society at call. Deaths have to be vouched for by the experts and the
society" only pays two thirds of the value insured. The skin and flesh belong
to the society which sells them, if saleable. Hence the owner stands to get
two thirds of the value insured, whether his animal dies of a contagious
or non-contagious disease. Societies are managed by a general meeting
and a committee.

Pending the formation of the central reinsurance society, the form-
ation of village societies was restricted, and in the period July 1914 to
June 1915 only seven such societies were registered. In the year July 1915
to June 1916, 247 societies have been registered and a further considerable
increase is expected in the coming year. Of the 305 village societies in exist-
ence on 30 June 1916 about a hundred had not yet become afSHated to
the central society. The bulk of the new societies registered only started
business in March or April 1916, and results cannot therefore be appreciated
till October next, at the earliest.

Judging by the steady accumulations of funds by those societies which
have been working for several years, and in view of the fact that onty
two thirds of the value is paid in indemnity, there is ground for believing
that the 5 per cent, rate of premium is unncessarily high and somewhat
likely to hinder the progress of insurance. Burma has, however, except
in the northern wet zone, enjoyed a remarkable measure of immunity from
rinderpest in the last ten years. As it is yet too early to say that this
immunity is due to the improvement in veterinary control, and not rather
to good fortune and disease cycles, it is perhaps better to err on the safe
side in the matter of the premium rate.

Many of the villages in which cattle insurance societies are formed
are in tracts only partially served by the Post Office, and there is conse-
quently difficulty both in remitting premia to the central society and in
the pa3^ment of indemnities. Such difficulties of course check expansion
but they will decrease with time.

In three areas during the year ending 30 June 1916 epidemic disease
— anthrax — appeared and accounted for mortality above the average.

There is every indication that the adoption of co-operative cattle
insurance in these five districts where co-operative credit is already well
estabhshed will promote better protection of cattle against disease, better
relations with the Veterinary Department, and a decrease in mortality.

The statements given below show results to 30 June 191 6. It has
not been necessary to draw upon the government guarantee loan.

Cattle are at present often undervalued : they average about Rs.30
per head whereas a truer average would be Rs. 40. The proceeds of skin
and flesh have exceeded expectations.

The societies are audited, along with the agricultural credit societies

54

BRITISH INDIA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

to which they are annexed, by the staffs of society paid and government
auditors, supervision being done by the inspectors maintained by unions
of credit societies.

It is 3^et early to gauge results or to prophesy, but it may be said that
the principles of insurance appeal to the Burnian and that in the districts
where a commencement has been made the co-operative idea has taken
firm hold. Thus in the Kyaukse district there is one agricultural co-oper-
ative society (credit) for every 1050 acres of cultivated land, while, in ad-
dition to co-operative credit, considerable progress with co-operative pro-
duction and sale has been made in the districts of Mandalay, Sagaing and
Shwebo. If the high premium rate do not act as a deterrent, and if minor
difficulties connected with remittance can be eliminated, there is no reason
apparent why co-operative insurance of cattle should not become firmly
and widely established.

Operations of Cattle Insurances Societies in Burma,

On 30 June
1916

Amount
of risk

insured

on
30-6-16

Premia

collected

during

the

year

Numl)er
of Animals-.

Claims
paid

during
year

Cost of
manage-
ment
during
year

Funds
at end
of year

Amount

of risk

reinsured.

Amount
of premia

Societies

Mem-
bers

Insured

on
30-6-16

I,ost

during

year

for re-
insurance.

305

5,045

Rs
287,051

Rs

9,737

7,929

75

Rs
685

Rs
219

Rs

10,671

Rs
113,050

Rs

4,022

II.

Oferations of the Upper Burma Central Cattle Insurcmce Society.

No. of
affiliated

Proportion

of risk

affiliated

societies

reinsured

Amount

of risk

reinsured.

Premia
collected
during
year to
30-6-16

Number of animals

covered by affiliated

societies.

Claims
paid to
affiliated
societies.

Cost
of
manage-
ment.

Funds in hand at

end of year

30-6-1916

societies.

Insured.

I,ost.

General
Fund.

Reserve
Fund.

305

V2

Rs
113,050

Rs
4,022

6,209

37

Rs

247

Rs

148

Rs
2,113

1,513

Part III: Credit

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

AGRICUI^TURAlv CREDIT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.

OFFICIAIv SOURCES :

Die I,andwirtschaft in Bosnien und der Herzegovina {Agriculture in Bosnia and Herze-
govina) Vienna, 1899.
Verwaltungsberichte fur 1906- 1 911 {Government Reports for 1906-1911).

OTHER SOURCES :

V. Horowitz (E. R.) : Die Bezirkuncsunterstutzungsfonds in Bosnien und Herzegovina
{The District Loan Funds in Bosnia and Herzegovina) Vienna, 1892.

ScHMiD {Dr. F) Bosnien und Herzegovina unter der Verwaltung Oesterreich-Ungarns
{Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Rule of Austria- Hungary) lycipzig, 1914.

§ I. RURAI. CREDIT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
UNDER TURKISH DOMINATION.

In the time of Turkish domination social and economic conditions in
Bosnia and Herzegovina were Httle favourable to the development of cre-
dit in general and completely opposed to that of agricultural credit. In the
country the ruling s^'stem wa.s one of simple natural economy. Each farm
sought itself to produce whatever it needed or desired solely from its own
soil rendered fruitful by labour. Agricultural labourers made purchases
on the market only exceptionally, when they could not supply their needs
from the land they cultivated, as when they required colonial products,
agricultural implements, cotton stuffs, etc. Such purchases were so limited

56 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - CREDIT

that they accounted only for an unimportant circulation of money. Defec-
tive means of communicaliou and the presence of the institution of the Za-
droiiga contributed . much to the long preservation in Bosnia and Herzego-
vina of natural economy in all its simplicity, after it had elsewhere been
replaced by economic systems based on money.

We should add that in these two vSlav provinces the development of
agrictulural credit was impeded by the existence of jurisdictory relations
feudal in type, which even today have not entirely disappeared and which
mutually connect the feudatory agas and the kmeti agricultural labourers.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina property in land is indeed not free even today
but is subject to an almost feudal regime. It is burdened with the kmeti
cultivators' rights of usufruct, which are unlimited as to time and condi-
tions, so that if a holding be alienated the cultivator's usufruct persists
unmodified by the change of ownership. The mere indication of such a
state of affairs is enough to show that it has contributed and still contri-
butes to impede the development of land credit in this country.

Another hindrance to such development was the complete absence of
a cadaster and of registers of land, in other woids of a basis for mortgage
credit.

For that matter the peasant of Bosnia and Herzegovina felt no great
need for credit. If he wanted money he got it easily by selling the products
of his land to some small dealer in the neighbouring town, from whom
afterwards he bought what he required : otherwise he could not have ob-
tained that very limited quantity of the products of agriculture or industry^
necessary to him. Sometimes indeed he had to have recourse to a loan, but
it was always this same small dealer who became his banker.

Such loans had three different forms : a) loans in specie were received ;
h) manufactured products were bought for credit ; c) provisions were bought
for credit generally in spring or summer, before the harvest.

The peasant paid a grosch a month on the sums thus lent, that is to say
lo per cent. The law established that the rate of interest should not sur-
pass 12 percent, but this limitation was eluded by lumping the amount of the
interest and the capital. Very often also it was agreed that the debt should
be repaid not in specie but in kind, in other words in agricultural products
of which the quantity was fixed by the deed of loan, which therefore crea-
ted a contract truly contingent on risks.

In the case of a purchase of provisions or manufactured products for
credit, the interest attaching to the correspondent value in specie was con-
sidered not as being separate but as swelling the sum wliich the debtor had
to repay. The rate of this interest varied in the proportion in which the
purchase price of the goods bought for credit surpassed the usual cash
price by from 50 to 100 per cent.

AGRICLTLTURAI, CREDtT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGO\T:nA 57

The contract established whether interest should be paid in specie or
in kind. In the latter case it was equivalent, when the debt had been incur-
red by a purchase of provisions, to the difference between the quantity of
provisions received on loan , and the quantity paid back when the term of
the loan expired. Generally the latter surpassed the former quantity by
from 50 to 100 per cent.

The loans in specie might in certain respects be called agricultural loans
for the peasants were the only class of the population who could obtain them,
they sought them at least partl}^ for reasons inseparable from agriculture, and
in greater or less proportion the}' repaid them with the products of the soil.

The same cannot be said as to credit operations made with certain spe-
cial funds, such as the funds of churches and mosques, those of the Vakouf
properties and of the unions, those guaranteeing the property of wards, etc :
None of the institutions managing these funds granted loans to peasants
but only to traders and artisans.

When however the middle of the century had been passed the Turkish
govemmxcnt made a first attempt to encourage the development of agricul-
tural credit, and formed the institutions known as menafi- sandonks.
Founded in all the vilayets of Bosnia and Herzegovina they were specially
intended to utilize their funds in granting loans wliich should favour the
development of agriculture. Their funds were derived from a tax incum-
bent on all the peasants and equivalent to a tenth of the value of all the
products of the soil, exclusive of the usual tithe.

At first the menafi sandonks only granted loans in kind, and in this res-
pect they acted as real institutions of land credit. Later however they
substituted loans in specie for loans in kind. Little by little they lost
their special character as institutions for the encouragement of agriculture
and were transformed into credit institutions. They granted loans gener-
ally to government servants or to traders and hardly ever to peasants.
Thus the intention of the law was defeated by facts. As regards the history
of these special credit institutions, the first menafi sandouk was formed in
1863 by Mitad Pacha, vali of the vila3'et of the Danube. In 1865 a law was
promulgated which decreed that they shotdd be founded in all the vila-
yets of the Turkish empire.

§ 2 Development of agricuetural credit in bosnia
and herzegovina after the austrian and hungarian occupation.

The occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria and Hungary
contributed largely to the improvement in these two provinces of the con-
ditions of agricultural credit, to which it gave a new impulse.

In the first place the population, both floating and fi.Kcd, was ver}' per-
ceptibly increased, by the added mihtary element which was very numerous
in the early days of the occupation, and by the government servants who
also were present in sufficiently important numbers. Especially the latter

58 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - CREDIT

formed among the citizens of the country a special class, who in the e>dsting
conditions were obliged to buy all the}' needed in the market with their mon-
ey. The immediate consequence of this rapid and notable increase in
the population was a corresponding increase in the price of all the goods in
the market.

Added to this first cause, which had an immediate effect on the econo-
my of the country , was a second — the construction of new lines of com-
munication. These had a propitious influence on the development of trade
which they rendered more active, and not only the trade within every inhab-
ited district in the country but also foreign trade. Thanks to these ele-
ments of progress the general activity of the market was more and more in-
tensified, the quantity of products on the market increased, and an
economy based on cash gradually replaced natural economy in the country.
Thus the indispensable and fundamental basis for credit was found. The
institution of the land registers and of the cadaster, begun in the first per-
iod of occupation and actively continued, finally completed the work un-
dertaken for economic progres.-?, in that it gave the necessary basis to mort-
gage credit.

Special institutions of agricultural credit were founded, and they large-
ly contributed to the improvement of the country's general economy.
We wiU proceed to speak of them

§ 3. The institutions of rural credit.

A. Mortgage Credit.

The institution of land credit in Bosnia and Herzeogvina is due to the
initiative of the Austrian and Hungarian government.

In 1883 a first contract between the government and the Wiener Union-
bank was drawn up for this purpose.

By its terms this bank was bound to instal at Sarajevo a branch which
should begin to afford land credit in the country.

The government for its part engaged : i) to furnish this bank with all
information relative to the solvency of debtors; 2) to authorize the post
offices of the country' to receive the annual payments owed by debtors on
behalf of the Wiener Unionbank.

But the Wiener Unionbank afforded land credit only for three years.
In 1886 it ceased to grant mortgage loans, thus obliging the government to
enter into a new contract with the fund for the retirement of State employees.

According to the rule of 1887 this fund makes loans of two kinds, as
follows :

a) Ordinary mortgage loans, that is loans of sums the use of which
is not controlled. Loans of this kind ma}' be made only when the mortgaged
land is entered in the land registers.

b) Special mortgage loans granted to the kmeii (cultivators) in order
that they may free the lands they till from feudal burdens due to the aga

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 59

(owners) or in order that they may make some improvement on such lands.
These loans are granted even without the guarantee of the special registra-
tion by the ^wc?^z of the lands they till in the land registers. The fund how-
ever controls the debtor's use of the money be borrows.

The loans are always for long terms (ten years) and the. rate of interest
does not surpass 6 per cent. The fund may not grant loans of which the
value is more than laalf the estimated value of the mortgaged lands.

In 1889 however the society managing this fund ceased to act as an
institution of mortgage credit. All its credit was thereupon transferred to
another and newly formed institution which carried on credit operations
under the name of Mortgage Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The contract between this bank and the government has the following
terms :

a) The mortgage bank is authorized to issue mortgage bonds for
a total value equal to tv/enty times the reserve fund which was at first
200,000 crowns (i).

b) The .State engages to provide the mortgage bank with the capital
necessary for effecting in the interests of the kmeii the operations necessary
to freeing the lands they till from all feudal burdens owed to the aga.

c) The government offices of taxes are bound to furnish the bank
with all necessary information as to the solvency of debtors, from, whom also
they are obliged to recover the annual payments due to the bank.

d) The bank grants mortgage loans for long terms — ten to twenty
years — charging interest at the rate of 6 per cent.

The mortgage titles issued by the bank bring in 5 per cent.

In 1895 the mortgage bank of which we have spoken was succeeded
b}'- another institution having the same object and caMed Landesbanh fiirBo-
snien und die Herzegoivina.

The formation of this new institution and the supersession of the earlier
one were due to the government's desire to augment circulating capital.
With this aim the following measures were undertaken :

i) The new bank was founded with a share capital of 10,000,000
crowns.

2) It was authorized to issue mortgage bonds up to a value thirty
times that of its share capital.

3) It enjo3'S all the privileges previously granted to the mortgage
bank.

vSide by side with the credit institutions we have named, which emanat-
ed from the government directly and therefore enjoyed special privileges
and had a more or less official character — since they undertook credit tran-
sactions under the State's direct superintendence — , others were formed by
the initiative of private person.5. Their activity was much limited, yet it was
nevertheless to some extent that of institutions of land credit. Among
them were the various local banks, the Austrian and Hungarian banks,

(i) I crown of gold = 10 — rf at par.
12

6o

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - CREDIT

certain special institutions disposing of their own funds, and private credi
tors.

The statistical data regarding land credit in Bosnia and Herzegovina
are few and incomplete. From the official reports published before 1907 we
learn onlj^ the total amount of the country's mortgage debt, no distinction
being made among institutions and persons having such credit. It is
only after 1907 that these statistics give us data relative to the different
classes of mortga.<?,ers. These data show that that the total sum of the corn-
try's mortgage debts was 141,832, 244 crowns in 1909.

The follovving table shows the proportion in which the different mortga-
gees had part in operations of land credit in 1907-1908 and 1909.

Number of New Grants
of Credit

Amount of New Credit Granted

Creditors

1907

I 90S 1909

1907

1908 1909

Ivandesbank

Other local credit institu-
tions

Austrian and Hungarian
credit institutions . . .

I<ocal public funds:

a) Vakouf fimds. . . .

b) Church » ....

c) Departmental funds .

d) Various »

Public Austrian and Hun-
garian funds

Wards' funds

Treasurj' fund

Private creditors ....

1,787
689
221

461

134

412

61

30

173

148

6,189

2,106

1,191

162

408
107
390

8

234
219

6,551

1,551

1,443

220

293

143

492

48

—
201

388
7,554

6,191,363
2,094,318

495,923

80^607

53-554

84,740

423,676

133.099

115,255

192,019

4,216,127

7,796,140 6,988,956-

2,682,752 3.383,092

456,991 1,248,507

69,719 49,275

53.235 100,414

169,897 246,695

6,373^ 40,082

213,273 168,174

726,7281 159,316

5,809,185 4.509,352

Total . . .

10,305

",376

.1

12,333

14,080,681

17,984,293 16,983,863,

The following Austrian and Hungarian institutions conduct credit
operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina :
i) The Credit Bank of I.aibach,

2) The Serbian Bank of Budapest,

3) The Savings Bank of LuboHza,

4) The Serbian Bank of Zagreb.

5) The vSavings Bank of Zagreb.

These are how^ever only the chief among them.

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IX BOSNIA AXD HERZEGOVINA 6l

In igocS a law as to the issue of mortgage titles was promulgated. There
are however no statistical data relative to them except for the last five
years, and we can therefore make no deductions as to the law's effects.

Ailiong the different kinds of mortgage loans those having reference
to the redemption of lands in the interest of the kmeti have a very special
importance to the problem of agrii_ulture in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Until 1910 mortgage credit was granted to kmeti b}' precisely those semi-
official institutions which we have already mentioned, especially by the
Wiener Unionbank until 1886, by the Mortgage Bank from 1886 to 1905 and
by the Landesbank from 1895 to 191 o.

The terms offered by these various institutions of credit for the pur-
chase of land and its affranchisement from feudal burdens do not differ
from those usual in the case of mortgage credit. Institutions conducting
operations of the sort gave credit to borrowers within the limits of half the
value of the properties mortgaged for purposes of purchase. The borrower
was forced, in order to procure the other half of the sum he needed for the
redemption of the land he tilled, to have recourse to capitalist usurers or
to sell his live stock.

As regards the term of operations of this sort it ma}' be said generally
to have been long — from fifteen to twenty years. The rate of interest
was 6 per cent, and could be raised to 8 per cent, only in the case of delay.
If the sums necessary for the redemption of a holding were pro\'ided by;
the Treasury the rate of interest varied from 3 to 6 per cent.

In the period between 1879 and 1910 the official institutions we have
named lent the total value of 23,129,975 crowns for the redemption of lands.

The official report for 1906 on the administration of Kalaj, governor
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the conclusions to be drawn from it deserve
special notice.

Kalaj 's policy is criticized. The first governor of the two provinces
as occupied b}- Austria and Hungary is accused of having neglected the
agrarian question and wishes are expressed that his successor may give
it all its rightful importance.

Count Burian, who was Kalaj 's inmiediate successor, showed that he
had well understood this importance. His whole poHcy aimed at elimi-
nating the difficulties in the way of solving the agrarian question in Bosnia
and Herzegovina.

A first attempt to solve that part of this difficult problem which relat-
ed to the redemption of lands in the interest of the kmeti was made by
Burian, who entered into negotiations with the Commercial Bank of Buda-
pest. But this attempt did not succeed, and the government undertook
the direct granting of mortgage credit for the purchase of the lands.

With this object and on the basis of the provisions of the law of 1911
a new administrative department was attached to the government of Bosnia

62 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - CREDIT

and Herzegov-ina. It was called the department for the purchase of lands
and was given competence in all matters touching on this question, in par-
ticular competence to afford mortgage credit in order to solve the problem
of the kmeti.

The initial capital of 500,000 crowns was provided by the State, on con-
dition that capital should in the future be procured by the issue of mort-
gage titles, guaranteed by the State, and bearing interest at the rate
of 4 14 per cent.

The administrative department we have mentioned, which exists
for the redemption of lands, grants loans up to the total value of the mort-
gaged land. The loans are for long terms, from thirty to fifty years, and
bear interest at the rate of 4 14 P^^ cent. The sum which is due to the aga
as a consequence of the redemption, because he has renounced his rights
in the land, is paid to him in specie unless he himself prefer whole or par-
tial payment in mortgage titles.

The department for the redemption of lands also provides, in the form
of loans, the sums necessary to the conversion of debts incurred before a
given holding is redeemed.

This institution granted between the beginning of 1912 and the end
of October 1913 11,258 loans having the total value of 20,250,000 crowns,
which sum was distributed as follows : two thirds to the redemption of lands
burdened when the loan was incurred with feudal servitudes, and one third
to the conversion of debts previously contracted for the purpose of redemp-
tion.

B. Personal Agricultural Credit.

The institution of personal agricultural credit is due, hke that of mort-
gage credit, to government initiative and government measures. Credit
of this kind is directly afforded by the Bezirksiinterstutzungsfonds, that is
to say the departmental credit banks. The first of them was founded in
the department of Gazco in 1886. They have since been multiplied through-
out the country' to such an extent that today they number no less than
fifty, namely one for each department. They are truly State credit insti-
tutions, and are managed by the administrative authorities of the depart-
ments, helped in each department by a sort of assembly to wdaich peasants
belong. Until 1905 these assemblies had only a consultative capacity
and therefore did no more than suppl}" the departmental administrative
authority with useful information as to the solvency and relial)ility of those
applying for personal loans and the purpose for which such loans were in-
tended. The right to resolve as to the acceptance or the rejection of an appli-
cation for a loan was exclusively reserved to the departmental administra-
tive authority. Since 1905 however the power to vote on resolutions of
this kind has been extended to the peasants' assembly, for a reason which
must be explained. In this year the law established that all the taxpayers
of a department were liable for the debts to the Landesbank which the de -
partmental bank might incur. The grant of a v^ote to the peasants con-

AGRICULTUKAl. CREDIT IX BOSNIA AXD HERZI<XtO\IXA 63

stituting the assembly of this fund should be looked upon as a direct conse-
quence of the personal liability thus imposed by the law on all the peasants
of the assembh'.

As regards their own capital the departmental banks have much in
common with the other existing institutions of the same kind, of which
we have already spoken and which are called Menafi Sandouks.

The same course was taken in the case of the departmental banks as
in that of the Menafi Sandouks. The system was adopted of causing all
the peasant taxpayers in a department in which there was a bank to take
part in contributing to its capital. They were obliged to pay a tenth of
the value of the lands they tilled in addition to the ordinary tithe.

The State also takes part in the endowment of the departmental banks,
furnishing each of them with a capital of from 10,000 to 20,000 crowns.
To augment tliis endowment the capital of the abolished Tiienafi san-
douk in each department has been added to it, but this contribution is of
little importance.

The capital which each departmental bank owns is of three kinds :
i) capital in shares, 2) reserve fund, 3) fund destined for objects of social
utility.

The bj'-laws of each bank fix the amount of its capital in shares and its
reserve fund. The contributions of the peasants are first accanuilated
to form the capital in shares. The net profits of each year are on the other
hand paid into the reserve. When the sums previously fixed, as has been
said, as the respective amounts of the capital in shares and the reserve fund
have been accumulated, two thirds of the net profits go to augment the
capital in shares and the other third is paid into the fund destined for ob-
jects of social utilitj'.

Until 1886 the departmental banks disposed only of their own capital
formed in the manner described. Since that date they have received, as
has already been said, the power to borrow from the Landesbank an amount
no greater than the capital with which a borrowing bank is endowed. Sub-
sequently, that is after 1905, this maximum limit was raised to include a
sum twenty times the amount of the capital of the bank desiring to borrow.
This power to borrow is however subject to the condition that liability for
the debt incurred be assumed collectively by all the taxpayers of the
department in question. This explains still further what we have already
said as to the reason for granting a deliberative vote to the peasants belong-
ing to the assembly of a departmental bank. On loans o'f the kind in ques-
tion the departmental banks pa}' interest to the I^andesbank at a rate i per
cent, in excess of that officially exacted by the Austrian and Hungarian
Bank.

The law of 1909, which gave to the departmental banks the right to
receive savings deposits and employ them for the objects for which these
banks were formed, gave an impulse of increasing force to their develop-
ment. According to the general by-laws which regulate their activity the
departmental banks grant personal loans which may be divided into two
classes :

64 Al'STKlA AXl) HUXC.ARV - CRl'.DIT

The first class (group A) comprises loans for maintenance, that is loans
made to peasants in bad years to enable them to live until the following
harvest. These may not surpass 200 crowns or be for a longer term than
one year, and the reserve fund serves to provide them. The interest charg-
ed on them was at the rate of 4 per cent, imtil 1910 when it was raised to
5 per cent.

No guarantee is needed for personal loans o^ less than forty crowns.
Above this sum the banks require the signature of a surety.

The second class (group B) comprises productive loans, such as may be
granted to peasants for the purchase of live stock, agricultural implements.
etc. Until 1905 the maximum limit of the sums which the departmental
banks might lend to an isolated individual were not fixed b}^ a bank's b}'-
laws but by a government decree, published for this purpose every year.
However in the case of a really exceptional need it was customary for the
government to give a special authority to the banks.

The law of 1905 fixed the limits of personal credit. It was established
that ordinarily it should not surpass 600 crowns and that a special autho-
rity from the government was needed for larger sums. Loans of this kind
were for short terms — one 3^ear — and the interest attaching to them was
at the rate of 6 per cent.

Departmental banks having a reserve fund which has reached the sum
anticipated by the by-laws, and having formed a fund for objects of social
utility in the manner described, are authorized to grant out of the latter
fund all loans which tend to the realization of these objects. The}^ ma}'
also make grants to religious enterprises.

Until 1908 loans were granted in specie but subsequently in kind.
The departmental banks are also in the habit of buj-ing agricultural imple-
ments, seeds and goods of various kinds, in order to sell them to the peas-
ants for credit.

The official statistics for the years from 1905 to 1910 give us the follow-
ing table relative to the working of the departmental banks :

1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910

Credit granted. 3,162,843 3,079,242 4,93q,463 6,705,858 6,411,433 5,885,450

Debts repaid. . . 2,916,838 2,772,205 2,987,990 4,077,831 5,452,778 5,402,132

Debts not repaid. 1,175,645 1,464,221 3.325,479 5,9.35,985 6,840,457 7,323,774

Capital in shares. 3^,432,086 3,539,329 3,713,668 3,851,175 3,881,178 4,069,707

Credit granted ' 3,707 1,373 — 13,977 2,196 120

Debts repaid. . . 13,468 9,827 5,724 4,439 3,387 3,683

Debts not repaid. 43,475 34,995 29,290 38,822 38,475 34, 912

Reserve fund. . . 251,156 244,472 253,848 258,575 259,146 261,920
Fund for objects

of social utility. — — 41,200 142,315 202,012

In Bosnia and Herzegovina social and economic relations did not fa-
vour the development of rural co-operative societies in the time of the Aus-
trian occupation. The people of the two provinces are naturally conserva-
tive and oppo.sed to any innovation. They are moreover too poor to be

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

able to accumulate the savings necessary to the formation of popular banks
and the constitution of bases for the operations of these. The man who
was first called upon to govern Bosnia and Herzegovina had also a conser-
vative spirit. Kalaj's economic policy was alwa3's inspired by the idea
that all innovations were to be avoided because they might run counter
to the ancient customs of this primitive people and provoke discontent
and disorder. We must add that religious hatred had a certain influence
in placing obstacles in the way of the spirit of association in a country in
which the adherents of one faith always felt themselves too different from
those of another to be able to unite with them for any object whatsoever.
The departmental banks eventually contributed to no negligible extent to
bringing home to the peasants of Bosnia and Herzegovina the need for co-op-
erative credit societies. The first co-operative society of this kind was
founded in 1909, after which year about a hundred of them were formed,
most of them RafEeisen in type although at first it was the Schulze-Delitsch
type which predominated and which the government favoured. Of late
3'ears however the Schulze-Dehtsch has gradually given place to the Raiffei-
sen model, to which four fifths of the co-operative societies in Bosnia and
Herzegovina now conform, one fifth being of the Schulze-Delitsch type.

There are no statistics relative to the activity of these co-operative
societies, but their operations in credit are known to be unimportant. Sta-
tistics as to the personal credit afforded by credit institutions or private
individuals are also lacking. In general credit institutions do not willingly
make loans to peasants who are not allowed to give guarantees in the shape
of bills. On the other hand num.erous private persons, most of them usur-
ers , are in the habit of exploiting this state of aft'airs by granting loans
to peasants on onerous terms. These loans are said to be in the aggregate
numerous and important in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The continual
increase of the peasants' total debt to private individuals was largely due
until 1910 to the defective solution of the problem of the kmeti. We have
already said that the existing institutions of credit in Bosnia and Herze-
govina do not lend to the kmeti more than half the value of the land these
propose to redeem. The kmeti were therefore obliged to have recourse
to the credit afforded by usurers in order to effect redemption. There-
fore the redemption of lands, which was intended by the law to improve
the condition of the cultivators of Bosnia and Herzegovina, served on the
contrary, for the reasons given, to aggravate the economic situation of man}^
-of them.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

ERYTHREA.

I.AND TENURE AND COIvONIZATION.

OFFICIAI, SOURCES :

Mori (Professor A ) Manuale di legislazioiie della colonia Eritrea (Manual of Legislation of the
Colony of Erythrea) Handbooks on Colonial Questions published by the care of the Minis-
ter of the Colonies Vols I to VII. Indici general! (General Indices). Rome, Tipogtafia
dell'Unione Editrice, 1914 and 1915

Camera dei Deputati. Atti parlamentari. Relazioke sulla colonia eritrea delR. Coni-
missario civile straordinario On. Ferdinand© Martini (anni 1900 e 1901. Presentata dalMi-
nistro degli Affari Esteri nella sedutadel 13 dicembre 1902, No. XVI). (Docunienti). {Cham-
ber of Deputies. Parliamentary Acts. Report an the Colony of Erythrea by the Extraordinary
Civil Royal Commissioner Ferdinando Martini, deputy. Years 1900 and 1901. Presented by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs during the sessionn of 12 December 1902, No XVI). Rome, Tipo-
grafia della Camera dei Deputati, 1913.

Camera dei Deputati. Atti parlamentari. Relazione sulla colonia Eritrea del R Coni-
missario civile Deputato Ferdin?ndo Martini per gli esercizi 1902-1907, presentata dal
Ministro delle Colonic nella seduta del 14 giugrio 1913 (Do. for years 1902-1907, presented
by the Minister of the Colonies during the session of 14 June 1913). i vol. + 3 vols, of annexed
documents. Rome, Tipogiafia della Camera dei Deputati, 1913.

Ministero di Agricoltura industria e commercio. Direzione generale statistica e del l,a-
voro. Annuario slatisticoilaliano(il7;)ns/yj' 0/ Agrirultury, Indus.ryand Ccmmcrre. Geneial
Management of Statistics and Work. Italian Yearbookof Statistic-) 2nd series, Vol. IV., Yetir
1914. Rome. Tipo;.'rafia nazionale C. Btrtcro.

Gazzetta ufficiale del Regno d'1tali.\ (Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Italy).

Bollettino ufficl\le della Colonia Eritrea e supplemenio (Official Bulletin of Erythrea
Colony and Supplement).^

Ministero delle Colonie. Ufficio economico. Bollettino di informazione (Ministry of the
Colonies. Economic Bureau. Bulletin of Inforniation). Rome, Tipografia nazionale G. Ber-
tero.

CoNTi Rossini (Carlo) : Principi di diritto consuetudinario dell'Eritrea (Principles of the custom-
mary law of Erythrea). Handbooks on Colonial Questions published by the care of the Mi-
nister of the Colonics. Rome, T-'pografia dell'Unione Editrice, 1916.

68 KRVTIIRIvA - AGKICl'LTURAL l-XOXOMY IX (VKXERAL

MiNiSTERO DEGLi Affari Bsteri. I^\ccolta degli atti dell'autoritA pubblica atiteriori
alia proniulgazione dcUa legge 24 niaggio 1903, No. 205, in vigore nella colonia Eritrta,
approvata con R. Decreto, 30 novembre 1909, No. 845. {Mintstiy of Foreign Affairs. Collec-
tion of Acts of the Public Authority prior to the Promxiigation of the Law of 24 .1/ay 1903,
No. 205 in force in the colony of Eiythrea and approi'cd by roya} decree of 30 November 1909,
No. 845). Gazzelta ufficiale del Regno (O^cja/ Gazette of the Kingdom) 31 December 1909,
No. 305, and 24 February 1910, No. 45. — Bolletino ufficiale delle Colonia Eritrea (Offi-
cial Bulletin of the Colony of Erj'lhrea) 30 December 1909, No, 52, two editions : ist edi-
tion on papier de luxe quarto ; 2nd edition, quarto. Rome Tipografia della Camera dei De-
putati 1909.

OTHER SOURCES :

I.STITUTO COLONL\LE. ROiVL\. ATTI DEL SECONDO CONGRESSO DEGLI lTALL\Ni .\LL'ESTER0 (Colo-
nial Institute, Rome. Acts of the Second Congress of Italians Abroad) 11-20 June 191 1 - 4 vols
(Vol. I. rst, 2nd and 3rd parts and Vol. II) Rome, Tipografia editrice nazionale, 191 1
and 1912.

Atti del congresso colonl\le italiano in Asmara [Acts of the Italian Colonial Congress at
Asmara). September-October 1905. Published by the care of Carlo B-ossetti, general
Secretary of the congress, Vols. I and II. Rome, Tipografia dell'Unione Cooperativa Edi-
trice, 1906,

A. Omodeo, V. Peglion, C. Valexti : Ea Colonia Eritrea. Condizioni e problemi {The Colony

of Erythrea. Conditions and Problems). Publication of the " Societa Italiana per il Congresso
delle Scienze " {Italian Society for ihe Congress of the Sciences). Part I. Rome, Tipogratia
nazionale. G. Bertero and Co. 1911.

B. Melli : E'Eritrea dalle sue origini a tutto I'anno 1901. Appunti cronistorici. (Erythrea from

its origins to the end of 1901. Chronological notes). Hoepli Collection of Handbooks. Milan,
V. Hoepli, 1902.

BiBLioTECV geogr.\fica drll'Istututo DE Agostini. No. I. E'Eritrea economioa. Prima sc-
rie di conferenzc tenute in Fircnze sotto gli auspici della Societa di studi geografici e co-
loniali {Geographical Library of the Geographical Institute de Agostini. No. i. Economic
Erythrea. First series of lectures held at Florence under the auspices of the Society of Geo-
graphical and Colonial Study) Novara-Rome, Istituto geografico De Agostini, 1913.

A. Mulezzani : Geografia delle Colonia Eritrea {Geography of the Colony of Erythrea). Florence,
Bemporad and son.

RosSETTi (Carlo) : Carte dimostrative di colonic e paesi coloniali,No. 3. Colonia Eritrea {Explan-
atory Maps of Colonies and Colonial Countries) Rome, from the author, 49 Via Cer-
naia, 1907.

T.\NCREDI (Magg. A. M.) : Nolizie e studi sulla colonia Eritrea {Nctices and Studies on the Colony
Of Erythrea/, under the auspics of the Ministry of the Colonies, Rome, Casa editrice ita-
liana, 1913.

CuFiNO (Euigi) : Nel Mar Rosso (On the Red Sea) Repoit of a mission sent by the " Societa
Africana d'ltalia", April-July 1913, Naples, Societa Africana d'ltalia, 1914.

ASCOLI (Alfredo) : E'ordinamento fondiario per la Colonia Eritrea {The Land Organization for
ihe Colony of Erythrea) Extract from the " Rivista di diritto civile " {Review of Civil Law)
1910, Nos. 2 and 3, Milan, Societa ediiitrice libraria, 1910.

Baldacci (M. a.) : L,a colonic de I'Erythree {The Colony of Erythrea) . Extract from the " Bulletin
de la colonisation comparee " {Bulletin of Comparative Colonization). 1910, Brussels,
Goemaere, 19 10.

Fr.\nchetti (Barone Eeopoldo) : N^oles et documents sur la colonisation en Erythree. Extrait
de la bil.^liothdque politique inteniationale (Notes and documents on colonisation in Erythrea.

LAXD TEXURK AND COLOXIZATIOX 69

Extract from the International Political Library), l^■2 regime foncier aux colonies {Land
tenure m the Colonies). Brussells, Merltns.

Crossi (Prof. Vincenzo) : So e come si polrebbe tentare la colonizzazione della Eritrea {H7;,.//!i'r
and how the colonizazion of Erythrea can be attemf>ted). Speech, at the Second Italian Con-
gress of Geography at Rome, September 1895. Rome, Bertero and Co. 1895.

P.\or.i (Renato) : II problema della coltura nella Colonia Eritrea {The Problem of Agriculture
in the Colony of Erythrea). Biblioteca distu li coloniali dell'Istituto coloniale italiano (I^i-
brary of Colonial Studies of the Italian Colonial Institute). Rome, cooperativa tipogratica
Manuzio, 1910.

SCHWEINFURTH (Prof. Gr. G.; ; II prcsente e I'avenire della colonia Eritrea {The Pusent and the
Future of the Colony of £ry//jn'a). Translated by A. M. Milano. Stahilimento tipografico Bel-
lini, 1894.

I^ERJVi.\si {Cap. Carlo) ; I<a colonizzazione dell'Eritrea {The Colonization of Erythrea). Rivista
Art. e Gen. 1899, pp. 449-548. Rome, Voghera, 1899.

Z.\NNONi (Ilario) : Relazione del viaggio della Commissione agricola incaricata di uno studio
dell'i colonizzazione nell'Eritrea dalle societa cooperative dei lavoratori della terra diMoli-
nella e di Ravenna {Report of the Journey of the Agricultural Commission charged to study Co-
lonization in Erythrea by the .Agricultural Labourers' Co-operative Society of Molinella and Ra
vcwna). Bollettino deU'eraigiazione (Bulletin of Emigration) loio, pp. 1-68, Rome, Ber-
teio 1906.

B.VRTOLOMMEi-GiOLi (Di. Gino) : lya colonizzazione agricola nell'Eritrea {.Agricultural Colo-
nization in Erythrea). M.em.oTiai\ read to the R. Academia dei Georgofili at their ordinary
meeting on 4 Januarj^ and i February 1903. Florence, Seeber, 1903.

Idem: Agricoltura e colonizzazione nell'Eritrea (Agriculture and Colonization in Er3dhr(.a)
Study. Bolletino deU'Emigrazioue, 1906, No. 16, pp. 69-296. Rome, Bertero, 1906.

I,.\ RrviST.\ Coloniale, Rome.

X'Agricoltur.\ Colonl\le, Florence.

I. AdMIXISTRATR E ORGANIZATIOX of the colony of ERYTHREA.

A). General Remarks.

The name of Colony of Krythrea was given, b}^ a royal decree of i Jan-
nary 1890, No 6592, to the Itah'an po.ssessions on the we.stern coast of the
Red »Sea. The poHtical bonndaries of Erythrea, as determined by the
treaties in force, are as follows: on the east — the sea from Ras Caser
(1S02' northern latitude) to Ras Dnnierra (12030' northern latitude) on the
straits of Bab-el-Mandeb ; on the north, north-west and west — that is
to say towards Egyptian Sudan — the boundaries established by the
Italo-British protocol of 15 April 1891, the ensuing agreements of 7 Dec-
ember 1898 and I June 1899, and the Ttalo-Britannico-Ivthiopian con-
vention of 15 May 1902 ; on the south, towards Ethiopia, a line starting
on the west at the confluence of the Khar-um-hager and the Setit, following
this river until it is joined by the Maiteb, and following the latter river
— so that Mount Ala Tacura and the whole tribe of the Cimama are
included in Er}i;hrea — to tlie ]\Iarceb where it joins the Belesa and then
to its junction with the Muna.

70 ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

On the side of the French possessions of Obotz the boundary was de-
termined by the Franco-ItaHan protocols of 24 January 1900 and 10
July 1901. It starts at the extreme point of Ras Dumeira, follows the divid-
ing line of the waters of the promontory bearing that name for one and a
half kilometres (i), then goes straight to the point on the Ulima called Bisi-
divo, from which point it is merged in the Ulina and so reaches the place
called Daddato.

According to the last " Annuario statistico itaHano " Erythrea has an
area of 119,000 square kilometres and a population of 300,000 (2). Accord-
ing to the results of the census of 1905 the population of Er3'threa was then
274,944, to whom must be added a floating population of 30, 000, emanat-
ing from beyond the frontiers and immigrating for purposes of work, the
European population and the population assimilated to it. The total
population of the country may therefore be placed at 300,000 (3).

B.) Administrative Organization.

The organization of Erythrea is determined by the law of 24 May 1903,
NO 205. In virtue of the organic administrative organization approved
by the royal decree of 22 vSeptember 1905, N^. 507 (4), the colony is ruled
by a civil governor, nominated by royal decree on the proposal of the Minis-
ter of the Colonies advised by the Council of Ministers, this arrangement
having been in force since the creation of the Ministrj'^ of the Colonies
(Ro3^al Decree of 20 November 1912, N^ 1205).

The governor depends immediate^ and exclusively on the Minister
of the Colonies. He directs the colony's policy, governs its people and
administers its finance. He directs and is responsible for the colony's
civil and military administration, and in the capacity of represen-
tative in the colonj^ of the central government he has all the powers

(i) I kilometre = 1093.633 j'arrls.

(2) The different authorities do not agree on these points, as is easy to imagine since coun-
tries imperfectly investigated are in question. RosSETTi ascribes to Erythrea in his Carta dimo-
strativa della Colonia Eritrea (N" 3) Rome 1907, an area of 30,000 square kilometres and a popu-
lation of 275,000. A little earlier Mulazzaniin his Geogiafia della colonia Eritrea (Florence, Bem-
porad) gives it 1 30,000 square kilometres and 330,oooinhabitants. BAETOLOMMEi-GiOLiinL'En-
trea Economica (Istituto Geogratico de Agostini.Novara 1913) givesit 118,609 square kilometres
a"<l 335,000 inhabitants. Melli in L'Eritrea dellc sue origini a tutto il 1901 (Milan. Hoepli) gives
it 247000 square kilometres and 327,000 inhabitants, basing his statements on the census
of 1899, etc.

(3) Cf . A. M. T.\xcREDi : Notizie e studi sulla colonia Eiitrea (Roma, Casa Editiice Italiana
1913). See also in this connection Marmelli and Dainelli, A f lante d' Africa by Ghisleri. The
results of the Censimento della polazione indigena della colonia Eritrea Anno 1905 are reported
in the Allegati alia Relazione sulla colonia Eritrea del R. Cotnrnissario civile F. Martini per gli
cscrcizi 1902-1907 (Rome 1913) Allcgalo No. 11, pp. 17-95. The results of the Censimento delle
popolazioni eutopee ed assimilata della colonia are in the same vohnne - Allegati nos. 12 and 13,
pp. 103-133.

(4) See Bolhitino Vfficialc della Colonia Eritica, 21 October 1905, N» .12.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 71

which the king's ministers can delegate. The seat of the colon\''s govern-
ment is at Asmara. The governor acts through a government office,
divided into directing departments the number and competence of which he
establishes in accordance with needs. An Office of Accounts and a secreta-
riat also depend on him ; the former being especially charged to control the
management of finances and report on it, while the latter has the custody
of the archives and is concerned with general formularies and with the de-
spatch of business relative to the colonial staff. The stewardship of the
colony depends on the governor's secretariat.

In his examination of the most important administrative questions the
governor is helped by a Council of Administration which has however only
a consultative voice.

This council, over which the governor presides, is composed of the Direc-
tor of Civil Affairs, the Director of Finances and Accounts, the President
of the Court of Appeal and the commander of the corps of colonial troups.
In special cases other officials of the colony can be summoned to its meet-
ings.

To administer the colony's civil affairs a body of colonial officials, chos-
en among persons having the necessary physical and intellectual aptitudes,
exists.

The colonj-'s territory is divided into districts and governed by com-
missioners or residents whose jurisdiction and competence are defined by
a governor's decree. At present there are eight commissioner's districts
— namely Hamasien, Acchele-Guzai, Serae, Barca, Cheren, Massana,
Assab and Gasc-Setit. There are also the resident's districts of Sahel,
Mareb, Scimenzana and Dancalia.

Civil and penal justice is administered according to the provisions of
the royal decree of 9 February 1902, No 51, on the colony's judiciarj^ organ-
ization, as modified by the royal decree of 27 March in the same year,
NO 126.

By the terms of the ordinance of 22 September 1905, already mention-
ed, the colony's defence is entrusted to a royal corps of colonial troops and
to the ships stationed in the Red Sea.

^ 2. Agricultctral condition.s in erythrea.

A. — Soil and Products.

The soil of Er>i:hrea is fertile, and — unless there are anomalies due
to atmospheric phenomena or devastation by locusts — the natives obtain
abundant and varied harvests by superficial and extensive husbandry. The
climate, the hydrology and the soil of Erythrea combine to create con-
ditions adapted to very diverse forms of agriculture, the most numerous
and productive of which could not be practised in Italy (i).

(i) See in this conucction Allcgaio C. of the Relazione sulla Colonia Eriirca (1910 and 1911)
bj^ F. M.\RTiNi, piesented by the minister Prinetti to the Cliambcr of Deputies during the ses-
sion of 13 December 1912. (L'agricoltiira ncll'Eritrea. Report of the extraordinary civil ro3^al
Commissioner bv Dr. Gino B.\rtlommei-Gioli) .

72 KRYTHkEA - AGRIClI/rUKAL ECOXOMY IX GENERAL

To a brief examination of native agriculture, the distinction between
agricultural zones — which is customary among the local population and ac-
cepted by most botanists and explorers in Ethiopian regions — is necessar}'.
The natives are used to distinguish between three great zones, the different
characteristics and aspects of which are marked by their altitude and conse-
quently by the distribution of their flora. They are the Quolla or Colla
(Hot Land), the Uina Dega (Mountain of the \^ine) and the Dei^a (^loun-
tain). The first rises from the pea-level to an altitude of about 1800 me-
tres (i) and has an essentially tropical character. The chief crops cultiva-
ted in it are dura, dagussa, maize, pania, sesamum and cotton.

The second zone is between the altitudes of 1800 and 2400 metres. Its
climate is temperate and suited to the cultivation of the cereals of Europe.
The crops special to this zone are corn crops, being a mixture of munerous
kinds in which predominate hard corns, barley and oats (cereals which cannot
be cultivated below an altitude of 2000 metres), taff, linen and some vege-
tables (beans, chick peas etc.). Dura, dagussa, maize, haricot beans and
lentils are also cultivated in these two zones.

The third zone lies bej'ond the altitude of 2400 metres and is little
represented in the colon}'. Its agricultural aptitudes do not differ much
from those found in Uina Dega but it is better adapted to the exclusive
culture of corn and barle>^

If however the cUmatic- agricultural conditions of Er>'threa be consid-
ered, from the point oi view of scientific agriculture, on which the colonj-'s
future depends, it must be divided into six zones which we will call climatic-
agricultural (2).

i) Coastal and torrid zone, having rare and torrential rain. — The land
adapted to agriculture is ven,^ permeable and sandy. The climate is very
dry and the vegetation very rare. There is a tacit convention to call this
region desert, but in reality it has the characteristics of a desert only where
the land is moving T the stable land has rather the characteristics of the
steppe, its vegetation consisting of thorny and gramineous plants. No
European practises agriculture and natives do so to a ver}- limited extent,
for ordinary agriculture is subject to too much uncertainty. It is however
a mistake to think that the coastal region of the colony could not lend itself
to agriculture. It has on the contrary conditions which allow of the forma-
tion of numerous oases, by means of the cultivation of date-trees — which
might in itself be very renuinerative — and the planting in theii shade of
cereals and plants having an industrial value, such as sorghos, dura, maize,
henna and the plants suited to garden cu Itivation, especially babinia —
which is the authentic jute — and melokia; a valued succedeneum of jute.

2) Zone of winter rains. — Native agriculture is here habitually fairly

(i) I metre = 1.094 j'aids.

(2) This division follows on researches undertaken by Professor Isaia Baldrati, director
of the experimental agricultural bureau of the colony of Erylhrea, the results of which have ap-
peared in excellent publications. Among these is the report on this subject read to the Italian
Colonial Congress of Asmara in 1905.

LAXD TEXURE AND COLONIZATION ^■;^

extensive and some examples of European agriculture are not lacking.
The natives confine themselves to growing maize, dura, sorgho sugar,
and neuk (i) in small quantities. The Europeans on the other hand have
grown sesamum and are growing tobacco with excellent results. There is
one example of native vegetable gardening. Successful experiments were
made with cotton in 1902, and experience seems to show that the Ameri-
can varieties are to be preferred. In 1904 an attempt was made to grow
Egyptian cotton but with negative results. It may be affirmed that pre-
cocious cottons of the Up pi an t^pe or rustic cottons of the Texas-]\Iexico,
Ab^'ssinia and India types can be profitably grown (2). The experience of
the agricultural bureau has shown the possibility of cultivating with profit
the arachide, the agave sisalana, the Alexandrine clover, several gramineous
forage plants, taff, haricot beans of various kinds and amhrevade. On the
whole this region may be considered to be peculiarly adapted to agriculture
but its resources are still latent.

3) Zo7ie having two rainy seasons. — This zone is well adapted to the
growth of the products which commerce calls colonial products. The coun-
trj^ is much varied and still largely wooded and its altitude varies from 400
to 2000 metres. Most of its area is uncultivated and used as pasture for their
flocks by nomad shepherds. Outside the ordinary pastures the natives grow
cotton. This plant grows hixuriantly but is sometimes damaged by rains
while it is maturing. Almost all the vallej^s of this region are con-
stantly watered by the springs or by the water which circulates in the beds
of torrents. The farm of the Colonial vSociety is within this zone. Almond-
trees, fig-trees and vines flourish in it. It includes a coffee plantation.
Indigo grows wild abundantly and in quite important quantities. The ex-
perimental field of Filfil was established in this zone. As regards coffee-grow-
ing, it is well to note that it is possible here, and that on the eastern slopes,
sittiated at an altitude of from 900 to 1700. metres, it promises excellent
results. It is indispensable that a coffee-plantation should be shaded by
non-deciduous trees. If irrigation be undertaken within the first two or
three 3'ears success is certain, and e^'en without irrigation the climate makes
good results probable. The cinnamon tree, the sago tree and the carludovica
for Panama hats also promise well, planted in excellent soil and well shaded,
even if there be no irrigation. All the common crops already noticed as
suited to the zone of winter rains are also certain to succeed, and dry rice,
of the Manchuria and IMayotte varieties, should be added to them. India-
rubber plants also promise well, especially the Ficus elastica and Cresptosiegia
grandifloya. There are further groves of wild orange and lemon trees and
the yam grows wild. Several grantees have already devoted themselves
to coffee-growing.

(i) Neuk is grown beside coni and barley and gives an oil of excellent quality which is even
fit for cooking. In Europe it is known as niger.

(2) In this connection see also Allegalo D. in Martini's report : Delia coltura del cotone
neW Eritr ea hy \\XTe\io Paoletti, Relazioni speciali per i singoli prodotti colianiali in Atli del II .
Congresso degli Italiani all'Estero, Vol. I, 2nd part ; and reports on this subject in Att-i del Con-
gresso coloniale italiano in Asmara, Vol. I. etc.

74 ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

4) Temperate zone having summer rains. — This zone comprises the
greatest part of the land of Asmara. Saganeiti and Adi Ugri, part of the land
of Cheren and a considerable part of the territory of the Habab. It is the
region most densely populated, both by natives and by Eitropeans, and con -
sequent!}' most widely cultivated. Fundamentally the crops are those of
FAirope. Some crops are alreadj' habitually and extensiveh' cultivated — as
ta-ff wheat, barley, neuk and dry vegetables. Agriculture on the high Er}--
threan plateau neglects modern rules almost entirely : work is done without
method ; there is no manuring or succession of crops. It was thought that it
would be very difficult to establish a succession for the crops of the high pla-
teau. The difficulty lay in the choice of a crop which would renew the soil
and in the lack of vegetable fodder, but to-day it has been almost comple-
tely overcome. The most precocious varieties of the dura, potatoes, beans
for sowing, some vegetable fodders, clover of Alexandria and lucerne grass
can be used as being capable of renewing the soil. There is production not
only for local consumption, biit also for export in the case of linen, .grain,
neuk, colza, spices, potatoes and meal.

5) Hot zone having summer rains. — The most important and charac-
teristic territory in this zone is that of Cheren. The irrigated cultivation of
tropical fruits and vegetable-garden plants is here of considerable import-
ance, thanks to the efforts made by Europeans and Sudanese. Ordinary
native agriculture produces dura, bultuk, haricot beans, neiik and cotton.
The lands of this zone might bear large crops for industrial purposes. In
well formed soil the short-fibred American cottons give good results, without
irrigation, even on hilly land. The arachis, the castor-oil plant, indigo and
agave sisalina justify the best hopes entertained for them. Manihot gla-
zovii or Ceara tobacco promises well and gives an excellent product.

6) Zone having a torrid climate. — There is little information as to the
climate of this region. It seems however that usually it enjo^^s more rain
than the high plateau, and moreover — since the temperature is always very
high immediatel}!- after rain, its ordinary agriculture seems to be somewhat
problematic. The population is little addicted to agriculture, and such
as they do practise is faulty. Until a few years ago no ordinar>- agri-
culturewas undertaken by Europeans. It is how^ever in this legion that
the first attempts at growing cotton gave excellent results in 1902, and that
moreover the Milanese firms obtained their vast grants for cotton-growing.
It is however almost certain that the ctdtivation of long-fibred Egyptian
cotton cannot give sure guarantees, if it be not helped by irrigation, a mat-
ter which presents no great difliculties since this region has rivers (Case,
vSetit, Barca and their tributaries) having running water or layers of water
above their beds and subject to floods. The future of this region depends
therefore almost exclusively on the construction of w^orks of irrigation which
will allow its waters to serve agriculture (i). We will end this report with

(i) In this connection it is important also to notice the Ca;/e speciali dei terreni coltivati e
dei terreni coliivabili ma non coltivati (Special maps of cultivated lands and cultivable but un-
cultivated lands) of several commissions of Erythrea, piiblished in Martini's report in 1913,
Vol. IV 2nd part, established by M. Checchi, G. Giardi and A. Mori (Sheets 6 bis to 11 bis).

I^ND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 75

the remark that in all Er^'threa the Indian fig-tree grows well in the regions
having an altitude of from 900 to 1000 metres or more. This is truly pro-
vidential for the natives, for they can feed on the fruit for several months of
the year and it exists in such quantities that some years ago its utilization
for the manufacture of alcohol was even contemplated. The importance
of the trees for fodder is no less: they feed the live stock as well as the natives.
By the means of this tree a solution of the problem of reforesting districts
of Erythrea might be found or at least sought. A pohcy of forestry might
be placed on the basis of a well understood association of woodland and
pastureland and a scientific economy with regard to the mountain terri-
tories.

B. — I Ave Stock Farming.

Of the different varieties of animals kept in Erythrea animals intended
for meat, particularly cattle, have most interest, especially in view of their
importation into Italy. Erythrea is rich in cattle ; but unfortunately
breeding is often absolutely primitive, for methods of selection are almost
entirely ignored and are not applied. None of the possible improvements
of the primitive systems are known and they have never been adopted. It
should be added that no care is taken of the pastures, that there are no
artificial prairies, and that it is the custom to harvest prairie grass for hay-
making. Other and graver drawbacks exist with these. Until recently and
for many years, from 1887 to 1903, the live stock of Erythrea was contin-
ually threatened and attacked by cattle disease. During this long pe-
riod the matter was not even investigated ; nothing was done against the
scourge, except that shortly before 1903 there was an attempt at serum vac-
cination which however yielded neither theoretical nor practical results.
It was indeed made empirically rather than scientifically. In order to
find a remedy for the loss to which cattle farming was subject from epi-
zoot}^, which destroyed the live stock of whole regions when it raged, vS. E.
Martini, then governor, took in 1903 a wise step. He charged a special
mission to look into this most delicate question. The mission identified
and studied the plague, established the distinction between it and the pro-
tozoic diseases with which it was confused, and laid done what were prac-
tical methods of fighting and preventing it.

The IstiUito siero-vaccinogeno of Asmara was then founded for the pre-
paration of the necessary sera and vaccines ; men began to rely on really
scientific criteria in vaccinating the beasts ; and a serious, energetic and vic-
torious compaign against the terrible disease was undertaken. The bene-
ficent influence — economic, sanitary and political — of vaccination was dis-
seminated everj-^where. It may be afiirmed that today the plague has

(i) Cf. in this connection A. Omodeo, V. Peglion, G. Valenti, La Colonia Eritrea. Rome,
Bertero, 1913. volume I, section II, No. V. of the first part (Report of Professor Peglion),

and in general all Professor Peglion's report which forms the second section of this volume

(pp. 135-215).

ERYTHKICA - AGKICI"IhTTTRAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

completely disappeared from En^threa where almost all animals of the cat-
tle tribe are rendered immune against it.

A corollary to the tenacious struggle was the considerable increase in
the number of the cattle. According to the last census, made in 1905, there
were then already 300,000 head of fully grown cattle.

The results of the census of the cattle of the colony of Erythrea are
found in ]Martini's report of 1913 (Vol II. Allegati No. 67, pp. 987-1000) (i),

The census of 1905 supplied the following data :

Camels Horses Cattle Sheep

Census of 1898 . . 30,669 26,205 177,969 770,129

" 1905 . . 46,933 29,789 295,717 736,132

Difference + 16,264 + 3,584 117748 — 33 ,997

If however it be remembered that on the occasion of this last census a
good third of the animals were not declared by the natives — alway averse
from such declarations because they fear taxes and also perhaps because
they are jealously reserved as regards their own property ; ;that these people
consume no meat whatsoever ; and that in the five years after the census
and until today the mortality from the plague, which once amounted to
wholesale massacre rather than decimation, has ceased, because no more cases
have occurred where serum vaccination is practised : if all these things be
remembered it is obvious that the figure 300,000 must in reality much more
than have doubled. The number of the heads of cattle must be at least
700,000, as was calculated in Erythrea in 191 1. Such number is equiva-
lent to one eighth of the total number of cattle in all Italy, found to be
6,198,861 at the last census. The production of sheep and goats is no less
large and increases continually. These animals numbered in 1905 nearly
a million and are now reasonably computed at more than two millions.

These data taken from the census of 1905 and from other and more
recent information and researches — supplied by the district commissioners,
the direction of civil affairs and the direction of the institute for the produc-
tion of serum of Asmara — show that the number of cattle in Er\i;hrea
in relation to the poj^ulation is proportionately far larger than in Italy.
In Italy it is stated that there is one head of cattle for everj^ six or seven
inhabitants ; whereas in Erythrea, where before the war the population
was about 400,000, there were then about two heads of cattle for each
inhabitant.

If the number of cattle be compared to the area of Erythrea — 115,000
square kilometres — there are found to be six heads to every square kilometre,
while in Italy there are 21.62 to ever^- square kilometre.

(i) See also sheets XX and XXI of vol. IV. of the same rcjiort (Carte speciali) where is
reported the distributon of Wealth in live stock in the dilTerent districts of the colony (Distribu-
zione dclla ricchezza in bcstiame nelle varie regioni dclla colonia and Distribuzione del bestiame nelle
varic regioni della colonia.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 77

That this figure should in Erythrea be six is the more remarkable be-
cause of the vast almost desert expanses of territory included in the total
area, such as the deserts of Dancalia and the lands between the Gasc and
the vSetit.

The export of live oxen from Erj^threa to Italy, of preserved meat in
cases and of. frozen meat or meat preserved by refrigeration presents a
problem not yet solved, which will certainly be studied and rightly de-
termined before long. The usefulness of such an enterprise is evident, in
view of the prices in force in Erythrea, where a live ox weighing three
quintals (i) does not cost more on the average, than 17 Maria Theresa
thalers, that is about 32s.

§ 3. The LAND REGIME.

In order well to miderstand the bearing of the recently adopted land
policy, it is necessary to show the essential lines on which Ethiopian pro-
perty was organized among the populations of the high plateau at the time
of the Italian occupation.

In Abyssinia there is private property in land. The lands called resti
are the freehold of the families of agriculturists. The etymology of the
word resti implies occupation : it is derived from rassete which means
" to occupy " and marks the title by which the land was acquired.

The resti is not an individual property but one which belongs to a race,
to a fainily : it is therefore a collective property.

Its collective organization does not however cut it off from being private
and absolute. It can be transmitted by inheritance and alienated by sale
and purchase^ by exchange or by gift. Property in it is collective owing
to the constitution of families which are today still patriarchal, and because
of the method in which agriculture and shepherding are practised on it.
Beasts are bred and raised in the open aii and pastures and fallow-lands there-
fore remain common ; and since cereals are cultivated in turn over large
zones, fields are appropriated only temporarily. Hence the custom of dis-
tributing them by lot. Thus conditions are like those which Tacitus de-
scribed as existing among the Germans (2) and which still subsist in the
Apennines. The collective organization of private property, as determined by
custom and imposed by economic needs, is not incapable of reformation
but can be modified at will by those having rights in it. If therefore the
transition were to be made tomorrow from the system of agricultiire now
in force to intensive culture, there would be nothing to prevent the indi-
vidualization of property. The form of property can be modified as has
happened before, but the element which ought to subsist is that of the
cultivator's free ownership.

(i) I quintal = 220 lbs.

(2) Arva per annos mutuant et superest ager.

78 ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

Besides resti there is another from of ownership, gidti. This tenure is
feudal by origin and nature! the sovereign grants seigneural investiture with
a certain holding to a person he favours. The gulti is therefore less repre-
sentative of a right than of an office, a public charge, a delegation of the sov-
ereign prerogative. The gtiUegna who has been invested with the gidti receives
the tribute and pays it in whole or part to the sovereign ; he assembles and
commands the armed men in war, administers justice in the first instance
and declares to the sovereign the causes as to which there may have been
an appeal. Therefore while resti is economic occupation and the restagna an
individual who occupies for his own profit, gulti is pohtical occupation and
the gultegna holds a public office. The gnltegna retains for himself a part
of the tribute (a tenth) and causes part of the lands of the gidti to be culti-
vated on his behalf as the appanage or salary of his post, a fact which in no
way changes the nature of his occupation.

The sovereign's economic right and that which be delegates to the feu-
datories is chiefly the right to receive the tribute. The sovereign — the
government — cannot reach the gulti except in fully determined cases. An
absolute respect is thus shown to private property. These cases are those
of i) the total extinction of the gultegna s line ; 2) his confiscation for rebel-
lion or felony ; 3) his failure to pay tribute ; 4) his abandonment or volun-
tary renunciation by permanent absence of his land.

Finally we must recall that this organization of property, of which we
have described the chief features, does not affect the vast regions inhabited
by Mussulman and Pagan tribes, such as the districts of the Gasc, the Setit,
the Barca, the Senhit, the Sahel, the Assaorta and the Dankalia, in which
private property does not exist and the pastoral tribes have a customary
right to pasture their animals freely on all of the territory not intended to
be arable. In these districts property in the soil may really be considered
to be vested in the State, so true is it that the peasants occupying lands, in
order to grow cereals, have to pay a due or domainialtax which- has no re-
semblance to a tribute.

Without going back to the political and historical vicissitudes, which
characterized the first period of the Itahan occupation of Erythrea and
reached their last stage during the war against Abyssinia in iScj^-iSgG,
it is well to recall, as an explanation of and a commentary on the decree
of 31 January 1909 organizing land in Er>i;hrea, that in the period from
II May 1893 to 12 July 1895 a series of decrees, promulgated in the
colony, declared vast tracts of land to be domanial and reserved.

In view of the organization of property in Er5rthrea, as this has been
briefly described, it is easy to understand how profoundly these decrees, which
authorized {he creation of a domain, disturbed the minds of the popula-
tion of the high plateau. They contained an entirely new conception of the
regulation of property, according to which the State had the right to claim
lands for itself not only for objects of utiHty — a case which might within
limits have been allowed b}' Abyssinian law — but also in order to appropriate
these lands to colonization by white men, by the invading people. It was
natural that violent confiscation, although in fact it affected only restricted

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 79

zones, should suffice to persuade the natives that they saw the beginning of
a system which httle by httle would cause them to be entirely despoiled
of their property in land.

On the other hand in the districts inhabited by Mussulman and Pagan
tribes relatively vast territories could be subtracted from the domain held
in common usufruct, for reasons already given, without seriously disturb-
ing the rights or interests of the native tribes, who moreover populated these
districts somewhat sparsely. The mistake in the decrees which formed a
State domain was that they almost gave sanctity to the principle that a de-
claration of authority is necessary in order to establish the State's superior
right to lands ; whereas in Abyssinian law the sovereign or any tenant of
the sovereign, that is the giiltegna, can dispose of any lands not resti. Thus
these decrees limited instead of extending the State's superior power,
giving rise to the belief that it concerned only lands which had been declared
part of the domain.

Thus this state of affairs caused in the colony much discontent which
had to be eliminated if the population were to be pacified. Two measures
might lead to this. A decree repeating those promulgated to form a State
domain might be issued, the rights acquired by grantees being safeguarded,
a serious step which might injure the government's prestige. Alternatively
they might be modified so that they would become ineffective where they
were held to be counter to the rights of the population and dangerous to
public authority.

The modification to which the colony's government had recourse was
as follows. Article 14 of the law of 24 May 1903 had provided that Acts
prior to this law in date should not be enforced if they had not been includ-
ed in the collection of Acts of Public Authority to be issued within two
years, a term afterwards prorogued so that this collection was approved only
by the royal decree of 30 December 1909. In this collection thirty decrees
creating the State domain were not included, because they were not thought
consistent with the land organization approved by the royal decree of 31 Jan-
uary 1909 or because they ran manifestly counter to the rights of the popu-
lation. The decrees creating domain land which remained in force are
applicable only to an area of no more than 15,500 hectares, admitting of
cultivation, and to 200,000 hectares which were decreed in the first place
to be attached to the State.

We come thus to the royal decree of 31 January 1909 which fixed
the land organization of the colony of Erythrea (i).

A. — Placing of lands at the State's Full Disposal

The measure of placing lands at the vState's full disposal is identified
with the jurisdictory regulation of land, and was necessary to the introduc-
tion of a regime of agricultural grants according to precise and definite
criteria.

(i) Supplement to the Bollettiiw Ufficiale ddla Colonia Eritrea, 25 July 1909, No. 28.

ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The jurisdictory regulation of the lands is the subject of Clause I. of
the ro3'al decree o^ 31 January 1909, which establishes that propert}^ in
the colony's soil belongs to the Italian State, the rights being safeguarded
which belong to the native population, as well as those which may belong
to third parties as the result of a title emanating from the Italian govern-
ment or recognized by it (Article I). The rights of the native population
to the land they enjoy in conformity with old local customs will be res-
pected (Article 2). The public domain includes roads (railways and cart and
caravan roads), the seashore, the ports, gulfs and beaches, military stations
and fortresses, telegraph and telephone lines, and in general all property
intended for public use (Article 3). The domain includes surface and
subterranean watercourses, the chief dividing lines of waters and natural
springs. Only a right to use the waters can be granted, and such use is
alwa^^s subject to the exigencies of public interest, in the measure of the
property's need. Otherwise the waters belong to the domain. No works of
deflecting or gathering the waters can be executed without the government's
express authorization.

The colony's domain of which disposal may be made includes :

a) lands which were recognized before the Italian occupation as be-
longing to earlier governments ;

b) lands formerly belonging to native tribes, parts of tribes, races or
families now extinct ;

c) lands abandoned for more than three years by the native tribes,
parts of tribes, races or families to which they belonged ;

d) lands in the various circumstances in which according to native
custom they devolve on the State ;

e) lands which reached the condition of confiscated property ;
b) woods and forests ;

g) mines, quarries and salt-mines ;

h) lands frequented by populations practising migratory pasturage, on
which however the rights to pasturage and to the waters of such popula-
tions must always be respected within the limits prescribed by necessity;

i) the gulti (fiefs) constituted for ofiices, individuals, families or de-
termined religious organtizations, on which however the customary usufruct
of fixed populations (i) must be respected within the limits prescribed by
necessity ;

/) in general all lands not comprised under Articles 2 and 3, those of
which Article i treats being reserved.

The lands of which there is question in Article 2 may be resumed bj' the
State, and assigned according to circumstances to the public domain or

(i) As regards tliis provision il should be noticed that if the giilti affect private- proixrly
(^-^s/f) itdotsnotadrlaninchof land tothedoniain. Ifhowcvcr it affect lanels which may really
be disposed of, the authority to dispose of them is inactive since all such lands, whtilur gulii
or not, belong to the domain. The onlj' declaration that had to be maele was that the rights
of gulti were abolished, the gultegna being thus deprived of all excuse for reclining any tithe,
tribute or other feudal due

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION

the alienable lands, if they are destined for public use or for an occupation
enabling works in the public interest. Thisma^^ happen when it has by some
means been established that military exigencies or those of the public interest
render the lands necessary, when the}' are to be used to form or extend
urban centres, or when they seem to be too extensive for the needs of the
population using them, if the agricultural and agrarian customs of these
be taken into account. In all these cases there is an equitable decision as
to whether there is occasion to grant compensation. Its amount will al-
ways be fixed in accordance with the value of the use of which the occupiers
have been deprived.

All provisions relative to these matters are made by a decree of the go-
vernor of the colony, issued after the arguments of those interested have
been heard. There is no appeal against such decree.

Tliird parties holding rights in land, on the terms of Article i, may be
expropriated for a reason of public interest, legally recognized, if a just
indemnity be paid to them. A decree of the governor declares the existence
of such a reason and pronounces the sentence of expropriation. When an
amicable settlement with the expropriate is impossible arbiters fix the in-
demnity (Article 8).

The lands in question in Article 2 are burdened with the payment of
a land tax which ma}" be lumped with the general tribute due from the na-
tive populations. The government of the colony may grant to natives of
the colony enjoA-ment of lands of the domain, in proportion to their needs
and in return for the payment of an annual due.

In Article ii it is stated that lands and other real estate and rights
relative thereto, in whatever manner they accrue to the domain, to citizens
or to strangers or. to anyone within the zone of building lands, are subject
to the Italian jurisdictory regime, special provisions as to them being safe-
guarded.

The lands enjoyed by native po]:)ulations by the terms of Article 2 are
subject to the regime created by the various customs of the localities in
which they are situated.

Article 13 establishes that except in the case of urban properties the
creation and transmission of any right attaching to real estate are forbid-
den, as between natives and others.

Such are the provisions of the decree of 31 January 1909 regarding the
jurisdictor\' regime of lands in Erythrea.

B. — A s;ri cultural Grants.

Lands accruing to the alienable domain are intended for colonization,
the customs and the needs of the native populations being safeguarded. The
public authority grants to a certain person the right to enjoy ceitain
real estate, for a stated object and period, in accordance with the provisions
of Clause III of the decree in question. Analagou.sly the rules relative to the
property affect the grantee's rights in the real estate, in the absence of con-
trary provision.

Sz ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The new organization establishes that the lands of the domain must
always be alienable for the purpose of colonization, and prescribes that 2,000
hectares in the temperate zone of the high plateau be at once divided into
lots in order to provide for small grants, which may be of agricultural land,
of building sites, of land for industrial purposes, of mines or of land for spe-
cial objects. It would take too long to examine all these t^'pes of grants We
will confine ourselve to those for the purposes of agriculture and industry,
which merit our attention since thej^ are within the scope of this article and
are capable of most influence on the economic future of the colony. They
ma}^ be said to form the pivot of the whole land regime.

Grants ha\dng an agricultural object may be made : a) to Italian cul-
tivators themselves directly exploiting the land granted to them; b) to
Italian cultivators provided with capital and personally managing their
farms ; c) to capitalists, societies of capitaHsts, legalh' constituted producers'
societies or other corporate bodies recognized bj' the law and_undertaking
an agricultural enterprise.

Grants aiming at agriculture are of three kinds : two, corresponding to
those mentioned under letters a and b, emanate *rom the governor ; the third,
which corresponds to letter c from the royal power. *Those of the first kind
are absolutel}' free as regards a lot having the approximate area of 25 hec-
tares or one or more parts of such lot. When grants are sought within a radius
of less than five kilometres of an inhabited centre the}' cannot usually com-
prehend more than a quarter of a lot — 6.25 hectares. They can be granted
to Italian settlers (i) who cultivate them personally and have a capital
of at least 50 hras for each hectare they receive. At the end of five years they
become the grantee's absolute property' if he have fidfilled all conditions im-
posed on him. Grants of the second kind are made to Italian cultivators
who prove that they possess a capital of 100 liras for each hectare the}' receive
and who personally cultivate the land. The grant to them may not be of
more than 200 hectares or for a longer period than tliirty years. It is
conditional on their payment of an annual due fixed by the governor every
three years. If however the grantee fulfil all terms of the contract he may
after five years become absolute owner of the granted land when he has paid
a sum equivalent to the capital on which such annual due would be inte-
rest, at a rate previouslj' fixed by the governor. Grants of the second kind
cannot be made within a radius of less than ten kilometres of the chief
urban centres.

While grants of the first and second kinds are made in the districts
having a temperate climate, those of the third kind affect essentially lands
having a torrid climate and are made to capitalists or societies of capitalists
for the purposes of industrial agriculture. Usually they may not be of more
than 10,000 hectares but exceptionally they may be of as much as 25,000 hec-
tares. The term of the grants is fixed at ninety-nine years but they may be

(i) With the minister's special aiuhorizalion grants of the first ami si-cond categories
may even be made to foreigners.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 83

prolonged for three terms of thirty years each. I^and thus granted can
never be converted into absolute property.

Further special grants of pasturage for the raising of live stock are
made on lands not adapted to arable farming. They are for a term of
ten years and may be renewed for other ten j'-ears, and they should be re-
garded as grants of the third ki^d.

The government of the colony may also alienate limited extents of
territory, by agreement or auction, if the intention be to cultivate them.

Minute rules fix the obhgations of grantees to the administration and
third parties as well as the duties of the administration.

If the granted land or part thereof be not cultivated the grant lapses,
totally or partially. Sub-letting is forbidden, and conditions have been de-
termined for the payment of the due, the lapse and the revocation of the
grant, and eventual expropriation. Grants may not be ceded to third parties
without the administration's consent, and any such cession must affect
all the land granted and such of its moveables and other accessories as serve
the cultivation or other necessity of the property. Lands which are the
subject of grants of the two first kinds and their accessories and easements
may not be the object of a distraint for debts of any kind whatsoever. On
such lands and their dependencies products in kind may not be pledged or
sequestrated unless to pay debts contracted before the grant was made and
having some connection with the grant. Provisions necessary to the nour-
ishment of the grantee and his family may not however be pledged in
any case before the next harvest, nor may seeds needed for the coming
season.

Lands the subject of grants of the two first kinds may not be
burdened with mortgages.

On obtaining the administration's formal authority the grantees of
lands may receive agricultural loans of capital, in the form and with the
pri^dleges estabHshed by the provisions in force in the kingdom of Italy, the
capital to be used for useful and permanent improvements and for e.K:tra-
ordinary works profitable to the granted land. Such loans may be secured
by mortgages. In order that granted land may not be subdivided the
organization limits the holder's power to bequeath it.

All grants are exempt from payment of dues on contracts and of taxes
for ten j'ears.

The administration may make agricultural loans in specie to grantees
of the first kind for the purchase of live stock, implements and other stock,
the construction of hou.ses ond rural buildings and other useful and perma-
nent improvements. The administration, or eventually the Commissariat
of Emigration of Rome, may — exceptionally and when the funds assigned to
colonization permit — advance the sum needed for the journey from Italy
to the colony, and for implements and household necessities, to three or more
adult persons of one family, fitted to cultivate granted land and desirous of
a grant of the first kind, but without the necessary capital. The capital
necessary to installation, to the exploitation of the land and to nouri.shment
until the first harvest has been garnered is also granted.

84 ERYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The adniinistration may promote the constitution of consortiums for
the execution and maintenance of hydraulic works, works of improve-
ment and works connected with roads, if these be of recognised utiht}^ to
the grantees, and also for the common purchase of machines, seeds and other
such articles. The administration ought to participate in the consortium
as it may increase the value of neighbouring domain lands which have not
yet been granted.

When these works are also of general utility the administration should
bear a proportionate part of the expense. When moreover it seems ne-
cessary^ the administration may form obligatory consortiums, bearing not
less than a fifth share of the total cost of the labour or work undertaken.

The ordinance has also fixed the obligations of the government to new
centres of colonization which ma^^ be formed.

The seco'nd chapter of Clause III {Of Grants) is concerned with grants
of land for building, the third chapter with grants for industrial objects.

As regards the latter it should be noted that the governor makes spe-
cial grants for the harvesting and utilization of products, whether growing
wild or cultivated, which are called industrial, of land having an area not
exceeding 10,000 hectares and for terms of no more than fifteen years. In
other cases the grants are made by the central government.

Other grants may be made by the governor b)' contracts fixed as
each case presents itself, for quarries, ovens and agricultural and industrial
experiments. Woods may never be the object of grants, the colonj^'s
government being responsible for the sale of forest-trees and other woods
according to the rules of the forest code (Chapter V. ol the same clause :
Various Grants).

Chapter IV. of the same clause deals at length with mining grants,
winch by their nature are outside the scope of this article.

Chapter VI. deals with the procedure of the application for and the de-
livery of granted land.

Clause IV. is concerned with the cadaster, divided into the rural cad-
aster which comprises all lands accruing to the domain except those includ-
ed in the regulating plans, the urban cadaster which comprises the districts
included in the plans regulating building in inhabited localities, and the
special cadaster in which are entered lands in determined zones or localities
on which particular rights exist or which present a particular interest, and
in the case of which criteria and rules other than those prescribed by the
rural and urban cadasters must be followed. This important clause is
subdivided into four chapters, of which the first is concerned with the
institution of the cadaster, the second with its formation, the third with its
publication and the fourth with its preservation.

As regards the rural cadaster, which is the one most interesting to us, we
would briefly notice that it is divided into three categories : a) lands of the
high plateau within a radius of five kilometres of the urban centres of Asmara,
Addi Ugri, Saganeiti, and other lands which the government may designate ;
b) other lands within the temperate zone ; c) lands within the districts hav-
ing a torrid climate. Within the lands comprised under letter a grants may

LAND TENITRE AND COLONIZATION 85

not, as has been said, comprise more than 6.25 hectares, that is a quarter
of a lot.

It is estabhshed that a beginning is at once to be made in entering
lands in the cadaster. Gradualh^ they will be divided into lots of 25 hec-
tares and each lot will be divided into four parts. Lands having a torrid
climate are however to be registered in the cadaster as the occasions for
granting them arise, without an}' division into lots.

The provisions regulating the organization of the cadaster are likewise
precise. The organization is provided : a) by the cadaster's map of the col-
ony, on which the various lands of interest to the cadaster are marked :
b) by maps showing geographically the lands of the domain, their division
into lots and their respective sections ; c) by the census table which has a
volume for each map, wliile each volume has a folio for each lot comprised in
its map, giving the description, value and other particulars as to such lot,
and its easements and rights ; d) by a register establishing how and why a
property belongs to a given owner, and any limitations of his right to dispoie
of it resultant on his personal disability, whether such be due to his minority,
or to a suppression or prohibition of his abihty ; e) the table giving owners
which forms the general Hst of the properties.

Rights in real estate and alienations of these are legally affirmed only
by entry in the registers of the cadaster (Article 206).

The organization provides for all the conditions modifying entries
in these registers. All such entries are made by the keeper of the cadaster
with whom the map is deposited and who is answerable for it. The keeper
is moreover responsible for losses which may be incurred through incomplete
or erroneous entries.

We will not notice the temporary provisions of the ordinance, the term
for which they were valid having already expired. We will merely add that
the application of these rules, and of many others connected with the
improvement of values in the colony and the examination of its economic
resources, is entrusted to a special governmental directing body called
the Direction of Colonization.

§ 4. Colonizing experience.

In the beginning of 1907 the lands forming the subject of agricultural
concessions to Europeans had a total area of 11,053 hectares.

The list annexed to Number 60 of the report on the colony of Erythrea
presented to parliament in 1913 (vol. II.) gives all the data relative to the
various concessions, their situation and extent and the object for which
they were granted.

It does not include the early concessions in the plain granted before
1896 and abandoned for 3'ears by the grantees, nor .some small farms, granted
temporarily and not regularized. The latter have little importance.

86 HRYTHREA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

These 11,053 hectares are divided as follows :

3,420.7204 hectares on the high plateau, populated by Abyssinians and
recognized as part of the domain by a special governor's decree ;

5,339.8071 hectares in the plain, towards the sea and in the Mendri
Bahari — the concessions in the plain adjoining the sea are part of the lands
considered as belonging to the domain because populated by Mussulmans ;

2,292.6099 hectares in the interior of the colony in lands inhabited by
Mussulman populations beyond the high plateau.

If they be considered in the light of the objects for which they were
granted the concessions are distributed as follows :

1 13.9051 hectares. Special grants to missions, churches, convents and
small farms o* building sites, in locahties in which, according to the pro-
visions earlier in force, the grant of lands for building was not allowed.

1,330.1912 hectares granted to agricultural settlers, solely or chiefly
occupied with agriculture.

1,199.8869 to settlers for whom agriculture was a secondary occupation,
they being chiefly occupied by a trade.

8,409.15:12 granted for purposes of industry to societies or firms hav
ing capital. This category includes the concessions fulfilling an industrial
object because of their extent, or because special crops are grown in them
or special systems adopted for their cultivation.

In the period from i November 1902 to December 1912, and according
to results obtained by the Erythrean mission of A. Omodeo, V. PegHon
and G. Valenti (i), 289 grants were made of a total extent of some 26,000
hectares, in which the large and sometimes indeterminate concessions for
the cultivation of industrial crops were included. These concessions can
be classified as follows according to their extent :

Number
of concessions

50

138

57

21

II

5

More than" 1000 7

l/css than

5

hectares

from 5 to

25

" 25 "

50

" 50 "

200

" 200 "

500

" 500 "

1000

Total .... 289

(i) Rome, Bertero, lui 3.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION

87

The following figures give the area of the concessions :

From I November 1902 to i November 1909 — still in
force:

From I November 1909 to 31 December 1912 — still in
force :

1st kind

2nd "

Agricultural concessions of 3rd kind still in force on
31 .Deccember 191 2- (approximately)

«

Concessions granted from i November 1902 to 31 Dec-
ember 19 1 2, revoked or renounced '. .

Concessions granted for limited or expired terms . . .

8,300 hectares

471

1,061

»
»

12,000

»

21,832

»

3,313

573

»

25,718 ]

hectares

To these concessions there should be added three grants for the ex-
ploitation, the harvesting and the industrial use of products growing wild
(fruits of the dtim palm-tree, castor-oil grain, indiarubber and sesamum
grain). Another concession was of pasturege over an area of 300 hectares.

The preceding data cannot, although taken from official documents,
be considered as based on more than approximate calculations. It should
also be noted that all grants are not now active, whether because grantees
have failed to derive a profit, or because their recent date has not allowed
the necessary steps to their occupation to be taken.

From other data, taken from an authorized source, it appears that un-
til September 1915 there had been 102 grants of the first and second kinds
of land held in free and absolute ownership, having a total area of
3,392.0969 hectares.

From an of&cial source we learn also that concessions for quarries and
ovens up to the end of 1915 numbered twenty-seven. Mining concessions
and permits for searches and superficial borings up to 15 April 1916 num-
bered eight and the grantees included two syndicates, to one of whom were
granted the goldmines of Cheren and to the other the peridot mines of the
islands of Kad Ah.

Finally at the end of 1916 four permits were granted to gather the fruit
of the dum palm-tree in the domanial woods of Barca.

*
* *

These results to which Itahan colonization in Erythrea has hitherto
attained and the numerous studies of which they have been the subject
allow the statement that this colony cannot, and never can be, an outlet

88 EKYTHREA - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL

for superfluous population. We have not space in which to examine the
reasons for this statement. Some of them have however an importance
shown by their mere enumeration, as for example the climate against
which Europeavis contend with too much difficulty, the relative density of
the population b}^ natives, and their attachment to the soil of the country.

Further Erythrea is not and never will be a purely farming colon^^ for
a government who understand the interests of the mother country can
never desire a colony which is only agricultural since in such there is bound
eventually to be an opposition of interests. Er\i:hrea should rather be
utilized for economic purposes. To this end it is important that a profit
should be drawn from all its various natural and social elements, and that
it should be worked by Italian settlers associated with natives.

Looked at in this aspect the colony of Erythrea presents total as-
sets of great importance. It is the human element which, in Er\i:hrea as
everywhere else, has a high value.

To solve this problem in relation to the whole rural economy- of Ery-
threa we must follow the advice of Marchi, who stated that not substitutes
for the native, but men able to direct and make use of him, should be
sought. It is on this principle that the present programme is founded

RUSSIA.

THE RESUI^TvS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM IN RUSSIA.

PART II.

§ 5. lyAND ORGANIZATION ON NADIEI, LANDS.

In the first part of this article (i) the organization of the enquiry, the
farms as constituting its object and the twelve provinces in which it took
place, were described in their general outlines. We wish now to examine
more closely the results attained by the enquiry and to be able to establish
the influence which the new forms of tenure and agriculture have had on
the course and the development of peasant farming in Russia.

The average size of those of the investigated farms which were on
nadiel land was as follows in the twelve provinces :

Settled Unsettled Total

Nadrel l^ni s.'^BongliT^ni deciatines (.)

Houtor farms in which home-
stead has been moved .... 12.5 1.2 13.7

Houtor farms in which home-
stead has not been moved. . 7.6 2.5 lo.i

Otroub farms " 12.3 2.0 14.3

If only the settled land of the unified holdings were taken into account,
these average figures would in general correspond with that which expresses
the average area of the farms settled on nadiel land in all the forty-seven
governments of European Russia in which the agrarian reform has been
carried out, namely 10 deciatines [1,252,020 peasants' farms having a total
area of 12,553,046 deciatines (3)]. The average area of peasant holdings

(i) International Review of Agricultural Economics, December 1916.

(2) I deciatine = 2 acres 2 roods 31.9555 poles.

(3) OT'^eTHbiH cB'hjxhnia o lafharejii-noeTn SeM-ieycTpoHTCubHuxi. KoMMncitt
Ha I HHsapjl 1915 r. {Memorial on the Activity of the Land Readjustment Commission up to
I January 1916). Published by the Department for the Tenure of State lyand, 1915-

90 RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IK GENERAL

varies very notably in different provinces, from 3.1 deciatines in Krement-
schug province (Government of Pultava) to 41.1 deciatines in Nikola] evsk
province (Government of Samara).

Unification and the rendering contiguous of the parts of holdings has
distinctly improved the condition of the land and the method of employing
it, in comparison with the time before the land settlement. The fact
that the land was so much cut up into parcels and that the parcels were
scattered over the whole of the communal property, together with the
distance at which they lay from the homesteads, often made it impossible,
because luiremunerative, to cultivate the strips which were furthest re-
moved in spite of the very noticeable scarcity of land. After the land read-
justment there was an unmistakable and total change in the position,
a point which we illustrate in the following table.

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM

91

The Distribution and Relative Distances of the Parcels of Holdings of Nadiel
Land in the Different Provinces before and at the Time of the Settlement.

Farmers of nadiel land.

a = before the

settlement 1

6 = at the time i

of settlement |

in all the provinces

HaviiiE

strip of land

2

3

4-5

6-10
11-20
21-40
41-60
61-100

more than 100 strips of land.

Nadiel farmers having the furthest removed
strip at a distance from the homestead of

0.0 versts (i)

lip to 0.25

0.25 to 0.5

0.5 .. i.o

I » 3

3 " 5

More than 5 »

Houtor farmers having the furthest removed
strip at a distance from the homestead of

0.0 versts

up to 0.25 n

from 0.25 to 0.5 versts

' 0.5 » 1.0 »

I » 3 »

3 " 5 »

More than 5 versts

553

3,751

299

6,931
538

2,515

2,061
908

3,810
78

2,863

a
I)

973

a

622

b

—

a

212

b

—

a

235

b

3,715

a

108

b

776

a

596

b

1,062

a

2,089

b

1,513

a

4,093

b

2,980

a

1,785

b

1,731

a

5,177

b

2,406

a

22

b

2,505

a

28

b

109

a

223

b

r84

a

891

b

301

a

1,697

b

«. 301

a

286

b

59

a

733

b

121

fil I verst = 1166.^^2 yards.

92 RUSSIA - AeRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

This table gives us a deep insight into the whole agrarian revolution
which is being accorhplished in European Russia. Of the 14,183 farms on
nadiel territory investigated the land was before the settlement held in one
strip in onty 553 (3.9 per cent.) ; and in 2,898 (20.4 per cent.) was divided
into from two to five strips. The land of the other farms was scattered in six,
twenty, forty or even more than a hundred strips. This parcelling of
the land of a holding was especially marked in the provinces of Ostrov
(Government of Pskov), Sitschevka (Government of Smolensk) and in Mo-
loga (Government of Jaroslav), where farms having less then eleven separ-
ate parcels of land were not be met with at all. Of the whole number of
the farms investigated scientific agriculture was in consequence possible
only in 24.3 per cent. After the settlement not a single farm remained
which included more than ten separate parcels of land, and even such num-
ber was foimd only in few (0.6 per cent.) ; in 3,751 farms (26.4 per cent.)
the land had been united into one piece to form houtor farms ; in 48.9 per
cent, of the whole number it had come to be divided into two ; and in 17.7
per cent, into three pieces. It is to be noted moreover that the site of the
homestead was reckoned as a separate piece. If this circumstance be taken
into account it appears that almost half the total number of farms had had
their land unified into one piece. If to these the houtor farms be added, 75.3
per cent, of the total number are found to have had their lands made contig-
uous. The chief evil of the conditions of peasant farming, the great par-
celling of the land and the extent to which the parcels were scattered, has
been if not entirely removed yet much reduced.

Certain rights, such as those in woodland, meadows and gardens, have
not come within the scope of the unifying process because the}^ have a par-
ticular value distinct from average values. Therefore it has been necess-
ary to deliver land divided into from four to five parcels to 6.4 per cent, of
the farms. There were also lands unfit to be tilled which could be used
only for herding cattle. Such lands, which formed 10 per cent, of the
whole area settled, were left as common meadows. This was the more ne-
cessary because at the beginning of the settlement the questions of fodder
and of the use of grass pasture were not settled, and therefore a sharp
break in the tenure of the huts standing on the summer meadows, which
hitherto had been common property, was to be avoided if possible. Many
peasants before the time of the enquiry of 1913 bought new land in addi-
tion to that awarded to them under the settlement, to which they thus
added a second piece. The unification of such bought land with the nadiel
land was first made possible by the law of 29 May (11 June) 1911 which had
force from 15 (28) October. The bought land was until 1911 so regulated
that it could not be used for the farms formed up to that date. This partly
explains why in 21 per cent, of the houtor and otroub farms investigated
there were altogether, besides the settled land, 26,863 deciatines not in-
cluded in the unified farm land.

As regarded the remoteness of the peasants' lands from their home-
steads remarkable results were, as appears from the table, also attained ;

THE RESUI,TS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 93

but this evil can be entirely cured only when the site of the homestead is
removed to the otrouh.

After the settlement 1,292 peasants (7.4 per cent.) (i) sold the entire
holdings of nadiel land allotted to them, and 1,121 (6.4 per cent.) sold part
thereof, such sales including altogether 2,413 farms having a total area of
18,766 deciatines. Among the caiises for these sales is the circumstance
that many peasants live outside their farms, being occupied as employees
or labourers, and have long since lost all connection with the land ; and
that for others their holdings had become too small and they sold them in
order to emigrate to Siberia or to buy larger holdings from the Land Bank
or the crown. The nun of some farms, whether as a result of bad harvests,
cattle disease, the lack of labour in a family or other cause, was also instru-
mentat in bringing about sales. The average price of the land uas raised
by almost 50 per cent, after the settlement.

In Siberia and European Russia 22,022 deciatines were bought b^^ the
peasants after the settlement, that is more than the 18,766 deciatines which
they sold. This is proof that the economic basis of the newly formed peas-
ants' farms is firm and solid, and that even in the initiatory period, when
farming had to be fundamental^ reorganized, most of the peasants were
able to increase the area and importance of their farms by buying land. The
number of farmers who took land on lease after the settlement increased in all
the provinces except Mologa. The average area of leasehold land belong-
ing to a farm decreased however ; and so did also the number of lessees,
even considered in relation to the decline of the average area of leasehold
land. Rents rose very notably after the settlement. The question of the
subdivision of farms among heirs received very particular attention at the
enquir3^ The number of farms thus subdivided — 323 (2.2 per cent.) —
was small and 752 farms had been formed from them. The position of
these resultant farms was in general not prosperous. In order to provide
in the future against the formation of such economically weak and unpro-
fitable peasants' farms the Chief Office of L,and Organization and Agricul-
ture has placed before the Duma a scheme for a law, entitled " Measures
for I^essening the Subdivision of the lyands of Small Farms formed with
State Aid ".

§ 6. IvAND SETTLEMENT ON THE LANDS OF THE PEASANTS' LAND BANK
AND ON CROWN LANDS.

I/and settlement is generally far easier on lands acquired from the Peas-
ants' Ivand Bank or the crown than on nadiel land. In the case of the former
it is not necessar\', as in the work of unifying strips of land of differing values
on nadiel land, to give when measuring and allotting any attention to the
present and past interests of the villagers. Onty considerations of a tech-
nical kind have to be taken into account when the crown and bank laud are

(i) Eight farms which arose as a consequence of subdivision by inheritance are included.

94

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

allotted — as that of contriving such a favourable division of the houtor and
otroub farms as will bring them nearest to a square form, and of providing
a water supply and rights of way. A valuation is undertaken in this case
with a view to establishing only the selling price ; and land settlement can
therefore be brought to a more advanced stage of completeness.

The enquiry covered, as has already been said, 4,832 farms on bank
and crown lands, 2,566 of them being settlements on hoiitor and otroub
land and 2,276 otroub farms of which the owners had remained on their
nadiel lands. This property was taken over from the peasants by the fol-
lowing stages.

Year of taking land over

1907-08

1909

191 1 Total

J

Number of farms i.ogo 1,851 1,460 431

Percentage of their whole number I 22.6 38.3 30.2 8.9

4.832
100

Thus at the time of the enquiry nearly 90 per cent. (22.6 -|- 38.3 +
30.2) of all farms had enjoyed the new conditions for more than three years,
and almost 60.6 (22.6 + 38.3) for four years and more. The farms alto-
gether comprised 77.7 per cent, of arable land, 6.4 per cent, of meadowland
and 15.9 per cent, of land otherwise employed.

Holders to the number of 3,373, or 69.8 per cent, of the whole number,
were allotted land held in one piece; 1,377 "^^ 28.5 per cent, received land
divided into two pieces, and 82 or 1.7 per cent, land divided into three or more
pieces (i). Thus in settling these properties it was not alwa3^s found pos-
sible to give all the peasants land iield in one piece ; for the existing division
of woods and meadows necessitaxed sometimes the allotment of a second
or a third strip to a farm. In addition 37 per cent, of the peasant buyers
received a common meadow which comprised 11. 7 per cent, of the land
bought.

The average size of the bought pieces of land was 20 deciatines, their
area varying from 8.3 deciatines in Bogoduchov province to 29.4 deciatines
in Nikolajevsk. These farms are thus twice as large as those on nadiel
land, a fact which must of course be carefully kept in mind if a comparison
between the farms of the two classes be made.

The area of the leaseholds of farmers was equivalent to 32.3 per cent, of
their holdings of crown and bank lands, and therefore stood to these in much
the same proportion as did the leaseholds of the other peasant holders to
their nadiel land, the percentage in the latter case being 34.7 per cent.
(29.6 per cent, before the land settlement). Even in a province so rich iu
land as Nikolajevsk, where the average holding attached to a homestead is

(i) The site of the homestead was when separated from the land of the settlement reckoned
as a separate strip.

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 95

of 2g.4 deciatines. there are leaseholds. The circumstance cannot be
ascribed to scarcity- of land but to the cause which has given rise to lease-
holds on nadiel lands, namely the endeavour of the peasants to enlarge
their farms, to extend their property.

§ 7. Financial support of the peasants under the land
settlement.

When the land was settled money was assured to the peasants, both
for removing their farm buildings and for carrying out the simple improve-
ments prescribed, in the form either of a loan or a gift. The amounts
of the sums thus expended on the farms on nadiel land and on bank and
State domains within each province are shown in the following table :

Financial Sttpport given to the Population when the Land was Settled.

a) On Nadiel Land.

Total for all prov.

No. of farmers moving their homesteads 3,781

They received from Credit of the Land Settlement:

_ i No 1,522

I Amoimt in roubles (i) 165,944

Gifts * "^^ ^4°

' Amount in roubles 8,177

No. of farmers not moving their homesteads 11,154

They received from the Credit of the Land Settlement :

Loans ^ ^° 9°^

\ Amount in roubles. 81,022

Gifts • ^°" • • •' ^^2

/ Amount in roubles 5, 861

b) On Lands of the Bank and State Domains.

To those moving their homesteads the Land Settlement Credit paid:

Loans 1,805

Gifts 149

To those not moving their homesteads the Land Settlement Credit
paid:

Loans 94

Gifts - 3

Total of:

Loans in roubles 231,288

Gifts in roubles 9,097

(i) I rouble of 100 kopecks ^ about 2s. i l^rf. at par.

90 RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY IN GENERAL

As this table shows, the peasants who had bought lands from the Peas-
ants' Land Bank or the administration of the State domains were more
generously supported with money than those on the nadiel land ; but on
the other hand the former were obliged when they took over their lots to
pay in advance out of their own means lo per cent, of the purchase price,
and 15 per cent, of them were in consequence left destitute of possess-
ions and therefore much in need of help. On the whole financial support
was extended to a relatively small number of the peasants and the number
of gifts made was too trifling. The average sum of money received was 105
roubles a homestead, against which must be set the average cost of moving
a homestead, setting up buildings and carr3dng out improvements, namely
238 roubles a homestead. Thus the giving of financial support was in no
sense a philanthropic enterprise and could not act as a bait to the peasants
to fall in with the reforms of the Land Readjustment Cominission.

§ 8. The economic position of the new peasants' holdings
in severalty.

In order to understand the economic position of the new farms held
in severalty the investigators of these made a great point of establishing,
by searching questions and tests, the value of the improvements made by
the peasants on their holdings after the settlement, and that of their build-
ings, their cattle and all their possessions. A comparison thus became
possible between the position of the farms before and after the settlement.
It has appeared in general that in the farms situated on lands of the Land
Bank and the State domains the value of improvements, buildings and live
and other stock is, in comparison with that existing before the land settle-
ment — that is before the pieces of land were bought — distinctly higher than
itisinthecaseof the farms in severalty on wrff/?>/ land. This is not surpris-
ing since we know that the farms of the first category are twice as large
as those of the second (§ 6) , and are moreover of earlier origin and held on a
peculiar basis. A comparison of the economic positions of the two kinds of
farms is possible only under reservation, and should be made not as between
farms but as between areas.

a) Improvements and Buildings.

With the remodelhng of farms and tenures and the settlement of the
land, what may be called the psychological relation of the peasant to
his holding alters. The awakened sense of ownership gives rise to the wish
to employ the land economicallj'- and make the smallest plot as productive
as possible. Marshes are drained, stony soil is rendered tillable, land over-
grown with bushes is cleared. Although when the enquiry was made most
of the farms had enjoyed the new conditions only for from three to four years,
more than a third of the farmers in severalty of nadiel land, 75 per cent.

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 97

of them being hontor farmers, had made most important improvements. The
vakie of these was placed at 288,057 roubles, an average of 47 roubles
33 kopecks a farm, the average in the different districts varying from ii
roubles 74 kopecks (Krementschug) to 140 roubles 70 kopecks (Nikolajevsk).
The average area on which improvements have been made by houtor farmers
is larger by 44.1 per cent, than that which otroiih farmers have improved.

On the lands of the bank and the State domains expenditure on improve-
ments after the purchase of the land was ten times greater than it had been
in the case of the earlier holders. The average expenditure on improvements
on a farm, as well as the number of farmers undertaking improvements,
were on these properties larger than the corresponding averages for nadiel
lands.

As regards buildings, not only the number of dwellings but also that of
stables, byres and barns has grown ; and this, as the report adds, points
to the conclusion that the number of houtor farms grew even after the settle-
ment, because the otrouh farmers ren'f&ved their farm building from the vil-
lage area to their newly settled lots. The number of farmers having no
farm buildings has been almost halved : it has sunk from 404 to 210. The
value of the buildings rose on the investigated farms on nadiel land from
7,398,449 roubles to 9,224,963 roubles, that is by 1,826,514 roubles or 24.6
per cent. ; on the farms on lands of the Peasants' I^and Bank and the State
domains — according to the estimate of the possessors themselves — from
2,136,159 roubles to 3,098,866 roubles, that is by 962,707 roubles or 45.1 per
cent.

b) Live and Other Stock.

Before the settlement the land was so spUt up that the employment of
modern agricultural machinery was not only economical!}^ unprofitable but
also technically impossible. This condition altered rapidly after the strips
of land had been united, and the change from the three-field system to that
of intensive agriculture accomplished. The primitive implements — the
plough-hatchets, the wooden harrows — have been superseded ; new ma-
chines have been bought to an important extent, such as sowing, mowing,
winnowing and threshing machines. This is especially the case in houtor
farmS; on some of which the value of all the stock other than live stock is
double what it was originally. The employment of agricultural machines
has been extended by the depots of zem.stvos and the government as well as
b}' private owners. The corn-winnowing and sorting machines have espe-
cially increased in number in the north and north west provinces; the sowing,
mowing and hay-harvesting machines in those of the south and south east.
The total value of the stock other than live stock rose in the 17,567 farms on
nadiel land from 836,642 roubles to 1,174,327 roubles, that is by 40.4 per
cent.; in the farms on lands of the bank and the State domains it rose from
382,584 roubles to 779,558 roubles, that is it was nearly doubled.

The live stock increased absolutely on all the farms investigated, if they
be taken together, but not in the same measure as the other stock. As regards

gS RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

live stock the proportionate increase or decrease differs very much in the
two classes of farms : on the lands of the Peasants' I,and Bank and the State
domains, where the newly bought land had to be cultivated, the number of
animals increased throughout on every farm ; but in the farms on nadiel
land, especially in the first years, the average number for each farm was shght-
ly diminished. The number of the horses was reduced from 24,507 to 23,589,
that is by 3.7 per cent ; that of the cows from 21,845 to 21,607, that is by
I.I per cent.; and the number of the sheep from 46,720 to 30,384, that is
by 35 per cent.

The diminution of live stock is to be ascribed to the fact that when re-
movals took place, more or less spontaneously, to the self-contained farms
held in severaltj^ the earlier common meadows were in most cases done
away with, and the stall-feeding of live stock is as yet not practised to a
compensatory extent. The state of affairs is to be regarded however as
only transitory ; for as soon as all the elements existing in a farm have been
adjusted to the new factors affecting them, an increase in the number of
live stock occurs. This is noticeably so in the case of sheep, as to which
to accept the statement that in the new conditions of peasant farming their
number dwindles would be unjustifiable or at least premature. The inves-
tigations made at the Pultava experimental station have discovered, in
this connection, that sheep herded on meadows and fed in stalls are almost
equally profitable, and that the reduction in the number of sheep is transi-
tory. At the beginning of the land settlement, when farms were being
reorganized, the keeping of sheep diminished owing to the lack of meadows ;
but as the farm adjusted itself to the new conditions sheep, pasturing near
the homestead and fed at night with some summer grass and grass of the
steppes, appeared again (i).

As regards cattle generally the decrease in their number is throughout
very small, especially if a calculation be based on a given area of land in-
stead of a single farm. It is then discovered than on every 100 deciatines
of all the land, whether newly settled or not, the following average number
of live stock is found.

Young
Horses Cows stock Pigs

In i^ixms, on nadiel Idind 11. 7 10.7 7.1 13. i

» )) » bank » & State domains 11. 3 7.6 57 6.9

It appears thus that, when the calculation is made for a given area, the
nadiel farms, although generally only half as large as those on bank lands
and State domains, are more richly pro\'ided with five stock. This relation
between the two classes of farms is particularly clear when the amount of
livestock held on farms of the two categories in single provinces is compared,.
as in the following tables.

(i) Review of Agtarian Assistance given in the Districts of the Land Organization in the Govern-
ment of Pultava in 1914. Pubishcd by the Government Zemstvos of l*iiltava, 1915. p. 45.

THE RESUI.TS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM

99

Farms on Nadiel Land.

Average

area of

investigated

farms
in deciatines

On loo deciatines

Draught
horses

Cows

Young Stock

Pigs

1. Nikolajevsk

2. Krasnoufimsk ....

3. Berdjansk

4. Ostrov

5. Rschev

6. Trokki

7. Sitschevka

8. Mologa

9. Orel

10. Bogoduchov

11. Krementschug ....

Average

48.2
23.2
16.5
14.7
13-8
11.7

II 3
10.7

8.4
7.8
5-9

13.8

6.1

11.8
15

11.7

3-5
9.3
7-4
21.8
14.1
18.3
12.7
12.9

II-3
II. 2

12.6

2-3

6.5
4.8
8.0
6.3

I3-I
6.6
6.8
6-5
9-9

12.7

10.7

7-1

2.5

4-7

5-6

11.7

7.8
37-2
10.7

4-3

9.3

18.9

18.4

I3-I

Farms on Lands of the Agrarian Bank and State Domains.

1. Nikolajevsk

2. Krasnoufimsk

3. Ostrov

4. Berdjansk

5. Mologa

6. Orel

7. Jepifany

8. Krementschug

9. Bogoduchov .

Average . .

38.2

3I-I
22.4
21.7
20.0
15-7
15-3
12.3
II-3

21.9

11.7

8.2

6.7

12.0

6.7

12.8

14.2

10.7

19-5

"•3

5-2
6.6

15-5
5-6

12.7
8.9
7-7
9.7

10.8

7.6

4.1
4.6
7-4
3-3
6.7
6.6

6.5

10.4

9.4

5-7

4.2

3-4

8.9

7-4

8.4

102

8.6

144
16.6

6.9

If these two tables be compared it appears that the average number of
cattle kept per 100 deciatines is in most provinces rather higher on nadiel
farms then on those on bank and crown lands. In four provinces — Mologa,

lOO RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAIv ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Ostrov, Rschev and Trokki — the number of cows per lOO deciatines is
higher in both classes of farms than that of horses, a circumstance closely
connected with the whole method of farming in these provinces, namely
with the improved field system, especially with a view to Uve stock and dairy
farming, and with the more extensive cultivation of grass for fodder. In
the other provinces however corn growing prevails and this naturally causes
draught animals to have most importance among the live stock. For the
rest, in every province in which owing to bad harvests or general causes
there has been a reduction of live-stock, such reduction is relatively least
noticeable in the newly formed farms held in severalty, which circumstance
is a clear sign of the staying power of these and their fitness to bear burdens.

§ 9. Agricultural assistance and the extension of co-operation.

Agricultural assistance was afforded to the newly formed farms in the
provinces of Ostrov, Sitschevka, Mologa, Orel, Berdjansk and Krementschug
by the zemstvos ; in the provinces of Trokki, Rschev, Jepif any, Bogoduchov
and Krasnoufinisk by the government ; and in that of Nikolajevsk by the
zemstvo and the government. At first the help given took such forms as
demonstrations, adapted to needs ; and instruction given to the peasants
by means of the organization of model farms and experimental cultures;
the foundation of stations for cleaning seeds, warehouses for machines and
stud farms ; the holding of lectures and courses, and the arrangement of
cattle shows. It was sought to provide the peasants with the knowledge
necessary to farming. I^ater, as the staff of agriculturists increased, it
became possible to undertake individual instruction, to know the peculiar-
ities of every single farm and direct it to that path by which it could secure
technical advantages and be economically profitable. Out of the system of
provincial agricultural assistance arose the so called Zevier agricultural
organization, which very much narrows the activities of the province and
therefore gives more attention to single farms. If hitherto corn growing
had dominated among forms of agriculture and had been the general ob-
ject of farming, so that the prosperity of peasant farmers depended on a sin-
gle factor, it was the task of the organization of the local experts to introduce
other forms of agriculture, so that the peasants' income might depend vipon
several factors, and when one of these failed the^^ might derive compen-
sation from another.

The type and the amount of expert help afforded in the twelve districts
investigated appears from the following table :

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM

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102

RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

As the table shows, the organization of the local agricultural experts
was of much later origin than the settlement of the self-contained peasants'
farms. This organization extends its support not only to the newh' formed
farms but also to all farms within its circle of activit}', and its help thus
reaches the whole rural population. For this reason the whole number of
newly formed farms which at the time of the enquiry had had support from
the agricultural experts, in the form of advice or UKDre practically, was not
large, as appears from the following table :

The Absolute and Relative Number of the Neuiy Formed Farms
on which the Local Agricultural Experts gave Instruction.

Name of Province

Total Number

of

Investigated Farms

except those
as to which facts
were incomplete

Number

of these Farms

as to which

the

Experts advised

Percentage

of whole

Number of Farms

1. Berdjansk

2. Bogoduchov .....

3. Jepifany.

4. Krasnoutimsk ....

5. Krementschus ....

6. Mologa

7. Nikola] evsk .....

8. Orel.

9. Ostrov.

10. Rschev

11. Sitschevka.

12. Trokki

Total

1,691
3,658
1,509
1,314

2.137

337

1,891

1,095

1,335

658

1,373
2,769

19,767

225
639
971
618

974
228
426
638
400

3"

248

1,137

6,8l;

13-3
17-5
643
47.0

45.6
67.7
22.5

58.3
30.0

47-3
18.1
41. 1

34-5

Thus onh^ 34.5 per cent, of the newly formed farms have been able
to draw profit from the organization of local experts ; all the others were
directed to the common measures undertaken in the interest of all the
rural population — the model farms, the experimental cultures and the
others. The organization has been universall}- valuable to the rural
districts, and has much promoted co-operation, in the form of agricultural
co-operative societies, dair^^ co-operative credit societies, consumers'
unions and so forth. The number of peasant farmers adhering to co-
operative unions rose ver\^ notably after the land settlement, especially in
the case of agricultural societies, for the members of these who were houtor
and otroub farmers was almost multiplied by five.

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 10'

The following table shows the development of these relations before
and at the time of the enquiry-, and on nadiel lands and lands of the bank
and the domains.

Number of

Farmer Members

of Co-operative Unions

All Co-operative Unions |

Co-operative Credit Unions |

Agricultural Societies

Other Co-operative Unions \

Date

of
fact (i)

On Nadiel

Land

On Lands
of the Bank and
State Domains

a
b

2,677
6.291

561
2,665

a

h

2,520
6,023

540
2,610

a
h

95
464

29

a
b

349

23
108

§ 10. Agriculture in the newly formed peasants' farms.

The agrarian reform has freed peasant farming from the fetters of the
ohstschina of the common land. The Fliirzwang and its consequences
— simultaneous preparation of the soil, sowing, harvesting and other
operations on the part of all holders — no longer limit peasant farming,
which has come to develop more freely and to use fully all the available
land and labour. This process of adjusting the newly settled peasants'
farms to natural and agricultural factors is now in full swing but has of
course not yet come to an end in its most important respects. Yet already
at the time of the enquiry the following general conclusions could be made
as to agriculture.

The three-field system, formerly universally prevalent, no longer dom-
inates agriculture but begins to give place to other and more perfect sys-
tems. In the north western district the change is in the direction of a
production of the raw materials of manufacture, flax being the most import-
ant crop and one which can be well marketed. Rschev is an example
of a district in which the three-field is being exchanged for a six-field system,
the following being the order of succession : (i) fallow land is manured ;

(i) a = before the enquiry; 6 = at the time of the enquiry.

104 RUSSIA - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL

(2) rye crop followed by sowing of clover; (3) clover of the first year; (4) clover
of the second year ; (5) flax, and (6) oats. If the market for flax be good, flax
also forms the sixth crop. This system reduces by half the extent of land
which lies fallow under the three-field system, and moreover two divisio'ns
are planted with fodder grasses (clover) which, as is well known, enrich
the soil with nitrogen. In other districts — as in Krasnoufimsk, Orel and to
some extent in Jepif any — the improvement of agriculture is directed princi-
pally towards growing fodder grasses. A whole series of transitory systems,
intervening between three-field and more-field farming, is to be met with
everywhere. As yet they have not crystallized but they have broken
away from the rigidity of three-field farming.

In the southern districts, remarkable for black earth, wheat grow-
ing outweighs all other forms of agriculture. The fertility of the soil makes
manuring almost superfluous. The improvement in agriculture has here
especially affected the technique of farming : fields are ploughed more often,
stubble is turned, sowing is done by machinerj^ fallow land, whether black
earth, virgin or previously ctdtivated soil, is brought under cultivation, and
so forth. This leads too to retention of humidity in the soil, a matter which
in the south is very important. New crops are also planted, as vetch, clo-
ver, lucerne grass. The three-field system thus loses ground of necessit5^
In the district of Bogoduchov, for example, under the influence of the model
fields, the following four-field system has been introduced : (i) virgin, clean
and manured fallow land sown with vetch as situation allows ; (2) winter
rye slowly replaced by winter wheat ; (3) millet, buck-wheat, potatoes, beet-
root or beans, that is plants requiring a medium amount of labour ; (4)
summer barley. The crops on the third of these divisions —the hoed crops
— take up on an average 12 per cent, of the whole cultivated area, on hou-
tor farms 18 per cent.

On farms on nadiel land the transition to better agricultural systems
is on the whole more marked than on those on lands of the Peasants'
Agrarian Bank and the crown. That the better methods of distributing
crops and employing the soil have already had good results, and that the
yield of the newh' settled peasants' farms has largely increased, appear
from the following table, in which comparisons are made in the case of
crops of six kinds for the years 191 2 and 191 3.

THE RESUI,TS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM

105

The Yields in the Chief Grain Crops and Potatoes.

Average yield
of deciatine
in puds (i)

1912 1913

/ Nadiel farms 54.0 54.4

j^ \ Bank lands 66.5 65.6

. J lyands of village communities. . . 50.1 51.2

' lyands of estate holders 58.9 63.6

f Nadiel farms 54.4 82.6

Winter Wheat 1 Bank lands ; • • • 45-2 73-0

J I^ands of village communities. . . 62.6 63.3

\ I^ands of estate holders 65.9 78.9

. Nadiel farms 49.8 55.6

c, „,, . \ Bank lands 57.6 61.8

Summer Wheat . ,. , r -n -.l-

i Lands 01 village communities. . . 41.0 51.0

' Land of estate holders 41.6 47.6

/ Nadiel farms . 68,1 72.8

Oats ' ^^^ ^^^^^ 77-6 75-6

i Lands of village communities. . . 55.9 59.9

\ Lands of estate holders 60.1 69.3

/ Nadiel farms 65.9 66.1

Barley ) ^^"^^ ^^^^^ • • • • ^7-5 734

] Lands of village communities. . . 53.7 60.4

' Lands of estate holders 59.0 68.1

/ Nadiel farms 623.4 570.1

Potatoes ' ^^''^ ^"""^^ 5514 440-9

' • ' • j i^ands of village communities. . . 451.8 421.0

V Lands of estate holders . . . . , 451.8 570.6

That the average yield of the lands of the Land Bank and the crown
is somewhat higher than that of the nadiel lands is to be explained by the
fact that most of the investigated farms on lands of the former categorj' lie
in the black earth area, and are moreover of earlier foundation, while their
soil has been less exhausted by tillage and farming than that of those on
nadiel land. In general the differences in yield are not very important,
for in the course of so short a period as three or four years the yieding capa-
city of the soil on the newly settled peasant farms could not be fundamen-
tally altered. It is however a great gain if it can be established that within
this short period the yielding capacity of the self-contained farms held in
severalty has surpassed that of the land still held by the peasants in
common.

(i) I pud = 40 lbs.

I06 RUSSIA - AGRICUI.TUKAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

CONCLUSIONT.

The conclusions as to wliich the enquiry into the unified peasants'
farms has led are chiefly the following :

(i) More than three quarters of the investigated farms on nadiel land
received their parcels of land (the site of the homestead being left out of
account) in a single self-contained piece after the land settlement. On the
other hand before the settlement more than three quarters of the farms had
their land distributed in at least six strips, and generally in thirty, forty,
or even a hundred.

(2) Half the peasant farmers have been allotted nadiel lands distant
by hardly a verst from their homesteads. But before the laud settle-
ment three quarters of them held land more than a verst distant from their
homesteads, and a third of them land five versts or more thence distant.

(3) The land settlement was most advantageous to the average peas-
ants' farms, those to which small or medium-sized holdings attached. The
extent of land provided for the newly settled nadiel farms was approxim-
ately equal to that locally normal, except in two districts where it was more
extensive and in three where it v/as noticeably less so. In general otroub
farmers are somewhat better provided with land than houtor farmers.

(4) Of the 7.7 per cent, of the farmers who had given up their farms
on the newly settled land, 5.1 per cent, were those who, instead of the land
the3' sold, had acquired a larger piece from the Peasants' I/and Bank, the
crown or private owners ; others had emigrated to Siberia, and others had
made the chief part of their income as employees or traders. Only 2.3
per cent, sold the land allotted to them without having, at the time of the
enquiry, bought other land or provided for themselves by some trade.

(5) Of the newly settled farms 2.2 per cent, were subdivided among
members of families, as the result of inheritance, after the settlement.

(6) ]\Iore than 40 per cent, of the peasants have carried out on their
lands improvements of which the average value is 53 roubles a farm (about
47 roubles on farms on nadiel lands and some 70 roubles on those on bank
lands) .

(7) After the land settlement the total value of the buildings and the
possessions on the newly formed peasants' farms rose b}^ 27.7 per cent.

(8) About a fourth of the farmers were helped bj^ the crown after
the settlement with money. Of them 2.3 per cent, had the money granted
to them without obligation to repay it. The average amount of the grant
was 105 roubles a farm, or 44 per cent, of the average cost of removing build-
ings to new sites and carrying out improvements.

(9) The number of the peasants who became members of co-operative
unions was, after the settlement, more than doubled among the otroub farm-
ers and quadrupled among the houtor farmers.

(10) The number of farms on which fodder was grown and a success-
ion of crops maintained over several years was quadrupled after the land
settlement. ,

THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 'TO7

(11) The harvest yield in 1912 and 1913 was in the oven\'helming
majority of cases higher on the newly settled farms than on those still
in common ownership, and still burdened with the system by which a hold-
ing was made up of scattered parcels. Not infrequently it was higher on
the newly settled farms than on the estates of private owners.

We repeat that when these results are considered it should always
be borne in mind that the newly formed peasants' self-contained farms,
enjoying conditions created by the land settlement, had at the time of the
en(|uiry existed onl}' for three or four years. Their reorganization, the re-
modelling of all farming on them, had only just begun ; and it had been ne-
cessary for the farmers to spend much time, labour and money in order to
make them fit for agricultural operations a§ quickly as possible. As regards
production the first years were of course the least fruitful : they were the least
fa\'ourable period in the existence of the farms. And although agronomic
enterprise on the part of both the government and the zemstvos helped the
peasants in their farming, both with advice and more practical^, the peasants
nevertheless, since help of this kind became available comparatively late,
depended most on themselves and on their own experience and initiative.
I^'inal conclusions could not therefore be made as to the position of the farms :
the enquiry could only indicate their possible developments and establish
their tendencies. For these ends the available material was sufficiently
enlightening. It showed that almost all the investigated farms have happily
survived the critical period of reorganization and that their economic posi-
tion points distinctly to improved and more profitable farming. An unen-
cimibered title to the land, the emancipation of labour from all local and
communal burdens, the concentration of all force and all knowledge on
the better employment of a holding granted "for eternity", the conscious-
ness that trouble spent on the soil will not be lost — all this has had a mar-
vellous influence on the whole course of farming as well as on the holders'
daily Hves. Among individual peasants fixed and strengthening halnts
of temperance are to be observed, habits which were introduced on that
memorable day on which by the Tsar's will they were proclaimed as com-
pulsory for the whole nation.

URUGUAY.

THE REFORM OF THE LAND TAX FROM THE POINT OF VIEW
OF AGRICULTURE AND BREEDING.

SOURCES :

I^EY DE CONTRIBUCION INMOBILIAR PARA LOS DEPARTAMENTOS DEI, LITORAL E INTERIOR (LaW US

to the Contribution of Real Estate in the Departments of the Coast and the Interior) Diario
Oficia], No. 3018, 18 January 1916.

ReCARGO en la CONTRIBUC16N INMOBILIARIA A LOS PKOPIETARIOS NO DOMICILIADOS EN EL

Pais (Law Increasing the Contribution of Real Fstate far Proprietors not domiciled luithin
the Countr}) Diario Oficial, N" 3029, 31 January 1916.

Decreto reglamentario DE LA LEY QXJE ANiECEDE {Decree giving a ruling as to the Pre-
ceding Law) Diario Oficial, No. 3029, 31 January 1916.

BOLETIN DET MiNiSTERio DE iriACiENDA (Bulletin oj the Minister oj Finance) 2nd j^ear, Nos. 10,
II and 12, 20 Oclober, 20 November and 20 DecemV)er 1915 ; 3rd year, Nos. i, 2 and 3,
20 Januan,', 20 February and 20 Match 191 6.

A certain number of legislative measures bearing on finance have
recently been promulgated by the government of the eastern republic of
Uruguay. They are of interest, some of them directly and some indirectly,
to rural landed propert)^ and agriculture ; and therefore they deserve detailed
examination in this Review, the more so because they have given rise to
long discussions in the general press and technical pubhcations and in
Parliament. Moreover they tend, while they give a national basis to the
land tax, to develop the value of rural landed property, for they devote
a part of the new revenue arising from them to the making and the multi-
plication of routes of communication in the interior of the country.

They .should be regarded therefore not only as important modifica-
tions of the national fiscal arrangements, biit also as an attempt to distrib-
ute more equitably the tax which burdens landed property, while aim-
ing at creating new revenues which will favour the appreciation of lands
and proportionately increase the agriculturist's sources of profits.

The measures which we will analy.se individualh^ are : (i) the law of
14 January 1916 as to the contribution to the revenue of real estate in the
de^jartments of the coast and the interior ; (2) the law of the same date which
increases the contribution of real estate and falls on landowners who are not
domiciled within the countr^^; and (3) the decree of 27 JanuarA^ which regu-

THE REFORM OF THE I,AND TAX I09

lates the public enforcement of the previous laws. The two latter meas-
ures complete the regime instituted by the first.

In view of the importance of the breeding of live stock, and of indus-
tries thence derivative, to Uruguayan economy, we will devote a para-
graph of this short study to the reaction of the new financial arrangements
on tliis form of activity-, and will therefore briefly examine the present state
of breeding in relation to fiscal burdens.

§ r. The xew t,aw as to the contribution of reai, estate.

a) i*^ Chief Provisions.

x\rticle I of the law of 14 January 1916 institutes an annual tax on
privately owned real estate, whatever be the form of ownership, which is
situated in any territory of the republic except the department of Monte-
video. Tliis tax is one of 4 per thousand on the value of rural lands, apart
from that of anj- improvements which they ma}^ have received, if their
estimated value do not exceed 2500 pesos (i) and if the\' constitute the
only rural property of their owner. On lands of which the estimated
value exceeds 2500 pesos the tax is of 4 14 per thousand (2). Within urban
and suburban districts it is of 6 y, per thousand, on the combined valued
of land and improvements.

According to article 3 owners of fields within rural districts, of which
the area does not exceed 50 hectares (3) and of which at least 60 per cent.
is under cultivation or has been reforested, will be taxed on only half the
taxable value of these lands as determined by the valuation. When their
total extent exceeds 50 hectares, only that portion of them which is
destined for agriculture or forestation will benefit by this preference.

Of the revenue yielded by the tax -of 6 ^4 P^r thousand on urban and
suburban property i per thousand will accrue to the economic admi-
nistrative commissions of each department and 5 14 P'^r thousand to the
general revenue of the country. The product of the 4 I/2 P^r thousand
tax on rural property will be divided as follows : (a) i per thousand to
the economic administrative commissions of each department ; [h) ^ per
thousand to the permanent fund for routes of comnumi cation : and
[c) 3 per thousand to the general revenue of the State.

Article 6 estabhshes that for the two financial years 1915-1916 and
1916-917 the tax on rural real estate will be fixed by the general directing body
of land valuation and according to the estimated value determined b}' the
new census of rural landed proi)erty, less 20 per cent. " The general direc-

(i) I peso -= about 4.s- yi at par.

(2) This preferential treatment ot small property was not provided In- the original scheme,
which fixed the land tax at 5 per thousand without making distir.ction^.

(3) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

no URUGL'AV - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

tors of valuation ", runs the text of this article, " will take into account
among other things, in fixing the value of rural property, the market price
of the lands and the income they probably yield, the latter being taken to
represent at least 4 per cent, of the estimated value". Article 23, which
refers to appeals, recognizee a right in ever\' proprietor, who believes him-
self to be wronged by the quota of the tax incident on his real estate, to
demand a new valuation from the competent authorit}'. If he do not ac-
cept this second valuation the dispute will be brought before a commission
of experts who will comprise, as well as members of the local municipal
administration and the administrations of finance and the cadaster, four
landowners domiciled in the district and chosen by the executive authority
from a list of the principal tax payers. The latter will be drawn up by the
departmental financial authority. This commission will, in examining the
values estimated by the census, take into account the selling price of neigh-
bouring rural properties resembling those under consideration, making
deductions for improvements, and also the rent of the real estate in question
and of others in the district. Where such rent exists the value as estimated
shall be considered as a capital bearing interest at a rate between 3 and 4
per cent. : that is to say that if a property, or adjacent lands of approxim-
atety the same quaHty, be let at a rent of S 1.50 the hectare the estimated
value cannot exceed S 50 nor be less than S 37-50.

The parties concerned, that is to say the departmental agent of the
administration of finance and the landowner, can appeal against these
decsions of the local commission of experts to the central commission of
experts constituted at IMontevideo and comprising the general director of
direct taxation, the president of the rural association of Uruguay, and a
rural landowner of the department whence the appeal arises who will be
nominated by the executive power. The decision of the central commission
will be final.

Properties of which the value does not exceed 100 pesos are, among
other real estate, exempted from pa3'ment of the tax, as are properties be-
longing to rural societies and permanent^ assigned to agricultural exhibi-
tions and competitions, and 50 per cent, of reforestation areas depending
on agricultural and breeding establishments.

We leave on one side all the provisions as to urban and suburban real
estate, to examine which would be outside the scope of this article.

The law will be in force, in the form \Ahich has been indicated, for two
years.

b) The Basis of the Law and the Census of Property.

As can be seem from the brief summary \\liich we have giVen of the
law's chief provisions, it is inspired by a principle which is already applied
in other countries.

The Uruguayan IMinister of Finances recalled, in the explanatory'
note which he addressed on 26 November to the president of the financial
commission of the Chamber of Representatives, for the better definition of

THE REFORM OF THE LAND TAX

the scheme then being studied, that he aimed at superseding the old method
of taxing land according to rented value b^' that alread}- applied in Great
Britain and Germany for the benefit of the State, and in Australia for the
benefit of the municipalities, the method namely which was based on capi-
tal or market values.

The system hitherto in force in Uruguay' was that of taxation by dis-
tricts. But the minister in this note observed that " the rudimentary and
arbitrary regulation by districts could exist only while there were no other
means of arriving at a trul}" equal distribution of the tax ; the method of
taxing by districts interpreted in truth a principle in direct contradiction
to the modern tendency of taxation, of which the incidence should be pro-
portionate to the capacity to pa}^ " . To support his thesis the minister gave
the following example. If in the same district there were fields worth
respectively- S lOO, § 120, S 150, S 200 and 8 250 the hectare, their average
value would be S 164, on which taxable value the 6 y2 P^r thousand tax would
be imposed. But thus, in relation to the -true value of his property,
each proprietor would pay at an inverse ratio to his capacity- to pay :
the owners of the first field 10.66 per thousand, the owner of the second
8.80, the owner of the third 7.10, the owner of the fourth 5.33, and the
owner of the fifth 4.30

To reach the present law a new census of rural propertA' was first
necessar}^ until there rhould exist a sj'stematically drawn-tip cadaster, the
preparation of which would take long. The new census has beecn completed
with remarkable celerity in quite recent years.

Those in charge of the valuation took into account, in determining
the value of estates, data in the registry of sales, and in most cases they
were able to obtain plans of the real estates and their dimensions from sur-
veyors employed by private persons. Thus it was possible to prepare a
sufficiently true and exact classification of rural properties.

The necessary- basis therefore existed for applying to rural real estate
the method of taxation already in force in the case of urban real estate,
namely the method accordant with their precise and indi\ddual values;
and the figures of the new census, which allow lands to be burdened accord-
ing to the effective capital they represent, support the whole edifice of the
reform we are considering.

In adopting the capital value of landed property as the basis of the
tax, the government of Uruguay took into account conditions which are
peculiar to all new countries in the full period of their growth, when their
natural resources are still far from being developed" or 3'ielding their maxi-
mum return. The value of Uruguayan land may have fallen slightly
in 1914-T915, owing to the extensive reaction from events in Europe ; but it
remains a value of which the increase is certain in normal times, and which
at present has in no way reached the highest point possible to it.

The following table shows the progress in the value of the lands of
the republic during the last ten years :

112 URUGUAY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

Table I. — Increase in the Value of Landed Property.

Value of Landed
Year Property

I9O4-I905 % 195,706,770

I905-I906 391,413,540

I906-I907 471,771,905

I9O7-I908 552,130,270

I90S-I9O9 632,488,635

I909-I9IO 712,847,000

1913-1914 1,069,270,500

I9I4-I915 855,416,400

It is evident that in face of such an increase in the value of property
it would be foolish to fix the tax according to the returns received by a
landowner who does not cultivate his fields himself, but who lets them in
order that they may be made productive.

c) The Product oi the Tax and its Application.

The agrarian policy of the government of Uruguay' aims steadih' at
the development of agriculture and breeding, the country's chief resources.
We will not examine in detail the many measures which are proof of this
constant preoccupation, but will merely note in passing that it devotes one
million pesos a year to guaranteeing the railways which are of interest
to rural districts, and has devoted about a million more to rural roads and
bridges, and that it spends considerable sums annually on the sanitary
inspection of animals, agricultural defence and such objects. In fact all
forms of agricultural activity are encouraged and scientificalh' developed
in the public interest of the country.

This policy is from the strictly fiscal point of view the only logical one,
as is clear when the receipts of the treasury from rural property and
urban property, respectively, are considered. The purely conventional
taxable value of rural propertj^ which was respected under the system of
districts, was 8370,593,445 and this at 6 ^ per thousand 3-ielded §2,408,857,
as against 8406,555 which was the effective value of urban and suburban
propertj' and yielded a tax of $ 321,143. But the new census makes the
difference much more considerable for it raises the taxable value (that is
the amount of the capital value less 20 per cent.) of rural property to
3 712,000,000, which sum gives, when ijt is rendered liable to the 4 V^
per thousand tax, an annual yield of § 3,204,000, that is ten times the
sum furnished by urban property which subsists unchanged.

The importance to the government of a progressive increase in the capital
formed b}' rural propert}' is thus seen, and the fact that y^ P^^ thousand out
of the 4 ^2 P^r thousand tax will be paid into a special fund for roads and
communications will not fail to contribute to this imoortance. The ne-

THE REFORM OF THE LAND TAX II3

cessit^^ of making new and improving old roads cannot be questioned, for
all the agricultural congresses untiringly insist on this point. For want
of fixed resources for this end the public authorities have not hitherto
been able to give the needed continuity to their roadmaking enterprise.
The topographical conditions of Uruguay are very unfavourable to it, owing
to the considerable number of watercourses which roads must cross and
which must increase the costs of construction and maintenance. When a
system of roads and paths has been established in all districts the transport
of products will be facilitated and rendered infiniteh' less costly, and the
value of the lands therefore increased. Under the system of districts
the eighteen departments within the scope of the new law, which have an
area of 17,064,865 hectares of rural land, disposed of only § 370,594 for
bridges and roads, the employment of tliis sum being regulated by admin-
istrative economic commissions. Under the new system the sum accru-
ing to these commissions will be about -S 700,000, partly destined for the
improvement of local roads. In addition about $ 350,000 a year will, as
has been said, form the nucleus of a special permanent fvmd for bridges
and roads, and this sum will increase proportionately with the increasing
value of the lands.

§ 2. Breedin'g and the tax on reae estate.

Before becoming law the scheme for reforming the land tax gave rise
to the most lively discussion and was the object of many criticisms,
especially on the part of stock breeders. These considered that the rate
at which it was proposed that they should pay aggravated their burden,
although breeding, the " mother industry " of the country, was already
heavily taxed.

The government did not not fail to examine the objections submitted by
the stock breeders, who contribute very largely to the wealth of the country,
and replied to them by giving precise data which allowed their partici-
pation in public burdens to be exacth' estimated.

On referring to the table giving the rise in the value of lands, it is seen
that in ten years the capital represented by land has increased by 600,000,000
pesos. The 6 % per thousand contribution of real estate did not follow the
growth in the value of real estate, and was still calculated on $423,000,000
instead of on .$ 1,069,270,500 in 1913, and on a little less than $900,000,000
in 1915. Thus the land tax represented a total annual burden of about
is 2,730,000.

The contribution of breeding to public and municipal revenue is re-
presented by the export duty (i), as well as the land tax : namely bj' the port

nient .

i) The pri) luct^ ot the frceziny iiuhislry are (.xempted in onkr In tncnuragc its develop-

114

URUGUAY - AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY IN GEXERAL

dut}^ of I per cent., the charge of i 14 P^r thousand for the patent to
circulate, the tax of 25 ten-thousandths a kilogramme on live stock
intended for the freezing chambers, and the statistical tax. Altogether
the fiscal burdens on breeding were equivalent in 1914-1915 to 4.62 per
thousand of the value of riiral lands, as against 5.21 per thousand in
1911-1912 and 5.06 per thousand in 1909-1910.

The following figures show the total amount of the fiscal revenue de-
rived from breeding :

Table II. — Fiscal Burdens on Stock-Breeding.

Total Product
of. the Various
Year Taxes and

— Duties

I9O9-I9IO $ 3,606,677

I9IO-I9II 3,270,857

I9II-I9I2 . 4,459,685

1912-1913 4.3i9'533

1913-1914 3,920,622

1914-1915 %95S,^^7

Thus taxes on breeding do not furnish as much as four million pesos
a year, in spite of the increase in value of landed property and the fact
that the price of live stock has been multiplied by five in the last twenty
years.

The following table shows the variations in the price of live stock from
1 91 1 to 1915, according to the export figures.

Table III..
Variations in the Price of Live Stock Exported in one Month, from 1911 to 1915.

Kind of Live Stock

September
191 1

W-.

rt o a

September
1912

I^IS

September
1913

September
1914

September
1915

K-5

60° C

Sua

60° .5

Bullocks
Oxen . .

Cows . .

6,951
1,177
5.968

26.61 10,105
29.59! 1,412
18.89J 7,208

Calves 2,9241 7. II; 1,370

26.34 ",933
33.85 1,014
23-30J 2,778
13-491 977

45-77
53-46

13,100
838

57-68

37,668 64.27
2,386,66.77

65.58

38.44! 7,344j45-84j 8,325146.72
21.64 1,85119.33 1,838120.45

As regards the development of the live stock industry, the data which
we give below, and which refer to the export of the chief products of live

THE REFORM OF THE LAND TAX II5

stock — salted and dried ox-skins, dried sheepskins, wool, frozen meat
and preserved meat itasajo) — allow its stages to be followed.

Table IV. — Annual Value of Exported Products of Live Stock.

Official Values (approximate)

1892 $ 25,951,819 1905 $ 33,437.888

1893 27,681,373 1906 30,805,061

1894 33.479.511 1907 34,912,872

1895 32,543.644 1908 40,296,367

1896 30,403,084 1909 45,103,422

1897 29,319,573 1910 43,699,798

1898 30,276,916 1911 46,015,834

1899 36,574,164

^^ ^ o^ (Effective values)

1900 29,410,862

I9OI 27,762,782 I912 53,041,855

1902 33.660,300 I913 69,771,530

1903 37.369.402 I9I4 51,208,955

1904 38,484,817 T915 (January- Aug.) 41,896,155

If we take into account only these values and not the circumstances,
alleged by the breeders, that the considerable mortality among live stock
last year has made their situation particularly difficult, we see that the value
of the land has risen, that that of production has increased, that the frozen
meat industry — which has a direct relation to breeding — has developed
importantly, and that the total contribution of breeders to the State has
diminished, absolutely and relatively.

As the government has itself observed, it would profit by a suppres-
sion of all secondary taxes and dues and the retention of only an " in-
dustrial patent ", subsisting side by side with the land tax, as in the
Argentine Republic where such patent amounts to 2 per thousand of the
value of lands. For the moment the system in force has not however
been changed in any way: products are taxed on leaving the country
on the presumption that persons who have realized an industrial profit
will thus contribute rather than the breeders.

Since the law of 14 January 1916 was voted after a simple debate,
the supposition is that the breeders have recognized its advantage, as
shown by the arguments of the government supported b}' official statistics.

§ 3. The IvAnd tax and landowners not resident in the country.

On 14 January 1916 the Parliament of Uruguay voted a law which
completes that on the contribution of real estate. As therein provided,
persons and corporations who are not domiciled in the country, that is
whose business has its headquarters abroad, will pay double the tax im-

Il6 URUGUAY - AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY IX GENERAL

posed by the law which we have examined. The same Habiht}^ attaches
to landowners who, while they are domiciled in the territory' of the repub-
lic, have been outside it for more than a year when the tax becomes
pa3'able. Exemption from this additional liability is given to foreign com-
mercial or industrial companies who are established in the country by a
State grant, to the properties on which they conduct the industry or trade
which is the object of the grant, and to certain properties in the coast
watering-places of the country.

The landowner affected by article I of this law, who does not make the
stipulated payment, will be liable to a fine of 20 per cent, of the amount
of the tax on his real estate, including the additional tax.

Moreover by a clause which is proof of the desire to strike at the owner
rather than the lessee, the law establishes that the additional tax is payable
by the landlord, even if the lease stipulate that the land tax is to fall on
the lessee.

As a consequence of the provisions we have indicated, the decree
regulating the law establishes that deposit and discount banks, credit banks
and institutions, and societies and individuals who administer real estate
belonging to the persons included by article i of the law, must in the course
of February' of each year notify such fact to the directors of direct taxation
in the capital and the administration of revenues in the departments, giv-
ing all required information as to the name, qualit}' and domicile of the pro-
prietors they represent. The administration will thus be able to prepare
a register of absentee proprietors.

The IVIinister of Finances has made a point of stating exactly, on ii
March IQ16, the principle of the law, which is " to tax the absentee landlord,
owing to the economic evil caused to a country by a j^roprietor letting his
real estate to others who develop it with their own capital ".

The government wished especially to exempt from this provision the
large Liebig establishments, on the ground that the capital emploj'ed on
this enterprise, which was at first foreign, has been so invested in Uruguay
that there has been an incorporation of positive wealth, of a factor of pro-
duction, and of an element which so raises the value of the products of
breeding that it has given birth to a centre of industrial life, and caused a
numerous labouring population to be established on the country's soil.

MISCELIvANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL
ECONOMY IN GENERAL IN YARIOUvS COUNTRIES.

ITALY.

I. RECENT :MEASL'RES AS TO AGRICUI,TUR.\Iy CONTRACTS. — GazzeUa Uffidale
del Regno d'ltalia, No. 261, Rome, 7 November igi6.

B}' a decree of the Lieutenant General of the kingdom, dated 2 Nov-
ember 1916, No. 1480, important steps have been taken as to agricultural
contracts, always with the idea of helping agriculturists to overcome the
difficulties of the present time. The principal provisions are as follows :

Agricultural contracts in writing or by word of mouth, whether in-
volving some system of partnership or a fixed wage, are not to have force
until the year after that in which peace is made. The Arbitration Commis-
sion of mandamento, of which there is question in Article 11 of the decree
of 30 Ma}' 1916, No. 645 (i), can in every case grant, at the request of the
cultivator, the wage-earner or the small farmer and on recognized and se-
rious grounds, that the contract cease to bind at the end of the current
agricultural year.

The widow, children, parents or other heirs of the cultivator or small
farmer who dies in the war, or as a consequence of the war, can, if they
be part of his family employed in cultivating his holding, apply to the
Arbitration Commission of mandamento for the delay of the contract as
stated above, if they show proof that they are able to execute the clauses
of such contract.

In contracts involving the principle of partnership, where this impHes
only a sharing of produce between the landowner and the cultivator, the
former or his manager, or the cultivator or his representatives, may in the
cases which have been mentioned bring onto the holding extra labourers,
corresponding in number to those menAers of the cultivator's family who
are with the colours or have been killed or disabled in the war, and the
resultant expense shall be shared in the proportion fixed for the sharing
of produce.

In the case of small farmers' contracts drawn up before 24 May 1915,
if the Arbitration Commission of mandamento recogniz^, at the instance
of the lessee, that the insufficient cultivation of the leasehold, by reason

(i) See Tniernatinuol Reiicu) of Aa.yicuUuyal Economics, October i')i6, iiagc. 119.

IlS INFORMATION RELATIXC, TO AC~,RICULTURAL ECONOMY IX OENERAL

of the call to the colours of members of the lessee's family, has placed it
economicalh'' in a difficult condition, the commission may declare a reduc-
tion of rent for the current year and for the succeeding years during which
the delay continues, in a proportion not exceeding one half of such rent
for each man called to the colours.

In the case of contracts of any kind imposing fixed wages, the Arbi-
tration Commission may exceptionally, if the parties have not come to an
agreement, grant at the instance of the labourer, taking into account the
conditions of labour and production, an increase of wages.

The last part of the decree contains complementary provisions for the
Arbitration Commissions of mandamento, and especially for the Provin-
cial Commissions of Agriculture formed by Article 8 of the decree of 30
May 1916, No. 645. Persons representing economic institutions (agri-
cultural co-operative societies), or technical institutions (agricultural com-
mittees), or local institutions, are summoned to be members of these com-
missions of which the task has been enlarged. They are charged :

a) To make a levy of the labour available for agricultvire in the differ-
ent zones of the province, using the authority of communes, and also
that of the labour bureaux where these exist, and of the workmen's organ-
izations and other social institutions publicly recognized or subsidized;
and to estimate the adequacy or inadequacy of the supply of labour to
the needs of local farms, organizing accordingly its displacement from one
zone to another.

h) To make a levy of the agricultural machines available in the pro-
vince and facilitate the greatest possible use of them.

c) To keep count of variations in the area devoted to each crop
witliin the province, to notify the Ministry of Agriculture of the causes for
changes, and make suggestions with a view to using uncultivated land to
the greatest possible extent,

d) To regulate and facilitate, by means of agreements with Commis-
sions of Agriculture in adjacent provinces, migrations from one province
to another, according to the supply of labour available and the needs of
agriculture.

The officials of communes, the inspectors of industry and labour, the
holders of the peripatetic chairs of agriculture, and, generally, all officials
depending on the Ministry of Agriculture, and all those nominated to
legally recognized agricultural institutions and to social institutions sub-
sidized by public authority, are bound to give their aid, when asked, to
these Provincial Commissions.

2. RUIvES FOR GRANTINO THE TEMPORARY U.SR OF AGRICULTURAL, MACHINES.

Among measures favouring agriculturists lately adopted by the Ital-
ian government, one which deserves notice is that allowing the Minister

INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL IIQ

of Agrictilture {Decree of 6 June 1915, No. 826) to make large purchases
of agricultural motors and machines of which agriculturists and rural or-
ganizations will be allowed the temporary use. ^Machines thus bought
mil be entrusted to the government depots which are managed as follows :

In ever}- depot of agricultural machines and tools established by the
Ministry of Agriculture there is, first, a manager who is helped by a secre-
tary and responsible for the care of the machines and the dissemination
of their use according to stated rules.

By satisfying the demands of the agricultural schools, the committes,
the associations, and the private agriculturists and macliine-makers, each
depot meets the needs of rural economy in a fixed district assigned to it
b}' the ministr3\

The manager himself keeps a register of all the machines, implements
and tools in his depot, numbering and signing its pages himself. When-
ever a machine or tool is received he enters its description in the register,
sends to the ministry a receipt and certificate of acceptance, and notifies
all the local agricultural schools, committees and communes, which are
requested to notifj" the public.

Whoever wishes to make trial of the machines and implements in the
depot must apply in writing to the manager, stating which machine or tool
he wants, the place in which it will be used and the time for which he in-
tends to employ it.

The manager may exact from any applicant that he give as surety
for the price at which the machine is inventoried a person known to be
solvent, or deposit a sum equal to such price. Thus it becomes possible
to cover the loss of a lent machine, or the cost of necessary repairs, at the
expense of the appHcant. The schools and agricultural committees are
exempt from obligation to give a guaranteee.

When a manager receives applications from agricultural schools, com-
mittees or individuals outside the district assigned to his depot, he must
send them to the ministry which reserves the right to consider and decide
on them.

Applications are granted in the following order : first those of the
schools, then those of the committees and of associations existing in the
general interest of agriculture, then those of members of the committees,
and finally those of private agriculturists and of machine-makers who wish
to study and copy the depot's machines in their workshops.

Applications of the same kind are dealt with in order of priority'. When
there are a number of applications for the same machine the manager
must give the preference to whoever has not yet made trial of it.

Without special leave from the ministry machines must not be
granted for more than fifteen days or more than twice to the same
individual. But they may be granted more frequently and for a longer
time to agricultural committees and schools.

The grantee is responsible from the moment at which he signs a re-
ceipt for the machine. All costs of transport and maintenance and of
ordinary- and other repairs are chargeable to him.

120 IXFORMATIOX RP:I.ATI.\G TO AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMV IX GEXERAL

For every da}- for which the return of the machine is delayed beyond
the term of the grant, the grantee must pay a fine as compensation and in-
terest. Its amount will be previously determined b}' the manager of the
depot according to the importance and value of the machine.

When the machine is returned a report must be made, noting the con-
dition in which it is brought back to the depot.

Persons who have used the machines must, when returning them, pre-
sent a detailed report on results obtained, costs incurred, and the conditions
of weather and place in which trial of them has been made. In this report
all results must be carefully compared with those which would have been
obtained had ordinary expedients been used and customar}- local prac-
tices followed. In making calcvilations allowance should be made for inter-
est on the sum employed to purchase the machine or implement and for
amortization. The manager must refuse to grant further machines to per-
sons who have neglected to obey this provision which is of evident iitility.

Finally, in the first month of every year the manager must present to
the ministry a complete report of the trials of the machines and imple-
ments in his depot during the preceding year. In forwarding this report
he must suggest the replacement of machines which no longer meet local
needs, either because they have undergone depreciation or because agri-
tural mechanics have progressed. At the same time he must communi-
cate an}' desires for new machines, of more recent or more perfect pattern,
which have been expressed to him.

3. TILE FOUX'DATIOX OF AX " ISTITUTO AUTOX'OMO DI BOXIFICAMEXTO AGRA-
RIO E DI COLONIZZAZTOXF; PERIvA SARDEGXA". — Gazzctta VfficialeddRes.no
d'ltalia, Xo. 249, Rome, 23 October 1916.

By a decree of the General Lieutenancy' of the kingdom, No. 1316,
dated 3 September igi6, there has been founded at Sauluri (Cagliari) an
autonomous in.stitute of agricultural beneficence and of colonization for
Sardinia, and it has received for fifty j-ears the use of the experimental
estate, formed on 25 November 1915, which comprises the large property
called " Stabilimento Vittorio Emanuele ".

This institute is obliged gradually to provide for works of agricultural
benefit, land improvement and colonization, and for the division of its
land into farms which will be granted to cultivators ; all according to plans
approved by the Ministry of Agricultvire.

For the purpose of these tasks the institute may receive preferential
loans, and also advances and loans from institutions of land or agricultural
credit and savings banks.

It is further charged to promote the foundation of an agricultural
bank and agricultural union, chiefly in the interest of the cultivators. It
may also promote such co-operative consumers', labourers' and producers'
associations as co-operative dairies, oilraills, cellars etc.

INFORM ATIOX RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY IX GEXERAL 121

The institute is ruled b}' an administrative council composed of two
representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, two of the Alinistry of Pub-
he Works and one of the Ministry of Finances — all of whom are nomi-
nated by royal decree — , and of a technical manager.

The administrative council manages the property of the institute,
nominates its emploj^ees, and sees that it pursues the objects which have
been cited. The councillors hold office for three years and may be re-
elected. They nominate a chairman from among themselves.

The technical manager is respon.sible for the work of the institute,
already defined : he prescribes and inspects systems of agriculture and agri-
cultural works, and provides for the execution of the resolutions of the
administrative council.

The institute converts the returns from its property into its own in-
come, which it uses to extinguish the loans it contracts and to pay the costs
of administration and agriculture and of the maintenance of works of bene-
ficence, as well as to meet every other necessarj' expense and to form a
fund intended for later agricultural improvements.

The Ministry of Agriculture acts, through an especial organization,
as superintendent and guardian of the institute and of the agricultural
enterprise accessory to it.

4. XATIOXAI, CHARITY FOR THE ORPHAXS OF PEASAXTS KILLED IX THE WAR*
Constitution approved by a decree of the Geneial Lieutenancy ot the kingdom, 6 August

IQ16, Xo. 1025. Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d'lialia, No. 201, Rome, 26 August 1916.

We have already alluded (i) to the great movement which has for
some time been spreading in Italy in favour of helping the orphans of peas-
ants killed in the war, and also the active propaganda of the Istitido nq-
zionale- delta mntuaUta agraria for the foundation of agricultural colonies
especially designed for the reception of these orphans and their education
in their fathers' callings. In order better to direct and co-ordinate this
movement there has recently been formed in Rome the Opera nazionale per
gli orfani dei contadini morti in guerra e per i figli del contadini resi in guerra
pernianentemente inahili al lavoro. a national charity for the orphans of peas-
ants killed in the war and for the children of peasants permanently dis-
abled b}' the war, which acquired .status as a corporation having a moral
aim by a decree dated 6 August 1916, No. 1025. Its objects are :

a) to see that aid is given to the orphans of peasants by special lo-
cal protective agencies (2) or other institutions;

(i) See International Review of Ai^riculUiral Economics, March 191 6.

(2) See in this connection an interesting pamphlet by Dr. Mario Casalini, geinial sccretarj-
of the charity, " L'Assistenza agli orfani dei contadini. I patronati, hi loro orszanizzazione
il loro funzionamcnto ". Chiusi, typ. Cerere, 1916.

122 INFORMATION RKLATING TO AGRICULTURAL KCONOMY IN (iKNERAL

b) to promote and favour the formation of protective agencies and
agricultural colonies in the various districts of Italy, with a view to receiv-
ing such of these orphans and children of peasants as cannot obtain either
help or a fit technical education within their families ;

c) to co-ordinate the activity of local protective agencies, agricultural
agencies, and other institutions having analogous aims ;

d) to promote one or more institutions capable of being connected
with the existing institutions of agricultural credit, in order to help the or-
phans to buy small rural holdings which they will themselves farm when
they have reached majority.

Wherever there are already protective agencies or agricultural colo-
nies, legally constituted and recognized by the charity, the duty of helping
the peasants' children generally falls on them. Where there are none the
charity renders e.special aid to these orphans by means of delegates.

When it has accomplished its duty to the orphans of peasants killed
in the war it will extend its benefits to other peasants' orphans. To com-
pass its aims it disposes of a) the eventual income of its property : b) the
annual subscriptions of ordinary members and subscribing societies ; c) the
subscriptions of honorary members ; d) the donations, legacies, tempor-
ary donations and extraordinary income which will eventually accrue to
it. Its members belong to the following categories : a) members giving a
donation, in other words all co-operative and mutual aid institutions which
contribute more than 50 liras a year ; b) ordinary mem^bers, those sub-
scribing 10 liras a year ; c) benefactory societies, namely every institution,
ministry, province, commune, savings bank, chamber of commerce, or-
ganization or individual giving an annual subsidy of at least 100 liras ;
d) perpetual honorary members, namely institutions which make one con-
tribution of at least 100 liras.

The capital paid by the honorary members is inaHenable, and only its
income can be used to constitute or complete maintenance bursaries for
the orphans.

There are ordinary and extraordinary general assemblies of members.
The former meets once a year to discuss and approve the report of the
charity's moral and techrucal activity and to choose the general council.
Its resolutions are fully valid if at least a tenth of the regularly inscribed
members be present at it, or one hour after the time indicated in the invitation
to the meeting for its opening, whatever number of members be present.
When there is question of modifying the by-laws one fifth of the members
are needed to constitute a quorum. Resolutions are passed by an absolute
majority.

This charity is managed by a general council of twenty-nine members
who elect from among themselves a president, three \'ice-presidents, and
an executive committee consisting of the president, the vice-president of
oldest standing, five ordinary members of the council and a secretary.
The members of the council and the executive committee hold office for
three years.

The council meets regularly twice a year. It administers the charity's

INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 1 23

property, and approves reports for the general meeting and balance-sheets
drawn up by the executive committee. The latter administers the charity
udthin the Umits of its budget, and prepares and submits to the general
council budgets and balance-sheets, the report on the moral and technical
acti\'ity of the charity, etc :

If the general meeting should decide to dissolve the charit}' its pro-
perty will pass to the National Bank of Thrift.

Propaganda in favour of the formation of the agricultural colonies
and protective agencies, already mentioned, has met with excellent re-
sults: there are already several agricultural colonies; and numeirous pro-
tective agencies for the assistance of peasants' orphans have been consti-
tuted, especially b}' the initiative of provinces, each of which will have its
own agency. There is in Ital}^ a typical example of institutions of this
kind, the Opera per I'assistenza e la educazione professionale degli orjani
dei lavoraton della terfa, a charity for aiding and technically educating the
orphans of agricultural labourers in the province of Bologna.

*
* *

5. AN IMPORTANT SCHEME FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A PROVINCIAL INSTITU-
TION OF SOCIAL AID. Communicated by the provincial deputation of Bergamo on
7 April 191 6.

At a recent meeting of the provincial council of Bergamo the found-
ation was proposed of a large institution of social aid which should be
formed on the initiative of the provincial deputation, and with the co-oper-
ation of aU public and private institutions " interested in and responsible
for the protection of public health and the economic and social welfare of
the working classes ". The proposed institution would act through two
sections — a hygienic and sanitary and a social and economic section. It
would be the task of the latter :

I. Statistics : a) To collect, collate and publish information as to la-
bour — chiefly in regard to its organization and renumeration in Italy
and in foreign countries, preferably those to which there was emigration ;
and as to the relations of labour and capital ; the number and conditions
of labourers and the conditions of unemployment ; strikes and their causes
and results; and the number, causes and consequences of accidents to
workmen ; b) To discover the development of the retrogression and the
technical and economic conditions of social institutions in the province, as
well as their influence on the welfare of the working classes and on the
progress of agriculture.

II. Legislation : c) To disseminate among the people a knowledge of
social legislation, and to undertake all the studies and researches in matters
of legislation which the government, the higher council of labour or other
institutions should require.

124 IXFORMATIOX RELATING TO AGRICUWURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

III. Inspectorate : d) To see that all social and labour legislation was
applied, and denounce those contravening it to the competent authorities.

IV. Conciliation : e) To settle amicably disputes between employers
and workmen and between the latter and contractors, and in general aU
disputes as to agreements relative to labour contracts.

V. Placing of labour : f) To place workmen and wage-earners, receiv-
ing offers of and demands for work, bringing workmen and emplo^'ers
together, and facilitating the conclusion of contracts.

VI. Thrijt, mutual aid, co-operation: g) To contribute generahy to a
large development of saving, thrift, mutual aid and co-operation in the
working classes, and to render the organization of mutual and co-opera-
tive societies more eflScient by co-ordinating them in federal institutions ;
and especially ; h) To indiice working people, by means of an active propa-
ganda and increased assistance, to join individually or collectively the
Cassa nazionale di previdenza per I'invalidita e la vecchiaia degli operai, a
national thrift bank providing against the disablement and old age of work-
ing people, and other government institutions of thrift (Cassa nazionale
di assicurazione per gl'infortuni degli operai sul lavoro, National Fund for
Insiurance against the Accidents of lyabour) ; i) To popularize rules for the
constitution and the successful working of co-operative associations of cre-
dit, labour, production, consumption etc. ; thrift and mutual societies in
their different forms ; societies for mutual insurance against mortality
among live stock, damage done by fire or hail and the accidents of labour ;
mutual aid societies ; mutual educational and forestry societies, etc. ; as
well as aU institiitions aiming at the moral and material improvement of
the masses ; and to help the establishment of such societies on the most
scientific and practical models; ?') To help and to superintend all the
economic institutions by means of frequent inspections, inducing them to
keep regular accounts, and directing co-operative and mutual organization
towards a uniform system of book-keeping which would produce scientific
and uniform records fitted to be the material of statistical labour.

This section proposes to reach its aim : a) B}- propaganda, oral and
written ; assistance given to the social and economic institutions in the mat-
ter of technique and book-keeping ; legal advice and aid in the matter of
giving opinions, solving problems, arranging reconciliations, etc. {peripa-
tetic chair of thrift and mutuality) ; b) By competitions, exhibitions or other
forms of encouragement to the better economic institutions, and by propa-
ganda and social aid.

There would be assigned to the maintenance of the institution : a) an
annual sum allotted by the province and provided by a special fund;
b) the annual contributions or subsiches of public or private institutions
(ministries, national bank of thrift, savings bank, communes, agricultural
societies, etc.) ; c) the donations and legacies which might accrue; d) various
income.

To take charge of the administration and working of the institution
there would be a council of eleven members — six of them chosen by the
provincial council and five by a meeting of the representatives of the soci-

INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL I25

eties which had contributed to the institute —, an executive committee,
and a committee of official arbitrators having three effective members
and two \'ice-members.

UNITED STATES.

OVERTIME IN THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING AND PACKING INDUSTRY
OF OREGON. — Monthly Review of the U, S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington ,
July 191 5.

The Oregon Industrial Welfare Commission published under date of
26 May 1914 an order providing for the issiie of emergenc}^ overtime per-
mits to fruit and vegetable canning and packing establishments. Such
overtime is not to be permitted for more than six calendar weeks, and the
whole working time, including overtime, is not to exceed sixty hours in any
calendar week nor ten hours in any day. The following is the order in full.

" Take Notice : That pursuant to the authority granted by chapter
35, General Laws of Oregon, 1915, the industrial welfare commission has
investigated the emergency overtime requirements of the fruit and vege-
table canning and packing industry of Oregon and finds that for six (6)
weeks of each 3^ ear the aforesaid industry requires emergency overtime be-
yond the fift3^-four (54) hours a week prescribed as maximum hours for wo-
men workers in such industry in I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5.

" Wherefore, the industrial welfare commission authorizes and per-
mits the employment of adult women in fruit and vegetable canning and
packing establishments in the State of Oregon for more than fifty-four (54)
hours a week under the following conditions and rules which the afore-
said commission hereby today determines and prescribes :

" (i) Such emergency overtime shall not be permitted for more than
six (0) calendar weeks, from May i to December i in any year.

" (2) The emergency overtime shall not exceed the fifty-four (54)
hours a week now prescribed by I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5 by more
than six (6) hours for any calendar week.

" (3) Nothing in this permit or order shall be interpreted as authoriz-
ing the employment of any woman for more than ten (10) hours in any
day.

" (4) Such emergency overtime shall be paid for at a rate of not less
than twenty-five cents (25c) an hour ; and the earnings for emergency over-
time shall in no case be included in the weekly minimum wage prescribed
by the rulings of the commission, but shall in every case be over and above
the weekly minimum wage prescribed by I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5
for adult women workers.

" (5) The owner or manager of every fruit and vegetable cannery
or packing establishment in Oregon employing women under this emer-
gency overtime permit shall furnish the industrial welfare commission on

126 IXFOJIMATTON RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

or before the 5th day of each month a transcript, duly verified as hereinaf-
ter provided, of the weekly time and pay roll of each woman who has work-
ed more than fifty-four (54) hours in any one week of the pfeceding month.
Said transcript shall furnish the name and employee number of each wo-
man employee.

(6) Said transcript shall be verified by said owner or manager or
some person in his behalf having knowledge of the facts by subscriVjing and
swearing to a statement that said transcript is a full, true and accurate
statement of the ov-ertime worked by and the wages paid to each and every
woman who has worked overtime ".

RUGGER! ALFREDO, gerente responsabilc

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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai. Intei.i,igence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BUI.LETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

volurie; lxxv.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 3
MARCH, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING- OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE

I917

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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai, Intelwgence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUMK LXXV.

8th. YBAR: number 3

MARCH, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE

I9I7

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION.

Germany.

The General R.uffeisen Federation in 1914-1915 (concluded) Page

§ 2. The Rural Banks, page i. — § 3. Co-operative Societies of Consumption, Pro-
duction and I<abour, page 4 .

Austria.

The Co-operative OiL>nLLS in Dalmatia Page 11

General Remarks, page 11. — § i. Capital of Installation, page 12. — § 2. Grants
and Facilities for Credit, page 13. — § 3. The Oilmills, page 14. — § 4. General
Results, page 15.

Canada.

Recent Successes of Agricultural Co-operation in Canada Page

§ I. Introduction, page 18. — §2. The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Com-
pany, page 19. — § 3. The Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company,
page 20. — § 4. The Manitoba Grain Growers' Grain Company, page 22. — § 5.
The Fusion of Two Great Farmers' Companies, page 23.

MisceI/IvAneous Information REiyATmc to Co-operation and Asso-
ciation IN Various Countries Page

British India : The Progress of Co-operative Societies in Baroda State, page 25.
Italy : i) The Resolutions of the National Meeting of the Agricultural Co-operative So-
cieties at Milan, page 26.

2) The Collective Farm of San Giovanni in Croce, page 27.

IV CONTENTS

3) The " Societa Anoiiima Cooperativa per I'Esportazione dei Piodotti Agri-
coli " of Jesi in 1915-1916, page 28.

4) The Activitj' of the Office of I^egal Advice of the " I,ega Nazionale delle Coo-
perative ", page 29.

5) The Formation of the " Societa degU Enotecnici Italiani ", page 30.

6) The Development of the " Uuione Cooperativa di Milano ", page 30.
Russia : The Finnish Superintending Societies in the years 1913-191 j, page 32.

PART II : INSURANCE AND THRIFT.

Uruguay.

The State Bank of Insurance and Insurance against Hail. Page 35

§ I. The State Insurance Bank, page 35. — § 2. Terms of a Policy of Insurance
against Hail, page 36. — § 3. The Activity of the Department for Insurance

against Hail, page 39.

]VIiscEi,i.ANEous Information rei^ating to Insurance and Thrift

IN Various Countries Page' 43

Algeri.a. and Regency of Tunis : The Central Algerian and Tunisian Frmd for Agri-
cultural Reinsurance in 1915, page 43.
France : The Mutual Agricultural Fire Insurance Society of the East on i January 1916,

page 44.
Italy : i) The Proposals of Senator Conti's I,aw for compelling the Insurance of I^an^

against the Accidents of Peasants' I^abour, page 46.

2) The Mutual Insurance of Live Stock intended for Butcherj-, page 48.

3) The Rules for the District Offices of Agricultural MutuaJitj-, page 50.

4) A New Mutual Insurance Society against the Accident-^ of Agriculture,
page 51.

5) Italian Savings on 30 June 1916, page 51.

Russia: Finnish Societies for Insurance against Mortality among I^ive Stock in 1913,
page 54-

PART III : CREDIT.

Algeria.

Credit for CoLONiz.'i.TioN in Algerl\ Page 57

§ I. The Character of the Credit afforded to Colonization, page 58. — §2. The
Sources of the Capital assigned to Agricultural Credit, page 59. — § 3. The Role
of the Banque de I'Algerie, page 60.

CONTENTS

Canada.

Scheme for the bRG.\NizATioN of Rural Mortgage Credit inM.\nitoba, Saskatche-
wan AND Alberta Page 63

MiscEivi^ANEous Information reivATing to Agricui^turai, Economy m

GENERAL IN Various Countries Page 68

.Argentine Republic: The Franco-Argentine Mortgage Bank in 1915-1916, 1 age 68.
French Colonies : The Discount and lyoan Transactions of Colonial Banks, page 70.
RussL^ : The Question of Forest Credit in Finland, page 73.

PART IV : AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.

Austria and Hungary.

Agrarian Taxes in Bosnia .and Herzegovina Page 75

§ I. Agrarian Taxes in the Period of Turkish Dominion, page 75. — § 2. Agrarian
Taxes after the Occupation by Austria and Hungary, page 80.

Great Britain and Irei,and.

Agriculture and the War Page 87

ITAI^IAN SOMAIyll^AND.

lyAND Tenure and Colonization Page 94

§ I. General Remarks. Administrative Organization of Italian Somaliland,
page 95. — § 2. Agricultural Conditions in Somaliland, page 98. — § 3. The
I^and System, page loi. — § 4. Experiment and Experience in Colonization,
page 105. — § 5. Schemes for Colonization in Somaliland by Italian FamiUes,
page 108.

MlSCEI,I.ANEOUS InFOR1\L\TION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAX ECONOMY IN

General in Various Countries Page 116

Belgium : Agricultural Training for Partially Disabled Soldiers, page 116.
France: The Department for Civil and Military Vegetable Gardens, page 118.
New Zealand: Settlement of Discharged Soldiers on the Land, page 120.
RussLA : i) The Forests of Finnish Towns, page 121 .

2) The Position and the Activity of the Grain Elevators of the Government and

the Railway Companies, page 124.

Part 1 : Co-operation and Association

GERMANY.

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION
IN 1914-1915 {concluded) (i).

§ 2. The Rurai, Banks {Spar- imd Darlehnskassenvereine)

The rural banks constitute 80 per cent of all the 5,680 co-operative
societies belonging to the General Raiffeisen Federation, for they number
4,598. At the end of 1914 there were 4,558 rural banks. In 1915 fortj^-
eight more joined the federation while eight left it. The increase was
therefore one of forty societies. In 1914 it had been one of seventy-three.

All the rural banks are unlimited liability societies.

The report on these societies for 1914 was presented by 4,421 rural
banks — 137 of them not reporting because their whole staffs had been
mobilized.

The 4,421 societies included 485,416 members, that is an average of
no for one society. The increase since 1913 was one of 8,839 members,
the membership of 1913 having increased by 15,206 on that of 1912, which
year had recorded an increase of 17,069 on 191 1.

The capital in shares of the 4,421 rural banks was 5,057,345 marks (2),
the reserve fund 32,778,993 marks, the working capital 827,605,640 marks.

The turnover was less in 1914 than in previous years, namely : 1914 —
1.435. 215. 859 marks ; 1913 — 1,572,013,669 marks ; 1912 — 1,573.887.576
marks.

The decrease is a result of the restriction of credit during the war.

(i) See first part in our issue for February 191 7, page i.
(2) I mark = about 11 Vi d. at par.

GERIVIANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATIOX

Savings.

Savings amounted to 82 per cent, of the year's capital, namely
682,618,933 marks, and had increased by 33,956,963 marks on those of

1913-

The increase did not however arise out of increased paj'ments but
out of a diminution of deductions, as appears from the following figures :

Pasinents Deductions

I9I2 204,175,046 168,881,862

I9I3 214,520,120 173,843,266

I9I4 195.843-529 152,286,744

Savings paid in were less in 1914 than in 1913 and 1912. But since
here also the amount of deductions was less an increase in the total amount
of savings resulted.

The rate of interest paid b}' the banks to savers was from 3 to 6 per
cent., having been from 3 to 5 per cent, in 1913.

Current Accounts at the Central Bank.

At the end of 1914 the rural banks had debited current accounts at
the Central Bank amounting to 68,772,537 marks. The debt was less by
9,819,567 marks than its amount in 1913 and less by 8,430,541 marks
than its amount in 1912.

As a consequence of this decrease in current account liabilities and the
increase in current account credit the rural banks, which were the debtors
of the Central Bank before the war, had become its creditors, for their cre-
dit accounts with this bank reached the sum of 95,139,579 marks as against
78,302,126 marks in 1913.

Credit for Fixed Terms.

Such credit amounted to 61.5 per cent, of the whole assets of the rural
banks, namely 499,673,745 marks out of 832,006,308 marks.

The increase since 191 3 was of about eight million marks but it re-
sulted, as the following figures will show, not on increased new credit
but on diminished repa3^ments :

Credit granted Repayments

I9I3 98,763,252 70.776,473

I9I4 72,001,670 57,306,084

The rate of interest paid by members to the rural banks was from
3 ^/4 to 8 3^ per cent., as compared to its rate of from 3 to 7 per cent,
in 1913.

THE GENERAI, RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION

Current Accounts with Members.

The currents account of the societies' banks and their members increase
from year to A-ear. In 1914, 3,536 rural banks — 80 per cent, of them —
had opened current accounts with their members.

The total amounts of these current accounts were as follows :

Credit current accounts 45>i52 for 123,722,498 marks

Debit » » 24,606 32,567,379 "

A new circumstance appeared in connection with these accounts.
Previously the sums paid by members into the banks were alwa^'s less
than those paid bj- banks to members, but in 1914 the converse was true,
as appears from the following figures :

Payments by Members Payments by Banks

I9I2 132,879,067 144,539,139

I9I3 136,225,301 149,073,587

I9I4 131,203,766 127,860,370

If the totals of incoming and outgoing sums be examined the follow-
ing conclusions are reached :

1. The total receipts — payments of members in savings and to cur-
rent accounts, repayments of debts by members, credit granted by the Cen-
tral Bank — , and the total disbursements — credit granted to members,
repayments of sums due to members and to the Central Bank — were less
than in previous years.

2. The total receipts exceeded the total disbursements. This is the
contrary of what was true of earlier years and is explained by the restrict-
ed credit granted during the war ;

Total Receipts Total Disbursements

1912 407,214,867 marks 423,903,591 marks

1913 421,521,894 » 421,680,105 »

1914 384.353.379 » 352,148.784 »

In addition to credit transactions many rural banks buy and sell
merchandise on behalf of their members.

The purchase of merchandise was practised by 3,917 rural banks.
The value of the bought merchandise was 54,326,650 marks as against
68,641,827 marks in 1914.

GERMANY - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

The details of purchases show that the following sums were spent on
the following articles in the two years compared :

Manure.

Forage.

Combustibles

Seeds. . .

^Machines.

Various.

21,892,942 marks

17,476,904 )'

6,456,275 »

2,189,015 »

910,322 »

6,049,771 »

23.979-835 marks

19,899,825
6,973,625 »
2,532,716 "

1.344.194 '■
4,451,265 »

The sale of merchandise for members was unimportant, special co-oper-
ative societies having been created for this object. The value of the mer-
chandise sold by the rural banks was 2,743,861 marks.

For the 4,421 rural banks the year's books were closed showing :
a profit in the case of

3,884 which realized altogether 3,212,113 marks of profit;
a loss in that of 516 >) lost » 523,214 » .

Twenty-one realized neither a loss nor a profit.

The net profits were therefore 2,688,899 marks, as against 2,852,416
marks in the previous year.

Co-operative Societies of CoxsuiiPTiox, Production axd
Labour.

At the end of 1914, 1045 co-operative societies of this kind belonged
to the General Raiffeisen Federation. In 1915 it was joined by thirty-
six more while fifteen ceased to belong, so that the total membership
was 1066, distributed as follows :

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEX FEDERATIOX

I. Co-operative Consumers' Societies

II. Co-operative Producers' Societies

1. Dairies 310

2. Cellars 44

3. Distilleries 52

4. Essication of Potatoes ... 16

5. Granaries 20

6. Sale of Live Stock .... 26

7. Various 20

in. Co-operative Labour Societies.

1. Threshing 82

2. Employment of Electric Pow-

er 316

3. Various in

IV. Co-operative Breeding and Pas-

turage Societies

V. Co-operative Societies of Arti-

sans and Tradesmen . . .

VI. Various

31 December 1914 31

December 1915

51

65

48S

489

309

43

52

17

20

28

20

4^7

20

9
60

83

315
16

414

22

9

67

These societies had the foUowins: forms

Unlimited liabiHty societies.
Limited » »

262
760

258
782

It is seen that those of the second kind had become more numerous,
those of the first fewer. In the case of all the kinds of co-operative socie-
ties which have been enumerated the prevalent t3*pe is that of a limited
liability society, except in the case of collective cellars which are held b}-
unlimited liabilit}- societies in forty out of forty-three cases.

Of all the co-operative societies existing at the end of 1914 only 807
reported on their business. Owing to the mobilization of their staffs 215
made no report.

Co-operative Societies for the Purchase and Sale of Merchandise.

At the end of 1914 there were fifty-one consumers' co-operative socie-
ties and twenty co-operative granaries. During 1915 there were fourteen
new adhesions, so that at the end of the 3'ear there were eighty-five socie-
ties, sevent^'-five having limitec^and ten unlimited liability. Of this num-
ber only forty-eight reported on their business in 1914.

GERIVIAXY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The total number of their members was 4,109. Their capital in shares
was 901,755 marks, their reserve fund 929,929 mark, and their ^^ear's
capital 12,358,026 marks. It is worth mentioning that the capital of the un-
limited liability co-operative societies is a little higher than that of those
having limited liabilit3^

Purchases were less important than in previous 3-ears owing to the
small quantities of goods on the markets. The societies bought the follow-
ing amounts on behalf of their members :

manure 373. 706 zentners (i)

forage 351,278 »

seeds 10,338 »

The total value of the goods thus bought was 5,955,745 marks as
against 9,364,538 marks in 1913.

The value of the merchandise sold on behalf of members was 922,296 marks

44 societies closed their year's books showing a total profit of 479,997 »

2 « a ;> i> » » » » loss » 1,931 »

2 ' ') » » » » no profit or loss.

The total net profits thus amounted to 478,066 »

2. Dairies.

There were 310 of these at the end of 1914. In 1915 one other joined
and two retired from membership, and therefore at the end of 1915 there
were 309 — 149 having unlimited and 160 having limited liability. Only 286
reported on their business, 277 of these owning their own premises while
eleven held them on lease.

The number of their members was 25,038. Their capital in shares
was 1,204,928 marks, their reserve fund 2,478,715 marks and their year's
capital 14,760,648 marks.

If the large capital employed in these enterprises (8,748,583 marks)
be considered it is seen that they ought to seek for more capital of their
own.

The data as to the delivery of milk have been furnished by only 231
societies, and show a yield of 258,439,247 litres (2) of milk ; and 633,711
kilogrammes (3) of cream, representing 4,119,122 litres of milk — that is
a total of 262,558,369 litres of milk.

(i) I zentner = no lbs.

(2) I litre = 0.88 quart.

(3) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION

For the milk and cream delivered 26,373,553 marks, or an average of
0.102 mark a litre, has been paid to members.
The milk was used as follows :

sold as delivered 25,333,368 litres or 9.8 per cent

used to produce cream. . . 7,000,000 » » 2.8 » »

» » » cheese. . . 11,251,106 » » 4.4 « »

» » » butter. . . 217,973,895 )' » 84 » »

277 dairies (i) closed their books showing a total profit of 805,958 marks

51 » {2) » » » » » » loss » 243,245 »

8 » « )) » » no profit or loss. The net

profits therefore amounted altogether to 562,713 marks

1914 was a less profitable year than 1913.

3. The Collective Cellars.

These numbered fortj^-four at the end of 1914. In 1915 two retired
from membership and there was one new adhesion. At the end of the year
the total number was therefore forty-three, forty having unlimited and
three limited liabilit3^ The greater number of unlimited liabilitj' socie-
ties in this group is due to the fact that almost all of them were formed in
a period in which the Raiffeisen principles were strictly observed. Forty-
one reported on their activity but without much detail.

^ The number of members was 2,233. 'The capital in shares was 141,853
marks (3), the reserve ftmd was 175,398 marks and the year's capital 2,731,389
marks.

There are no data as to the quantity of grapes delivered to the so-
cieties.

21 co-operative cellars closed their year's books showing a total profit of . . . 32,392 marks

17 » » " >> » » » » » loss :> . . . 128,082 i>

3 ' 11. » » " » ' neither profit nor loss.

- /[.The Distilleries.

There were 52 of these at the end of 1914 and throughout 1915. All
or nearly all the distilleries are in East Prussia where the potatoes which
are distilled are grown. Thirty-six of them belonged to the district feder-
ation of Dantzig, nine to that of Koenigsberg and four to that of Breslau.
Thirty-one of them have limited and sixteen unlimited liability, while

(i) in 1913 : 335 dairies made a profit of 1,033,098 marks

(2) » 1913 : 37 » . . loss » i59>530

that is 372 » » " net profit 873,568 »

(3) The societies' own capital was insufficient if the fixed capital necessary to the enter-
prise be considered. ^

GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

five are not subject to any rule of the law on co-operative societies. Only
thirty- four reported on their work.

The total number of their members was 617. Their capital in shares
was 413,702 marks, their reserve fund 155,789 marks, their 3'ear's capi-
tal 2,240,730 marks and their fixed capital 1,596,860 marks. The capital
belonging in their own right to the unlimited liabihty societies was equal
to 6.8 per cent, of their year's income. In the case of the limited liability
societies, this percentage was 23.7.

Only twenty-four distilleries have furnished data as to their produc-
tion. These had used 324,519 zentners of potatoes, 1,798 zentners of beet-
root, and 1,678 zentners of Jerusalem artichokes. Of this quantity' mem-
bers had delivered only 290,423 zentners ; the rest had been bought in the
market. The co-operative societies had paid 1.79 marks for the potatoes
which had been delivered.

Owing to statutory restrictions production had been less than in the
previous year.

5. Essication of Potatoes.

Only sixteen co-operative societies of this kind belong to the General
Raift'eisen Federation, two of them have unlimited and twelve of them
limited liability while two are not subject to the law on co-operative
societies.

All these sixteen societies reported on their activity, as did five otjjer
societies which essicate potatoes as an accessory business. They comprised
936 members, they had a capital in shares of 341,509 marks, a reserve
fund of 96,935 marks, a year's capital of 2,255,748 marks and a fixed cap-
ital of 1,278,360.

The sixteen societies treated 1,216,071 zentners of potates by essica-
tion, the other five 138,173 zentners. Of these quantities 938,512 zent-
ners were delivered by members and 109,119 zenters by other producers,
while 168,440 zentners were bought in the market. The resultant produc-
tion was of 339,370 zentners of potato flakes and 32,665 zentners of potato
slices. The greater share of these products was remitted to the members
and others from whom the raw material had been bought, only 165,161
zentner- of flakes and 5,500 zentners of slices being sold in the market.

6. The Sale of Live Stock.

Co-operative societies having this object have only existed for a few
years and are all in East Prussia where the production of live stock is great-
ly in excess of the consumption.

There were twenty-six of them at the end of 1914, and in 1915 there
were three new adhesions while one society retired from membership. At
the end of 1915 there were therefore twentj'-eight societies, namely eleven
in the Koenigsberg district federation, eight in that of Dantzig, seven in
that of Berlin, and two each in those of Coblentz and Ludwigshafen.

THE GENERAL RAIFFEISEN FEDERATION

All are limited liabilit}^ societies. The}^ regularly sell live stock on
commission. Only two of them buy their members' live stock and resell
it in the market on their own account.

Only fourteen reported on their business and they did not give detail- .
ed data.

The number of members was 5,835, the capital in shares 17,750 marks,
the reserve fund log, 320 marks, the year's capital 329,950 marks.

7. Co-operative Threshing Societies.

There were eightj-two of these at the end of 1914,. and at the end of
1915 eighty-three of which fifty-nine had limited and twenty-five unlimi-
ted liability.

The data as to their business were furnished by seventj^-four societies
of whom twelve gave few details.

Their members numbered 1,907, their capital in shares was 10^,072
marks, their reserve fund 37,539 marks, the year's capital 646,965 marks,
of which the greater part was represented by the value of the machines.
The yeai's capital varies notably according to whether a society owns or
hires its machines.

.30 societies closed tlieir books showing a total profit of 11,639 marks

32 » •) » » » » » loss >' 25,579 ))

12 » » >' » » neither profit nor loss.

The losses result on an insufficient use of the machines. They wo^^"
ed in 1914 for 36,101 hours, that is on an average 582 hotirs for each so-
ciety, instead of 37,835 hours of work and an average of 641 for one so-
ciety' as in 1913.

8. Co-operative Societies for the Employment of Electric Power.

The first co-operative society of this kind was formed in 1906. At
the end of 1914 there were 316 of them, and at the end of 1915 there were
315 of which nine had unlimited and 307 limited liability. Only a few
societies own their plant : most of them hire their electric power on lease
from an enterprise and distribute it among their members.

213 of them reported on their work in 1914.

Their members numbered 15,396, their capital in shares was 159,490
marks, their reserve fund 8,364,052 marks, their fixed capital 4,991,445
marks.

Ill societies closed their books showing a total profit of 44,365 marks

97 ,; » ., 1) » » » loss )) ....... 31)584 '

5 ,, » a » )) neither profit nor loss.

The following table gives data as to co-operative societies less import-
ant than those with which we have dealt :

10

GERM.\NY - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

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AUSTRIA.

THE CO-OPERATIVE OILMILLS IN DAIvMATTA.

Source :

Zmave (a.) Die Oelbaugcnossenschafien in Dalmnticn-Oesterreichische Landwirischaftlichc Ge-
nossenschaftspresse, Vienna, 15 and 29 April, 13 and 27 May 1915.

Genkrai, Remarks.

There are sixteen co-operative oilmills in Dalmatia, but three of them
are old societies without real vitaUty and we will here therefore treat of
only thirteen.

The legal constitution of a co-operative oilmill entails the following
formalities :

i) A meeting for the purpose of foundation which constitutes at the
same time the co-operative society's first general meeting ;

2) A report of the foundation meeting and of the first general meet-
ing;

3) The drawing - up of by - laws ;

4) A scheme for a budget and for the amortization of the capital in
shares ;

5) A joint declaration of adherence by the founder members ;

6) An enqviiry as to the average annual production of the members ;

7) A request signed by the co-operative society for incorporation.
An Union of Co-operative Societies {Zadruzni savez) has its premises

at Spalato and Ragusa ; and the Lnndeskiiltuyraf for the kingdom of Dal-
matia has established at Zara a branch for olive oil, which is supported
by the imperial and royal government and which has among other
tasks that of selling on conrmission oil remitted to it for such purpose b}''
the co-operative societies.

All the co-operative societies have the peculiarity that their by-laws
oblige each of their members to belong to them for at least five j'ears from
the time at which thev become active.

12 AUSTRIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION'

The following are the thirteen co-operative societies for the production
of oil, placed in the order of the date of their foundation and first activity :

1908-1909 : Kali, Preko, Zmau.

1909-1910 : Igrane, Janjina.

1910-1911 Murter, Praskvica (which adhered to the Serbian Federa-
tion Savez sepskih privrednih zadruga na Primorju in Ragusa) Pucisce.

1911-1912 : Banj, Briso, Iz Veliki, Tucepi.

1912-1913 : Podgora.

The membership of all these societies has gradually risen from 200 at
the end of 1908-1909 to about 1,300 at the end of 1913-1914.

Corporations — as for instance communal banks — are frequently
among the members.

The members of the directing body and the superintending council
are most frequently numerous — three to eleven ; but three to five would
usually suffice. Almost always they are obliged to undergo a preliminary
initiation in their functions, a precaution which has in several cases yielded
entirely encouraging results.

§ I. Capitai, of Instali<ation.

An oil co-operative society's capital of installation is generally consi
derable, being proportionate to the amount of oil which should without
fail be produced, an amount which is not easily determined in advance.
The almost complete lack of certain statistics with regard to the local pro-
duction of the olive trees, and the realization of their value and of that of
olive-oil, obliges recourse to valuations. The matter is complicated by an-
other and weighty factor, namely the frequent desire of most olive-growers
in the society's district to have actual proof of the society's good results
before they decide to adhere to it.

It has been noticed that a small enterprise needs a relatively larger
capital than one Vv^hich is more important. The general statement may
be made that in view of particular conditions in Dalmatia the total costs
of installation should not exceed 150 crowns (i) per quintal (2) of the aver-
age quantity of oil annually produced. Thus a society producing on an
average 50,000 kilogrammes (3) should invest in its own enterprise only
500 X 150 = 7.5,000 crowns. Approximate estimates show that each
of the thirteen societies has on an average an annual total produc-
tion of 4,000 quintals and an installation capital of more than 800,000
crowns, that is more than 200 crowns for each quintal. In recent j^ears the
average amount of oil produced has however been less than 2,000 quintals

(i) I crown = about 10 ^/jg d at par.

(2) I quintal = 220 lbs.

(3) I kilogramme = 2 ^5 lbs.

THE CO-OPERATIVE OIl^MILLS IN DAI^MATIA 1:3

owing to conditions unfavonrable to the harvest and the marketing of the
olives. Tt may be conduded that the amount of installation capital, which
we have estimated at 200 crowns a quintal, has been more than doubled in
the period in question and surpasses 400 crowns, which would represent an
important and lasting increase in the expense of producing the oil, an ope-
ration lasting from forty to fifty da^^s when it takes place in normal
conditions. It seems however as though the heavy burdens now incident
to the production of oil would give place to more favourable circimastances
in the near future, if the olive harvest would but return to a norrtial level.

The costs of installation include in substance those incurred in acquir-
ing a site and buildings (real estate), as well as machines, implements and
other necessaries.

All the thirteen co-operative societies except that of Banj possess
mechanical motor power.

Most of the buildings have been specially erected for the production
of oil, or at least they have been bought and adapted to their new purpose.
In a few cases the communes have freely placed building land at the dispo-
sal of the promoters. It has happened that private individuals, themselves
producers of olives, and desirous of adhering to a co-operative society or
being among its founders, have seen in its formation an opportunity to
speculate with their land. They have in consequence given themselves
up to a blind propaganda in favour of its formation, without for an instant
asking themselves if it would supply a general need.

The value of implements and machines is generally double that of real
estate, but this relation varies with the number of the machines. The co-oj^er-
ative society of Banj, which employs only manual labour, has implements
worth only half as much as its real estate.

The thirteen co-operative oilmills are insured against fire with the Agram
co-operative insurance society called " Croatia " for a sum of about 700,000
crowns.

§ 2. Grants and facilities for credit.

The vState and the province make grants to the co-operative oilmills.
Hitherto the State has paid them 400,000 crowns and the province 60,000
crowns, the total sum thus granted being equal to half their installation
capital. The State's grant is in the form of annuities of from 2,000 to 5,000
crowns. As a general rule grants must be used for the amortization of
debts and entered on the credit side of the societies' balance-sheets.

Two thirds of the vState's grant are used to amortize debts incurred at
the time of foundation ; the other third goes to the working funds and may be
used to cover working costs or meet a year's deficit. The same conditions
apply to the provincial grant. If in spite of the grants the year's brisiness
still show a deficit, advantage is taken of the relevant by-laws, which allow

14 AUSTRIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

the proportional amortization of a deficit shown on the balance-sheet from
the shares, if the ordinary reserve be insufficient to meet it.

The federation of the co-operative societies of Spalato decided some
time ago that the credit granted to co-operative oilmills nnist not be more
than double the amount of the paid-up shares. The total amount of the
paid-up shares of the thirteen societies passed from 6,500 crowns in 1908-1909
to 65,000 crowns in 1913-1914. The amount of the unpaid-up shares is
unimportant. The numer of subscribed shares is still too smalt, averaging
barely half of what it ought to be, namely 25 per cent, of the working ca-
pital. If the grants were for any reason diminished the capital in shares of
the co-operative societies ought to be proportionately increased.

§ 3. The Oii.Mn:,ES.

In spite of their evident advantages there are great drawbacks to the
oilmills supplied with mechanical motor power. Its emploj^ment is only
advisable and permissible in the case of important enterprises suffering from
a serious shortage of labour. Mechanical motor power is useful above all
for the propulsion of olive-mills and hydrauHc olive-presses for which con-
siderable force is certainly needed. It would certainly sometimes be more
profitable to small societies to use manual labour, an olive-miU being easily
worked by animal power and hydraulic presses by hand. The method would
render considerable economies possible, especially in 5^ears of bad harvest.

Moreover many co-operative enterprises for oil production would be
entirely fitted to serve other ends than those of oUve-growers. From the
technical point of view it ought for instance to be possible to use their plant,
when certain additions have been made to it, for realizing the value of grapes
and wine. The fact that they generally possess mechanical motor power
would allow a large threshing machine to be employed in them with pro-
fit ; and one which was moveable would provisionally amply supply the needs
of co-operative oil societies which also produce cereals. At present eight
out of the thirteen societies grind cereals but only rarely in a scientific way.
The society of Janjina has obtained the best results in this respect. As a
rule the mills are used rapidly because there is a lack of experienced master-
millers. The members of the co-operative societies are bound to' use the
co-operative mills exclusively. The home production of cereals is small, and
the collective purchase of varieties of seeds suited to the countrj' would be
most advisable, the more so because the right to import free of customs-
duties into Dalmatia is granted by the authorities or could be obtained from
them. A cheaper, larger and better supply of bread could thus be secured,
as has been proved by the experience of the well managed mills, and the
food supply of the Dalmatian population would benefit indisputably.
Various Raffeisen funds {Seoske blagajne or communal funds) which are
active locally or in the neighbourhood have joined the co-operative so-
cieties for oil production as corporation-members, in order to give their

THE CO-OPERATIVB OILMII,!^ IN DAI^MATIA 15

own members the opportunity of grinding their cereals in these societies'
mills. At present the cost of grinding must not be less than two crowns for
a quintal and must be paid immediately in cash. When competing mills
exist alread3% co-operative mills should not be installed. Mills worked by
hydraulic power are the least costly and those worked by a benzine engine
the most costly. Those propelled by engines for heavy oil and gas aspira-
tion engines cost less, but are not adapted to important mills needing great
power. If electric power can be obtained on good terms an electric engine
is preferable to any other.

§ 4. Generai, Resui^ts.

To resume ; the production of olives and the preparation of olive-oil
are undertaken by co-operative societies for this purpose, who^e activity is
constantly controlled by the section for olive-oil at Zara of the Landeskul-
tiirrat of the kingdom of Dalmatia. Sales are undertaken by this section in
the capacity of an office for sales on commission. It directs, among other
things, a central warehouse provided with all modern technical improve-
m.ents and able to store from 4,000 to 5,000 quintals — that is 10 per cent,
of the average total of a good harvest in Dalmatia. About one tenth of
the Dalmatian production seems indeed to be organized co-operatively.

The costs of preparing olive oil — exclusive of those of producing the
oil and the oHves — vary much, their average being — according to the re-
sults obtained hitherto — about 5 crowns for 100 kilogrammes of olives
or 30 crowns for 100 kilogrammes of oil, that is from 20 to 30 per cent, of
the effective or market value of the oil. These costs might in time be reduced
by a third or perhaps a half, given average ohve harvests and their econom-
ical exploitation. The section for oils of the LandeskitUnrrat pays the co-
operatve societies advances on their oil, almost always at the rate of the
market price of common oil, and writes off such advances against the money
it eventually pa^'s for the oil. The price has latterly varied from 85 to
100 crowns for 100. kilogrammes of oil.

The following table shows the importance and the results of realizing
the value of the oil by a co-operative method. It should be remembered
that the Podgora co-operative society for oil production has not yet deli-
vered any oil, and also that the figures which show the oil circulated by the
central warehouse, in the capacity of an office for sales on commission, are
really higher by about a third than those in the table, because other asso-
ciations and also individuals regularly deliver oil to be sold on commission
on the same terms.

1()

AUSTRIA - CO-OPERATION ANlV ASSOCIATION

Number of delivering co-
• operative societies ....

Quautit}^ of olivc-oir. . . .

Gross product. \

Costs ; Total . . .

Net product . '

Gross product

Costs

Net product .

for 100 kilo-
grammes .

7

632

94,848

1,841

93.007

150

3

147

5

1,487

186,613

13,572

173,041

125

9

116

12

2,304

331,719

53,268

278,451
144

23
121

1913-14

Total

10

2,344

341,724*

46,880*

294,844*
146*
20*
126

3
85
11,460*
1,460*

6,852 q.
966,364 K
117,021

10,000* i 849,343 •

135*

17*

iiS*

141

17
124

. NB. — Several co-operative societies delivered oil before their machiues were completely installed
for example in 1909-10.
* Estimated value.

CANADA.

RECENT SUCCESSES OF AGRICUI.TURAL CO-OPERATION

IN CANADA.

SOURCES :

Alberta Co-operators' Annual {Report of the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Com-
pany) in The Grain Growers' Guide, Winnipeg, 22 November 19 16.

Saskatchewan Co-opeRj\tive Annual {Report of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Com-
pany) in The Grain Growers' Guide, Winnipeg, 29 November 1916.

The Grain Growers' Annual {Report of the Grain Growers' Grain Company) in The Grain
Growers' Guide 6 Decembei 19 16.

§ I. Introduction.

The agricultural year 1915-1916 was exceptional in Canada in the
three respects of the high yield, the quality of the crops and the high sell-
ing price of grain. These favourable conditions have allowed the three great
co-operative organizations of the western provinces to develop ther inter-
ior activity, to realize enormous profits, and consequently to gain an enor-
mous amount of support in agricidtural circles.

In the whole world there is nothing comparable to these three organi-
zations — the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Compan^^ the Grain
Growers' Grain Company in Manitoba and the Alberta Farmers' Co-opera-
tive Elevator Company. They include at the present moment more than
48,000 shareholders ; the total sum of their assets exceeds $8,000,000 (i)
and their paid-up capital in shares is about $2,000,000.

Last year 90,000,000 bushels of grain, or about a third of the total
quantity produced in Canada for the market, passed through their hands.
Their profits are represented by hundreds of thousands of pounds. The
Manitoba Company realized last year a profit of $775,000, the Saskatche-
wan Company one of $757,000 the Alberta Company one of $282,000.
Their combined profits amounted therefore to $1,814,000.

(i) $ I = about 4s I y.td at par ;

l8 C.VXADA - CO-OPEEATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

This considerable sum returned in part to the producers themselves,
as shareholders in the companies, in the form of dividends. Tn part it
went to swell the reserve funds of the companies, thus allowing them to
midtiply and intensify their future activities on behalf of the farming class.
A balance amounting to $620,000 entered the coffers of the .State in the
form of a tax on profits.

The three companies now own or work more than five hundred local
elevators. Including the buildings now in course of construction they dis-
pose, or will do so shortly, of a storage capacity of more than five million
bushels.

It is fair to note that the development of agricultural organization in
the Prairie provinces is largely due to the perseverance and the sane com-
mercial and financial methods shown in the management of the Manitoba
Grain Growers' Grain Company. These were the best means of advancing
the cause of union and co-operation among the farmers.

It is also apposite to recall that these companies enjoy no sj^ecial pri-
vileges. They compete with the purely commercial companies, and the
tariffs they appty to the handling of grain are fixed either by the Canadian
Grain Commission or by the Winnipeg Corn Exchange, which control them.
Their activity and their success are therefore the more remarkable and are
proof of the excellency of their methods..

The figures representing profits which we have given are far from affording
an accurate idea of the advantages which farmers derive from this organi-
zation. The departments for co-operative provision, which allow a farmer
to procure the products and other foods he needs almost at cost price with-
out the intervention of middlemen , mean an enormous economy to farms.
Wood, wire, coal, rope, agricultural machines and tools are thus provided
to their members by the companies in increasing quantities. The Manitoba
Company has even bought vast extents of forest land in order to command
the timber needed b}' its members, which it cuts dowm and markets itself.
The sale of agricidtural products other than grain by these companies is
becoming increasingly important.

It is therefore not surprising that the report of the Manitoba Company
concludes with a very promising forecast :

" If the shareholders and those whom they have placed in charge of
the respective compaines' business remain true to the principle and ideal
which brought them into existence, they cannot fail to increase in the right
direction their power and influence in the commercial life of Western Ca-
nada. While it is always dangerous to enter the realm of prophecy, it
is not too much to expect that within the next ten years the farmers of
Western Canada will be operating their own sawmills and their own flourmills,
possibly their own coalmines and meat packing plants, and may be caring for
their own fidelity and fire insurance ".

The decision taken at the respective general meetings of the Manitoba
Grain Growers' Grain Company and the Alberta Fanners' Co-operative Ele-
vator Company to merge themselves into a single company which will be
known as the United Grain Growers represents a fresh step towards the uni-

RECENT SUCCESSES OF AGRICUI.TURAL CO-OPERATION

19

fication of agricultural organization and co-operative action. The new com-
bination will have a capital in shares of $5,000,000. The eventual aim
seems to be the concentration in one organization of all the three great
companies of Western Canada, but hitherto the Saskatchewan Company has
not considered the question of merging itself in the other two.

We will now give some exact data as tq these three farming organ-
izations, without further comment since the figures speak for themselves.

§ 2. The Saskatchewan Co-opertive Elevator Company.

The report submitted by this companj^'s board of directors to the last
annual general meeting, which was held at Regina on 22 November 1916,
includes some very significant figiures as to the business done and the pro-
fits realized.

' The year in question was the fifth since the society's foundation. The
authorized share capital was $2,500,000 ; the share capital subscribed on
31 July 1916 was $2,358,900 ; and the share capital paid up at this date
$627,342. From I April 1915 to 31 July 1916 approximately 211,000,000
bushels of wheat and 59,000,000 bushels of oats, barley and flax were despatch-
ed from Saskatchewan. The company handled altogether 43,198,000
bushels of grain, or about 15.8 per cent, of the total export. It loaded
4, 109,000 bushels over the platform while 39,089,000 bushels passed through
its 230 elevators. These figures are proof of intense activity. The total
amount of grain which passed through its elevators in the first three years
of the company's existence was surpassed in this single year. On an av-
erage-170,000 bushels. — that is 68,000 bushels more than in the most ac-
tive of previous years — passed through each elevator. One of them alone
received 520,000 bushels. As a direct consequence of the enormous amount
of business done the costs of handling the grain were lower than in previous
years.

The grain stocks held on 31 July 1916 were valued at $1,724,020.

Twenty-seven new elevators weire built during the building season of
1916 and one was bought. Further in the beginning of last July the com-
panj^ began to build at Port Arthur in Ontario a terminal elevator which
will have a tank capacity of 2,000,000 bushels and a workhouse capacity of
500,000 bushels. Additional units to provide a total storage extending to
16,000,000 bushels can be added as required ; and the workhouse is designed
so that it can give a total eventual storage capacity of 8,000,000 bushels.
The building is to be ready on i September of this year and the estimated
cost of the whole undertaking is $1,225,000.

On 31 July 1916 the cost of construction up to date was $2,024,272 ;
and, allowing for depreciation, the assets in the buildings were valued at
$ 1,861,072. The advances granted on bills of lading amounted to $ 530,476.
Among the liabilities of the company at this date were the loan and inter-
est, amounting to $1,639,267 due to the government of »Saskatchewan ;

20

CANADA - CO-OPKKATION AND ASSOCIATION

$982,268, the amount of casli grain tickets and settlements due to the pub-
lie ; and $199,479, being the war tax on business profits between 31 July
1914 and 31 July 1916 and due to the Dominion government. This tax
amounts to 25 per cent, of all profits beyond 7 per cent, of the invested
capital , reserves included , and should be paid on the profits of three
financial years. The reserves amounted to $322,973.

The profits of the year 1915-1916 show the growing importance of
the enterprise. They amounted to $757,275 which, when the war tax
had been deducted, allowed of a dividend of 8 per cent, of paid-up capital
on all shares allotted before i April 1916.

§ 2. The Ai^berta Farmers' Co-operative EivEvator Company.

This company was registered in virtue of a special Act of 23 March
1913 and is therefore of quite recent foundation. Its growth is clearly
shown by the following table :

Date

Number of
Elevators

Number of
Shareholders

Nvmiber

of Subscribed

Shares

Subscribed
Share Capital

Paid-up
Share Capital

August 1913 .

46

4,665

7,272

436,220

87,264

October 1914 .

76

8,483

9,428

555,680

117,108

November 191 5

87

9,353

12,127

727,670

163,869

November 191 6

103

11,236

14,472

868,320

301,737

The activity of the company's elevators is shown by the following
figures :

Farming season 191 3-19 14

» n I914-I915 '

" » 1 91 5-1 91 6

» » 1916-1917 (3 mouths)

more than

$3,774,396 bushels of grain received iti the elevators

5,039,100 i< » » » )> » »

19,320,536 » » « » » » ).

600,000 » » » » » » ),

The commission department, which dealt in 1914-1915 with only
1,211,000 bttshels, dealt in the following year with 10,384,156 bushels
and in the first three months of the ctirrent year with more than 2,000,000
bushels.

RKCHiVT SUCCKSSKS OK ACiKICULTURAL CO-OPERATION

The live stock department which began its activity on i April 1914
has since accomplished the business shown by the following table :

No. of Cars
cousigned

No. of Hogs

No. of Head

No. of Slie<:p

S

I9I3-I9I4

141

11,000

—

—

I9I4-I9I5

763

56,603

1,129

805

605,809

1915-191^^

513

36,624

3,545

659

878,042

I9I6-I9I7

(3 first montljs)

258

6,712

3,493

1,502

305,846

The figures for all the branches of the company's work are equalty
interesting. In the first three years 59,222 and 160 carloads of flour and
fodder for. live stock and 33,150 and 372 carloads of coal were respectively
provided ; and in the first three months of 1916-1917 796 carloads. The
quantity of posts provided passed from 75 carloads to 204 in 1915-1916 ;
that of twine from 55 carloads in 1914-1915 to 78 in the next 3^ear ; that of
lumber and building material from 19 to 42 carloads ; that of wire from
13 to 23 carloads. In the first three months of the present season the com-
pany received for sale 40 carloads of fruit produced by members. Finally
in these three months the co-operative department has delivered 1,003
carloads of hay, salt, firewood and other necessaries, as against 96 in the
farming season of.1913-1914.

The co-operative department, of which the principal business has
been noted, handled altogether 1,002 cars in the thirteen months ending 31
August 1916 and its total turnover was $749,668.

In order to meet the greatly increased demand for coal in the best
possible conditions the company has begun to build coal-sheds at points
where there are elevators and a demand among local shareholders. This
has enabled an accumulation of large quantities of coal and the regulation
of its price. The tentative enterprise has met with complete success,
orders for 658 carloads to be delivered to farmers having been received
on 15 November 1916, the date of the company's last general meeting.

The total amount of tlie company's assets on 31 August 1916 was
$1,509,496.

The profits for the year ending at that date were $282,484. to which
mxist be added a balance of $36,229 from the previous year. Out of the
total sum $175,000 was paid into the general reserve; a dividend of 8 per
cent, was paid to the shareholders; $15,000 provided bonuses for the com-
pany's agents ; and the Dominion war tax absorbed $60,000. A balance of
more than $23,000 remained to carry over to the next year.

22 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

§ 4. The MANITOBA GRAIN GROWERS* GRAIN COMPANY

The year 1915-1916 was from almost every point of view the most
satisfactory ever experienced bj^ this compam\

In its ten years of life this company has come to be very powerfvil.
When formed on i September 1906 it could count certainly on only a few
shareholders ; on 31 April 1916 their number was 18,163. The paid-up
capital has risen from S5,ooo to $1,073,000. The profits of the first year
were only $790 ; last year they were more than 8570,000. The total quan-
tity of grain which the company has handled in the ten years is more than
205 million bushels The total profits amount to §1,488,740 and the total
dividends to $550,000.

The volume of grain which passed through the compam^'s elevators
was, owing to the exceptional crop of a year ago, more than double that
handled in the previous 3^ear, namely 14,737,687 bushels as against
6,540,923 bushels. In spite of this increase of about 125 per cent, the
working costs increased by only 75 per cent., the total expenses in this de-
partment being $437,695 as against $285,897 in 1914-1915. The total
revenue was $597,303 as against $292,288 for 1914-1915. Thus this de-
partment obtained a profit of $161, 607 as against one of $7,390 for the
previous year.

The company now owns fourteen elevators in the province of Manitoba.

The co-operative department, by sales of machinery and other goods,
realized $1,363,591 as against $1,148,128 in the previous year, which gives
an increase of 19 per cent. The chief increase was under the head of
machinery, of which the sales, those in Calgary being excluded, realized
$278,205 as against about $80,000 in 1914-1915.

The sales of machinery at Winnipeg and Regina were made up as fol-
lows :

Tillage tools $102,044.13

Miscellaneous machinery and supplies 83,664.67

Gas engines 13,889.80

Tractors 36,191.39

Vehicles 42,415.79

$278,205.78

The other principal sales effected by the co-operative department
were as follows :

RECENT SUCCESSES OF AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION 2^,

Lumber . ^180,410

Millwork .' 23,729

Metal goods 10,756

Builders' supplies 46,120

Twine 520,373

Barbed wire 70,136

Woven wire 53.336

Posts 46,419

Coal 53.249

Flour 8,488

Apples 60,946

These sales realized altogether $1,085,385. The total operations of
the co-operative department yielded only a slight profit. The necessity
of accumulating large stocks in order to meet demands punctually and to
guard against the rise of prices due to the war placed the company in some
difficulty.

A live stock department was formed during the year. Sales began on
I March 1916 : at the end of August 196 carloads of live stock had been
handled, and the number handled in September and October was 302.
This department is doing educational work in that it shows farmers how
to form live stock shipping associations and make the greatest possible pro-
fit out of their stock.

The total expenses of all kinds' amounted in 1915-1916 to $994,997
and the gross income to $1,566,422. The profit and loss account gives
a balance of $572,804, utilized as follows :

Dividend of 10 per cent $100,500

War tax 1915-1916 104,381

Reserv^e 217,159

Carried over . . ^ 150,763

On 31 August 1916 the amount of the reserve fund was $600,000.
Among the assets invested capital amounts to $801,950 : $225, 682 of this
sum being invested in growing timber, and more than $300,000 in
town real estate, while the elevators are valued at more than $250,000.

There is no doubt that the company is in an excellent position finan-
cially. Since it was founded its shareholders have always received a 10 per
cent, dividend except in the first year when the dividend was 7 per cent.
The shares have risen to 50 per cent, above their nominal value.

§ 5. The fusion of two great farmers' companies.

At the annual general meeting of the Manitoba Grain Growers' Grain
Company, held at Winnipeg on 29 November 1916, a ver>- important reso-
lution was passed which marks a turning-point in agricultural organiza-

2\ CANADA - eo-()]'IvKAlIOX AM) ASSUCIATKJN

tion in Canada. On the proposal of the board of directors the shareholders
agreed to the fusion of the companj^ with the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative
Elevator Company. The resultant company is known as the United Grain
Growers, L,imited.

For some j^ears the means of advancing the interests of farmers in the
vast region of the west, by grouping together their organizations and thus
improving the working of these, had been studied. A year ago an attempt
was made to federate the three great companies of which we have spoken,
but this was a failure. The board of directors of the Alberta company there-
upon proposed to merge their company' and that of Manitoba. The de-
tailed steps by which tliis measure ,was accomplished were approv-ed b}' the
shareholders of the Alberta compan^^ three weeks before the meeting of
the Manitoba company.

In accordance with the scheme which was approved the Manitoba
Grain Growers' Grain Compan};- will be reorganized on a new basis, that
naniel}- of local groups which has already been adopted b^- the Alberta
and Saskatchewan companies.

Each of these local groups will name delegates who will be sent to
the general meetin?, and whose travelling costs will be paid by the company.
The shareholders will therefore be much better represented in the general
meetings than is the case under the system hitherto followed ; under which
the large majorit}^ of shareholders present at the general meetings have been
resident within a radius of from sixt}' to a hundred miles of Winnipeg,
although the shareholders living in Manitoba are much less than half their
total number, 7,500 living in .Saskatchewan and the others in Alberta and
British Columbia.

The capital in shares of the new company will be 85,000,000

Its bj'-laws will shorth^ be presented for statutory sanction to the par-
liament at Ottawa.

MISCEIvIvANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

BRITISH INDIA.

THE PROGRESS OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN BARODA STATE.

The ±eport of the registrar of Baroda State for 1914-15 shows a very
considerable progress made by co-operative societies. The following table
gives some details :

Kind of Scieties

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Working Capital

1913-1914 1914-1915

1913-1914 I9I4-I9I5*

1913-1914 1914-1915

Central

Agricultural ....
Non-agricultural . .

3
246

13

2

286
18

176

6,918

655

220

8,071

976

Rs. (I)

128,170

452,006

59,660

Rs.

184,062

536,439

79,719

Total . . .

262

306

7.749

9,267

639,836

800,220

(i) I rupee = is 41/.

The registrar states that except in a few places no special efforts were
made to organize new societies, but that the people came forward of their
own accord, being generally influenced by the successful working of a
society in their neighbourhood.

The reserve fund of all the societies amounted to Rs. 69,584 as against
Rs. 44,500 in the previous year. The amount of loans granted was Ro.
586,566, having increased in the year by Rs. 73,358. Nearly one third
of the loans were made for such ordinary agricultural purposes as the pitr-
chase of seed or manure and the payment of labourers' wages. Others
were for the purchase of cattle and implements, the pa^-ment of land reve-
nue and old debts, and trading, industrial and domestic purposes.

26 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The non-credit societies include a milk supply society which suppUes
milk to a depot in the town, a milk consumers' societ}- which distributes
this milk to residents in the town, and an agricultural society which supplies
water for purposes of irrigation.

The eighteen non-agricultural societies include five government ser-
vants' credit societies, eleven weavers' societies, a municipal scavengers'
society and another society of this last type.

The registrar acknowledges great help received from the officers of
the Revenue Department who were asked, by a special resolution passed
by the Honourable Council, to forward the movement.

" If ", he states, " the co-operative movement is to be developed,
well organized efforts should be made to educate the farmers in the prin-
ciples of co-operation. A hand-book on co-operation for use in primary
schools has been prepared ".

ITAI^Y.

I. THE RESOI^UTIONS OF THE NATIONAI, MEETING OF THE AGRICUI^TURAI,
CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES AT MII^AN. — La Cooperazione Italiana (Italian Co-opera-
tion), organ of the Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative (National I^eague of Co-ojierative
Societies), No. 1223, 22 December 1916.

On the initiative of the National League of Co-operative Societies
there were held at Milan on the 17th and i8th of last December three na-
tional meetings of the co-operative societies of consumption, production,
labour and agriculture (i). The last-named, which interest us most di-
rectly, dealt with agricultural and co-operative colonization, in relation to
which the following motion was approved : " i) The meeting reaffirms its
preceding resolutions in favour of giving a legal sanction, where the lands
of public bodies are concerned, to letting these, on lease or otherwise, or
selling them by preference to labouiers' co-operative societies, such prefer-
ence being analogous to that given to co-operative labour societies in pub-
lic auctions, 2) The meeting declares the need to be urgent and immediate
for public works of hydraulics destined to increase the area of land permit-
ting of cultivation and to remove one of the more important causes of ill
health and of the abandonment of much land. It demands also that there
should be agricultural enterprise — internal colonization — the words
being understood in their largest sense. The extension of the legislation
for the Roman Campagna to all lands in which there is public agricultural
enterprise is the first and fundamental action v^hich the meeting demands

(i) A few days earlier at Naples the meeting of the co-operative societies of the south was
held, and passed resolutions for the constitution of provincial or district federations of the va-
rious kinds of co-operative societies, which should help these societies in matters of technique,
book-keeping or administration, or legally.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 27

that the government should take, requisitioning uncultivated land and
bringing it within such extension. 3) The necessity of increasing agricultu-
ral production, the need for employing on agriculture much of the labour
wliich in the past emigrated, and the recognized opportunity for reconsti-
tuting collective agriculture show the close relationship between internal
colonization and co-operative labour and production (collective farms) . Thus
wherever the private capitalist might withdraw, because profits were scarce or
non-existent, the association of labourers, which w^ouldaim above all at a
large gross return to be directly consumed by its members, would have ever}-
opportunity to enter and to intensify agriculture. 4) The meeting asks
that a large part of the lands which will gradually be bought up, be given
to the agricultural co-operative societies. These involve a minimum ini-
tial cost, and afford, as compared with land settled for centuries, more em-
ployment for labour, and employment both more and more lastingly renumer-
ative. For this end the meeting passed a special resolution addressed
to the government and the competent bodies. 5) The meeting considered
that for the social and economic ends towards which the collective farms
were directed, joint and divided management of the lands taken over were
equally to be recommended, so long as under one and the other system
more intimate and fruitful association linked individual to social activity
and vice versa, and so long as there were no lack of technical knowledge
or of credit. The essential point was that the land should be given to the
labourers, who always had cultivated it and who would cultivate it more
and better, for themselves and others, on the day on which they would
by their associated efforts derive from it a larger profit ". An order of
the day was then approved by which, since the movement for agricultural
co-operation was assuming in Italy a steadily growing importance, the
National Institute of Credit for Co-operation {Istituto Nazionale di Credito
per la Cooperazione) was invited to form an agricultural office which should
co-ordinate and direct the action and development of agricultural co-opera-
tive societies among labourers. In accordance with thJs vote such an office
has already been founded (i) b}^ the institute at Bologna and aims at
giving assistance and technical advice to these societies.

2. the; COIvLECTIVE farm of SAN GIOVANNI in CROCE. — L« Cooperazione Ua-
liana, Milan, no. 1220, i December 1916.

The peasants of San Giovanni in Croce (Cremona), a centre in which
class organization, completed by a consumers' co-operative society, has had
a noteworthy development, have recently formed a collective farm, underta-
king the management of about 800 Cremonese perches (2) of land belonging

(i) See La Cooperazione Italiana, Milan, no. 1225, 5 January 1917.
(2) I Cremonese perch = 966.45 square yards.

28 INFORMATION REI.ATIXG TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

to the Educational Institutes of Cremona, at a fixed rent of 16.50 liras (i)
the perch. To provide live and other stock — more than fifty heads of
live stock have already been acquired — the Society has advanced more
than fift}^ thousand liras. The, work which will be collectively directed,
will be executed mainly by casual labour supplied by the members. Oril}'^
two families have been engaged permanently, and they will have to attend
principally to the management of the live stock.

The direction of the work is entrusted to an expert, chosen from among
the members, who will manage the farm " according to the criteria of the
most rigid scrupulosity ".

Wages will be fixed according to the contracts locally customary', all
rules as to insurance against accidents, disablement and old age being es-
pecially ob.served.

The administrations of the religious bodies of Cremona have decided
to substitute, whenever any of the leases of their landed property expire,
a co-operative society of cultivators for the individual farmer. Thiis in
this province there is a distinct movement towards collective leases, which
should meet with the success obtained by similar enterprises in the prov-
inces of Ravenna, Reggio, Emilia, Mantua.

3. THE " SOCIETA ANONIMA COOPERATIVA PER 1,'ESPORTAZIONE DEI PRODOTTI
AGRICOIyl " (2) OF JESI IN 1915-1916. — Report for 1915-1916 approved by the general
meeting of members on 25 Jmie 1916. Jesi, 1916.

This society has two sections, one for the export abroad of agricultu-
ral products, the other for the acquisition and the sale to members of ar-
ticles useful to agriculture. In 1915-1916 it sold merchandise having an
aggregate value of 931,850.66 liras, distributed as follows :

Chemical manures liras 498,842.55

Meadow and various seeds » 258,732.87

Anti-cryptogamous substances. ... » 130,658.96

Agricultural and various machines. . » 24,308.68

Fodder for live stock )i 19,307.60

Total .... liras 931,850.66

(i) I lira = 9 ^l^d at par.

(2) I^imited lyiability Co-operative Society for the Export of Agricultural Products.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

.29

As regards the section for export this could not discharge its function
owing to the embargo on foreign export. The cauliflowers produced were
however sold at home in the markets of Upper Italy, to which 715,790 of
them or 85 car-loads, having a total value of 60,534 liras, were sent. In
the same year a new dryer for cocoons was installed by the societ}^, so that
the two driers wliich now exist fully satisfy the demands of members. The
society's sales have increased steadily, having realized in 1910-1911 a va-
lue of 148,369 liras, in 1911-1912 one of 850,976 liras, in 1912-13 one of
1,112,959 liras, in 1913-1914 one of 1,295,731 liras, and in 1914-15 one of
1,234,136 liras.

The society's capital reached at the and of the year in question
159,218.82 liras, made up as follows : capital in shares 84,250 liras; ordi-
nary reserve fund 55,540.49 liras ; extraordinary reserve fund 19,428.33
Hras. The net profits — 55,468.80 hras — were distributed as follows :
a) to the shares 5 per cent, of the paid-up capital, 4,205.90 liras ; b) to the
orfUnary reserve 70 per cent, of the residue, 35,884.66 liras ; c) to the
purchasers 20 per cent., 10,252.76 Hras ; and finally d) 10 per cent, was set
aside to provide for new initiative, 5,126.38 Hras.

The society was able to reach such results thanks to the help obtained
from local credit agencies, particularly the Banca Popolare Cooperativa
(Popular Co-operative Bank).

4. THE ACTIVITY OF THE OFFICE OF I^EGAI, ADVICE OF THE " I.EGA NAZIONAI^E
DEI/I^E COOPERATIVE ". — La Cooperazione Italiana, organ of tliis league, Milan,
no. 1225, 5 Jauuarj' 1917.

Among the multiple services rendered by this Milanese National League
of Co-operative Societies to its federated societies one of the best organ-
ized and certainl}^ the most useful is that of affording legal advice. Tliis
service is entrusted to an expert who has summarized the activity of his
office in the following table : ■ ^

No.

of

Affairs

dealt

with

Written
Opin-
ions

Oral
Consul-
tations

lyocal
Enquir-
ies

News-
paper
Articles

Co-operative Societies

Mu-

Year

Con-
sump-
tion

I,abour

Agricul-
tural

Build-
ing

Mixed

tual

1912

1316

1097

160

51

770

293

37

58

37

127

1913

1247

1068

179

—

—

• 628

371

—

68

—

137

1914

1269

1 103

139

10

17

634

296

86

38

86

157

1915

u68

969

176

7

23

534

319

43

73

—

142

1916

859

744

100

—

15

365

204

37

45

—

93

30 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

It is seen that in spite of the difficulties of the present time the
National lyeagtie of Co-operative Societies neglects nothing in order to
continue its work of helping and safeguarding the interests of these societies
which now number more than 7,000.

5. THE FORMATION OF THE) " SOCIETA DEGI,I ENOTECNICI ITAI^IANI ". — Com-
municated by the Society.

On the basis of the votes of the National Congress of Experts in Wine,
held last summer at Voghera, this " Society of Italian Experts in Wine",
has been definitely formed. It has headquarters at Caselmonferrato and
is intended to include all licentiates of the higher technical schools of wine
production in Alba, Avelhno, Cagliari, Catania and Conegliano. The so-
ciety's aim, bej'ond that of defending trade interests, is to promote and
favour the technical and economic progress of viticulture and wine pro-
duction in Italy, where these industries represent more than seven thou-
sand million liras of invested capital and employ more than two million
citizens.

*
* *

6. THE DEVEI<OPMENT OF THE " UNIONE COOPERATIVA DI MII^ANO ".—Sforia
delVUnione Cooperativa, Milan, Tipografia dell'Unione Cooperativa, igi6.

This " Co-operative Union of Milan ", the greatest cousimiers' co-
operative society in Italy, has recently completed its thirtieth year of
life. To celebrate the occasion it has published an interesting report which
treats of its first origins and, year by year, of its work, its initiative and the
results it has obtained. The facts are resumed in the following table, ta-
ken from the report :

INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

31

lite Growth of the Co-operative Union of Milan.

Year

Members

Paid-up
Capital

Reserve

Total Sales

Credit Balance

•

Number

Wras

tiiias

I/iras

I<iras

—

396

7,941.00

— —

7,005.98

1,058.16

1887-1888

613

29,908.00

1,600.25

35,013-77

10,575.73

1888-1889

874

138,261.00

6,503.27

231,026.91

24,836.03

I 889-1 890

2,127

378,812.00

18,758.34

681,539.01

82,250.50

1890-1891

3,412

687,150.00

39,860,09

1,397,475-02

141,414.37

1891-1892

3.761

828,053.00

82,917.02

2,462,571.52

168,653.23

I 892-1 893

3,910

909,343-00

129,609.65

2,741,932.68

182,473.50

1893-1894

3,938

918,362.00

162,358.51

2,949,770.76

197,266.62

I 894-1 895

4,083

935,312.00

221,276.27

3,254,531.04

216,275.75

I 895-1 896

4,292

1,004,960.00

273,974-39

3,678,145.69

249,273.11

1896-1897

4,556

1,107,800.00

362,334.18

4,765,115.28

300,379.18

1897-1898

4,867

1,225,163.00

439,612.20

4,908,920.01

314,783.77

1898-1899

5.053

1,344,836.00

520,134.25

5,217,653.08

218,811.90

1 899-1900

5,164

1,447,581.00

580,962.80

5,755,519.01

295',336.23

1900-1901

5,270

1,541,149.00

635,076.54

6,297,567.16

310,646.67

1901-1902

5,389

1,637,025.00

689,960.68

6,546,707.98

310,288.30

1902-1903

5,632

1,766,333.00

780,988.44

6,713,256.96

324,768.27

1903-1904

7,365

2,217,574.00

936,533-io

7,025,128.07

345-049.93

1904-1905

9.188

2,840,755.00

1,180,417.00

7,388,420.89

426,502.22

1905-1906

11,481

3,848,609.00

1,454,252.35

8,375,827.64

522,162.20

1906-1907

12,958

4,738,124.80

1,799,879.02

10,467,999.00

689,162.25

1907-1908

13,880

5,486,599-05

2,091,120.01

10,279,885.49

656,799.86

1908-I909

14,114

5,733,474-95

2,240,574.35

10,570,376.96

650,760.89

1909-IQIO

14,306

5,923,756-40

2,373,297.97

10,891,623.33

726,447.28

1910-1911

14,566

6,193,854.44

2,565,770.90

10,732,609.00

632,601.51

1911-1912

14,582

6,313,431-20

2,687,571.76

11,001,337.23

651,083.17

1912-1913

14,5^6

6,343,241.90

2,732,171.56

11,089,710.95

549,719.48

1913-1914

14,825

6,282,998.60

2,488,482.67

10,554,268.29

409,962.02

1914-1915

15,004

6,301,739-89

2,396,619.80

10,887,895.23

251,791-59

1915-I916

15,087

6,29-1,705-64

2,425,735-20

14,896,397.77

621,579.41

The total profits realized in the period considered amounted to
10,482,713 liras, distributed as follows : interest, 4,765,143 liras ; reserve

32 INFORMATION REL,ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

1,018,297 liras ; savings 3,172,506 liras ; administrative council 320,328
liras ; thrift fund 1,087,060 liras ; research fund, 107,407 liras.

The union occupies a building in wliich it sells stuffs, shoes, hats, li-
nen, clothes, carpets, furniture, etc., and includes numerous gilds devoted
to the various kinds of manufacture. It comprises forty-iune sections for
the sale of the different kinds of food and wine, and five depots for com-
bustibles. It possesses a great warehouse for wine, capable of receiving
50,000 hectolitres (i) and provided with the most modern and perfect ma-
chiner\^ It has premises for treating pig-flesh in which all such products
sold in its various branches — amounting last year to a value of 773,036
liras — are prepared ; and also a confectioner's shop, three restaurants,
a printing-press and a book-binder3^ In May 1914 it opened a new depart-
rhent — the deposit bank which has already received savings amounting
to' 575,629 liras, on which interest is paid at the rate of 4 Y2 P^^ cent. Vi-
nally beside the gates of Milan it has made the Milauino, Italy's first garden-
city.

' ■ - The union recounts its activity in its own monthly review, L' Idea
GodfeKativa, which it distributes to its members without charge.

RUSSIA.

THE FINNISH SUPERINTENDING SOCIETIES IN THE YEARS 1913-1915. — For
\ landtmannahem : Helsiugfors, September 1916.

\ . The Administration of Agriculture has published a report on the ac-
tivity of the Finnish superintending societies in the year 1915.

, In 1915, 65,648 cows yielded on an average 1,926 kilogrammes (2) of
milk each, furnishing 75.34 kilogrammes of butter (3.91 per cent) ; in 1914
the average yield of each of 60,589 cows was 2,017 kilogrammes of milk
which furnished 77.85 kilogrammes of butter (3.86 per cent.) ; in 1913 the
average yield of each of 43,392 cows was 2,085.6 kilogrammes of milk
and 80.66 kilogrammes of butter (3.86 per cent.)

The largest gross yield occurred in the district of L,ojo (Nyland pro-
vince) where each of 437 cows gave on an average 3,251 kilogrammes of
milk and 121.43 kilogrammes of butter (3.73 per cent.) for a consumption
of 2,281 units of forage. In two other districts of the province of Nyland
the average for one cow was more than 100 kilogrammes of butter : namely
in the district of Ekenas — 2,927 kilogrammes of milk and 106.38 kilo-
grammes of butter (3.65 per cent.) for a consumption of 1,983 units of for-
age ; and in the district of East Helsinge — 2,811 kilogrammes of milk

1) I hectoUtre = 0.344 ciiiarters.

2) I kilogramme = 2 Vs lbs.

INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 33

and 103.15 of butter (3.67 per cent.) for a consumption of 2,073 units of
forage.

In the whole country 130.2 kilogrammes of milk were, on an average
obtained for 100 units of forage in 1914 and 134.4 kilogrammes in 1913.
Thus the production per hundred units has diminished, the diminution
being accentuated within the sphere of certain societies. In 1915 the
consumption of forage decreased almost universally and the forage consum-
ed consisted in a larger proportion than previously of oil-cakes. These
two circumstances prove that the efforts made to diminish the use of ce-
reals as forage have not been fruitless. On the other hand the excessive
restriction of the consumption of forage in some districts seems to have
caused a decrease in production wliich is too large to be economicalh^ pro-
fitable.

Part II: Insurance and Thrift

URUGUAY.

THE STATE BANK OF INSURANCE AND INSURANCE
AGAINST HAIL.

Sources :

RELACION ENVL\DA for la OFICINA DE ESTADISTICA Y PUBLICACiONES DEL MlNISTERIO DE
INDUSTRIAS DEL URUGUAY AL INSTITUTO INTERNACIONAL DE AGRICULTURA SOBRE LA SEC-
CION GR.\NIZO DEL BANCO DE SEGUROS DEL ESTADO, EN 7 OCTUBRE DE I916 (RcpOrl Sent

by the Office of Statistics and Publications of the Ministry of Industry of Uruguay to the In-
ternational Institute of Agriculture on the Hail Department of the State Insurance Bank on 7
October 1916).

I^EY DE CREAC16N DEL BANCO DE Seguros DEL EsTADO {Law Creating the State Insurance Bank)
Talleres de A. Barreiro y Ramos. Montevideo, 1912.

Reglamento GENERAL DEL BANCO DE Seguros DEL EsT.\DO {General Rules of the State
Insurance Bank), ibid. 191 2.

§ I. The state insurance bank.

The vState Insurance Bank was created by the law of 27 December 1911.
Its object was to practise all forms of insurance covered by the State's
monopoly and instituted by the relevant law.

The bank's capital consists of three million pesos (i) in public debt
bonds bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent, annually and i per cent,
of amortization. The bank's capital and reserve fund are the special gua-
rantee of its operations, which are however also guaranteed by the State

(i) I peso = about 4s ^d at par.

36 URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

and for which the State is responsible. The reserve fund is formed by the
bank's annual balance of liquid capital.

This bank's insurance transactions are exempt from all taxation, as
is its real estate.

The State Insurance Bank is held to be incorporated and has therefore
to exercise rights and fulfil obhgations. Its legal headquarters and admin-
istrative centre are at Montevideo, but it may have agencies where it
judges that their foundation is to the interest of itself and its clients. It
is administered by a board of directors consisting of a chairman and six
voting members.

The law already mentioned of 27 December 1911 declared that con-
tracts for life insurance and insurance against fire and the accidents of
labour were the vState's monopoh^ and that the State could also undeitake
insurance of other kinds, but nmst in every case and with regard to every
class of insurance fix by decree the date at which its monopoly should take
eftect. In order to establish its monopoly in each branch of insurance
the State may acquire the paper belonging to existing companies or agen-
cies and substitute itself for them in respect of all their rights and obliga-
tions.

Already in its first year of activity, which ended on 31 December 1912,
the State Insurance Bank undertook — in addition to the transactions
covered by its legal monopoly of Hfe, fire and accident insurance — other
branches of insurance, among them one which has an especial interest
for us, namely insurance against hail.

To insure standing crops against damage' by hail an especial depart-
ment has been formed in this bank, and it employs agents and a competent
propaganda staff who are distributed throughout the country.

This department acts autonomously, as do all others in the bank,
under the direction and control of the council, and in the short time for which
it has been at work it has already given proof of singular activity, although
hitherto agricultural conditions have in general been adverse. Before we
briefly indicate the results it has obtained it will be well to show the prin-
cipal terms of contracts for insurance of this description.

§ 2. Terms of a powcy of insurance against hail.

For the period fixed in each contract the State Insurance Bank insures
the value of standing crops, that is of products actually borne by plants which
are still enrooted, against damage caused by hail, all damage due to causes
preceding, accompanj'ing or following on the fall of hail being expressl}-
excluded.

Insurance is applied for in writing on the bank's forms, and the appli-
cation is an integral part of the policy and must be accompanied by the
amount of the due premium.

THE STATE BANK OF INSURANCE 37

The baiik becomes responsible for risks from midday on the day on
which the poHcy is drawn up until the crops are cut or uprooted, within
the period fixed in even.^ case. No prorogation will be granted in the case of
any crop within regions in which damage has been done by frost, or which
have been invaded b}'^ winged locusts or threatened bj' them in their wing-
less state. In every case an insured person is obliged to provide the agri-
cultural work which the character and the condition of his crops require and
on no pretext to abandon insured crops. Anyone applying for insurance
nmst insure all his crops of the kind which he proposes to insure. He
nuist therefore, when applying, declare to the bank whether he has other
crops of the same kind, wliich are uninsured or which are insured by the
bank or otherwse. If a part of the crops which he desires to insure be in a
bad state he may insure only such remaining part as is in a good state. The
signator^^ of an application for- insurance must therefore specify clearl}^
in the plan which he annexes to his application, what part of his fields he
excludes from insurance and the area of that which he wishes to insure.
After he has partially insured a crop he will be obliged to insure at the bank
such excliided part thereof as may recover from its bad state. On pain of
forfeiting his insurance he is bound not to cut that part of his crop which
has for any reason been excluded from insurance, with the bank's consent,
until that part of it which the bank has insured has been completely har-
vested. Crops insured by the bank may not be insured elsewhere without
notification to the bank, even if several persons have an interest in them.
When the bank has thus been notified it will have a pro rata responsibility,
wdth the other agencies insuring a given crop at the time damage is incur-
red. When one crop is insured by several companies any damage incur-
red will be estimated by au inspector whom one of the interested companies
will nominate.

If after an insurance contract has been concluded the insured crop
pass into the possession of another person, the in.sured person will inform
the bank in order that the fact maj^ be noted on the policy. The applica-
tion should contain a statement as to the total amount at which the appli-
cant values the crop to be insured by the bank, wholly or partially as the
applicant may desire.

Crops already damaged by hail may not be proposed for insurance
until ten days have elapsed from the time at which the damage was incur-
red, and the applicant desiring to insure them must insert in his applica-
tion a statement as to the amount of the past damage and the date at
which it was incurred.

The insured person may not claim indemnities from the bank for dam-
ages due to hail unless these exceed in the case of each crop 6 per cent,
of the total insuied value. The notice of an occurrence of loss nmst state
its date and hour and the kind of crop injured, and must be handed to the
local agent and telegraphed to the management of the bank at Montevideo-
no later than twenty-four hours after such occurrence. This first notice
will not however be held valid unless the insured person declare iu writing.

38 URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

on the bank's forms which are annexed to the policy and after a minute
inspection, the value of the loss incurred, the state of the crops, etc.

This declaration must be given to the local agent for immediate trans-
mission to the management at Montevideo, no later than fort^^-eight hours
after the loss has been incurred. The insured person must exact from the
agent for such notice find declaration a receipt which specifices the date
and hour of their delivery.

Until the bank fixes the amount of the indemnity and agrees to grant
it the insured person may not touch the damaged crops, on pain of losing
all right to indemnification. If a crop have been damaged by hail at the
time at which the grain was ripe the insured person will, failing the bank's
order to the contrary, be obliged when he has made his declaration to har-
vest or continue to harvest the damaged grain, leaving however siich ears
standing as indicate the limits of the crop and form a basis for the bank's
estimate.

In order that losses may be ascertained and estimated the bank, on
pain of an annulment of insurance, insists on :

1. The presentation of the policy and the receipt for the notice and
declaration of loss.

2. A declaration by the insured person or his representative, on the
demand of the bank's inspector, as to the day and the hour of the inspection.

3. Exact proof that the injured crop is identical with the insured crop.

4. Detailed information as to :

a) when and how often the crops have been damaged by hail ;

b) whether the insured person's declared right to insure and his
other declarations have been genuine ;

c) whether or not the work necessary to a good crop have been per-
formed.

5) The exact determination of :

a) the area and situation of the damaged part ;

b) the yield which might have been obtained from the insured
crops if they had ripened, until the time at which the loss occurred ;

c) the percentage of this yield destroyed by the hail.

The bank can in no case be responsible for more than the insured sum.
If after one or more occurrences of recognized loss a part of the crops be
again injured, the total damage will be estimated without taking into ac-
count previous estimates of loss ; and if the insured person have alreadj^
been compensated for this loss or these losses, or the sum due for anterior
losses have already been fixed, the sums so paid will be deducted from the
total amount granted as an indemnity in accordance with the last estimate.

The bank has the right to commission one or more persons to inspect
damaged crops once or oftener, or if necessary to delay inspection and valua-
tion. The insured person must furnish the necessary facilities for inspec-
tion and the estimate of losses.

In case of lack of unanimity in the estimate of damage by the bank's
inspector and the insured person, the former may choose as to whether ex-
perts will be nominated or the matter delayed until the harvest or later.

THE STATE BANK OF INSURANCE 39

In the liatter case the general yield of neighbouring crops will be taken into
account, the average furnishing the basis for an estimate. If on the other
hand it be decided to have recourse to experts, who will be commissioned
to settle the dispute amicably, the amount of the loss will be fixed by two
experts, the respective nominees of the disputing parties, and they will
agree together on the basis of the terms of the policy. If they fail to agree
the matter will be decided by a third expert whom they will nominate, un-
less they cannot agree on his nomination when decision will rest with one
of three experts proposed to the insured person by the bank. The decision
taken by the two experts, or failing them by a third, will be final and there
will be no appeal against it, whether or not the third expert's decision agree
with that of either of the two first.

The amount of the loss incurred will not be a matter to be discussed
in the courts. The costs of an estimate which the two interested parties
accept will be met by the bank. Honoraria and costs due to expert valuers
and those deciding disputes will be reckoned separately, and should be
partly paid by that disputant whose original estimate is furthest removed
from the final estimate.

If an estimate of damage do not give rise to an indemnity, the insured
person's claim not being justified, the insured person must pay the costs of
inspection and the attendant travelling costs, which expenses must not
evei: be computed at less than forty pesos. The policy will be declared
null and void and the amount of the premium ensured to the bank if the
amount of such expenses be not paid within eight days in specie or by the
remittance of a guaranteed note. If no agreement be reached as to the
estimate, experts will be nominated to settle the dispute amicably or a se-
cond inspection will be made when the stipulated costs have been paid in
advance.

The bank reserves the right to refuse an application for insurance with-
in fifteen days of the date at which it is signed, returning in this case
the amount of the premium. Simil arly it may at any moment annul a policy
after giving eight days' notice and returning the premium or a proportion
thereof, the proportion retained corresponding to any losses sustained which
it may have recognized.

§ 3. The activity of the department for insurance against hail.

The development of this department in the short period which has
elapsed since its foundation is due not only to the exercise of a monopoly
in insurance against hail, but also to the intensive propaganda which the
bank's agents have carried out in the country in support of this branch of
agricultural insurance. It has come to be almost twice as productive as
it was formerly, when it was practised by private companies.

The private companies who covered this risk were " I^a Nacional "

40 URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

and " lya Rural ". The bank bought their paper on 9 July and 9 September
1913, for 10,000 and 16,000 pesos, respective^.

The hail department was created in February 1912. As has been seen
the monopoly in this form of insurance was instituted at the end of 1913,
by means of the purchase of the paper of the private companies with which
paper business was begun. The first results obtained were certainly most
encouraging, the receipts of the hail department in the form of premiums
reaching in 1912 61 per cent, of the product of this branch of insurance in
the whole country, namely 47,463 pesos as against 30,000 pesos received
by the private companies.

Tabi,e I. Business of the Hail Department from 1912 to 1915.

Year

Insured Capital
Pesos

Premiums
Number Amount

Pesos

Indemnities
Total Amount Percentage
— of premiums
Pesos received

I9I2

1,537,029

^'543

47.463

8.977

19.22

I9I3

3,023,160

4.031

93.637

27.893

29.77

I9I4

1,065,697

1,618

43,271

10,259

24.63

I9I5

2,485,309

3.867

77,011

2,410

3-13

Total 8,111,195 11,059 261,418 49,539 18.95

This table shows the progress of the business of the hail department
from igi2 to 1915, inclusively. But it would be diflficult to estimate this
institution's activity onh' from these figures. Thus as regards 1912, this
year was, in the first place, that in which business was |)egun ; secondly
it was incomplete since the hail department was not founded until February;
and lastly it was that in which the monopoly of this branch of insurance did
not 3^et exist. After this monopoty was established in 1913 much
higher figures were reached. It would however be very risky to accept
the data for this year unreservedly as an index to the institution's activity
in the matter of hail insurance ; for it was in tliis year that the purchase
of the paper of the companies, of which we have spoken, was effected, and
the published statistics do not .specify what revenue was obtained by the
bank's department exclusively, and what emanated from these companies.
The data in question therefore evidently indicate larger sums than would
such as truly represented the department's activity in this 3'ear. The re-
sults obtaiued in 1914, the year of the application of the monopolj^
which might have given us the normal level, are, on the contrary, furthest
removed from it. The table shows that the figures for 1914 have under-
gone a considerable reduction as compared with those of other years. The

THE STATE BANK OF INSURANCE 4T

reason for this is that the meteorological conditions prevalent throughout
the ordinary seed time of 1914 made the ^-ear quite abnormal. Ver}'' abun-
dant atmospheric precipations placed extraordinar}' difficulties in the wa}^
of agricultural work in several districts and entirely prevented it in others.
All this brought about a general disturbance of agricultural production in
its initial period, and prevented the hail department of the State Insurance
Bank from the full activity which would have characterized it had sowing
been effected abundant^ and rapidly. On the other hand 1915 was distin-
guished in Uruguaj' bj^ abundant agricultural production, especially of
corn, and in consequence the business of the hail department was steady
and prosperous. The data for 1915, as given in the table, may be taken
most nearly to represent this institution's normal course of business,
and thus it is possible to see the development accomplished.

Other considerations also follow on an examination of this table. If
the amount of the premiums received be compared with that of the indem-
nities paid, it will be seen that vv^hen 30 per cent, has been deducted, as the
amount of costs of administration, there remains an appreciable balance
which hitherto has gone to swell the bank's precautionary fund.

Table II shows the sums assigned to the reserve fund of the hail de-
partment of the State Insurance Bank, the progress of which fund best
shows the good working of the institution and the solidity of its business.

Tabids II — Sums assigned to the Reserve Fund of the Hail Department.

Year

Amount in Pesos

I9I2

5,653

I9I3

2,500

1914

19,000

I915

30,000

We end these brief notes on the activity of the Hail Department by
Table III, which shows how the business of 1913 was distributed among
the different kinds of crops insured :

42

URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Tabi,e III. Distribution of Business among the various Crops insured in 1913.

Crops

Cultivated
Area

Area
insured by
the Bank

Insured
Capital

Premiums
Received

Indemnities
Paid

Com

I^inen

Oats

Canary Grass

Barley

Vines

Total

Hectares

330,252

56,853

20,412

930

1,389

6,103

Hectares

129,577

25,133

3.832

494

274

179

Pesos

2,371,026

524,535
66,158

15,237

5,132

43,872

71,131

15,736

3,308

609

256

2,633

415,979

159,489

3,025,960

93,673

24:550

2,964

171

56

172

27,293

MISCELI.ANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE
AND THRIFT IN VARIOUvS COUNTRIES.

ALGERIA AND REGENCY OF TUNIS.

THE CENTRAI, AlyGERIAN AND TUNISIAN FUND FOR AGRICUVi'URAI, REINSUR-
ANCE IN 1915.

From the reports submitted to the extraordinary general meeting of
26 April 1916 we take the following figures as to the progress of the fund in
19^5 :

1. Insurance against Hail.

Francs (i)

Policies in force in 1915 i>589

)) » » » 1914 1.369

i. e. an increase of 220

Insured value in 1915 40,842,638

» » » 19-^4 34,332,502

i. e. an increase of 6,510,136

Assessments in 1915 582,158

» » 1914 548,785

i. e. an increase of 33,373

The cases of payment of indemnities numbered 317 and their amount
was 1,162,938 francs.

2. Insurance against Mortality among Live Stock. — For the fifteen
federated funds for insurance against mortality among live stock the re-
sults for 1915 were as follows :

Number of policies 197

Value of insured animals 1,193,475 francs

Assessments 33,388 »

Indemnities 28,186 »

Percentage of assessments constituted

by indemnities 84 %

(i) I franc = 9 ^/g d at par.

4

44 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

3. Insurance against Fire.

1912 1913 1914 1915

Number of policies . . . . 342 t,o86 1,192 i>495

francs francs francs francs

Insured value 5,488,043 19,112,523 23,899,851 37,364,682

Net assessments 45.59^ 146,788 174,262 281,419

Indemnities paid .... 31,938 83,147 83-454 120,245
Percentage of assessments

constituted by indem.-

nities 70 % 57 % 48 % 43 %

FRANCE.

THE MUTUAI, AGRICUIvTURAI, FIRE INSURANCE SOCIETY OF THE EAST ON i
JANUARY igi6. — Annular dc la Miitualitr. ct de la Cooperation agricolcs., Paris, sini^
issue of 1916.

On I January' 1916 the Mutual Agricultural Fire Insurance Society o^
the East reinsured 849 communal fuiids, distributed among the funds of
the district as follows :

Haute-Marne 438

Vosges 131

Jtira 76

Haute-Saone 73

Meurthe-et-Moselle 62

Doubs 52

Saone-et-Iyoire 17

The number of these communal societies increased progressively, in-
fluenced b}'' the great advantages they afford to agricultural labourers.
The following table shows this development, of which the regularity is wor-
thy of emphasis :

On I December 1905 10 societies

On I January 1906 115 »

» 1907 425 »

» 1908 502 »

)) 1909 560 »

>) 1910 637 »

« 1911 762 »

» 1912 778 »

» 1913 815

» 1914 848 »

» 1915 849 1)

» 1916 849 »

IXl'ORMATIOX RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

45

The number of members effectively insured is proportionate to the
number of policies, which has successively reached the following levels:

On I January 1906 21

1907 1,824

» 1908 3,522

1909 5,325

)! 1910 7>i9i

>■ 1911 9.492

1912 12,140

1913 14,617

» 1914 17,252

1915 ^19,536

)) 1916 21,143

policies

The capital guaranteed by the mutual societ}^ has increased like the
number of the insured, that is to say in proportion to the subscribed po-
licies. This capital, which is the chief asset of the 20,000 members, reached
annually the following amounts :

On I January

1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912

1913
1914

1915
1916

283,100
-14,901,025
29,592,477
44,436,428
60,872,485
79,944,485
101,742,995

123,585,836
146,113,616
168,186,436
184,829,266

fr.

The net premiums received were as follows

In 1905
In 1906
In 1907
In 1908
In 1909
1910
1911
In 1912
In 1913
In 1914
1915

In
In

In

45-75
12,673.25
32,658.75
50,467-58

68,338.95
89,120.12
112,841.40
138,890.86
164,435.60
188,853.60
207,573-30

fr.

46

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

The amount of indemnities paid for fires was :

In 1905 0.00 fr

In 1906 11,543.70

In 1907 25,257.40

In 1908 39,287.80

In 1909 20,485.45

In 1910 36,656.45

In 1911 61,387.50

In 1912 43,069.25

In 1913 68,875.50

In 1914 150,573-30

In 1915 94.133-94

ITALY.

I. THE PROPOSAI^S OF SENATOR CONTI'S EAWFORCOMPEEEING THE INSURANCE
OF EAND AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF PEASANTS' EABOUR. — Senato del
Regno. Legislatura XXIV 1st session 1913-1916. Documenti : no. 317.

In the sessions of 12 and 16 December 1916, that is to say ahnost sim-
ultaneously, two proposed laws for rendering insurance against the acci-
dents of agriculture compulsory were considered and developed in the Se-
nate and the Chamber of Deputies (i).

One of these is due to the initiative of the deputies Borromeo, Venino
and Belotti, the other to that of Senator Conti. We have already dealt with
the former (2). Although the ideas of the proposer of the second scheme
are fortunately already well known we will recall its basic principles :

(i) In connection with the problem of insurance against the accidents of agricultural la-
bour the General Confederation of labour recentlj- passed the following order of the daj- : " The
directing council of the General Confederation of Eabour affirms anew its previously expressed
wishes as to the necessity of a]complete insurance of labour against sickness, disablement and
old age, in order to complete the accident insurance. The council asks the government to
promulgate the promised law as to agricultural accidents, and in it to take into account the chief
desires expressed on various occasions by the organizations, namety : a) that insurance be com-
pulsory and protect without distinction all labourers on the soil and all agricultuial en-
terprise attach'ng to H, 'ncludmg small proprietor cultivators ; b) that the right of agricultural
labourers to insurance against temporary' disablement be reccgnized ; c) that the insurance
be entrusted to mixed and obligatory unions and completed bj' reinsurance with the National
Accidents Fund ; d) that when the law as to agricultural accidents is promulgated labour be
given juster repre- sentaticn on the council and committee of the National Accidents Fimd ».

Other desires for compulsory insurance against agricultural accidents were recently formu-
lated in the meeting of representatives of the organization of the agricultural labourers of the
province of Reggio and Emilia — who asked that such insurance should be entmsted to the
National Accidents Fund — and by the agricultural commission of the Eeague of Socialist
Communes.

(2) International Review of Agricultural Economics, June 1916, pp. 61 et seq.

INFORMATIOX RELATING TO IXSURANCE AND THRIFT 47

i) Insurance against the accidents of labour is made a burden on
land as constituting an inherent obligation of iDroprietorship. But this
principle is neither absolute nor general. Exceptions are made in favour
of a property held on lease, in the case of which the obligation and liabi-
Hty to insure devolve on any lessee who has undertaken cultivation in
which the proprietor is not interested.

2) Insurance is entirely the responsibility of the proprietor if he
cultivate his land or realize its value directly. It is the responsibility of
the lessee if the land be let. If the land be granted on the system of me-
tayage or another profit sharing S3^stem, the costs of insurance are divided
between the proprietor and the occupier or metayer, the division being equal
if products be shared equalh'. If all products be not shared exactly
equalty, two thirds of the insurance premium are charged to the landowner
and one third to the metayer or occupier.

3) Insurance, saving in the exceptional cases enumerated under 4),
is applicable without distinction to all agricultural labourers, including the
peasants — men and women — who are constantly or temporarily employed
on any work indispensable to tilth, agricultural production and farming,
including such works as, owing to their necessary connection with and
dependence on the production of a property, cannot be considered to be
other than agricultural, and those habitually or exceptionally practised
in dwellings, farms, dairies, presses, cellars^ cisterns, and every other kind of
labour of an agricultural character, if it be indispensable to tilth and agri-
cultural production.

4) Insurance is not compulsorv^ for peasants of either sex under thir-
teen and over seventy years old. Such peasants if employed on works al-
ready contemplated by the law on accidents in industries and enterprises
(unified text of 31 January 1904 no. 51) will still be insured according
to the terms of that law.

5) There can be no indemnifications except in the case of accidents
which result in death or permanent disability, entire or partial, due to a
traumatic cause consequent on work.

6) Xotioe must be given of everj- accident by the victim or his fam-
ily, within five days of its occurrence, to the owner or lessee of the pro-
perty. If such notice be not thus given the injury will be taken not to
have been caused by the work,

7) A workman who is the victim of a simple accident must, if request-
ed to do so by the insuring establishment, remain in a hospital for the
time needed to determine the causes of the accident, in order to hasten
his cure and diminish the accident's consequences. If he refuse unjustifia-
bly to do this he loses his right to any indemnity.

8) The amount of the indemnity is 2,500 lires (i) in the cases both of
death and of permanent and absolute disablement, but in the case of death
it is reduced to 1000 liras if the deceased be not married and have no family
to maintain, and is paid to his heirs.

(i) I lira = 9 3/g (/. at par.

48 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

9) A request for the revision of an indemnity is not acceded to unless
it be proved that the first pa3'ment was made erroneously or unless the vic-
tim's physical condition be further modified as a result of the accident. Such
request ma}^ be made only once, and not earlier than three months — or
one month in the case of a death — after the pa^'ment of the indemnitj-.

10) Action to obtain the indemnity must be taken within six months
after the occurrence of the accident as determined by the certificate and the
judgement of the magistrate.

11) The principle of free choice of an insuring establishment is main-
tained. It is included in the law already mentioned, as to the accidents of
industrial labour.

12) The extent of the property in relation to its various crops, all of
which must be mentioned and classified in the rules, is taken as a basis for
fixing the insurance premium.

For small properties having an area of less than half a hectare (i) the
premium is halved.

13) The determination of disputes as to the nature and the impor-
tance of the consequences of an accident is reserved to a college of arbiters.

*
* *

2. THE MUTUAL INSURANCE OF LIVE STOCK INTENDED FOR BUTCHERY. —
A. PiROCCHi in La Mutualitd Agraria, no. 30, Rome, 30 November 1916.

In Italy since the law on sanitation of 22 December 1888 has been ap-
plied, an attempt has been made to compensate for looses consequent on the
sequestration of butchers' meat, by insuring the animals with associations
constituted on the principle of mutuality, by forming municipal insurance
associations, or by insuring them with private joint stock societies. A great
association formed for this purpose was active in North Ital^^ but failed
and went into liquidation. On the other hand small societies, each of them
active in a more or less limited sphere, as for instance a slaiighterhouse,
have had better results. The most important of these are the slaughter-
houses of Milan, Turin, Rome, Mantua, Bergamo, Bologna, Florence and
Naples. It will certainly be useful to show the organization and results of
one of them, that of Milan, the growth of which is apparent from the fol-
lowing figures.

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 49

No.

Receipts

Expend-ture

Indemnities Paid

Annual Profit

Year of Members

liras

liras

liras

liras

1902 ... 25

154.896-35

114,896.35

98,271.20

40,000.00

1903

—

155.372-93

127,864.41

102,150.78

27.508.52

1904

—

153.364-35

124,854.05

101,355.09

28,510.30

1905

—

188,384.50

170.168.55

■ 140,304.46

18,215.95

1906

—

191,174.09

166,868.24

139.670.37

24.305-85

1907

—

196.237.57

158.022.52

132,311.90

38.215.05

1908

—

187,498.82

167,079.23

141,286.45

20,419.59

1909

—

173.892.97

149,235.96

116,624.23

24,657.01

I9IO

265

179,156.02
1

150,093.78

124,643.90
1 1 1

29,062,24

This association comprises butchers, live stock dealers and dealers on
commission. The members undertake to insure with the society all their
live stock intended to be butchered. Insurance was a,t first limited to ani-
mals attacked by tuberculosis or anthrax but was extended to cover all
animals sequestrated in consequence of a statement that they were affected
hy any disease.

Premiums are fixed at the following rates : oxen, i lira ; foreign cows
and bulls, 3 liras ; home cows and bulls, 5 liras ; thin oxen, 3.50 liras ; calves,
o.io lira. The society's property is made up of admission fees, insur-
ance premiums, the results of selling the remains of animals, interest on
invested sums, repayments of expenses chargeable to insured persons and
the reserve fund. The admission fee is 25 liras together with a premium
annually determined by the members' general meeting, according to the
amount of the reserve fund as shown by the last balance-sheet. The
reserve fund is made up of a determined part of each year's balance, certain
profits prescribed because they have not been withdrawn within a year of
the day on which they became withdrawable, and premiums paid in addi-
tion to the admission fee. Indemnities are paid when a declaration of the
sequestration is delivered to the slaughterhouse's veterinary office. From
this moment the societ}' becomes the owner of the animal, and is responsible
for all tolls, costs of slaughter and destruction and knacker's fees.

The net profits are distributed as follows: one quota to the reserve fund
{this was during the first two j^ears 50 per cent, of the annual net profits);
3 per cent to the manager ; 2 per cent, to the staff ; the remainder to the
members in shares proportionate to the premiums they have paid, if the
amount of the sums repaid to them because of casualties do not surpass the
total amount of the premiums.

The association is represented b}^ the members' meeting, the adminis-
trative council and the manager. For the annual inspection of accounts
there are three commissaries for the accounts and two deputies for them.
To decide disputes there is a commission of five members of whom three
do not belong to the society.

Such are the fundamental principles on which this association is orga-
nized and on which it works. It enjoys the favour not only of those
interested in it but also of the communal authorities.

50 INFORMATION REI.ATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

As for municipal insurance this has been profitabl}^ introduced in a
vohmtary form in a slaughterhouse of the Abruzzi, that of Aquila. It has
two branches — insurance against losses caused by leprosy among pigs and
against losses of cattle caused by ictherus, tuberculosis etc. The premiums
for cattle are: 5 liras for milch cows, i lira for bulls, oxen and cows not be-
longing to a race of milch cows, and 0.60 lira for weaned and 0.2a lira for
unweaned calves. For pigs the premium is i lira.

For each head of cattle the communal fund pays an indemnity cal-
culated according to the weight of the four quarters at market prices, less
0.15 lira a kilogramme, in the case of milch cows and o.io lira in the case of
other cattle. As for pigs the fund pays the amount of the animal's full price,
less 5 liras in the case of a boar and less 12 liras in other cases. Animals
for which indemnities have been paid of course remain the property of the
communal administration. There are special provisions against frauds.

Lastty joint stock societies have also been constituted in Italy for this
object. They are not numerous however and their activity is usually
unimportant. One of them — perhaps the most important in virtue of
the funds of which it disposed — was recently dissolved after having
attempted to extend its sphere over most of the kingdom.

*

3. THE RUIZES FOR THE DISTRICT OFFICES OF AGRICUIyTURAl^ MUTUAI^ITY. —

La Mutualitd Agraria, organ of the IstiUito Nazionale per la Mutnalita Agraria, no. 2,
Rome, 20 January 191 7.

Recently, as is well known, various district offices of agricultural mu-
tuality were founded in Italy, at Turin, Genoa, Florence, Mantua, Reggio
in Calabria and Palermo. The Istituto Nazionale per la Mutitalita Agraria,
which was the promoter of these ofhce^, has now thought it opportune to
draw up special rules for their use and the use of those which \\ould
gradually be formed in other districts. We resume the fundamental
principles of these rules :

The constitution of a district office of agricultural mutuality is first
of all accordant with an agreement between the local administrations and
the National Institute of Agricultural Mutuality already cited. This agree
ment specifies the method of working. Its aim is :

a) to multiply mutual funds for insurance against mortality among
live stock, to assist their administrative and technical installation, and to
give them an impulse to federation and reinsurance ;

h) to disseminate, especially among small farmers and small pro-
prietors, knowledge of the hygiene of rearing live stock and the use of asso-
ciation with a view to zootechnical improvement ;

(1) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

c) to popularize the rules for the constitution and the good working
of co-operative and mutual institutions (mutual insurance against losses
from hail, fire, accidents of labour etc.), and to disseminate thrift and
popular education in the country ;

d) to organize carefully the collection of complete statistics as to
mutual societies and data relative to their working.

The action of the office extends into every district and is exercised ;
i) by oral propaganda, 2) by the circulation of pamphlets of propaganda,
3) in pursuit of its aim, that of determining the formation, installation and
administrative control of mutual societies. It will enter into relations
with the itinerant chairs of agriculture and the authorities and institutions
which can best assist its action.

The resources necessary'- to its work are formed of the quota paid for
participation by the institutions belonging to it (provinces, communes,
savings funds, popular banks, agricultural unions, etc.) by the State's
contributions and by other eventual receipts. The work of the office is
directed by a managing commitee composed of five members chosen from
the delegates of institutions making grants and from the best known local
persons, besides the representatives of the Ministries of the Interior and of
Agriculture. This commission chooses from its own number a president,
a vice-president and a secretary. Its task is to see that the funds, of which
we have already spoken, are regularly employed. The office is entrusted
to the care of a director, who should be a specialist in agricultural subjects
or a veterinary surgeon and who is nominated by the National Institute of
Agricultural Mutuality.

4. A NEW MUTUAL INSURANCE SOCIETY AGAINST THE ACCIDENTS OF AGRI-

CULTURE.

Pending the law on the compulsory insurance of peasants a mutual
society for insurance against the accidents of agriculture (i) has recently
been formed at Rome under the name of " Terra Italica ". The initiative
was due to the sjnidicate for the insurance of woodcutters and the society
has gained the adherence of most of the members of that syndicate and
of many farms in the various districts of Italy.

*

5. ITALIAN SAVINGS ON 30 JUNE 1916.

We take the following data from the Esposizione finanziaria fatta alia
Camera dei Deputati nella Seduta del 14 Decemhre 1916, the report made by

(i) For the other mutual funds for iusurance against the accidents of agriculture active
in Italy see International Review of Agricultural Economics, January 191 7, pp. 43-55-

52 IXFORMATIOX RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

the Minister of the Treasury, Signer Paolo Carcano, on the situation with
regard to savings deposits on current account and in interest-bearing bonds
on 30 June 1916 :

Savings Deposits on Current Account and in Interest-bearing Bonds
on 30 June 1916.

Issuing Institutions :

Deposits on current account bearing interest .... 504,660,392 liras

Institutions of Ordinary Credit :

Number of existing institutions 121

Subscribed capital 566,381,030

Paid-up capital 548,872,935 «

Deposits :

Ordinary and in interest-bearing bonds 553.549.677

Savings 354,204,069 »

Popular Banks:

ISTumber of existing banks 323

Subscribed capital 81,284,410 »

Paid-up capital 80,526,175 »

Deposits :

Ordinary and in interest-bearing bonds 230,309,310 »

Savings . 477,632,799 »

707,942,109

Other Co-operative Banks

Number of existing banks 311

Subscribed capital 43,292,269

Paid-up capital 42,749,718

• Deposits :

Ordinary' and in interest-bearing bonds 172,991,152

Savings 358,699,802

531,690,954

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 53

Ordinary Savings Banks:

Savings deposits :
Credit of depositors 2,678,088,923 liras

Deposits on current account and in interest-bearing
bonds :

Credit of depositors and amount of bonds in circulation 226,971,583 »

2,905,060,506

Savings Banks and Postal Banks:

Number of books . 6,382,949

Credit of depositors 1,987,639,997

Monti di Pieta (Pawning institutions) :

Ordinary deposits and interest-bearing bonds .... 120,285,037 »
Savings deposits 125,081,842 »

245.366,879

Rural Funds ;
Various trust deposits 112,335,769 »

Summary.

Ordinar\- Deposits 1,808,767,151 liras

Savings iJeposits 5,981,347,432 >

Deposits in Rural Funds 112,335,769 »

Total . . . 7,902,450,352 )'

Thus Italian savings amounted altogether on 30 June 1916 to
7,902,450,352 liras, as against 6,490,690,179 liras on 30 June 1910. The
greater part of the amount — about five thousand millions — entered, as
appears from the table we have just given, the ordinary and postal sav-
ings banks. The total sum of the deposits in the popular banks, the rural
funds and the other co-operative banks — 1,351,968,832 liras — was also
notable and shows what confidence these institutions inspire.

54 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURAJi^CE AND THRIFT

RUSSIA.

FINNISH SOCIETIES FOR INSURANCE AGAINST MORTALITY AMONG LIVE STOCK

IN 1913. — Bidrag till Finlands officielle statistik : Forsakringsinsptktorens berattelse
angaende de lokala brandstods-och kreatursforsakringsforeningarnas verksamhet under
ar 1913 {Official Statistics of Finland : Report on the Condition of Bailiwick and Parish So-
cieties for Insurance against Fire and Mortality among Live Stock in 1913) Helpingfors, 1915

At the end of 1913, 121 societies for insurance against mortality
among live stock were active within spheres of less area than a government.
They were distributed in the various governments as follows :

Government of Nyland 5

» » Abo and Bjorneborg. . . 7

» 1) Tavastehus 3

« » Viborg 25

» » Saint ]\Iichael 5

)) » Kuopio 5

» » Vasa 59

» » Uleaborg. ........ 12

Total ... 121

The number and value of the insured animals were at the end of 1913
as follows

Horses 34,162 valued at 12,026,073 marks (i)

Horned cattle 40,260 » » 4,497,972 »

Small live stock. ... — » » 23,673 »

Total . . . 16,547,718 «

If to these figures be added those relevant to the four societies which
are active throughout the country, we find that animals were insure
against mortality as follows at the end of 1913 :

Horses 62,423 _ valued at 23,344,011 marks

Horned cattle 57>845 » » 7,115,797 . »

Small live stock. ... — » » 23,673 »

Total. . . . 30,483,481 »

Of the total number of horses 20.2 per cent, were insured, of that of
horned cattle only 4.9 per cent.

Of the local societies thirt3^-three insvxred onl}'' horses and four only
horned cattle, the remaining eighty-four insuring both horses and horned
cattle.

From the point of view of the importance of the risks covered these
societies can be grouped as follows, the figures having reference to the num-
ber of societies :

(1)1 Finnish mark = 9 ^/g (/ at par.

INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

55

Year

Societies insuring

less than

50,000 marks

Societies insuring
from 50,000 to
100,000 marks

Societies insuring
from 100,000 to
200,000 marks

Societies insuring

from 200,000 to

500,000 marks

Societies insuring

500,000 marks

or more

Num-

Per-

Num-

Per-

Num-

Per-

Num-

Per-

Num-

Per-

ber

centage

Ijer

centage

ber

centage

ber

centage

ber

centage

1905

10

17.9

13

23.2

19

33-9

II

19.6

3

5-4

1906

18

237

17

22.4

27

35-5

12

15-8

2

2.6

1907

14

17-5

19

23.8

32

40.0

13

16.2

2

2.5

1908

16

18.8

17

20.0

31

36.5

19

22.4

2

2.3

1909

16

17-5

17

18.7

35

38.5

20

22.0

3-3

1910

22

22.0

22

22.0

30

30.0

23

23.0

3

30

1911

22

21.0

25

23.8

35

33-3

20

19.0

3

2.9

1912

35

22.5

27

243

37

35-4

19

17. 1

3

2.7

19 1 3

27

22.3

33

27-3

38

31-4

20

16.5

3

2.5

The percentage of accidents was 1.94 in the case of the insured horses,
1.33 in that of the insured horned cattle. Indemnities amounted to 1.26
per cent, of the insured value in the case of horses, i per cent, in that of
the horned cattle.

The average indemnity paid was 225.49 marks for a horse, 80.65
marks for a head of horned cattle.

The following table resumes the data on this head for the ten years
for which there is authentic statistical material :

Number of A.ccidents

Horses
Percentage

Cattle
Percentage

Indemnity

per 100 marks of

insured capital

Horses

Marks

Cattle
Marks

Indemnity per Accident

Horses
Marks

Cattle
Marks

1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
I91O
I91I
1912
1913

1.67
1.77
1.60
1.63
1.65
1.74
2.03

2.31
2.21
1.94

68

94
86

45
19
46
26
25
52
33

1. 10
0.96

1. 11
0.97
r.ii
1.16
1.20
1.68

1-37
1.26

1. 00
1.08
1.18
1. 00
0.87
1. 00

0.93
0.97
1.06
1. 00

230.03
212.53
229.73
195-64
224.69
226.70
204.80
299.22
214.05
22549

55-43
52.68

5596
62.25
68.21
65.20
71.30
76.56
71.08
80.65

56 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT

The premiums paid in 1913 were as follows :

For the insurance of horses specially. 112,014 niarks

" » » « horned cattle » . 28,241 »

» reserve fund 7.224 »

and generally 95.852 »

Total . . . 243,331 »

This sum constitutes 1.53 per cent, of the average amount of the in-
sured capital during the year. Other receipts and interest etc. brought
the societies 19,970 marks or 0.13 per cent, of such average amount. The
receipts were thus altogether 263,301 niarks or 1.66 per cent, of the average
amount of the insured capital. Of this sum the following sums were
spent :

On indemnities 188,612 marks or 1.19 per cent, of the insured capital
On costs of

administration 27,693 » » 0.17 » » » » »

On increasing

reserve fund . . 10,778 » « 0.07 » » '■ >» »

On other ex-
penses . . . 13,184 » » 0.08 » » )» » )>

Total . . . 240,267 » » 1. 51 )) » » » »

There was thus a net profit of 23,040 marks.

Costs of administration reached 11. 4 per cent, and other . expendi-
ture — costs of organization, interest, etc. — 5.4 per cent, of the premiums
received.

The balance-sheets of the societies showed at the end of the year,
when the amount of engagements had been deducted, an excess on the re-
ceipts side amounting to 90,984 marks or 5.50 marks for everj^ 1000 marks
of insured capital.

Part III: Credit

ALGERIA.

CREDIT FOR COI.ONIZATION IN ALGERIA

SOURCE :

AvENOL (j.) : I^es Banques Algeriennts et la Banque de I'Algerie (Algerian Banks and the
Bank of Algetia) in Revue dcs Sciences politiqiies, 3rd. Series, 31st. year. Vol. XXXVI. —
III. Paris, 15 December igi6.

The considerable economic development of Algeria in the last ten years
is proof of the remarkable effort which colonists have made in the domain
of agriculture, and also of the perfect appropriateness of the financial me-
thods which have been employed to support agriculture by providing it
with necessar}- credit.

From 1901 to 1911 Algeria's foreign trade doubled, being represented
in 1913 by the sum of fifteen hundred million francs (i).

The success of this effort was only rendered possible by the support
given to colonists b}' the bank*:. The three principal of them are the
Banque de I'Algerie, which has a privileged issue, and two private houses —
the Credit Fonder d'Algene and the Compagnie Alger ienne.

M. J. Avenol, from whom we borrow the chief data contained in this
short study, remarks that the two generations following on the conquest did
not experience hindrance and uncertainty in vain. Algeria has become a
countr}^ of bold, enterprising colonists, having faith in the future of the
land and the technique and traditions necessary to deriving profit from its

(1) I franc = 9^5 '^^ ^t par.

ALGERIA - CREDIT

soil. The colonists are however short of capital : they need credit and
therefore the collaboration of the banks. The banks have, like the settlers,
profited by the lessons of an experimental half century and have also tak-
en on a distinct^ Algerian character. In the midst of their business dif-
ficulties they have worked out their methods and become aware of the part
they have to pla}-. As years pass their functions become more and more im-
portant. Agricultural wealth grows with increasing rapidity and receives
from credit increasingly powerful aid.

We have said that the foreign trade of Algeria has doubled in ten 3'ears.
The value of the paper held b}' the three chief banks has been multipUed
by five in the same period and this fact is the measure of the part the
banks have taken in colonization — a part which has been preponderant.

§ I. The character of the credit afforded to coloxizatiox.

The problem of credit in Algeria is posed as follows :

" It is easy for colonists to procure land, but only uncultivated, bush-
grown land, or — what is worse — land overgrown with deep-rooted len-
tisks and palm-trees. To bring it under cultivation, erect buildings, buy
machines and build up stock — all this asks for more than hard work and
courage. And when a well worked farm has arisen out of the Arabian
hied, circulating funds are still needed, to cover the costs of the seeds, the
maintenance and the harvest which allow the annual course of agricultural
labour. Must the colonist from the outset have all the capital which he
has to invest ? Will he be able to contract for a long-term loan, like a
French landowner who wishes to improve his property' ? "

Land credit as understood in France did not seem to be adapted to a
new country Uke Algeria. What after all is a mortgage of bush-land worth ?
A borrower has, as in all countries where the value of the soil has not been
realized, no assets but his chances and his hope. It has been deemed im-
prudent therefore to trust him with capital of which he would be master
for a long period.

Moreover he cannot make his farm in a single year but brings his
efforts to success gradually. It is enough to grant him every season advan-
ces proportionate to the harvests which invented capital ma}' be expected
to produce. The risks of loss are thus diminished, and progressive efforts
can be helped by successive advances for short terms. Thus the creditor
follows the fortunes of the debtor step b\' step. Each period brings him a
reward. Each j^ear his security is strengthened b^' the increased value of
the property, and his mortgage, if he have one, has eventualh' a firm basis.

This transaction may be compared with that which enables a trader to
open a credit account : there is no single grant of one loan but a series of
successive operations. But thej- are timed more slowly than in the trader's
case in accordance with the seasons — advances being granted when the
season opens and repaid at harvest-time.

CREDIT FOR COI.ONIZATION 59

These short loans are banking business and form indeed the chief bu-
siness of the Algerian banks, which are above all agricultural banks. Their
paper cetainly includes many ordinan,' commercial bills which represent
realized transactions and settlemefits of debts. But it consists largely of
these loan titles which are in the traditional form of bills maturing in three
months, there being a tacit agreement that they are twice renewable in
order to bring them into line with the farming cycle.

It is seen that personal credit is here concerned. Naturally the banks,
each in its own way, seek to surround their debtors with a network of se-
curities ; but these, excellent though they be, are only accessory, as appears
from what we have already said. The chief dependence is on a just esti-
mate of an}' colonist admitted to the benefits of credit.

The paper of the Algerian banks represents therefore in part short-term
loans, certainh- recoverable with good management, but not maturing
as rigorously as ordinary banking notes because their realization depends
on the sale of the harvest.

§ 2. The sources of the capital assigned to agricultural credit.

Obviously the banks cannot find all the capital required by their bu-
siness in Algeria, but must supply themselves abroad, that is to say in
France. In what form do they acquire this capital — as capital, shares,
deposits at sight or financial bills — and in what proportion ? The very
special character of their business does not leave their choice entireh' free.

They cannot count on that uninterrupted series of graduated receipts
which gives the desired liquidity to thf paper of French banks.

Many of their advances are tied up for from eight to nine months in
a year. From the beginning of the agricultural year the number so im-
mobilized increases until the harvest releases all of them together. A new
financial effort is then necessary. Harvest-time, the single period in which
revenue is received, opens up a series of numerous settlements — purchases
of harvested products, payment of wages, payments for transport and various
acquisitions, repayments. Tliis accumulation of payments within so
short a time gives rise to a considerable need of money. The banks must
meet it, for the purchasers of the harvest, with whom the movement starts,
come to them for circulating funds in the form of seasonal credit.

This progessive and uniformly periodic nature of obligations can-
not accommodate itself to resources which are too fluid and unstable:
banks subject to such obligations cannot run the risk of being suddenh-
forced to make large repayments.Therefore they must follow the example
of business banks and diminish their margin of liabilities by working
with a large capital in shares. But where can they find complementary
resources in a countr>' poor in capital ? On what reservoir can they draw-
in order to feed the stream of their business ? Is it possible that an agricul-
tural country, which has financial resources insufficient for its own needs,
can escape from strict subjection to the European banks, by avoiding the

6o AI^GEKIA - CREDIT

too direct effects of the reaction from international situations and tight
money-markets, and by acquiring, if not independence, at least a certain
financial autonomy? Algeria seems to be in the privileged position which
allows of all this. Its two great private banks, the Credit Fonder d'Algerie
and the Compagnie Alger ienne, have in France not only the headquarters
of their respective companies but also agencies. They act as French
banks and have succeeded in obtaining depositing clients. This direct
participation in the resources of the short-term capital 'market is a great
force : it enables them to divide their debt among numerous depositors,
almost all of whom are without the preoccupations of professional finance
and have markedlj' regular habits and needs.

These banks are thus directly connected with French capitalists and the
constant level of their resources is the better assured to them. But these
deposits, although they are abundant and relatively stable, have not the
needed elasticity. In order to have resources at co:nmand during the
eight or ten months of the progressive immobilization of their advances
the banks must be able to rediscount their paper. For this thej^have locally
the support of a bank which helps them to imdertake new operations before
those in course have been complete^ realized. The Banqite de I'Algerie,
being master of its issues, allows rediscount, and thus gives to the other
banking houses the opportunity of making settlements on the volume of
their business, and provides them with the resources in credit and specie
which are required by the needs of the harvest.

§ 3. The role of the baxoue de i,'ai,gerie.

The Banque de I'Algerie has been privileged for sixty-five years to issue
notes ; and its activity and prosperity have increased considerabh', espe-
cially in the last fifteen years. Its powers are large, and its methods are
based rather on unhampered experience than on rules. No cover is com-
pulsory for its issues ; it discounts bills and gives notes in exchange for them.
Its circulation therefore varies with the necessities of the moment, is en-
larged when the need of money is considerable and narrowed in times of
stagnation.lt is of course limited by a legal maximum. The bank accepts
for discount bills bearing two signatures, and if it undertakes rediscount it
seeks especially for a direct clientele. . It is easy to understand that in order
to associate itself with the activity of the country the bank must not in
these circumstances merely accept commercial bills, but must be above all
an agricultural bank and make advances.

If it be profitable to a new country that its fiduciary circulation should
be important among its necessary means of credit, the ability' of a bank issu-
ing notes to over-develop its business constitutes on the other hand a grave
danger. It is therefore above all necessary to excliide credit granted for
motives of complaisance and to allow credit to have a bearing only on gen-
uine business. At the price of continued experience the Banque de I'Al-
gerie has acquired an extremely sure technique. This fiduciary circula-

CREDIT FOR COI.ONIZATION 6l

tion, linked without rigidit}' to the course of its business, therefore pro-
vides it with a precious instrument. Since gold does not circulate in the
colony, owing to the fact that the balance of trade with the mother-country
is against it and to native hoarding, the currency is exclusiveh' Algerian.
The notes are payable to the bearer at sight in silver.

None the less there is exchange between Algeria and P'rance, the per-
fect equilibrium between the two monetary systems being due to a curious
mechanism created by an administrative convention. The Banque de
I' Alger ie has opened at the Treasury a current account into which agents
make payments and whence they make withdrawals. Owing to the costs
of military occupation public expenditure in Algeria has always exceeded
local resources. The Treasury would therefore have had frequently to
reinforce the credit it gianted, had not this been accomplished automatically
and simply b}- a utilization of sums placed at the Treasury's disposal by
Algerians for the payment of their foreign debts. The concentration of
these in the Banque de I'Algerie compelled this bank to become the inter-
mediary for pa^'ments in France, charging a moderate commission. In
virtue of this convention the bank must remit a bill on the home Treasury,
on demand, to anyone paying its amount, and such bill is covered by the
bank's credit account. As for Algerian debtors they receive for their own
bank notes a value which can be realized in France at par. In recent years
this system of direct remittances has been largely replaced by postal or-
ders which accrue to the Treasury's account bj^ the medium of post-office
receivers. Postal administration does no more than see that its receipts are
paid into the Treasury's current account at the Banque de I'Algerie, and
the latter is responsible for settling Algerian debts to the home country.

From 1904 to 1913 the issues of the post-office exceeded the amount
of the payments in the form of postal orders by fifteen hundred million
francs, for which sum the bank became the Treasury's debtor. This debt
did not accumulate for the credit balance of the Treasury remained con-
stantly below a hundred million francs except in the crisis of 1912-1913.

How was the bank able to free itself from the burden ? In the first place
the Treasury was obliged to ensure an average annual payment of one hun-
dred millions from the home budget, which represented in the period under
consideration relief to the extent of one thousand millions.

For the other five hundred millions the bank was obliged, failing credit
in France, to utilize its debt in Algeria. This sum did not therefore leave
the colony but represents the new capital applied to its development. This
new capital has been transferred from France to Algeria by a stroke of the
pen , and has been obtained by drawing on the bank which is France's
chief debtor and which converts home funds into its notes.

Thus the criterion according to which the Banque de I'Algerie regulates
the Algerian money market is perceived, the principle namely of avoiding
above all else the disproportionate growth of its debt to the Treasury.

The Algerian banks are definitely neither agencies for managing de-
posits nor agencies for discounting paper. The}'' depend on colonization
and the amount of their business is proportionate to its progress. It is the

62 AI^GERIA - CREDIT

new colonists who increase their cHentele and therefore they favour them, in
fact finance them. Credit is very easity obtained in this colony. The ne-
cessary means are supplied b}' the original mechanism to which we have
alluded and which M. Avenol succinctly' and very accurately describes as
follows :

" Three large banks operate in Algeria. Two of them there employ
capital obtained either locally or in France. These resources of their own
give them a precious autonomy, but the course of their business is slow. Do
they not perhaps limit their credit business too rigidly ?

" It is the part of the Banque de I' A I gerie to give elasticit}' to the system.
An issuing bank having a small capital, it finds resources in its notes pay-
able to bearer : subject to no obligation as regards cover, it makes a cur-
rency of the credit it affords. It has a direct clientele with whom its oper-
ations are very important. But it also rediscounts the paper of banks.
Its fiduciary circulation constitutes the principal mone}- of Algeria, and —
varsing with the amount of business done — is always complementar}- to
the capital of the banks. Thus Algeria makes advances to itself.

" Unfortunately this circulation has no international value, not be-
cause it is itself vicious but because Algeria is always in the position of a
debtor to the mother-covmtry.

"Thanks however to a curious mechanism connecting French creditors
and Algerian debtors payments are made in francs at par, as though France
and Algeria were one country. By an administrative device the bank is the
onty debtor, the Treasury the only creditor. This disadvantageous posi-
tion is exactly that which gives the bank an interest in pla^'ing that moder-
ating role which is suited to an issuing bank. It is the course of its indebt-
edness to the Treasury which gives it the data whence to determine the
rate of discount, and the course of discount makes the suppW of capital
in Algeria proportionate to sound business ".

This necessity of maintaining the current account with the Treasury
at a just level was made particularlj^ clear by the crisis of 1912-1913. This
crisis was an indirect result of the very abundant corn harvest and vintage
of 1910. The resources consequent^ available certainly gave a new im-
pulse to land purchase and the bringing of land under cultivation, but the}-
led more particularly to expenditure on luxuries — the value of imports
increasing by 150 million francs in three years — and to speculation. X.^n-
fortunately in 1912 Algerian business ceased to develop smoothly and lost
equilibrium. The paper of the Banqiie de I'Algerie was increased to excess
b}' rediscounting operations with other banks which found their resources
largely absorbed by the need for credit. At the same time the debit bal-
ance of the Banque de I'Algerie with the Treasury' rose inordinatel}' , be-
cause the product of discounted bills was largely sent to France while the
bills given by the bank returned to it by the medium of the post-office.
Bj' opportune!}' raising its decreed rate of discount the Banque de I'Algerie
put a stop to this flow of business, and the two great private banks decided
to increase their capital and were thus able to re-establish equilibrium.

CANADA

SCHEME FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAIv MORTGAGE
CREDIT IN MANITOBA, SASKATCHEWAN AND AI^BERTA.

SOURCE :

The Grain Growers' Guide, Winnipeg, 22 November 1916.

Mr. Edward Brown, provincial treasurer of Manitoba, has together
with the provincial treasurers of Saskatchewan and Alberta drawn up an
interesting scheme for the uniform organization of rural mortgage credit
in these three provinces. It seems that the scheme will shortly be-
come law.

It does not exactly reproduce any of the various systems of mortgage
loans followed in the different countries of the world, but has been inspired
b}^ one and another of them, adopting their provisions and modifying them,
where necessary, to meet the needs of West Canada. It has therefore its
own individuality although it is based on the well-known principle of amor-
tization.

The governments of the three provinces cited propose to form in each
of them a special organization to be known in Manitoba as the " Manitoba
Rural Credit's Association " and to have its headquarters in Winnipeg.
This association will have the duty of applying the system of mortgage
credit and will be under a board of management consisting of five members.
The chairman or commissioner will be the only permanent official and will
be appointed by the government. Two members of the board will be
nominated by the Union of Municipalities and the other two by the govern-
ment. Two of the members of the board will be Conservatives and two
of them Liberals.

It will be provided in the legislation that money will be lent b}' the
Rural Credit's Association on first mortgages on occupied farms, only for
the following purposes : —

i) To provide for the purchase of land for agricultural uses.
2) To provide for the purchase of the equipment, fertilizers and live
stock necessary to the proper and reasonable working of a mortgaged farm.

64 CAXADA - CREDIT

3) To provide buildings and enable improvements on the land — the
term " improvements " to be defined by the board.

4) To liquidate the existing debts of the owner of the mortgaged
land, or debts hje subsequentlj^ incurs for the purposes which have been
cited, the board at all times first approving such expenditure.

Some especial provisions cf the scheme will now be given.

The smallest loan that will be granted is one cf $500, the largest one
of $10,000. None will exceed 50 per cent, of the value of the land as ap-
praised for agricultural purposes, its earning power being principally con
sidered in appraising. No persons except farmers, actuallj' engaged in
farming or about to engage in it, will be able to secure loans. No borrower
will be allowed to sell or transfer his share in the association, which will
remain permanently attached as part of the mortgage transaction. If
he sell his farm the board has power to transfer the mortgage and also the
shares to the purchaser. If he die the mortgage and shares may go to his
heirs. Every applicant for a loan will use a regular prescribed form on
which will be stated the objects for which the loan is to be used. Penal-
ties will be provided for wilful mis-statements. If any borrower .spend
any part of his loan for purposes other than those specified in his appli-
cation, or violate his mortgage contract in any way, the board will have
power to declare his mortgage due and payable at once. All payments
on the mortgages will be made on i Decem.ber, thus falling due together
and so reducing the work of administering the scheme. The date is
chosen as being that most convenient to farmers. It is the plan to charge
8 per cent, interest on all overdue payments. All mortgaged buildings are
to be insured to the board's satisfaction.

lyoans will be made only for term.s of twenty, thirty or forty years, the
principal and interest to be repaid in annual instalments adjusted according
to the t'^rm. Thus a $1,000 mortgage for twent}^ 3'ears will entail a repay-
ment of $87.22 a year, for principal and interest, and this will discharge
the entire obligation in the twenty years. On a thirty year mortgage of
$1,000 the annual pajanent due will be $71.02 ; on a forty year mortgage
of $1,000 it will be 63.27.

The following table shows the annual payments due for a thirty year
mortgage.

SCHEME FOR THE ORGAN IZATIOX OF RURAL MORTGAGE CREDIT 65

Yearly Payments for a Thirty Year Mortgage under the Proposed Scheme (i).

Year

Principal
Balance

I $ I,0Ot1.0O

2 986.88

3 9^3-Oo

4 958.31

5 942.76

6 926.35

7 • • • 90S. 97

8 890.58

9 871.12

10 850.54

II 828.77

12 805.74

13 781.37

14 755-59

15 728.32

16 699.47

17 668.95

18 636.66

19 602.50

20 566.37

21 528.14

22 487-70

23 444-92

24 399-66

25 351-78

26 301-13

27 247.55

2,8 : 190.87

29 131. 10

30 67.68

Interest

Principal

Reserve

Total

5%

Repayment

0-79 %

Paj-ments

\ 50.00

s

13.12

% 7-90

71.02

49-34

13.88

7.80

71.02

48.65

14.69

7.68

71.02

47-92

15-53

7.57

71.02

47-14 •

16.43

7.45

71.02

46.32

17-38

7-32

71.02

45-45

18.39

7.18

71.02

44-53

19.46

7-03

71.02

43-56

20.58

6.88

71.02

42-53

21.77

6.72

71-02

41-44

23.03

6.55

71.02

40.28

24-37

6.37

71.02

39-07

25-78

6.17

7I.C2

37.78

27-27

5-97

71.02

36.42

28.S5

5-75

71.02

34-97

30-52

5-53

71.02

33-45

32.29

5-28

71.02

31-83

34-16

5-03

. 71.02

30-13

36-13

4.76

71.02

28.32

38.23

4-47

71.02

26.41

40.44

4-17

71.02

24-39

42.78

3-85

71.02

22.25

45.26

3.51

71.02

19.98

47.88

3.16

71.02

17-59

50.65

2.78

71-02

15.06

53-58

2.38

71.02

12.38

56.^

1.96

71.02

9-54

59-77

1. 71

71.02

6.56

63.42

1.04

71.02

3-38

s

67.11

53

71.02

§ 976.67

999-43

% 154-50

S 2,130.60

Ordinaril)' it would be expected that the farmers in Western Canada
would not care to assume mortgages running from twenty to forty years,
but the new scheme allows any farmer to pay off his mortgage in full at
any half-yearly period. He will thus benefit by the low rate of interest
and the small pa^-ments and yet have the opportunity of discharging his
mortgage whenever he is in a position to do so.

After the necessar}- provincial legislation has been enacted no money
will be lent to an}' farmer until the municipality in which he resides has sub-

(i) In mikiiig the calculations in even dollars and ccnls a small ditTcrence (,-,;cents) ixcurs
which would be absorbed in actual practice.

66 CANADA - CREDIT

niitted a by-law to the electors and their majority has voted in favour of
it. The Act will then be brought into operation in this ^lunicipaHt3^ A
municipality by its approval of the by-law will guarantee the government
against loss on mortgages placed within it to the extent of 5 per cent, of
the money lent. This measure is intended to improve the security of the
bonds which will be issued, and it is not expected that there will be anj'
losses.

When the by-law has been approved the municipal council will ap-
point a committee, either of its own members or others, to inspect farmers'
applications for loans and, at their discretion, to recommend them to the
board.

The secretary-treasurer of the municipality will receive all apphcations
for loans as part of his regular duties and without extra payment from the
government, but there is nothing to prevent the municipality from arrang-
ing extra payment for him for this work.

The proposal of the government is to raise the necessarj'^ mone}'' by
offering 5 per cent, bonds, on which both principal and interest will be guar-
anteed by the government, for sale throughout the province and in the
money markets of the world. It is expected that they will sell at par
at the present time and that the necessary money will therefore cost the
government about 5 per cent. The expense of administering the Act is
expected to be not quite i per cent., so that the total average cost of mort-
gages will be less than 6 per cent, on thirty j^ear loans.

The government intends the Rural Credits Association never to be
commercialized. Tn future years all its capital stock and shares are to
be held by the government, or farmers who have borrowed from it on mort
gages, and who will have received 5 per cent, of their loans in shares.

The shares are expected to pay a fairly good dividend, depending en-
tirely on the profits of the association. No dividends will be paid until
a reserve account, equal to 20 per cent, of the paid-up capital, has been
created.

The profit in the conduct of the association is expected to come through
the cheapness of administration, and the margin which is provided by the
fact that the rate of interest on repayments is lower than that on the orig-
inal loan.

To set the .scheme in operation in Manitoba the government will ar-
range to borrow from the banks at 5 per cent, the sum of $1,000,000 dol-
lars, and to subscribe for -Sioo.ooo stock in the association. When the
$1,000,000 has been lent on mortgages 5 per cent, of this sum, or $50,000,
will have been subscribed in stock by borrowers. The government will
then issue guaranteed 5 per cent, bonds, free from all local taxation, to the
maximum extent of $9,000,000.

To keep down the cost of administration the government will pro\'ide
that the Land Titles Office make no charge for investigating titles and re-
gistering mortgages, placed by the Rural Credit's Association, bej^ond the
regular registration fees. The government in Manitoba will also provide

SCHEME FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAL, MORTGAGE CREDIT 67

that the accounting work in connection with the mortgages be done in the
office of the comptroller general, without charge to the association.

The rate at which farm mortgages will be secured will involve a saving
of from I to 2 14 V^^ cent, in Manitoba and from 2 to 4 per cent, in Saskat-
chewan and Alberta.

The scheme may have become actual next spring. If it prove satisfac-
tory the governments of the provinces concerned are expected, in the course
of a year or two, to tackle the question of what is commonly known as " float-
ing credit for farmers ", the loans which carry them over from seed-time
to harvest. These now cost from 8 to 12 per cent, and it is hoped that it
will be possible to supply them more cheaply.

MISCEl^LANEOUvS INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

ARGENTINE RF.PUBLIC.

THE FRANCO-ARGENTINE MORTGAGE BANK IN i'jis-iqi6. — U information, Paris,
27 December igi6.

The results obtained in 1915-1916 have again been injuriously influen-
ced by the stagnation of business, which has continued in the Argentine,
contrary to the hopes raised by an excellent corn harvest and b}^ the great
need in Europe for the country's products.

The profits which the farmers hoped to reap from abundant harv^ests
and the high selling prices in purchasing countries were sensiblj^ reduced
by the great difficulty of finding ships for transport and the consequent
enormous rise in freights, which in many cases, and notabty in those of
corn and maize, came to surpass the value of the merchandize in the produc-
ing country. Hence in the Argentine the price of cereals sank to a level
which left hardly any profit to agriculture ; exportation was arrested ;
and landowners were in consequence much embarassed.

The mortgage banks naturally felt the reaction from this economic
situation ; and the Franco- Argentine Bank found, in spite of its caution
in granting loans and its vigilance in exacting due annual payments,
that the arrears of interest owing to it amounted on 30 June 1916 to
11,836,777.90 francs.

In consequence however of the slowing down of business, of the reduc-
tion of the habitual expenditure of the republic in foreign countries, and
the reduction of imports, the unemploj^ed capital in the banks is very plen-
tiful and can be obtained on easy terms. Therefore, in spite of the straits
of landowners, mortgage banks have been obHged to lower the rate of in-
terest on their loans. But, since the cereal harvest in North America and
Europe was defective, prices have risen in the Argentine, and for some
time an improvement in the economic situation has been perceptible.

INFORMATIOX RELATIXG TO CREDIT 69

Bonds. — The bonds, redeemed bonds being deducted, amounted on
30 June 1916 to

187433 at 4 per cent,

242,458 at 4.50 per cent.

49,511 at 5 per cent.

that is a total of 479,402 bonds

representing a nominal capital of 238,701,000 francs.

Mortgage Looms. — On 30 June 1915 the amoimt of mortgage loans
reached 247,751,622 francs.

During the year T915-1916 the society examined loi apphcations
for loans, for a total amount of 41,165,000 francs. Fifty of them, repre-
senting 13,137,000 francs, were rejected, and the society therefore granted
only fifty-one new loans for a total amount of 28,028,000 francs, of which
sum 26,848,000 francs have already been paid.

On the other hand the society recovered during the 3'ear 39,843,072
francs, by repayments of mature loans, anticipation of repayments and
expropriations. The amount of current mortgage loans diminished by
12,995,072 francs, their total siun being 234,756,550 francs on 30 June 1916.

This sum was made up as follows :

Urban loans 16,290,950 francs

Rural » 218,465,600 )>

234756,550

The rural loans thus represent 93.06 per cent, of the total amount of
current loans.

Payment of Annuities. — The amount of the annuities falling due
on 30 June 1915 and not paid on that date was 10,377,879.20 francs.
The half-yearly payments which fell due during the year amounted to
20,299,133.70 francs. The total sum of yearly pa^anents to be received
between i Jul}' 1915 and 30 June 1916 was therefore 30,677,012.90 francs.
Of this sum 18,840,235 francs was recovered, so that on 30 June 1916 the
am.ount of due and unpaid annual payments was 11,836.777.90 francs.
Most of the debtors show excellent dispositions ; but the situation in which
the last few years has placed them makes it difficult for such of them as
were not at first able to meet their engagements to free themselves now.
It is therefore returns arising out of earlier ^-ears which are most easily col-
lected.

70 INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

FRENCH COLONIES.

THE DISCOUNT AND I,OAN TRANSACTIONS OF COI^ONIAl, BANKS. — Ordinary ses-
sion of Chamber of Deputies, meeting of i8 December 1916 Appendix no. 2793. Report in the
name of the Commission for Foreign Affairs, the Protectorates and the Colonies, charged to
examine a proposed law for the prorogation of the prv'ilege of colonial banks and of their by-
laws . ,

The discount and loan transactions of the colonial banks have not at
any moment been interrupted ; and in spite of the state of war the figure
representing these, by far the most interesting of banking transactions
from the point of view of economic activity, shows a very noticeable ad-
vance on similar figures for previous 3'ears.

Martinique. — Thus the Bank of Martinique did not hesitate to give
an exceptional importance to its loans on harvests which rose to the sum of
4,528,000 francs (i) as against 3,595,000 francs in 1913-1914 ; that is they
increased by nearly a milHon. In the same wa}^ the loans on merchan-
dise passed from 676,000 francs, their sum in 1913-1914, to 1,169,000
francs in 1914-1915 and 1,764,000 francs in 1915-1916 ; that is the transac-
tions of this one kind increased in value by 1,100,000 francs in two years.

The total amount of the loan and discount transactions of the Bank
of Martinique, including tiie negotiation of bills in foreign countries, rose
from 23,164,000 francs in 1913-1914 to 34,485,000 francs in 1914-1915 and
37,124,000 francs in 1915-1916 ; that is the increase in two years was one
of fourteen millions or 66 per cent.

Guadeloupe. — The same considerations and statements are appli-
cable to the Bank of Guadeloupe, the advances of which have been in a
very large proportion, as in Martinique, in the form of loans on harvests.
This bank in 1914-1915 made such advances to the amount of 4,176,400
francs as against 3,576,000 francs in 1913-1914.

It is to be noted that the loans on harvests, although the^^ involve such
large risks, have been made at a rate no higher than loans by the Bank of
France on fir.st -class French securities, namely 6 per cent. In other words
the Bank of Guadeloupe, which might most legitimately have raised this
very low rate, has subordinated all considerations of private interest to
care for the public interest.

As in ]\lartinique loans on merchandise have been notably developed
during the war. Their total rose from 114,530 francs in 1913-1914 to
420,500 francs in 1914-1915 and 805,950 francs in 1915-1916.

The total sum of the discount and loan transactions of the Bank of
Guadeloupe, including the negotiation of bills in foreign countries, was
27,879,670 francs in 1914-1915 and 31,510,440 francs in iqi5-i9i6 as
against 22,767,800 francs in 1913-1914.

(i) I franc = g 3/g d at \va\.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT 71

Reunion. — The Bank of Reunion has evinced since the very begin-
ning of the war a remarkable spirit of initiative, taking steps without wait-
ing for an}' sort of impulsion, whatever might be the gravity of the risks
involved.

In the first place this bank notified the governor of the colony as early
as I August 191.-J, that is before war had been declared, that it would meet
any needs which might arise if the colon}^ shoirld be isolated by the inter-
ruption of communications with Paris. This undertaking had reference
not only to the needs of manufacturers, planters and cultivators of every
description, but also to those of the colon}', even if it should com.e to be
deprived of an important part of its receipts b}'' the anticipated reduction
in the revenue from customs dues and tolls. The bank offered these ser-
vices to the colony spontaneously and thus gave proof of its desire not to
allow the general interest to suffer.

Subsequentl}', when it had advertised in all the newspapers of the
colom^ that it would continue to work as in the past, it decided to grant
advances on nierchandise at the rate of 6 per cent. — a rate less bj' i per
cent, than that on which the Bank of France then made advances on the
best security — to all large and small planters, manufacturers and business
men of every description. This rate, low as it was in the existing circums-
tances, has been yet further reduced since November 1Q15 to 5 per cent,
for loans on merchandise for export and on most imported wares, notably
rice, that is on almost all merchandise.

The bank has done even better in the matter of loans on harvests,
which are one of the most risky of banking transactions and are effected
onl}^ by the banks of the old colonies. In their case it has maintained the
5 per cent, rate which is so favourable to local agriculture, and is less by
I per cent, than that now charged by the Bank of France on the safest tran-
sactions.

Further, since it reasonabl}^ anticipated from the time of the outbreak
of hostilities a verj- considerable rise in the price of sugar, the principal ar-
ticle of export, it recommended ^all producers, whether large or small, not
to sell at the prices current when the war began. It advised small produc-
ers to form themselves into groups in order to receive the loan which it
would grant them on pledged goods, and to incur responsibility in the name
of one of their number, thus avoiding the payment of registration and stamp-
ing dues (three francs a deed). Finally, since the bank believed that the
exploitation of persons of small means by speculators must be avoided at
all costs, it refused to make certain advances on pledges which would have
had a purely speculative character; and shorth' afterwards organized at
its own cost a service of information by cable, thus apprising the popula-
tion of the prices which the different colonial products were fetching in
Paris.

The loans which the bank granted on the products of the colony in
these conditions rose from 5,915,000 francs in 1913-1914 to 10,072,600
francs in 1914-1915, that is to say thej- were doubled. Between 1913-1914
and T915-1916 the loans on imported merchandise rose from 3,555.000

7^

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

francs to 6.268,000 francs ; and the total sum of loans on merchandise,
both imported and exported, from 9,471.000 francs to 15,502,000 francs.

As regards the total sum of loan and discount transactions, including
the negotiation of bills pn foreign countries, it passed from 21,082,290
francs in 1913-1914 to 39,795,400 francs in 1915-1916.

French Guiana. - In Guiana the privileged bank which, owing to
the special economic situation of the colony, transacts business differenth/
from the other colonial banks, has also very definitely faced existing cir-
cumstances only from the point of view of the public interest, a fact which
is sufficiently proved by the annual report drawn up by the governor of
the colonj^ on the general situation of Guiana, and reproduced in the Jour-
nal Officiel of the republic of 15 October 1915. We will quote from this
document only the following short extract :

" The bank then decided to make advances to the producers on their
products of which there had thus come to be a slump, and to enable them
to continue work by ensuring the wages of the workpeople.

" It should be realized that the bank made these advances on raw
products at the discount rate of 6 per cent, a year, which for the four months
which were the average term of the transactions, yielded a profit of 2 per
cent.

" This rate should be considered very low for Guiana, where money
costs as much as 20 per cent. It would have been moderate even in France
where the rate of discount has latterly risen to as much as 9 per cent.

" It should also be remembered that the goods pledged to the bank
had only a conventional value, that no one could foresee when it would
be possible to realize the value of these products which were security'' for
the loans.

" It may be said that in undertaking these transactions, as in tak-
ing other opportune steps, the bank has been led above all b}- a broad
interpretation of its duty as a privileged establishment.

" .... The bank took the point of view of the colon^^'s highest and
most general interest. Far from taking restrictive measures it enlarged
the scope of its transactions. It placed no obstacle in t-he way of the with-
drawal of deposited funds ; it provided the resources necessary for the con-
tinuation of industry ; it maintained its low rate of discount and reduced
the premium of its tirages in spite of the increased cost of exchange trans-
actions ".

It appears from the reports of the Bank of Guiana that the figure
representing its loans on merchandise rose in 1914-1915 to 1,039,000 francs
as against 192,700 francs in 1913-1914 ; that is to say that the importance
of these transactions was ra.ultiplied by six. As regards the total sum of
the bank's transactions it reached 9,233,350 francs in 1913-1914, 9,995,310
francs in 1914-1915, and 12,402,830 francs in 1915-1916.

Generally, credit has been granted by the banks of the old colonies
since the outbreak of hostilities on terms which are noticeably better than
those prevalent in France. Yet rates much higher than those obtaining in
Europe have always, notoriously, been considered normal in the colonies.

INFORMATION RElvATING TO CREDIT 73

RUSSIA.

THE QUESTION OF FOREST CREDIT IN FINLAND. — VESTERINEN (Emil) : Ky-
symys lainan antamisesta metsdvakimtta vastaan (The Question of Credit on the Security
of Forest Mortgages), Maatalous, Helsingfors, Year i<ji6, Number 14.

The Union of the Savings Banks of F'inland has taken advantage of
a law of 1 90 1, which instituted mortgages on wood-feUing contracts in the
interests of workers in wood, and has approved a detailed scheme for the
organization of forest credit and submitted it to the 408 savings banks in
the country, inviting them to introduce such credit into their business.
Savings banks do indeed seem to be well fitted for activity of the kind, in
right of their simple and inexpensive organization, their knowledge of
local life, and their opportunities for watching over the mortgaged forests.

The clauses of the scheme maj^ be resumed as follows :

i) The owner of a forest causes it to be valued by an expert in for-
estry, who should ascertain its actual condition, the quantity of its wood
which can be sold and the price this wood will actually fetch, the total
amount of wood cut annually, and the principles on which the forest
should be maintained ; and he shoitld draw up a short plan for its manage-
ment during the first ten years.

2) The owner of the forest makes a wood-felling contract, in the name
of the savings bank or at its order, and has it registered at the office of the
competent court.

3) He then remits to the savings bank the registered contract and
the valuations, together with his request for a loan and the other docu-
ments necessary to a grant of credit secured by a mortgage on land. A
deed of pledge is then drawn up according to a form fixed by the savings
bank.

4) Before the owner of the forest can receive his loan he must remit
to the savings bank a policy insuring the forest against fire. The recently
formed Union of Mutual Insurance against Fire of the Forest Owners
of Finland has inserted in its by-laws a paragraph which contemplates
forest credit, and guarantees an indemnity to anyone who has lent money
to the owner of a forest in return for his deed of pledge.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

AGRARIAN TAXES IX BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.
Official sources:

Verwaltungsbericht fur 1906-1911 (Report of the Achninislyation i(,o6-i9ii).

Other sources:

SCHJiiD (Dr. F.) : Bosnien und die Herzegovina uuter der Verwallung Otsterreich-Ungams
[Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Administration of Austria-Hungary) . Leipzig, 1914.

DnviiTz (L-) : Die forstlichen Verhaltnisse imd Einrichlungen Bosniens und der Herzegovina
{Forestal Conditions and Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Vienna, 1905.

§ I. Agrarian taxes ix the period of Turkish dominion.

In the period of Turkish dominion agriculture in Bosnia and Herze-
govina was burdened with the following dues :
i) the tithe,

2) the Stilus and Verghia taxes,

3) the taxes on live stock.

4) the military taxes.

We will examine them separately :

i) The tithe. — This agrarian tax, called " Pscior ' in the language of
the country, burdened land strictly proportionately to the quantity of
its products. In the beginning it could be considered to be a species of
due which the occupiers of the land had to pay to the State, that is to the
institution which the Koran declared and recognized to be the sole owner
of the soil, it being possible to grant only a usufruct in the soil to private

76 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

individuals. The price of such grant, paid to the State in exchange for the
enjoyment of a right of usufruct, should, as the Koran conceived it, repre-
sent a definite acknowledgement on the part of the occupiers of the State's
sovereign right in the soil. This tribute transformed itself gradually into
the tithe.

In the first 3'ears of the Turkish dominion the tithe did not fall equallj^
on all usufructories, who might be either Mahometans or Serbs converted
to the religion of Islam. The right of the former to the usufruct of the land
derived from the ser\nces they had rendered, themselves or in the person
of their ancestors, to the State, as warriors or administrative officials, and
thej' were merely obliged to pa^' to the Treasury.' the tenth part of the gross
value of the products of the soil. As regards the second class of taxed
persons — the Serbs who because they had been converted to Islamism had
been able to preserve their position as usiifructories of the soil — they were
obliged to pay to the State a tax greater than the tenth, representing 20 per
cent., 30 per cent, and even 50 per cent, of the gross value of their products.
This difference in the value of the tithe — according to whether it were lev-
ied from usufructories who were Mussulmans by race or from Serbs con-
verted to the Mussulman religion — tended to be reduced with the passage
of time so that at the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation it
had entirely disappeared ; and all the usufructories, without distinction of
race or religion, were in fact obliged to pay a tithe corresponding to 12 14
per cent, of the gross value of the products of the soil.

It should be noted that this tribute did not alwa3^s go directly to fill
the coffers of the State. In the early period of Turkish occupation the
tithe was "levied by the militan,^ authorities whom it placed in a position
to meet the expenses incurred for the maintenance of the army they com-
manded. Sometimes on the other hand the right to le\-A' the tithe was
granted to the so-called Vaconfs (the property of the churches and religious
foundations) ; but such a privilege tended gradually to die out, until at
the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation the number of the Va-
coufs which still enjo^^ed in Bosnia and Herzegovina the right of lex'ying the
tithe in place of the State was small.

Having thus generally explained the tithe and the right of levying it
we will note more particularly the variations which its value has undergone.
Until 1839 it was assessed at the rate of 10 14 P^^ cent, of the gross value
of the products of the soil ; after this year it was increased, and in 1878
it rejjresented 12 ^4 P^^ cent, of that value. The tax so augmented was
distributed as follows : 10 y, per cent, represented the tithe properly so-
called, I per cent, was given to popular education, 14 P^^ cent, to the Ziraf
bank, and the remaining ^/^ per cent, to armaments.

The tithe was paid in kind, because the natural economy of the country
always made difficult an}' attempt on the part of the Turkish governiiient
to raise such a tax in money.

In the earh' period of the Mussulman occupation and as long as there
w as a state of war in the country- the Turkish government found it conve-
nient to levy the tithe directly, the goods thus obtained being destined for

AGRARIAN TAXES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 77

the feeding of the armies in the field. When the acute period of hostihties
against the populations of the occupied territories ceased, the Mussulman
government thought it well to change this system of lev-^-ing the tithe.
They had recourse to the method of granting to private persons, in return
for a fixed sum of mone3^ the right of collecting this tax from those liable
to it. Thus collectors for the Treasury- were instituted who assured to
the State the payment of the tax ; and the collectorships were let out at
public auction, a sum proportionate to the tax's value being paid as a
guarantee.

Ordinarily the value of the tithe incident on everv^ single village w^as
first established, being calculated on the basis of the harvests obtained in
preceding years and the harvest anticipated in the current \ ear. When
the value of the tithe had thus been fixed the price of a lease thereof was
established, that is the price which the grantee of the right to collect the
tithe in the name of the State ought to pay to the Treasury-, and then the
public auction was held.

The cautionary sum which the grantee had to pay in guarantee of his
engagements coiild be in the form either of cash or of State bonds. The
actual pa3'ment had to be made in three, four or six instalments.

As regards the mode of levying the tax, the individuals liable to it
might have recourse* to one ot the following methods :

(?) That of the so-called " proof by single sheaves ". By this system
the cultivator of a given area of land subject to the tax cut down ears of
grain to form a certain number of sheaves. From these a few were chosen
and were threshed, and thus the average quantity of grain produced was
ascertained. This datum and the number of the sheaves of grain gave a
basis for the assessment of the tithe payable by each person liable to it.

b) The second system consisted in taking into account on the one hand
the value of the various tithes levied in the preceding year on a given area,
and on the other the anticipated value of the harv^est in the current year.

c) When the third S3^stem was adopted a person liable to the tax
v/as obliged to declare, as soon as his corn was threshed, the quantit}' of
grain he had obtained from the land he had cultivated. After this decla-
ration had been made -the collector of the tax investigated its accuracy on
the spot and then fixed the amount of the tax.

This last system was certainly the most jvist ; for it came nearest to ren-
dering possible the exact determination of the quantity of the products of
a holding subjectto the tithe-tax, and therefore of the just amount of this
tax incident to such holding. It had however a double drawback, that of
necessitating a minute and not easy inspection on the part of the collector,
and that of depriving the cultivator of all liberty of action during the time
of the harvest. The other two systems were both of them more advantageous
to the person liable to taxation, in that they left him more liberty of action
at harvest-time, but they had from the State's point of view the special
drawback of allowing only of an approximate and anticipatory computation

(I) I franc = 9 3^5 d. at par.

78 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - AGRICUI.TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAI,

of the products of the soil, on the basis of which to establish the tithe. Thus
these systems always allowed of possible errors in calculation, which were
injurious either to the persons taxed or to the collector authorized to levy
the tax on the State's behalf.

Persons liable to the tax included not only the cultivators of the soil
{kmeti) but also the landowner {ago), each of them proportionately to the
quantity of products to which he had right. From the whole quantity of
the products of a given holding that part which belonged to the State as
the tithe was taken, one of the three systems described being applied.
The remaining products were then shared by the aga and the kmet, three
fourths going to the latter and one to the former.

While the tithe was levied directly by the State, in the manner and for
the reason which have been described, it was incident onlj- on land bearing
grain crops. All other lands — whether woods, kitchen-gardens, meadows
or flower-gardens — were exempt from the tithe, while vineyards, orchards
and tobacco plantations were burdened with it onl}^ when their products
were in excess of the needs of the cultivators and their respective families
and were intended for sale.

After the vState's right of levying the tithe had been transferred to pri-
vate collectors the condition of those liable to the tax became worse. This
alteration in the method of collecting the tax was in fact accompanied by
another alteration : only meadows and woods remained exempt from the
tithe, they being otherwise burdened with taxes, and it was levied without
distinction on all other lands.

In the period between 1865 and 1871 the Turkish government made
various attempts to introduce a new reform into the system of levying the
tithe, namel}' to substitute the method of direct lev^^ b}" the vState for that
of the farming by private collectors ; but none of these attempts had any
practical result.

There are no official statistics as to the total value of the tithe levied on
the lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period of Turkish dominion,
but Dimitz places it at 6,000,000 francs (i).

2) The " Sulus" and " Verghia " taxes. — Besides the tithe two other
taxes burdened landed property in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period
of Turkish dominion. The first fell only on real estate (land and buildings) ,
the second only on revenue.

The Sulus tax was paid only by the a gas, the owners of the land and
buildings. The system adopted for its levy consisted in the fixing of a
total value for each department and the division of this among the various
persons liable to the tax, proportionately to the real estate they respect-
ively possessed.

The Verghia tax on the other hand fell, as has been said, only on the
revenue of each person liable to it, that is of both the aga owners and the
cultivating hmcii. As in the case of the Sithts so in that of the Verghia the
Turkish government fixed for each department a total value which was
divided among the various persons liable to the tax in accordance with
the wealth of each.

AGRARIAN TAXES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 79

In the second half of last centuiy attempts were made to substitute
for these two taxes a single land tax based on the French fiscal system. The
attempts had little effect, and at the time of the Austrian and Hungarian
occupation the Stilus and the Verghia taxes still existed quite unmodified
in the following departments: Banja-Luca, Focea, Cepce, Gazco, Ljubinje,
Trebinje, Petrovaz, Bihatech, Sanskihost, Prijedor, Caziii and Crupa.

In the departments in which the indicated reform was applied the Siilus
and Verghia taxes were superseded b}- other burdens on lands and build-
ings. The tax on the revenue of the kmeti was entirely abolished.

When the reform in question had been introduced the new taxes on the
land were paid by the respective proprietors in proportion to the estimated
value of their holdings.

In the case of rural property burdened with the tithe (meadows and
woods) the tax w^as assessed at the rate of 10 per cent, of its value, in the
case of other property at that of 4 per cent.

A first tax was incident on buildings, assessed on the basis of their res-
pective estimated values. Only the houses inhabited b}' the ktneti were
exempt. Besides the taxes which have been mentioned two others fell upon
buildings, one being destined for public education and the other for mili-
tary expenses.

3) The taxes on live stock. — These taxes fell in the period of Turkish
dominion only on sheep, goats and pigs, cattle and horses being exempt.
The reason for this distinction is unknown. vSome have wished to explain
it by pointing out that horses and oxen were employed for labour and thus
were a means to agricultural production, which was already taxed, and
that their exemption was therefore logical.

The tax on live stock amounted to three grosh on each sheep and goat
and five on each pig. No tax fell on lambs and kids less than a year old.

4) The jnilitayv taxes. — No parallel can be established between the mil-
itary taxes imposed by Turkey in the period of her domination in Bosnia
and Herzegovina and those which the government of Austria and Hungary
now exacts from all individuals who, owing to a phj'sical or other defect,
are unable to bear arms. Under Turkish dominion military service was
considered to be at once the dutj^ and the right of all male persons of the
Mahometan population. This right and this duty were not considered
to belong to persons of another religion, because, in Mussulman theory, the
right to form part of the armies who have to defend the religion of Mahomet
includes a species of moral capacity not held by subject peoples and those
of a different religion. This conception was responsible for the fact that
male persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina were debarred from the honour of
liearing arms in the defence of Islam and thus became liable to the payment
of a military tax which had all the characteristics of a poll-tax.

But in addition to the military tax, falling on the Slav male population
of non-Mahometan faith, there was a tax of another kind which was paid
by those iVIussulmans who for some particular reason wished to be exempt
from military service ; such exemption never being granted to a Mussul-

80 AUSTRIA AXD HUNGARY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

man who pled his unfitness to V>ear arms but only in return for the
payment of this tax.

The male ^lusulman population was called to arms three times at dif-
ferent periods. In the case of each summons the tax payable for military
exemption corresponded to 50 Turkish pounds (i). As regards the non-Ma-
hometan population the tax fell on groups of persons in a single locality
and not on individuals. Each group of a hundred males of a given villa ge
had to pay 50 Turkish pounds, which sum was afterwards divided among
the indi\'iduals composing such a gfoup in accordance with the wealth each
possessed. Priests and males under fifteen or over sevent^'-five years old
were exempt from all military taxes.

§ 2. Agrarian taxes after the occupation nr Austria

AND HUNGARY.

The Austrian and Hungarian government, immediateh* after the occu-
pation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, proposed to solve the agrarian proljlem
as well as possible, and placed therefore at the head of an economic pro-
gramme the reform of taxation and the redemption of the land in the
interests of the kineti.

With this aim the opportune work of forming a cadaster was undertak-
en without delay ; but the nomination of Kalaj as governor of Austria and
Hungary caused both the schemes for the reform of taxation and the solu-
tion of the problems relative to the redemption of land from ancient feu-
dal bonds to be shelved, because they were contrary to the principles on
which the new governor's economic policy was founded.

The fundamental basis of this policj- was the maintenance at all costs
of internal peace, in homage to which principle Kalaj renounced all projects
of reform, however necessary they might be to the country's economic pro-
gress. He feared that he might come up against ancient cu.stoins, disturb
local interests, and thus occasion internal disorder, and he was convinced
that taxation could not be reformed without arousing discontent among
the whole population : thus during the time of his administration he adher-
ed to Canard's theory- that any tax in existence in a given country is good
for the sole reason that it has become intermixed with local customs and
the local relations connecting the interests of individuals ; and therefore
that an}' new tax is — as a matter of logical sequence — bad because of the
sole fact of its novelty. Accepting this theorj' as a maxim Kalaj did not
nevertheless absolutely renounce all reformation but had recourse to half
measures which could not produce anj^ really noteworthy advantage. He
excluded all that could represent a truly radical reform of ta:fation and con-
tented himself with retouches which did little to relieve the ancient system
in force in the country.

(i) Turkish pound = 18.22725 at par.

AGRARIAN' TAXES IX BOSXIA AXD HERZEGOVIXA 8 1

During his tenure of office, which lasted for more than twenty years,
he introduced in fact onh- the following changes into the sj-stem of taxation
inherited from the Turkish government :

i) For the payment of the tithe in kind a payment in cash was sub-
stituted. The basis on which this was effected was the market price of
the various articles of merchandise representing the tax in kind, and the
quantity- of these produced on a given holding.

2) For the collection of the tithe b}' the medium of responsible col-
lectors, as described, the s^'stem of direct collection by the vState was substi-
tuted.

3) The tithes still payable to Vacouf properties were made payable
to the State. This was effected gradually. At the time of the Austrian and
Hxingarian occupation these entities so privileged still existed, although
their number was small, and until igii they are mentioned in official re-
ports.

It should be noted that all the retouching of the old Turkish s^'stem
of taxation eff'ected under Kalaj's administration was profitable onl}^ to
the agas, to whom the kmeti were by old feudal bonds obliged to give a
part of the products of the soil they cultivated, that is a tribute in kind,
called Hac in the language of the country. When Kalaj had introduced his
reform it fell to the governor's agents to fix for each holding the quantity
of its produce and the share of this which belonged to the State as a tax.
This calculation, which had an official source and therefore was not much
subject to error, afterwards served the agas as a sure basis for establishing
the amount of the products of the soil due to themselves from their re-
spective kmeti. The latter, as has been said, derived no advantage from
the reform of taxation in question.

After the death of Kalaj his successor Barian devoted himself to the
task of reforming taxation. He took for point of departure the reform
of the tithe, which was considered to be the worst of all the forms of taxa-
tion. At first he thought of substituting for it a tax on revenue, but
fearing that too rapid a transition from one system of taxation to another
might arouse discontent and disorder in the country he prefererd a provi-
sionar}^ measury, the introduction namely of the so-called tithe in the block.
This is the name given to the following system :

In the case of ever}' single piece of land to be taxed its average gross
product in the period between 1895 and 1905 was ascertained. Such aver-
age was multiplied by the average price of a unit of the various products ;
and thus a figure was obtained the tenth part of which represented the tax
due to the State and payable in money.

For motives of prudence this new system of taxation was introduced in
1905 only in two or three villages of each department. The result obtained
was so satisfactory that in the next year — 1906 — the law was passed
in virtue of which the system of the tithe in the block was adopted as the offi-
cial system of taxation applicable to the whole country except the districts
which still lacked a cadaster.

This reform met with favour above all from tlie kmeti because the dif-

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

f erence between the quantity of products which they obtained from their
respective cultivated holdings, and the quantity of such products officially
certified by the agents of the State, remained exempt from any tax to the
Treasur}^ and any feudal contribution to the agas,

Among the different secondary reforms adopted, other than that of
the tithe in the block, we note the following :

i) The perpetual exemption from every tax on their products of
vegetable and other gardens near dwelling-houses, if they have an area of
no more than a dunum (i).

2) The temporary exemption for ten years of lands recenth' brought
under cultivation.

3) The temporary exemption from taxation of lands granted to colo-
nists, whether these belong to the population of the country or be of foreign
nationality.

4) Partial or total exemption from the tithe in bad years.

5) The total exemption from taxation of the products of vegetable
and other gardens cultivated by soldiers or fiscal agents, provided such
products be not intended for sale.

6) The total exemption from taxation of lands of the State cultiva-
ted with a view to their improvement.

It may be stated more precisel}^ that the system of taxation here de-
scribed is applied, with the exceptions previously indicated, to products of
all arable lands and to those of apiaries. As regards woodlands these also
are burdened w^ith the tithe in the block, calculated on their net return based
on the data in the cadaster.

The reform of taxation which we have described was initiated in 1905 and
terminated in 1907. Its application was prorogued only in the four de-
partments of Biletch, Bazco, Ljubinje and Trebinje because all these lacked
a cadaster. The expenses relative to the reform of taxation amounted to
1,600,000 crowns (2) As regards the expenses of collection these were by
the new system diminished by 70 per cent, in comparison with those in-
volved by other methods of collecting taxes.

The old Suliis and Verghia taxes, to wdiich we have already alluded and
the abolition of which was begun while Turkish domination was still in force,
were little by little replaced by taxes on returns. In fact in the official
report for 1911 these taxes are mentioned only in relation to the five depart-
ments of Zepzc, Gasko,Foca, Ljubinje and Trebinje, while in all the others
the new taxes on laud, buildings, moveables and the returns from labour
had alrespcly been applied in this period.

The new land tax was planned as an improvement to be introduced
into the system of collection represented by the tithe. It should be regarded
as the beginning of the reform of taxation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a
reform which aims at causing the incidence of taxes on proprietors and not
on cultivators and at making the real value of the land the basis of taxa-

(1)1 dunum = about 1091 I/2 square yards.
(2) I crown of gold = 10.0809 d at par.

AGRARIAN TAXES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 83

tiop. The tax in question is one of 4 per thousand In the district of Banja-
Luka it is calculated on the net return of the land as given b\^ the cadaster
and it is there 3.6 per cent.

The tax on buildings has the same characteristic features as that on
land. Like the latter it falls only on the aga proprietors while the kmeii
are exempt from it. Buildings newly erected are not taxed for a period of
from five to ten years.

The basis of the tax in question is the estimated value of the buildings.
Since all such estimates made in the time of the Turkish government are
entirely inexact, recourse was had to a commission charged to rectify errors
in calculation and to establish a new and more accurate general estimate of
the property in question, and at the same time to make a cadaster. This
tax is one of 4 per thousand of the estimated real value of taxable buildings,
or — if they be let — of 4 per cent, of their rent.

As regards the tax on live stock it may be said to be the same as under the
Turkish government. It falls only on sheep, goats and pigs ; cattle and
horses being exempt from it. Its amount has however been modified
with the intention of promoting the rearing of sheep and diminishing that
of goats. The amount is as follows :

For every sheep in a flock 20 hellers (i) are paid, but for each person
liable to pay the tax ten sheep are exempt from it, as are all lambs. Where
goats are concerned the tax varies, with districts and with the number of
the goats, from 40 hellers to a crown. Moreover the tax is progressive :
for the first ten goats it is 40 hellers, for the second ten 45 hellers, and so on.
This rate is not applied in Herzegovina. For kids under a year old no
tax is paid. Pigs are taxed at the rate of 60 hellers each. The tax on live
stock is in general paid in three instalments, in March, April and May.

The amounts of the various taxes examined are indicated in the follow-
ing table which has reference to igio :

Total value of tithe 8,853,000

the taxes SiUits and Verghia 69,800

tax on land 847,300

" buildings 1,028,900

sheep and goats 779,800

pigs 67,000

11,645,800

A part of the total value of all the taxes, seen by this table to b e
11,645,800 crowns, falls only on the agricultural population, nam.ely

(i) 10 hellers = about id at par.

54 AUSTRIA AND Hl'XGARY - AORICl I.'i L'KAL l■,CO^'u:\l^: lA GENERAL

10.543,100 crowns, which sum comprises the tithe, the land tax and the tax
on live stock.

The remainder, namely the sum of the tax on buildings and the Snlus
and Verghia taxes, falls both on the agricultural and the urban populations.

Both also pa}- indirect taxes. It is very difficult to determine in what
proportion these two classes of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina
contribute respective!}" to the payment of indirect taxes. Only an approxi-
mate calculation can be made, based on statistical data relative to the total
sum of the indirect taxes levied in 1910. The following table results :

Taxes on tobacco 17,429,000

Dues and registration 4,063,835

Taxes on sugar 3. 977-^17

" salt 3,259,900

spirits 2,647,207

mineral oils 809,555

" " beer 569,688

gunpowder 33-451

As appears from these statistical data, indirect taxes in Bosnia and Her-
zegovina fall on articles of general consumption, nameh- such as are consum-
ed as much by the rich as by the poor population, some of them — like
salt and spirits — more by the poor than by the rich. We may therefore
conclude with the statement that the agricultural population of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is burdened with indirect taxes in proportion to its numbers.
The taxed portion of the population may, according to the last census, that
of 1910, be stated to constitute 86.57 P^^ cent, of the whole.

The statistical table which follows .shows the movement of indirect
taxation from 1881-82 and through the succeeding quinquennial periods
until 1910 :

AGRARIAN TAXES IX BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

8s

31-82

1895

1910

Tithe

Sulus, Verghia

Taxes on landb ....

c » buildings (i) .

.. » » (2) .

)i » sheep & goats.
» pigs

I- 1) tobacco . . .

Various taxes

Taxes on susar ....
» salt

>' » spirits. . . .

" » mineral oils .

» » beer

» i> ganpowder . .

4,854,000

323,100

586,400

219,100

59.300

442,200

7;,900

3,500,900

716,188

52,000

13.130

5,925,000

356,600

465,000

215,000

68,300

708,200

102,500

4,746,000

1,268,124

22,962
30,651

8,113,000

357,700

479,200

273,600

86,600

691,100

121,700

8,512,000

1,349-899

2,146,000
696,000

74,772
39,373

8,404,000

69,700

700,400!

429,900

124,300

892,300

140,800

9.533.000

1,582,691

345,994

2,264,000

1,234,000

610,904

216,876

24.329

7.733,000

69,200

719,500

578,400

149,100

811,300

95,400

10,027,000

1.923.113

1,696,759

2,639,000

1,603,000

575.146

282,000

37.511

8,976,000

69,400

759,300

603,500

227,200

820,000

86,100

12,278,000

2,381,707

2,765,000

2,899,000

1,609,000

471,000

395.000

33,151

8,853,000

69,300

847,300

739,200

286,700

779,800

67,000

17,429,000

4.063,835

3.977.017

3,259,900

2,647,207

809,555

569.685

33.451

(i) Taxes on tlie value of buildings. (2) Taxes on the rent of buildings.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

AGRICULTURE AND THE WAR.

SOURCE :

The Journal of the Board of Agriculture, Vol. XXIII. Number 8, I^ondon, No-
vember 1916.

At Taunton on the 28th of last October the members of the Somerset
War Agricultural Committee and others were addressed by Lord Crawford,
then President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Lord Crawford first alluded to the difficulties at present attendant on
agriculture, those connected with labour and tillage, with the late harvest
which meant a late autumn, and above all with the feeling of uncertainty
which hung over agriculture.

It was the object, not only of farmers but also of the whole country in
relation to agriculture, to obtain more food. Ten 3'ears ago agriculture
had been looked upon by the country at large as an industry ; now it
was recognized to a be source and foundation of national strength. Ten
years ago agriculture had been merely a commercial occupation, and
not always a very brilliant one ; now it was one of the weapons bj' which
Britain meant to win the great war. To realize the want for more food was
almost a discovery to the British public. Hitherto food had reached the
country somehow and from somewhere — it had not been the business of
the consumer to enquire how, when or whence it came. Too often he had
closed his eyes to those who pointed out the danger of allowing agriculture
to be neglected and to decay. Now he was beginning to find not only that
more food was needed, but also that the source and origin of that food was
one of its essential values when it was required by the consumer.

Every quarter of corn that was imported weakened the countr}^ and every
quarter grown at home conferred strength on the country. If corn were
bought abroad it was paid for abroad. During the war the one transaction
of all others which it was desirable to avoid was that of sending money abroad
to ])urchase articles which could be produced at home. Such a course
weakened the British exchange, diminished British financial resources ;

AGRICULTURE AND THE WAR 87

and the financial resources of the country were one of the great weapons
with which Britain was fighting the war. To buy corn abroad was, further,
to make a call upon the mercantile marine which could be used for more pro-
fitable transactions; and it was to requisition fresh labour after the corn
had been imported, for unloading at the docks, reloading into trains and
distribution. Thus the importation of corn stuffs during the war was not
a strength but a weakness to the whole country.

Wheat. — The country depended on two fundamental foodstuffs —
wheat and meat — and the last harvest had shown a serious decrease in the
area of wheat as compared with 1915. Last summer, in England and
Wales alone, the area under wheat which had been harvested had been less
by more than a quarter of a million acres than in 1915, and the average yield
over the reduced acreage would probably prove to have been considerably
less than in that A^ear (i).

It was essential, with a view to the prospects for next summer, that
the maximum area should be planted with wheat in the coming months.
Although it was probabb; impossible to match the high results of 1915, what
could be done should and must be done. To plant wheat would paj- the
farmer, for prices would be remunerative next August even if peace w^ere
declared at Easter, and it would pay the country. It should be remembered
that the only basis on which the Board of Agriculture could press for the
retention on the land of all possible labour, was that the labour now avail-
able was being used to the utmost in the national interest, regardless of
whether the ultimate profit were going to be large or small.

Live Stock. — In Somerset the work started by the Board of Agricul-
ture in connection with the Eive Stock Improvement vScheme had been taken
up as successfully as in any county in England, if not more so. The first
grant imder the scheme was made onlj" six months before the war broke
out, yet Somerset was now earning the maximum grant which the Board
was entitled to pay, namely £1,000 a year.

The live stock societies in the county owned seventeen subsidized boars,
averaging £7. 6 s. in value a piece, and thirty-four bulls averaging over £40
in value a piece, and their record as to Shire horses was good. The improve-
ment effected by the Live Stock Scheme was illustrated by the fact that
these bulls replaced others, existing before the scheme, of which the average
value certainly did not reach £25.

The first milk recording societ}^ under the Board's scheme was established
at Cadbury in April 19 14 and its members and others had realized that a
milk recording certificate had a definite commercial value. There were
two other milk recording societies in the count}' ; and all three had — in
spite of shortage of milkers and other war difficulties — made satisfactory'
progress.

(i) The preliminary statement issued by the Board of Agriculture on i November 1916
showed the total production ot wheat in England and M'^ales in 1916 to have been of
6,942,559 qurs. — that is less by 1,500,000 qurs. than in 191 s but more than in 191 2
or'1913.

88 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

This improvement in the matter of Hve stock had not only a local
importance, for live stock was going to present one of the great problems
of the future. It was not yet sufficiently realized in the country how
much more, as time went on, Britain would have to'depend on her own re-
sources. A very short time ago the United States of America had been an
enormous exporting countr3\ Per head of the population it was the big-
gest meat-eating country in the world. Great Britain was the third great-
est meat-eating country in the world and the largest in J^urope ; her require-
ments, already gigantic, showed every sign of increasing ; and while that
process was going on great exporting countries like the United States of
America were finding it more and more necessary to reserv'e their meat for
their home populations. Therefore although new markets would naturally
tend to develop elsewhere — in America or Africa, for instance — fresh de-
mands would be made upon the stock owners and stock breeders at home.
There had too been the ravages of war — the flocks and herds in certain
parts of Europe had been devastated (Germans- herself had, since the war had
begun, lost a nfilUon head of stock). The obligation upon the nation to
use every means at their disposal to supplement and to maintain their flocks
and herds was plain.

On 5 June 1916 the annual records had been compiled by the Board
of Agriculture. There were then in England and Wales a larger number of
head of cattle than at any recorded date. So strong an economic position
after two 3^ears of war was astonishing. In the succeeding four months the
figure had probably been lowered ; yet during war time, and in view of the
• extraordinary figures discovered on 5 June, the country was entitled to
some extent to draw upon its capital. It was greatly to be hoped however
that, although war pressure would drive in that direction, agriculturists
would not yield to the ready temptation of high prices and diminish or
disperse their herds. A good herd was now a good asset but it would
twelve months after the declaration of peace be a still greater and more pre-
cious asset. Ever}^ head of cattle which could be maintained over the war
was strengthening the countrj^ as a reserve during the war, and would great-
ly add to the strength of the country and its power of recuperation after
the war.

Wheat, live stock and crops depended however, alike, on adequate la-
bour. The speaker stated that there was plenty of evidence of the inad-
equacy of labour to maintain the normal standard of cultivation.

Labour Shortage. — The official returns of 5 June 1916, already men-
tioned, showed an increase of 112,000 acres in the land lying in bare fallow
this year, as compared with the previous year. The speaker was in no doubt
that this increase was due to labour shortage ; and bad labour shortage meant
bad ciiltivation, bad cultivation meant poor 3'ields and meant dirty land,
which meant that two or three or even four years would have to pass before
the qualities of the soil could be fully restored.

The army said that it wanted more men, the nation that it wanted
more food, the farmer that he wanted more labour : yet we were not asked
to reconcile the irrenconciliable.

AGRICULTURE AXD THE WAR 89

Wcif Office Circular, 4 October 1916. ~ In the circular sent out by the
Army Council on 4 October igi6 it had been decided that, subject
to certain conditions, "no more men from amongst those now employed
in agriculture will until January ist, 1917, and in the case of men whose
whole time employment on a holding is necessary for maintaining milk pro-
duction, till the 1st of April 1917, be called to the colours, except in return
for men released from the colours for work in agriculture ". This was so
much gained, and so much time in hand wliich was valuable time for hus-
bandry. For every acre of wheat sown in the spring in the country as a
whole, fifteen acres were sown in the winter. The ploughman was indeed
as necessary after as before i January, but wherever it could be shown that
he was necessary and within the scale for the cultivation of the land the Board
was anxious that he should be retained.

War Office Census. — The War Office was going to take a census of male
and female workers employed on agricultural holdings ; and the returns
were to be received about 15 November. The object was to enable the
military authorities to survey the whole position of agricultural labour and
ascertain whether the available labour were sufficient, excessive or defi-
cient. It was the speaker's impression that the census would show that not
only were few men emplo3'ed over the so-called I^abour Scale but that also
in many districts the number of men employed was well below that scale.
It was not and never had been a fixed, rigid rule. It was intended to serve
as a general guide to the authorities, not necessarily • versed in agriculture
at all, as to what labour should be property left upon the farms in order to
ensure a reasonable scale of cultivation.

The Labour Scale. — A question had been asked as to whether the La-
bour Scale were permanent. Nothing in time of war could be said to be
permanent, but the Labour Scale would not be altered unless the military
situation demanded its alteration. Its terms were set out in full in the
circular lately issued by the War Office on the subject. In the official book
on registration and recruiting issued by the War Office to their officers
the Labour Scale was also set out, and was preceded by this announcement :
The necessity of ]?rocuring food, if possible in excess of the usual
production, should be appreciated by all recruiting officers and military
representatives ". Elsewhere it was said : " The military representatives
are specially enjoined to watch the Hst of certified occupations, and to carry
out the spirit of the instructions laid down by the various departments con-
cerned ". In the same way the Local Government Board had said in their
recent communication to the tribunals: " Particular attention should be
paid to the official list of certified occupations, which states the classes or
bodies of men engaged in agriculture whose work has been certified after
consultation with the Army Council as being of national importance ". The
Labour Scale was a rough and ready guide but it represented the minimum
amount of labour necessary- for proper husbandry in time of war. The War
Office could not give i guarantee that the Labour Scale would be maintain-
ed intact, but the quotations from their own circulars showed that, they
understood how necessary the Labour Scale of employment on that stan-

go GREAT BRITAIN AND IREI<AND - AGRICUIyTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAIv

dard was for the due cultivation of the land. The fanners must trust the
Board of Agriculture to do their utmost, even if and even when the utmost
of a government department did not fulfil all their expectations.

The Board of Agriculture had long since laid their whole case before
^the new authorit3% called the Man-Power Distribution Board, which had
been set up by the government. The Board of Agriculture investigated
every case of hardship sent up to it, cases of hardship — and sometimes indeed
cases of injustice — being unavoidable. Since in England and Wales there
were no less than 1,850 separate Tribunals, disparity of treatment was
inevitable. It was however the duty of the Board of Agriculture — and one
which they fulfilled — to refuse to intervene in favour of the farmer when
they did not think he was playing the game by the count r 5' and by the
army.

Substitution of Labour. — The War Office proposed to withdraw no
more men from among those employed in agriculture — -before January or
April as the case might be — unless substitutes were sent to replace them.
Substitution was to take place in all industries, not only in agriculture. In
every district a Substitution Officer was going 'to be appointed by the mili-
tary authorities ; many had already been appointed. The vSubstitution Officer
had prepared lists of possible substitutes, who were men now serving in
the Reserve — soldiers who were, for instance, looking after railwa^^ brid-
ges or watching munition works The lists of substitutes were classified
according to districts, and many were actually being sent out to Substitution
Officers in different parts of the country, The Board's representative or
any authorized person was at liberty to see these lists : he could look up
a particular districts and see what reservists could be sent to replace 3'oung
and able-bodied men now working on its farms. The substitute might be
less efficient than the man he replaced. He would probably be twenty
3^ears older ; but he would be a trained agriculturist and would belong to the
district, for the Board of Agriculture had told the War Office that it was
no good to send a Yorkshiremen to work in Dorsetsliire or a Dorset man to
work in Yorkshire. In many cases it was hoped to arrange that the re-
servist would come back to his own village and his own home, where his
family was, and work in the occupation in which he was working on the day
war broke out. As regarded his wages, it would be the duty of the Board's
agricultural representative and the Area Commander to see that these were
fair and in accordance with the rates ruling in the district.

Adjtistment of Differences. — Any difference which might arise between
a farmer and a reservist would be dealt with by the Area Commander, if ne-
cessary in consultation with the agricultural representatives. If the differ-
ence could not be adjusted and the man were recalled to the Reserve, the
War Office had promised to do their best to ensure that another substitute
would be found, if it were clear that the fault was not on the side of the employ-
ing farmer. The following sentences in the War Office circular to officers
commanding recruiting areas should be noted : " It must be borne in mind
in dealing with the whole of this question that all parties concerned must
be prepared to work together if the scheme is to be successful. The farmer

AGRICUI.TURE AND THE WAR QI

should be informed of the real urgenc}' that exists for general service men
when he is approached with a view to substitution. The man should be in-
structed that he is being sent back to work at agriculture, primarily not for
his convenience or advantage but to assist his countr}^ in the war ; and that
petty discomforts inseparable from such a scheme are not to be made the
subject of frivolous complaints to officers commanding areas, or to be used
as an excuse for not rendering the best service possible to his employer ".
Dilution of Labour. — Dilution of labour was essential to success in
the war. It was not adequate in England as it was in France. To the speaker
it had been a ixiiracle to see how French women and children and old French
people had succeeded in maintaining the standard of cultivation in France
right up to within a few hundred yards of the firing line. It was a marvel-
lous tribute to the perseverance and to the courage of that race, and all who
had been to France and an}^ soldier who had returned would tell that it
filled the British army with respect and admiration. The same thing could
not be achieved in England but a great deal could be done towards
it. Labour had not been too plentiful at the beginning of the war, and since
then the number of labourers had enormously decreased. At the outset
only nine per cent, or so of the male population had been engaged in agri-
culture. There still remained part of a nucleus, with which the country
started when the war broke out, of men under and over military age. At
the last census there had been 153,000 persons occupied in agriculture be-
low the age of eighteen and 405,000 over the age of forty-one — in other
words 558,000 persons out of a total agricultural figure of 971,000 not sub-
ject to military duty. Many of these had been lost. Some had since
the census attained military age ; others, above military age, had gone
elsewhere — perhaps, indeed, joined the army as volunteers or as reservists.
But it should not be forgotten that there was that central nucleus around
which the diluted labour must be distributed.

Occasional Soldier Labour. — The speaker thought the fact had been
rather overlooked that soldier labour could still be obtained by farmers.
Not only for the corn harvest but at any time the Employment Exchanges
would send soldiers for occasional labour. A farmer living in the neigh-
bourhood of a military' station might apply directly to the commanding offi-
cer for military labour which he required at short notice and for a period not
exceeding six working days. This might enable the farmer to take advan-
tage of fine days or short intervals of fine weather suitable for work. Not
more than four consecutive weeks' furlough could be given to any one man
obtained through Emplo^-ment Exchanges.

Convalescent Soldiers. — Convalescent soldiers were another source of
labour. The depot at Chichester of the Royal Sussex Regiment— one smalHsh
depot in one particular count}'- — had in the last two years sent out conva-
lescent soldiers for light agricultural work for the aggregate of 22,000 work-
ing days of labour.

Training of Children in Milking. — The question as to whether chil-
dren could be employed and instruction given to them in milking was one
primarily for the local Education Authority and belonged to their control

92 GREAT IRITAIX AND IRELAND - AGRICULTURAL EC0N0:MY I.\ GENERAL

of secular education under Section 5 of the Act. If, when the local Edu-
cation Authority- thought it desirable to give such instruction, a satisfactory
scheme for the purpose were submitted to His Majesty's Inspector, the
Board of Education would be prepared to approve it experimentally.

War Agricultural Committees. — The last and one of the most difhcult
aspects of the labour question was that of women's work. The provision
of local work must largely rest in the hands of the War Agricultural Commit-
tees and the Women's County Committees. Some of the War Agricultural
Committees were as active, zealous and efficient as an3'bod5' could
desire ; others were not. There were War Agricultural Committees in the
countn,' which did not meet for four or five months during the summer ; and
they were committees which did not tinderstand their duty and were not
fulfilling their responsibiht}^ to the State. Where committees were weak
the}^ must be strengthened : members of them who could not attend must
be replaced by others who could and would attend ; new members should
be added whenever necessar\', including, wherever possible, farmers of
experience and judgement ; women should certainly be co-opted to the War
Agricultural Committees, just as these should work in the closest co-oper-
ation with the Women's County Committees.

Women's County Committees. — The Women's Committees had hitherto
been closely associated with the Board of Trade. The Board of Agricul-
ture had been in conference with the Board of Trade and the conclusion had
been reached that it would add to the efficiency both of the men's and of
the Women's Committees if the latter were more closely connected with the
Board of Agriculture than in the past.

There was great scope for the Women's County Committees and they
had to overcome great difficulties. Women's work was not very easily
obtained, and the committees would probably find that one of their first
duties was to strengthen the personnel of the Village Registries. The parish
was after all the local unit, and it was from the parish that the bulk of the
women's work would be drawn. Although much valuable work had been
done by importing women from other parts of the country it was on the
local women that dependence must be placed, and they must be secured
through the parish or the parish registry-, a source of labour which must be
supplied through the Women's County Committee. The speaker expressed
a hope that the various committees would have the help of officers of the
Board of Trade who would be called co-operating officers and work in
co-operation with the Board of Agriculture ; and stated that his Board
was aproaching the Treasur\^ to secure that the Women's Committees should
have proper paj^ment for their clerical and other work.

Women's Work. — Lord Crawford referred to the prejudice existing
among farmers against women's work, and stated that it was natural in
\dew of the short period for which, in most parts of the coimtry, they had
devoted themselves to farm work. It was not surprising that their effi-
ciency, quite apart from physical conditions, should be less than that of
trained men. The speaker was however convinced that if, with proper
care and training, the women could be given a similar chance to that which

AGRICUIvTURE AND THE WAR 93

civilians had had since 1914 to become soldiers, the assistance they would
render in the classes of agricultural work for which they were fitted would
be proportionately great. Two years ago there was not a woman in the
country who knew anytliing about making ammunition, but now it was upon
the women that the nation largely depended for the output of shells and
munitions. Even if their work did not conform to the standard to which
agriculture was accustomed before the war began, it was necessary, in
time of war, to use every class of labour which circumstances allowed.

Lord Crawford concluded his address by an appeal for " no waste,
no relaxation of energy or effort, no reservation, no rest ".

ITALIAN SOMALILAND.

I,AND TENURE AND COIvONIZATlON.

OFFICIAI< SOURCES:

Manttale per la Somalia Italiana {Handbook for Italian Somaliland) 191^, Published by
the Government of the Colony, Part I: Legislazione. 'Rome, Tipografia dell'Unione Edi-
trice, 1 91 2.

RossETTi (Carlo) : Manuale di legislazione delta Somalia Italiana [Handbook of Legislation of
Italian Somaliland) Colonial handbooks published under the Central Direction of Colonial
AffaiiS {Ufficio di stiidi coloniali) of the Minister of the Colonies, Vols. I., II and III.
Ibid., 1913.

Camera dei Deputati. Atti Parlamentari {Chamber of Deputies: Parliamentary Acts). —
Report on Itahan Somaliland by the governor, Giacomo de Martino, Senator of the King-
dom, for 1910, presented to the Chamber of Deputies by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at
the session of i February 191 1. Document XXXVIII. Rome, Tipografia della Camera dei
Deputati, 191 1.

Camer.'V DEI DEPUTATI. Atti Parlameniari. —Appendix to the same report presented at the
session of 2 March 1911. Document XXXVIII-bis. ibid., 1911.

Camer.\ DEI Deputati. Atti P.arlamentari. — Similar report for 1911 and 1912 presented by
the Minister of the Colonies at the session of 4 December 1912. Docxmient XXXVIII-ter,
ibid., 1912.

lyiBRi VERDI SULL.A SOMALIA ITALIANA {Green Books on Italian Somaliland) (Documents relative
to Italian colonial policy) The remaining green books on Somaliland — both anterior and
additional — were published in 1895, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910.

MiNiSTERO DELLE CoLONiE. — UFFICIO ECONOMico. — {Ministry of the Colonies — Economic
Office) Bollettino di Informazioni [Bulletin of Information) Years 1913, 1914, i9i5aud 1916.
Rome, Tipografia Nazionale Bertero.

MiNISTRO DI AGRICOLTURA, INDUSTRIA E COMMERCIO. — DIREZIONE GENERALE DELLA STATI-

STICA E DEL I,AVORO {Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. — General Direction
of Statistics and Labour). — Annuario statistico italiano Series II, Vol. IV, 1914, ibid., 1915.

Gazzetta Ufficiale DEL REGNO d'Italia [Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Italy).

BULLETTiNO Ufficiale DELLA SOMALIA ItalijUSa [Official Bulletin of Italian Somaliland).

OTHER SOURCES:

Istituto Coloniale Italiano, Roma {Italian Colonial Institute, Rome) Atti del secondo congresso
degli italiani aU'estero [Acts of the Second Congress of Italians Abroad) (11-20 June 1911),
4 Vols. (Vol. I, Parts I, II and III and Vol. II) Rome, Tipografia Editrice Nazionale,
1911 and 1912.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 95

Atti del Congresso CoLOisriALE iTALiANO IN AsMAR.\ (Acts of the Italian Colonial Congress in
Asmara) (September-Ocober 1905) Published under the care of Carlo Rossetti, General
Secretary of the Congress, Vols. I and II, Rome, Tipografia deU'L'nione cooperativa edi-
trice, 1906.

B ALDACCI ( A. ) : Le Somaliland italicn ( Italian Somaliland) In the Bulletin de colonisation comparee,
1910, Brussels, Goemare, 1910.

Idem : La Somalie italienne [Italian Somaliland) In the Revue economique internationale,
Brussels, September 191 1.

CoRTiNOis (Dr. A.): La Somalia italiana {Italian Somaliland) In the Biblioteca colonialc of the
Biblioteca enciclopedica Vallardi. Milan, Casa Editrice Dr. Fr. Vallardi, 1913.

B.\RTOLOMMEi-GiOLl (Gino) ; UimpoTtanza agraria del Benadir [The Agraiian Importance of Be-
nadir). In Agricoltura coloniale, 1907, Florence, Rauella, 1907.

M.\C.\LUSO (Dr. Cesare) : L'agncoltura nclla Sotnalia italiana meridionale (Agriculture in Southern
Italian Somaliland) [Benadir). In Bolletino del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, 1908, Rome,
Tipografia Ministero Affari Esteri, 1908.

MoNDAiNi (Gennaro) : La Somalia italiana ed i suoi problemi in un'opera sulla colonizzazione
dell' Est Africa [Italian Somaliland and its problems in a work on the colonization of East
Africa). In the Rivista Coloniale Italiana, 1909, Rome, Unione cooperativa editrice, 1909.

INIORI (Dr. A.) : // Benadir nella politica coloniale italiana [Benadir in Italian Colonial Politics).
In the Rivista Coloniale Italiana, 1907, ibid., 1907.

Idem : L'azione coloniale dell'Italia nella Somalia. II periodo dcUe esplorazioni [The Co-
lonial Action of Italy in Somaliland. Period of Exploration) From the Bollettino delta
Societd geografica italiana [Bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society), 1903, Roma,
Soc. geogr. ital, 1903.

Idem : II Benadir. Cenni e notizie [Benadir. Notes and Information) Florence, Bemporad, 191 1.

CuFiNO (Luigi) : NelVoceano indiano [In the Indian Ocean) Report of a mission sent by the So-
cieta africana d'ltalia. February-June 1914. Naples, Societa africana d'ltalia, 1916.

L'agricoUura coloniale of Florence.

§1. General remarks. Administrative organization

OF ITALIAN somaliland.

A. — General Remarks.

The peninsula of Somaliland lies between longitudes 42^ (River Ueb,
tributan- of the Jnba) and 510 16' (Cape Gaurdafui), east of Greenwich,
and latitudes 120 (Cape Alula) and qo 8' (Gulf of Juba) N.

The territories in Somaliland included in the Italian possessions,
protectorate or zone of influence extend as follows :

a) From the Gulf of Aden and on the east coast of Somaliland, bor-
dering the Indian Ocean, from Bender Ziade (49° long, east of Greenwich)
to the Gulf of Juba (about o."i5' lat S.) along a coastline of about 2,160
kilometres (i).

b) In the interior in the region comprised within the boundarj^ line
determined with respect to British Somaliland by the protocols between
Great Britain and Italy concluded in Rome on 24 March and 15 April 1891

(i) I kilometre = 1093.633 j-ards.

96 ITALIAN SOMALILAND - AGRICUI^TURAL KCOXOMY IN GENERAL

and 5 May 1914, and with respect to Ethiopia by the treaty of 16 May igo8
which estabhshed the Italico-Ethiopian frontier in Somahland.

As regards the area and population of this vast region, we will omit the
figures given in the Statesman's Year Book and the Almanach de Gotha, by
Ghisleri in his Atlas of Africa, b}'^ Supan (i), and others — figures which agree
little with each other — and merely note that the last Annuario statistico
italiano (2nd. series, Vol. IV, 1914) stated that the interior of the colonj^
had an area of 357,000 square kilometres and a population of 300,000. In
the Relazione sulla Somalia italiana — the report of the governor, G. De
Martino, senator of the kingdom, for the years 1911 and 1912 (2) — the fol-
lowing specific data are given with regard to the area of Italian Somali-
land :

Area of the colony in May 1910 30,000 square kilometres

after the new occupation

in March 1912 .... 25,000
" " " after the projected occupa-
tion 80,000

" " " zone of influence — in wliich gov-
ernment nominates and
pays chiefs — in 1912. 17,000
" remaining territory in which chiefs

have not yet been nominated . . 37,000

Total area of colony 189,000

Area of Protectorate 168,000

Total area of Italian Somaliland 357,000
Area of Italy 286,000

B. Administrative Organization.

At present Italian Somaliland is placed under an administration di-
rected by the State and regulated by the law of 5 April 1908 no. 161 (3).

The whole colony is ruled by a civil governor, nominated by roj^al de-
cree on the proposal of the Minister of the Colonies advised by the Council
of Ministers.

The governor is represented in the various districts bj' Italian residents
who act in his name and on whom the troops of their resiDCCtive districts
depend politically.

(i) Die territoriale Entwichlung der Europdischen Kolonien (The Territorial Development of
the European colonies). Gotha, J. Perthes, 1906.

(2) Presented to the Chamber of Deputies at the session of 4 December 1912.

(3) lyiw of .5 April 1008 no. i6i on the organization of Italian Somaliland. Gazzetta iifficiaJe
del Regno 30 April 1908, no. 102.

I,AXD TENURE AND COI^ONIZATION 97

Italian citizens and those assimilated to them are subject to Italian
lav/. Colonial subjects and those assimilated to them are judged according
to the rules of Mussulman law {sceno) in force in the colony- and custo-
mary native law (testur), and according to the various religious prescrip-
tions and customs. The colony must submit its own balance-sheet to the
approval of Parliament by the medium of the Minister of the Colonies.
By a royal decree of 4 July 1910 no. 592 (i) the administrative order of the
colony, which regulated in particular and in detail the military and civil
staff (duties, admission, promotion, leave, prospective and actual, discip-
line, allowances) was approved. Finally by a governor's decree of 5 May
and 30 November 1910, published in the Bollettino ufficiale delta Somalia
italiana (Nos. i and 5) the distribution and organization of government
offices was determined.

The colony's territory was divided into zones, at the head of each of
which was a commissioner's office (2). The political and administrative
direction within the zones of their respective jurisdictions belongs to the
district commissioners on whom the residents depends. The zones are con-
stituted as follows :

1. District of High Juba

2. " " High Uebi Scebeli

3. " " Middle "

4. " " Goscia and of Low Uebi Scebeli.

Each district is divided into residencies and vice-residencies, the num-
ber of which grows every year and which are instituted as soon as the
political conditions of the various zones are such as to render the extension
of the direct administration and of Italian authority useful and opportune.

The governor exercises his function through the medium of the govern-
ment office and the residents.

In accordance with the governor's decree of 5 May 1910 No. 488, the
following are within the competency of the governor's office :

1. The direction of civil affairs ;

2. Consultation, namely a) legal consultation, b) consultation as to
public works, c) as to agricultural works.

The suppression of the office of the agrarian direction of Mogadiscio
(governor's decree of 6 May 1910, no. 491) was contemporaneous with the
nomination of a consultant on agricultural works who should be a member
of the government.

There are also in the colony offices for the direction of matters of health,
civil engineering, the port, the customs and the Post Office. Commercial
inspectors may be assigned to places outside the colony's boundaries.

(i) Gazzetta ufficiale del Regno, 18 August 1910 no. 192. — BoUetino ufficiale della So-
malia Italiana, 31 August 1910, no. 2.

(2) Cf. The Decrcto governatoriale of 15 January 1912, no. 814, which approved the rules
for local district administration (Bollettino ufficiale della Somalia italiana, 31 Jan. 1912, ni . i).
For the institution of district commissariats see the Dccreti governatoriali , 3 May 1910, No. 488
and 6 April 19 12.

gS ITALIAN SOMAULAND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The colony's " experiment in agrarian management " was set up at
Genale in ^Middle Scebeli with the best results, and there is another flourish-
ing government experimental farm at Caitori.

§ 2. Agricultural conditions in somaliland.

vSomaliland is a fairl}' fertile country. The most varied crops do excel-
lenth^ (dura, maize, beans, sesamum, greens of every kind, indiarubber,
cotton, agave sisalana, palms, cocoa, papaw-trees, Kapok, forage grasses,
etc.), and seeds sprout within a short time even on the most desert land,
while so long as they are watered by rain or irrigation the plants rise to
heights unknown elsewhere — a proof of the fertility of this soil which
is formed of the alluvial deposits of centuries modified b}" meterological
agents, and provides potent elements of fecundity which few districts
of East Africa can match.

Among crops which can give a large return cotton certainly stands first,
both for quality and quantity. Dr. Onor, agricultural consultant for Ita-
lian Somaliland, expressed himself as follows with regard to the cotton
obtained at Caitoi on the Scebeli (i) :

" The quantity of fibre obtained at Caitoi was considerable in relation
to the cultivated area. From about 5,800 square metres (2) of cultivated
land 459 kilogrammes (3) of fibre were obtained, which gives the high ave-
rage yield of 790 kilogrammes a hectare (4). The cotton was shelled with
rudimentary native appliances exactty like those I have seen in Apulia,
which leave a small portion of the seed mixed with the fibre but not enough
to cause an^'^ important variation in the figures I have given. The yield
would have been even superior if parasites had not done damage after the
first harv-ests.It is my conviction that in favourable 3-ears the harvest
might surpass the rosiest expectations and surpass b}' much the average
of 900 kilogrammes a hectare which is that of Egypt's maximum yield. This
is easy to understand because in Benadir the vegetation is not impeded by
a fall in the temperature at the time of harv-est. Certainly the American
average of 200 kilogrammes a hectare and the Egyptain average of 400 ki-
logrammes would normally be surpassed ".

These remarks refer to Afifi cotton. The following information was
given, in an interview reported in the English papers, by ]Mr. Henry Powell,
director of British agriculture in the colony of British East Africa, a most
competent person. In speaking of the experiments made b}' the State at
Alessandra on the Juba he made the following statements, equally appli-
cable to agriculture in the adjacent Italian colony.

(i) statement No. 4 in Relazionc siilla Somalia Itatiana per gli anni 191 1 and 1912. Docu-
mcnti. Rome, Tipografia Camera Deputati, 1912.

(2) I square metre = 1.196 square yards.

(3) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

(4) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 99

" A plot of about one acre was planted with Abassi cotton and completely
irrigated, with the object of showing the capacity- of the soil in the most
favourable conditions and with the best possible agriculture. Over one half
of the land the furrows were traced at intervals of thirtj'-four inches and the
seed was sown on 6 May at intervals of eighteen inches. On the other half
the furrows were made at intervals of thirty inches and the seed distrib-
uted at inter\-als of thirty-four inches on the same day. The development
of the plant was marvellous on both areas. Mr. Filleul, vice-commissioner
of the province, found however that the closer plants did best, owing to
their greater density wliich allowed the bushes to resist the strong winds
prevalent in Alessandra. Three thousand pounds of seeded cotton were
harvested in this irrigated area (Alessandra) producing 1,000 pounds of fibre.
In view of the purposes which it can serve the value of the fibre can be placed
as low as 6d. a pound, at which rate the sale will produce nearty £30." Mr.
Powell says that "existing conditions in Alessandra are however extraordi-
nary ". He recommends the place as the site of experimental farms, thus
completely- recognizing its great fertilitj^ ■" From the anah^sis of a speci-
men of the earth made at the Imperial Institute it appears that the soil is
perfect. In such a soil crops would rapidly flourish, helped by the fertiliz-
ing waters of the Juba. Thus the large yield of cotton is comprehensible,
and it is to the interest of capital and of the colonists of all nations who ought
to come to the^ countr}- — and be induced to come to it — to give to Jubaland
that energetic development for which she offers so rich a soil and such abund-
ant waters ". Such are the uniform conclusions to which agricultural ex-
perts in the British and the Italian colonies have come as to cotton growing,
which is the true and the most productive form of agriculture in this land.

Other crops might be no less rich and promising if this extraordinary
fertility of the soil were supported by an essential condition — irrigation.

Although native crops (dura, maize, sesamum (i) beans) can be grown
in good years and bad years, with periods of al:i,undance and periods of scar-
city by means of the rain and the small canals which the natives assiduously
make along the rivers, to receive the waters in times of flood, crops
having a large industrial yield — such as cotton, indiarubber, tobacco etc. —
cannot run the risk of more or less rainy seasons. The rivers — the true
irrigating channels — are natural reservoirs against the variable rainfall,
and since the rivers are full precisely in the rainy season a system of mecha-
nical hydraulics is necessary, especialh' for raising and barricading the wa-
ters, in order better to regulate and utilize the rivers. The value of the co-
lony cannot be realized by its agricultural and industrial dvelopment apart
from the factor indispensable to such development, namely irrigation b}-
canals, dykes and mechanical means. But on the other hand it is certain
that the great productiveness can meet the expense these works would en-
tail and richly compensate for it. It is also necessary to recollect that
the River Scebeli provides sufficientlj- favourable conditions for micostl}'

(i) Half a hectare (1.235 acres) planted with sesamum on the f ami of (ienale produced
a crop sold at Merca for 200 rupees — £13.65. ^d.

100 ITALIAN SOMALII.AXD - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX CxEXERAL

hydraulic works which will regulate and dam its course, at least in the
region of High Goscia which is among the most fertile in Sonialiland.

The extent of land available for cultivation by white colonists is very
great if the sparse popiilation and the slightness of native agriculture be
considered, but is limited not by area but by the volume of the waters of
the rivers in the season of scarcity. This limitation can be parth- correc-
ted by artificial dikes and reser\-oirs, and also by the results which may be
yielded by the investigations — as yet incomplete — into the nature of
crops and the sowing seasons, and which will show how to derive the greatest
possible profit from the rainfall, the irrigation from the rivers being regarded
as a supplementars' resource. It is clear that to reach this result it will be
necessary to confront the vast and complex problem of a general utiliza-
tion of the rivers, which now follow their unregulated courses, wandering
through the plains as chance has willed it.

It would be interesting to review more fully the various crops which
flourish or might flourish in the colony of Somaliland, but to do so would
take us too far bej'ond the limits of this stud5^ For information on this
subject we refer the reader to Statement 4 in the Report on Somaliland
of Governor De Martino (Docnmenti, Rome, Chamber of Deputies, 1912,
pages 146-190) in which Dr. Romolo Onor ver\' adequately analyses, in a
stud}' called " Xotes on Agriculture ", the facts as to the various crops, namely
cotton, tobacco, maize, sesamum, arachidis, beans, forage grasss, india-
rubber, kapok, cocoa-palm, agave sisalana and other lignous plants ; and
also to the Acts of the Second Congress of Italians Abroad, Vol. I. Part III.
Pages 1431 - 1567 (Rome. Tip. Ed. Xaz. iQii).

As regards natural vegetation, subdivided into forest and undergrowth,
we will sa3' briefly that the only forest j^roperly so-called extends along the
Juba for a distance of about a hundred kilometres and has an average
depth of no more than 200 metres (i). It is clear therefore that forests of
forest trees in Somaliland are very unimportant. Beyond this stretch along
the Juba and others like it but of less area, found at several points along
the Scebeli, there is in Benadir a monotonous arboraceous vegetation, little
developed and ver^- thorny, chiefly bushes. On the whole it is the opinion
of competent experts that the resources to be derived from the spontaneous
vegetation of Italian Somaliland are ver\' limited.

B. — The Raising of Live Stock.

Somaliland is a country well suited to pasturage. There is excellent
pastureland, all on the plain, and of interminable extent. Since the dn.' sea-
son lasts onh' for about four months in the year it is clear that the raising
of useful live stock is the most important feature in the country's economy.

The capital in live stock is indeed considerable. Statistics which the
colonial government has been enabled by the district authorities to prepare
show that in Southern Somaliland alone there are about 764,000 head of

(i) I metre = i.orj4 yard?.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 1 01

cattle, 305,000 camels and 216,000 sheep. Thus the quantity of live stock
is indubitably such as to justify the care given by the colonial government
to this form of wealth, and any initiative which might lead to its exploi-
tatioil in the interest of the home country. In Somaliland Italy has an
enormous breeding park which might, with suitable care and improvement,
ensure to her an important annual contribution in the form of excellent but-
cher's meat. But in order that the value of this reserve may be realized
its quality must be improved, by protecting it from certain constant and
powerful agents of depreciation, and it must be more actively commercia-
lized.

As regards cattle alone the average weight a head of the fully grown
animals is more than 400 kilogrammes, and the market price was, before
the war, 10, 16 and 24 Maria Theresa thalers (i) a head, according to whether
the purchase was made in the interior or on the coast. That is to say that
in the least favourable case, allowing for onh^ 50 per cent, of the living gross
weight and for the maximum price, meat was sold on the coast for 27 liras
a quintal (2), without taking into account the skin, the price of which is
being lowered. Indisputabh^ these prices justify a confidence that there
could be trade in meat with Somaliland and that, in view of the prices on
European markets, it could be renumerative in spite of costs of transport,
and the increase in cost price which would be caused by a demand and by
other circumstances peculiar to commerce.

Before the war slightly more than 3,000 heads of cattle and about 8,000
sheep were annually exported from Benadir. The skins of the exported
oxen, which may furnish another element of profit to betaken into account,
weighed 405,000 kilogrammes. Probably a considerable number of them
emanated from the districts of Abyssinia which lie below IvUgli. Such
weight corresponds to 58,000 head of live stock, if seven kilogrammes be
taken to be the average weight of a dried skin (3).

§ 3. The land system.

From the administrative point of view the process of colonization may
be considered to have two stages, the one subordinate to the other: first
the determination of the lands which are the State's free property, and then
the regime of agricultural concession. Obviously the State must determine
the available domain, that is to say the lands which can be granted for
colonization without injury- to the rights of third parties, before it makes
agricultural concessions.

(i) I Maria Theresa thaler = nearlj' 2s. at par.

(2) I quintal = 220 lbs.

(3) For further details on this subject see Atti del Secondo Congresso degli Italiani alVEstero,
and especially 8th session, Theme II, DelV allevamento del bestiame in Somalia e dd suo trasporto
in Italia, Dr. Ferdinando MartogUo, Vol. I, Part III, pages 1715-1753.

102 ITALIAN SOMAUl-AND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

A. Determination of the Lands at the State's Free Disposal.

All the provisions aimed at the determination of the lands at the State's
free disposal in Somaliland are comprised in the ro^^al decree of 8 Junej[9ii,
no. 693 (i) and the governor's decree of 19 January 1912, no. 815 (2) — of
which the former recognizes common rights in the lands of the colony and
the consequent limitation of those which may be reserved to the available
domain, and is completed by the latter which approves internal regula-
tion of this domain.

The royal decree places the land system on solid jurisdictory bases.
It contains two affirmations of incontestable practical value — one as to
the State's right of sovereignty over the vacant lands of the colony, the other
as to the rights of natives and others incident on such lands. These rights,
as is easily understood, are entangled and complete each other, so that the
better the local governor, to whom authority to distinguish among them is
delegated, succeeds in discharging his office with the foresight and caution
needed by the delicacy of the situation, the greater will be the attractive-
ness of the offers of Somalese land. The land should by his care be emani-
cipated from the latent causes of friction between Europeans and natives
which impede the agricultural development of many colonies, reducing
them to sterile battlefields for contests. This decree also enables the gover-
nor to grant to the native population the use of such land as appears neces-
sary to their progress, in addition to the land they enjoy because they
have in it a recognized right of possession.

According to the domestic regulations for the determination of the avail-
able domain in Italian Somaliland, approved by the Governor's decree of
19 January 1912, no. 815, those lands are excluded from the colony's do-
main on which Italian citizens or foreigners have valid and recognized rights,
and in general all lands to which attach real rights recognized to be effective
in the coastal regions, the inhabitated centres and their neighbourhood.
Lands " actual!}- cultivated and utilized (3) in a permanent manner", by
individual natives or by natives collectively, are likewise excluded ; as are
the zones, even if they be not actually cultivated and utilized, of which the
usufruct is about to be granted to Kabylies or fractions of these, to supply
the recognized needs of their demographic and economic development. Such
lands constitute the zones cf native reserves.

The measures taken in consequence of these rules have the follow-
ing aims :

(?) to ascertain the limits of the available domain as distinguished

(i) 8 June igii, no. 695, having reference to the definition of the lands at the State's free
(l\spo-,a.l in Italian SomaliXa.ni'i. Gazzctta ufficiale del Regno, 17 June iQii, no. 166: Bulleilino
ufflciale delta Somalia italiana, 31 January 1912, no. i.

(2) 19 Januaiy 1912, no. 815. It approves the rules for the determination of the available
domain in Italian vSomaliland. Bullcttino ufficiale delta Somalia italiana, 31 Januarj- i9i2,no. i.

(3) The assignment of lands recognized to be utilized is called accantonamento detle utiliz.
zazioni (reservation of utilized lands).

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION I03

from the lands in which natives have collective rights, or individual rights
independent of common property ;

b) to reserve to populations their rights and usufruct within determ-
ined limits and within areas acknowledged to be sufficient for their*effective
development, and to incorporate zones outside the limits of possible utili-
zation in the domain ;

c) to exclude from the resultant available domain, thus constituted,
zones of which it is considered right to leave the usufruct to the Kabylies
for their future needs, and to make of these zones native reserves ;

d) to cause migrations, or other measures which prove to be
necessary, either to prevent the subdivision of agricultural zones, or
to avoid excessive agglomerations of groups of population, or to facilitate
the constitution of native vilUages.

The same rules include under four headings provision for the procedure
which will enable such concentration, namely a) Procedure for the recog-
nition of existing cultivations ; b) Procedure for the recognition and the set-
ting on one side or reservation of utilized land ; c) Procedure for the consti-
tution of zones reserved to natives ; d) Procedure to cause migration.

B. The AgriciiUural Concessions.

We will now speak of the realization of the value of the lands belong-
ing to the domain, that is to say of the agricultural concessions of Italian
Somaliland.

The conception which inspired the governor of Somaliland , when he sub-
mitted the rules as to land (i) to the approval of the competent bodies,
was that of defining the powers which according to clause d of article 4
of the law of 5 April igo8 the central government could, in virtue of article
5 of the same law, delegate to him, and of determining their agricultural and
industrial aim. The rules establish two categories of concessions which
derive their essential characteristics from the authorit}^ from which the}^
emanate.

Concessions of the first category are those of more than 2,000 hectares
of land, and being dependent on the central government are made by royal
decree ; while those of the second category may not be of more than 2,000
hectares and are made by the governor. Both without distinction may be
made either to capitalist societies or to private persons of Italian or foreign
nationality. The rules rest solidly on principles of incontestable practical
value : the applicant for a concession must prove before he receives it
that he possesses at least 500 liras for each hectare he has to bring under
cultivation ; the conceded land must be granted gradually, in three periods,
the area granted being extended progressively ; a concession must be reduced

(i) Rules for realizing the value of landin Italian Somaliland. — Royal decree of 8 June
19 1 1, no. 820, establishing the regime of agricultural concessions in Italian Somaliland (Gazsrfto
ufficiale del Regno i6 August 1911, no. rgi. Bullettino ufficiale della Somalia italiana 31 August
1911, no. 9).

104 ITALIAN SOMALILAND - AGRICUI.TURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAL

to the limits of the cultivated area whenever, at the termination of one
of these periods, the grantee is found not to have fulfilled the obligations
imposed by his contract ; and finalh^ grantees whose land borders on rivers
or canals, constructed or to be constructed, must receive such land so dis-
posed that the greatest possible mrmber will enjoy the use of the water
for agricultural and industrial purposes.

These informing principles have been translated into provisions which,'
while they do not alter them integrally, arrange for their-application within
clearly fixed limits, and under the direction of the governor's wise discern-
ment helped by a technical commission nominated for such end. ■

As regards the term for which they are valid (ninety-nine years) and
in other respects the contracts of concession have the character proper
to temporar}' leases.

The rent is fixed by the contract and remains unchanged for thirty
years, after which an exemption for five j^ears from rent or taxes is granted,
and this exemption may be continued for ten years if the concessionarj^ per-
manently employ at least one family of Italian cultivators for every hundred
hectares he holds. The tax will be fixed in accordance with the profits the
concession derives from public works of hydraulics, roadmaking etc., which
may increase the value of its land. vSimilarh' the criteria are established
which the government can apply in order to recover unpaid rent and taxes,
and the contract fee is fixed at one lira (i). Machines and implements used
on the concession are exempt from customs duties. The State's right of pro-
i:)erty is affirmed in minerals below the soil, watercourses and canals. The
rules for taking possession of granted land are fixed, as is the due paA'able
in the case of reserves of the administration — in discharge of rights which
native populations may have in the conceded land, if it has been impossible
previously to establish and recognize these rights. The alienation of conces-
sions is forbidden while the^^ have not been granted definitely, that is to
say before their value has been fully developed. This prohibition is intend-
ed obviously to guard against speculation in land not yet developed by tech-
nical ability and a wise investment of capital. On the other hand lots on
a concession may be let or granted to metayers with the governor's permis-
sion. The transmission of concessions by inheritance is organized as in
Erythrea. Since it is not only Italians who may receive concessions the
provision is opportune which establishes that questions and disputes to
which concessions may give rise, whatever the scope of the disputes and
whatever the nationality^ of the contracting societies or individuals, shall
be within the competence of the Italian tribunals.

Applications for concessions of the second category are examined in
Somaliland, in the case of resident applicants, by the Minister of the Colo-
nies if the applicant persons or societies be domiciled outside the colony.
Three tenths of the capital required to be invested in the concession must
be paid when the contract is signed into one of the State treasuries. This
sum will be gradually returned to the concessionary as he proves that he

(i) lira = g^/g d. at par.

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION IO5

is regularly developing the value of his concession. One tenth of the requir-
ed capital will however be retained by the administration if, at the end of the
first year, all a concessionary' 's rights in his concession lapse entirely be-
cause he has not begun to work it, using appropriate methods.

The rules as to land also make mention of concessions of another type,
namely of land on which wild crops are exploited and harvested and pastur-
age used. These are regulated like the other concessions, except that their
term is ten years and that the}^ are renewable for the same period ; but on
certain fixed conditions land thus conceded by the administration remains
at its disposal for eventual concession for agricultural purposes.

Finally the rules establish (article 37) that the governor may dispose
of a lot of 5,000 hectares in the form of experimental concessions of parcels,
measuring 25 hectares each but capable of being extended to 100 hectares, to
small proprietors having suitable capital individually, and united in a com-
pulsory agricultural union for the execution and maintenance of works of
h^'draulics, benefaction and roadmaking, useful to all the concessionaries, and
for the common purchase of machines, seeds and other like articles, under
the superintendence of a central technical management. Although onty
general criteria have been laid down for this interesting scheme, we are per-
suaded that it would be an enterprise of modern State colonization which
would anticipate coming conditions and be very important to the colony's
future. We will return to this question when we treat of the experiments in
colonization made with Italian families (vide § 5 of this article) .

The rules which we have reviewed conform to an excellent principle
of administrative autonomy. The precautions by which the administra-
tion has sought to guarantee the financial fitness of applicants for conces-
sions, and the regular development of the value of the land, seem to be much
more dependable under these rules than they were in the previous contracts
by which concessions have hitherto been conditioned. It will be possible
therefore to attract into the sphere of agricultural initiative the most
active elements and to exclude from it the least desirable. Certainly these
rules cannot be called perfect, but on the whole a far-seeing land policy has
inspired them. In an}- case they must be looked upon as the first notable
exemplification of the land system of Somaliland. After some ten years
of experience it will be possible to make deductions from them and to com-
pare them with the enactments of other colonial laws better than today.
It will then be possible to judge whether they need modification, whether
other principles should be applied to them in order to reach a more complete
organization of the land, and what such principles should be.

§ 4. Experiment and experience in colonization.

We will now speak of some concessions and the results obtained from
them. We will of course only deal with some typical cases, for we lack the
space in which to examine all the experiments and attempts made in Soma-
liland to provoke and to extend colonization. *

loG ITALIAN SOMALILAXD - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

First we will speak of the concessions in Goscia, made at the outset,
on a method which was little empirical, when the idea of attracting Italian
capital to these regions necessarih' prevailed, no preliminary investigations
having been made. Moreover the capital at first sought was evidently ill
fitted to the development of an area of 5,000 hectares. And since local con-
ditions had been little studied concessions were not rationally mapped out,
the fact being forgotten that wooded and non-irrigable lands sometimes
made more than two thirds of a concession non-productive.

It would have been better to grant 1,000 or at most 1,500 hectares of
land in conditions which would have allowed of their whole and equal cul-
tivation, without the enormous differences between one concession and ano-
ther stated to exist to-da3\ Not only would it have been easier to find the
capital necessary to these cultivable lands, but apportionment of the lands
most easih" cultivated would have allowed the capital, when once the first
trial had been made, to have been used for a harder matter, the develop-
ment namety of the lands of which the cultivation is laborious and costly.

It was impossible that the first concessions should not suffer by this
primar}' defect in preparatory measures. They suffered not onl}^ from
lack of capital but even more from a lack of the technical knowledge in-
dispensable to such indtistrial crops as cotton. Such a history is common
to the beginnings of all colonies. Several enterprises thus failed, in spite
of all the ardour and the energ}- with which the pioneer colonists of So-
maliland endeavoured to establish themselves.

Two concessions in particular, each of 5,000 hectares, deser\'e a special
examination and may be said to have survived and to have preserved some
elements of a serious success. They are the Societd italiana per imprese
coloniali and the Societd romana di colonizzazione in Somalia. The former
was formed by a group of Neapolitan and Milanese capitalists. When an
earlier enterprise went into liquidation it added excellent water-hoists
to its assets, and brought the vast plain of Bieja near Jumbo under cul-
tivation. Its works of captation and canalization are perfect and no doubt
as to the results they will 3'ield can be entertained. In 1911 the cotton
produced was sold in Itah" at the following prices which are hardly equall-
ed by the best Egyptian cotton :

Sakellaridis Selected Abassi Mixed Afifi Abassi

Liras 214 228 168 192 194

As much as 155 liras a quintal was oft"ered for Upland cotton.

In 191 2 thirty hectares were sown afresh ; and the plants of the previous
year had regerminated over fifty hectares and promised an abundant har-
vest, no trace of parasites having been discovered.

Other hundred hectares, brought under cultivation and canalized in
1912, were sown in 1913.

Since the necessary capital is not lacking this concession will certainly
be profitable for a long period.

I.AXD TENURE AND COLONIZATION IO7

The Sociela roniana di colonizzazione in Somalia really began its work
only in the spring of 1911. Since it is directed by Count de Frankenstein,
who has made all preliminary studies and preparations, it has a future rich
in promise in its splendid concession of Margherita, for it disposes of large
capital and has not therefore been stinted in the initial expense necessary
to the purchase of machines. Making use of the waters which the Juba
at times of spate sends to the old canal called Uebi Gofca, which forms an
important reservoir, this society has installed centrifugal pumps worked
by a steam motor engine of 45 horse-power, capable of lifting 26 cubic
metres (i) of water a second. This water is distributed in the canals which
intersect an area of 100 hectares, very well brought under cultivation by a
plough worked by an exploding Holt- Caterpillar engine of 45 horse-power
which answers admirabh". It was possible in that yedJ to obtain a yield
of 400 quintals of shelled cotton. The cotton ha,r\'est — the larger part of
the total production — had thitherto been excellent in quality" and there
had been no discovery- of parasitic germs to deplore. In 1913 the society
installed machines anew for the purpose of hoisting the river water directly,
and added 150 hectares to the cultivated area vvhich thus came to measure
from 250 to 300 hectares. It also acquired a shelling machine able to shell
5.000 quintals of cotton'.

In March and April igi6 this society was growing cotton and maize in
partnership with the natives over about 250 hectares. It undertakes the
first bringing of the land under cultivation, provides water for irrigation,
and engages to buy the quota of the crops reser\'ed to its partners at the
I rices current at the time of the harv-est. A considerable number of natives
have actively begun works of sowing. This gives rise to a hope that the new
system of agricultural organization may meet with a fortunate success
and that the difficulties inherent in the labour supply may thus be dimi-
nished, while the native labourers will be induced to be more interested in
agriculture. The experiment of agriculture of this description goes excel-
lently, and the natives as partners in cultivation are most diligent.

The Sociela italiana per imprese colonial i (Italian Society for Colonial
Enterprise) conceived the idea of putting into practice on its concession of
Bieja a sj'stem of co-partnership different from that followed by the Roman
society. It su])plies the land, the cotton seed and the water for irrigation,
while the natives |:repare the soil and undertake all the work of cultiva.tion.
Cotton, corn and sesamum are sown in the furrows alternatively. The so-
ciety will harvest and will own the cotton, while the corn and sesamum will
constitute the share of the natives. Cotton, corn and sesamum are thus
grown on a number of hectares.

On his concession of Margherita Count de Frankenstein started with
the idea that from 200 to 250 hectares must be planted with cotton before
capital amounting to 500,0(^0 liras, invested in the soil, can give a profit.
In the opinion of com]:!etent persons only capital of such importance, enr-
ployed on installation and machinery, allows — if fit methods be followed —

(:) I cubic ni'_-i:-'.- - i.'/'S cnliic yar. i-^.

I08 IXAIJAN SOMALIIvAND - AGRICUI.TTTRAL ECONOMY IX GEXERAI

of progressive and sure development and profits far larger than those possible
in Italy. In Goscia large and very fertile tracts are still available above
Margherita, extending to Bidi. They include thousands of very fertile
hectares, easily irrigable since they lie on plains, not overgrown with bushes,
largely above the level reached by the waters of the river when it is in spate
and sloping towards the interior.

On one tract in particular, which lies at a short distance from
Margherita along the Juba and is surrounded by the Fungalanga Canal,
and in which are scattered little native villages, a society could undertake
cultivation in partnership with the natives. As in the case of the experi-
ment made at Bidi such society would give cotton to be cultivated, on
the security of the average yield which the native themselves would ob-
tain by growing maize. The natives would supply without much difhcult}^
in view of the density of the population, the labour needed by the society's
crops, in return for fixed wage or a share of profits. At times when the river
was in spate this tract could easily be inundated : for this purpose the afflux
and reflux of the waters would be regulated, and the machines needed to
hoist the waters would be used only to constitute a reservoir for cases of
necessity. The soil, which is saturated with damp, as black as coal and ver^-
fertile, would need only to be reclaimed and sown. A concession of two
or three thousand hectares, enjoying the most favourable natural condi-
tions, could be made in this zone.

Turning to the land along the Scheli we find that two concessions have
been granted there, one at Havai, and the other at Caitoi where the conces-
sionar}', Riccardi, intends to grow chiefly trees. His start was most promis-
ing, owing to his admirable enthusiasm which brought about that in a few
months he had installed very powerful wind engines, made roads, dug ca-
nals, etc. From quite recent data (spring 1916) it appears that in the Ric-
cardi concession at Caitoi new cocoanut and kapok plantations have been
made, and that two thirds of the land have been organized bj^ means
of permanent works of canalization and the planting of crops now in a flou-
rishing state.

§ 5. Schemes for coeonization in somaeieaxd by Italian families.

The criteria which now prevail with respect to the colonization of So-
maliland by Italian families may be gathered from the schemes drawn up
b}^ the colonial authorities or the official bodies in the mother country, and
also from studies bearing on this ])roblem. Naturally these criteria are
as yet indeterminate and the schemes therefore are also indefinite in form.
But they shed a little light on the question, revealing certain of the most
obscure points.

First we must .see into what financial engagements the government
should enter in order to ensure the success of colonization Vjy Italian fa-
milies. The calculations are based on a cultivated area of 20 hectares, but
the domain to be colonized should extend over 30 hectares, in order that

LAXD TENURE AND COLONIZATION lOQ

profits may considerably increase when all available land is brought
under cultivation.

I. Costs of Installation on the Property.

I,iras

1. Dwelling-house 10,000

2. Warehouse 7,000

3. Colonization and arrangement of the land at 250

lira,s a hectares (10 hectares in ist year, 10 in 2nd) 5,000

4. Stock (live stock, carts, harrow, plough, yokes,

various implements) ■ 2,270

Total . . . 24,270

II. Travelling expenses « . 1,500

III. Costs of maintenance for one year 3,000

FiReT YEAR.

Cost of bringing 10 hectares under cultivation.

I St. Preparation of ground until seedtime (For this
supplementary labour, costing 25 liras a hectare,

is thought necessary) 250

2nd. Seeds (15 liras a hectare) 150

3rd. Expenses of cultivation from sowing to com-
mercial preparation of the products. Wages

estimated at 100 liras a hectare 1,000

4th. Irrigation at 30 liras a hectare 300

5th. Maintenance of canals and works of irriga-
tion. Supplementary costs estimated at 10 liras

a hectare 100

6th. New leap of live stock (30 per cent, on 720 liras) 216

7th. Depreciation of implements (amortization)

(20 per cent on 1,550 liras) 310

8th. Maintenance of buildings (2 per cent, on

17,000 liras) 340

Total . . . 2,666

Receipts.

10 hectares having a gross yield of 500 liras a
hectare 5,000

no ITAUAN SOMAULAND - AGRICULTURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAI^

Balance Sheet of Crops.

Receipts 5,ooo

Expenditure 2,666

Credit balance . . . 2,334

The advances which the government should make in the first year,
excluding the costs properlj^ so called of establishing the domain, are there-
for^ as follows :

fl) Travelling expenses 1,500

b) Maintenance for one 3^ear . . 3,000

c) Costs of working the property . 2,666

Total . . . 7,161

Second year.

Expenses for 20 hectares under cultivation.

Expenses for 20 hectares under cultivation, calculat-
ed according to the data taken for the first year . 4,970
Maintenance for one year 3,000

Receipts.
Gross yield of 20 hectares at 500 liras each .... 10,000

Balance sheet of Crops.

Receipts 10,000

Expenses 4,970

Credit Balance . . . 5,030

If the contract were to be cancelled even at the end of the first year
there would therefore be a margin almost sufficient to allow of the entire
restitution of the initial deposits.

The head of every family should have a current account book of
which the credit side would be opened with an initial deposit of 5,000 liras.
From this deposit deductions would be made in cash or in kind on ac-
count for a special stores which would furnish means of subsistence and
the funds necessary for the cultivation of the land. When the 5'ear's

LAN^D TENURE AND COLONIZATION

III

books were balanced the returns of the property should be entered as
credited, and costs not met in the same year, such as costs of irrigation,
of the depreciation of tools and the maintenance of buildnigs, as debited.
Travelling expenses should be entered with costs.

Receipts.

i) Initial deposit

2) Return of the crops for ist. year

3) ;> ') :■' )) » 2nd. »

Total .

Liras
5.000

5,000
10,000

20,000

Expenditure.

i) Travelling expenses ,

2) Maintenance for two years . . .

3) Advances for crops of ist. year.

4) » )) » » 2nd. »

Total

1,500
6,000
2,666

4,979
15,145

Balance- Sheet.

Receipts 20,000

Expenditure I5,i45

4,855 ■

Even if the contract be cancelled at the end of the second year
there were will thus be a margin almost sufficient to allow the entire
repayment of the initial deposit.

We will now see on what system colonists might be allowed occupation.
The measures now in force do not contemplate the concession of lands in
absolute ownership. The matter is regulated by article 15 of the Regola-
mento per la niessa in valore delle terre nella Somalia italiana (Rules for
the Development of the I,ands of Italian Somaliland) which establishes that
concessions may be for a term up to ninety-nine years. In view however
of the mentality of the peasants to be affected by the contract it would
perhaps be very useful, and would increase the attractiveness of the scheme,
to promulgate as soon as possible a royal decree which would enable the
governor to sell the domain under conditions fixed bv the contract.

112 ITALIAN SOMAWLAND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The government advanced about 25,000 liras for the first costs of set-
tlement, which sum had become 27,040 liras at the end of the first j^ear by
the accumulation of interest. The annual balance sheet of crops gave at
the end of the second year, as has been seen, a balance of 5,030 liras, and if
3,000 liras be deducted from this as the costs of subsistence and maintenance
a net profit of 2,030 liras remains. Admitting that the initial capital of
27,040 liras at the end of the second year should be amortized in 25 3^ears,
the corresponding annual instalment due would be 1,730.56 liras — a sum
within the balance quoted.

On this system, and on the basis of the revenue of the holding calcula-
ted according to the criteria we have explained, the economic position of
the holding would be such as to give the colonist the purchasing power ne-
cessary to allow him to become a proprietor. An annual sum of about 300
liras would remain to his credit, and this added to the existing 3,000 liras
would bring the family budget up to 3,300 liras.

In order however better to ensure the success of the experiment, and
to make it still more attractive, the governent might cede to the colonists
a third or more of the sum represented by the capital of initial settlement.
Thus the sum which the colonist would have to repay in order to become
owner of the property could be reduced, for instance, to 18,000 liras or even
less, according to the calculations we have shown. With a view to such a
measure an offer could be made to the colonist at the end of the experiment,
that is to say after three years if the experiment had given good results —
of the ownership of the property burdened with an annual due from
which he could free it by paying 4 per cent, on 18,000 liras — that is 720
liras. The case which we have reported would still be the basis of this plan.

If it were executed the following cases might present themselves, and
they should be considered before an idea of the charges which the govern-
ment may have to support can be obtained.

a) is^ hypothesis. — The enterprise entirely fails to reach its end in
the first year. The administration is therefore in the position of having ad-
vanced about 25,000 liras as costs of installation, and 7,166 liras as travelling
expenses, one year's maintenance expenses and the costs of working the
property ; and yet it does not consider seizing the colonist's initial deposit
in order to compensate for such losses. This h3q:)othesis of a catastrophe,
which is most improbable, since it is allowable to suppose that the installa-
tion would not constitute a complete loss, would entail an expense of
32,166 liras.

b) 2nd hypothesis — The enterprise fails only after the second or
third year. In view of the government's constant superintendence and
the annulment clauses in the contract li would be difficult to reach a worse
result than that indicated under a).

c) yd hypothesis. — The experiment succeeds so that the holding be-
comes the proi:)erty of the colonist or whoever takes his place. This case
should be considered in two aspects :

I. The favourable result is due to the special conditions created in the
colonist's favour, in that the government ma}' be said to have given him

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION II3

10,000 liras. This amounts to a failure of the experiment and should lead
to an abandonment of the method.

2. The favourable result is due — as regards data and actual fact —
to the productive power of the holding, and to a return from the labour of
the colonist's family sufficient to allow of their permanent settlement on the
holding or to call for another family to replace them. Such is the ideal
end of the experiment. If it be attained, even if the specially privileged
conditions enjoj^ed bj- the first colonists' families be overlooked, the ac-
counts will give an exact idea of the holding's economic strength and of the
organization necessary to prosperous colonization in small holdings by a
white population. The most favourable h3'pothesis would presume an
expenditure on the experiment bj' the government of from 10,000 to 12,000
liras, that is to say of the dift'erence between the costs of installation and
the sum repaid by the colonist.

• It will now be well to resume a scheme for colonization in Somaliland
by the means of small proprietors, drawn up at the request of the govern-
ment of Somaliland bj^ Professor Bizzozero, director of the peripatetic
chair of agriculture of Parma. This scheme is important because article
37 of the Regolamento per la inessa in valore delle terre nella Somalia italiana
refers to it and has largely incorporated it. We have already dealt with
article 37 in speaking of the land system in Somaliland (§ 3. B.)

This attempt at colonization should be begun by a limited number of
cultivators' families, some twenty at most, who so soon as they reached
the colony would in the presence of the governor form a first agricultural
union for the colonization of Italian vSomaliland. Only the heads of families
would sign the union's constitution, each thus becoming responsible for
all his famil3^ As soon as the union were formed each of them would pay
the amount of at least one share of 50 liras together with a guaranteeing
deposit of 5,000 liras. This latter sum would be entered in a current account
book which would be delivered to the depositor on the same day. The agri-
cultural union would be superintended and inspected by the colon^^'s
government. This government would for the first two j^ears freely sup-
ph' the seeds of the herbaceous crops to be grown and the plants for lignous
plantations. The colony's technical agricultural ofiice would decide what
machines were needed on each holding, and the union would deliver them
to the cultivators, entering the sum charged for them on the current account
books. Each holding would receive from six to ten head of cattle, and even-
tually one or two camels and twenty-four sheep, the value of the animals
being likewise entered in the current account books. For articles of food each
family would have a book and the total sum due for purchases made from
the union would be debited to them monthly. The financial resources of

114 ITALIAN SOMALILAXD - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

the union would be constituted b}^ the amount of subscribed and paid-up
shares, and each family's guaranteeing deposit of 5,000 liras. The colony's
government might grant subsidies to the union during the first five j-ears.
Five per cent, on sums to the credit of the cultivators in their current
accounts would be paid to them by way of encouragement and 3 per cent,
charged on the sums with which they were debited. Eventually the rate
of interest on the debit and credit accounts would be the same.

All products of the soil would be delivered to the union which would
have the necessary warehouses and the other accommodation in which they
could be prepared for commercial or industrial use. They would be uti-
lized in their entirety, by the sale of primary and secondary products in their
natural state, or b}' the submission to essi cation or other processes of pro-
ducts (vegetables, fruit, etc.) which could not travel or be kept for any length
of time. The quantities delivered would be entered in the current account
books, at prices fixed by the administrative council in agreement with the
director, a supplementarj^ quota of au}^ larger price ^delded by sale being
added when necessary.

Thus the agricultural union would discharge to some extent several
roles. It would supply first a commercial agency for the purchase and the
distribution "to members of live stock, agricultural machines, seeds, plants
and other agricultural requisites ; secondly a bank for receiving guarantee
and savings deposits and making agricultural avances, like the Italian agri-
cultural banks ; thirdl}^ a warehouse for ever>i;hing needed to feed and clothe
the cultivators' families ; and fourthly an industrial co-operative pro-
ducers' societ}^ for the commercial conversion or preparation of the products
of the soil.

This union would last for ten years, and would then be renewed in
a form modified as experience would dictate.

The by-laws of the union should be adapted to local conditions and the
laws in force in the colony. The scheme has some further provisions as to
the purchase and letting of cultivated land after the first five years of cul-
tivation. But this part of the scheme seems to us to have been superse-
ded since article 15 of the rules for developing the lands in Italian Somali-
land established that concessions would be made for a term of ninety-nine
years.

The financial part of the scheme presupposes an expenditure on
installation of half a million liras, and one of 42,000 liras a j^ear on
the working which might after five years be reduced to 32.000 liras.

*
* :

There is no doubt that a prosperous future awaits Italian Somaliland
we have seen what elements of wealth the colony contains, what new
factors of production and of wealth might be cultivated or called forth

LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION II 5

within it, and all the economic and administrative measures taken to
develop these treasures.

But that which we said with reference to Erythrea as to the import-
ance of the human element applies also to Somaliland. The politics of
the native population, misunderstood and neglected in the early period
of the Italian occupation of Erythrea, intimately affect the relations be-
tween the mother country and the nations on which her civilizing role is
exercised and are largety responsible for the result and success of the econo-
mic and administrative measures prop.osed for the development of colonial
enterprises.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.

BELGIUM.

AGRICUIvTURAIy TRAINING FOR PARTI.\I,I,Y DISABI^ED SOI^DIERS. — Communi-
cated by M. H. de I^appaient to the Academie iV agriculture en France, at the session of

13 December 1916.

«.

In organizing technical training for the seriously wounded the Bel-
gian government has acted on the f)rinciple that an injured man should,
whenever possible, not run the risk of becoming a dead weight on the re-
sources of his country, but should still be an appraisable asset, even — in
some cases — an element of prosperity. It has therefore been decided to
compel the partially disabled to undergo a technical training, suited to the
nature of their injuries, the trade they have previously foUowed, and the
tastes and aptitudes which may be discovered in them.

In August 1915 the work of instalUng the Belgian Mhtar>' Institute
for the Technical Training of the SeriousW Wounded on the land of Notre-
Dame-de-la-Mere, seven kilometres (i) from Vernon (Eure), was begun.

Huts which can be taken to pieces and are of uniform pattern are dis-
tributed in three rows separated by well metalled roads. They cover an
area of 17,000 square metres (2) and accommodate more than 1200 men,
including the permanent staff of the school. The number accommodated
will be raised to 2,000.

The work necessitates a variety of plant and of labour : for the roads
which have to be made a quarrj' has been opened, and its stone is transport-
ed by a Decauville way ; land containing too much clay has had to be ren-
dered sanitary ; a sj'stem of electricity', seventy kilometres long, has been
established to give light to 1,400 lamps and to feed thirty motor-engines
in the various workshops, furnishing altogether 158 horse-power.

The site of the Institute, in the centre of a forest of 350 hectares (3),
made it possible to make a bargain with the owner for the purchase of the

(i) I kilometre = 1093.633 yards.

(2) I square metre = 10.764 square feet.

(3) 1 hectare = 2.47 acres.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICUI.TURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAI, II 7

underwood, in the interests of heating, as well as most of the forest trees.
There has ensued real forestry enterprise with the accompanying industry
and machinery, and considerable quantities of stakes have been secured.

Fortj'-eight different trades are taught, each by a practical workman
and demonstrators. In addition to the practical work two hours a day
are devoted to courses and technical explanations, given by specialists who,
like the overseers, are themselves soldiers, oftenest unfit for service b}' rea-
son of wounds or their health.

Among the trades taught which are connected with agriculture are cart-
er's work, smith's work, the mending of agricultural machines, harness-
making, basket-making, the making of packing-cases.

Some hectares of uncultived and clayey land have been given up to
vegetable growing on a large scale, and it has been necessary to dig, drain
and clean these. Heavy manuring and numerous agricultural expedients
have produced good returns. A vast kitchen-garden has also been formed,
its beds bordered by ready-grown fruit-trees.

Outside the central premises of the Institute, in which only some hec-
tares of land admit of cultivation, a farm of some twenty hectares at a
short distance has been rented ; and there the scientific succession of crops,
which pla3's so large a part in kitchen-gardening, is practised, and some
good meadows allow a certain number of carefully selected milch-cows
to be kept.

The average number of wounded men undergoing agricultural or hor-
ticultural training is seventy. They are given experience, successively
and in order, of all forms of indoor and outdoor work. They are especially
trained to prepare and pack vegetables, which are produced largely above
the needs of the establishment. At the end of August igi6 the growing
vegetables were valued at some 38,000 francs (i).

The training given in keeping regular accounts should be noted ; for
it is of capital importance to each of the trades taught in the Institute,
where the whole industrial enterprise aims at the sale of products, manu-
factured and other.

Every wounded man receives 0.05 franc per working hour from the
time of his arrival, b}^ way of encouragement. Each trade is however
divided into an aiDprenticeship and a productive section, and when a man
is fit to pas? into the latter his wages increase progressively until they reach
or even surpass the level of those of uninjured workmen in the same trade.
'■' These productive sections ", says the technical director in his report,
" have brought in more than 620,000 francs for manufactured articles..
The importance of keeping accounts can he estimated when it is stated
that the turnover for the past year was 950,000 francs ".

Finally we note that an agricultural orphanage has just been estab-
lished, in which orphans of the war will enjoy conditions analogous to those
of the partially disabled men, receiving a practical and technical agricul-
tural training.

3
(i) I franc = 9 — rf. at par.

IlS NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTUR.\L ECONOMY IN GENERAL

FRANXE.

THE DEPARTMENT FOR CIVIL AND MILITARY VEGETABLE GARDENS.

This department was recently set up within the Ministry of Agricul-
ture, united to the Ministr\- of War, and was placed under the direction of
R. Maxinie Ducroq, president of the enterprise for workmen's gardens at
Lille. Its chief object is to provoke and encourage the formation of vast ve-
getable gardens on the abandoned lands :

i) By means of the depots of arm}' corps and their sections, the sen-'
try-posts of territorials guarding roads and communications, and the hos-
pitals and other mihtary establishments, in which men are retained by
their duties and whence they cannot be sent away on leave or for agricul-
tural employment, but where none the less they dispose daily of some hours
of leisure ;

2) Bj^ means of the civil population of large towns and the neigh-
bourhoods of these.

In 1916, 5,622 militar}' vegetable gardens, having an approximate
total area of 2,000 hectares (i) and able to yield about 13 million francs (2)
a 3^ear wese formed by these means.

In order largely to develop this first success, a staff of seventj- mobi-
lized men has been instructed at the Ministry of Agriculture and has been
commissioned to go through all France, encouraging by lectures, advice
and other measures the gardening by depots ; and it is hoped that the exis-
ting numbei of gardens will thus be multiplied by five or even ten in 1917.

Besides vegetable gardens it was recommended that military piggeries
should be instituted, in order to utilize greasy water and other waste food.
Almost all the depots now keep pigs in this way, and some of them con-
stantly have in their sties about a hundred pigs, the meat of which does not
cost them more than 1.25 francs a kilogramme (3).

The civil vegetable-gardens have also acquired a considerable impor-
tance. Nine recently formed committees share the task of cultivating the
lands attached to the fortifications of Paris in which 3,500 gardens have
been established. But the number of applications is much above this fi-
gure, and the project was conceived of causing some of the abandoned
lands in the neighbourhood of the citj'^ to be cultivated by the population
of Paris. A meeting of the mayors of the communes of the department
of Seine was therefore held at the Ministry of Agriculture on 22 Februaiy
1917 and was followed by the formation of several local organizing commit-
tees. Already analogous committees have been formed in a certain number
of these conmmnes to distribute their uncultivated lands among their in-

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

(2) I franc = 9 ^/^d at par.

(3) I kilogramme = 2 ^/g lbs.

NOTICES REI^ATING TO AGRICULTURAX ECONOMY IN GENERAL II 9

habitants. One of them has distributed 300 gardens, of 300 square metres (i)
each, to as many necessitous famihes.

The movement is spreading to the large provincial towns. Some of
them have resumed on a far larger scale the culture which they undertook
in 1916 at the expense of the municipality, and they have without excep-
tion obtained the best results.

Further by the despatches of 30 December 1916 and 19 January 1917
the ]\Iinister of War decreed that a certain number of mobilized men should
in each district be commissioned for three months in the year to provoke
and encourage the formation and development of military vegetable gar-
dens.

These mobilized men went through a course at the ^Ministry of Agri-
culture which ended on 4 February 1917, and then departed to their dis-
tricts where most of them at once began work.

Since the despatches mentioned were variously interpreted, in some dis-
tricts the minister specified their intention as follows :

i) F)ach of the men concerned, except such as have been noted as un-
suitable by the Ministry of Agriculture and therefore replaced, should re-
ceive as soon as he reaches his district, from the general commanding it,
an order allowing him to go and come freely within its limits. The three
months for which he is comnu'ssioned start on the da}- on which this order is
remitted to him.

2) From the date on which this order is remitted to him the lecturer
is under the orders only of the general or generals to whose subdivisions he
has been assigned, is in direct correspondence with them, and addresses
his reports to them directly.

3) For the time for which he is commissioned the lecturer nmst not
be expected to render other service.

4) In every place lectures must be delivered to the chiefs of united
units and not to each unit separately, and must precede the visits to the
varioiis military formations.

5) With a view to these visits a lecturer is supplied without delay
with a complete list of the military units, detachments and establishments
within the district assigned to him.

In virtue of a decision of the Minister of War on 18 February 1917 the
head of the Department ot Civil and IMilitary Vegetable Gardens at the
Ministry of Agriculture has been entrusted with the local control of the exe-
cution of instructions a])plicable to military vegetable gardens, the verifi-
cation of results obtained, and the superintendence of the military lectu-
rers commissioned for the relevant work of propaganda.

(i) I square metre = 10.764 square feet.

120 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

NEW ZEALAND.

SETTLEMENT OF DISCHARGED SOLDIERS ON THE LAND. — The Journal of Ihe'Board
of Agriculture. London, October 1916.

In New Zealand the problem of lielping the discharged soldier over the
period of transition from military to civil life has been attacked with
commendable promptness and thoroughness. At the outset, owing to
the novelty of the work and the necessity of improvising the entire machi-
nery, many difficulties had to be faced. The Discharged Soldiers' Inform-
ation Department, the department of State specialh^ formed to deal
with the matter, has however surmounted most of these difficulties and
the work is now organized on a satisfactory basis.

According to the first report of the department, which was issued in May,
its procedure is, briefly, as follows. The names, addresses and other ge-
neral particulars as to returning soldiers are collected before the transports
reach the landing ports and are registered on cards. The cards are then
sorted according to the various districts and a confidential schedule is
sent to a local committee. When the soldier is eventually discharged
from military service he is interviewed by an officer of the department who
reports any particulars which are likeh^ to be of use in finding him employ-
ment. With the assistance of the local committee a determined effort
is then made to secure employment for those who require it.

The employment of soldiers on the land naturally forms an important
part of the work of the department. To meet the case of soldiers who have had
no experience in farming, arrangements have been made with the Depart-
ment of Agriculture to undertake the training of a limited number of men
on the various State farms in general farming, dair\' farming, fruit farm-
ing, poultry and bee keeping, etc. It was thought that partially disabled
men in receipt of pensions might reasonabl}^ be expected to desire to take
up small sections under the land settlement scheme, for the purpose of poul-
try raising and other light branches of farm work, and that in these cases a
course of practical instruction would often save loss of time and money
and consequent discouragement. Up to the present time the opportun-
ities afforded have not been taken advantage of, the men — almost with-
out exception — desiring employment of an immediately remunerative
character.

vState assistance to New Zealand soldiers wishing to settle on the land is
however by no means confined to courses of instruction . By an Act passed in
October 1915 and entitled the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1915,
a discharged soldier is given a number of advantages. Under this Act land
may be taken up in two wa^^s. Crown or settlement land may be set apart
for selection only by discharged soldiers, or it may be disposed of to them
under special conditions. In either case the Department of Lands is empower-
ed to remit — wholly or in part and for such periods as it thinks fit — any

NOTICES REI,ATING TO AGRICU I.TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAI. 121

rent paj'able by a discharged soldier, or may postpone the date for the pay-
ment of the rent. When held under special conditions the soldier maj'
receive financial assistance to enable him to bring his farm into such a
state that he can make a living from it. '

Land may be disposed of to discharged soldiers either by way of sale or
by lease. When sold the price is fixed by the Land Board. If disposed of
on terms of deferred pa^mient the purchaser has to pay a deposit of 5 per
cent, of the purchase money, the balance being paid in equal annual in-
stalments with interest at 5 per cent. When let the term maj'' be up
to sixt3'-six years with a perpetual right of renewal for further successive
terms. The rent will be determined by the board and is not in any case
to be more than 4 14 P^r cent, of the capital value of the land. The lessee
may at any time during the continuance of the lease acquire the fee simple
of the land.

Under section 6 the Minister of Lands maj' assist an applicant in the
clearing, fencing and general improvement of the land, the erection of build-
ings, and the purchase of implements, stock, seed, trees and any other things
which may be deemed necessary for the successful occupation of the land. The
rate of interest is to be fixed by the minister, but in cases of hardship he has
power to dispense wholty or in part with the payment of interest. The total
of the advances made to one person is not to exceed £500. No land let
or sold to a discharged soldier under the Act can be transferred until the
expiry of ten years from the date of the sale or the beginning of the lease.

According to the first report on the working of the Act 500,000 acres
of land have been provisionalh' set apart for discharged soldiers. Of this
area 67,855 acres have formally been proclaimed under the Act. It has
been decided to cut up some blocks of land into suitable sections and, be-
fore finally settling soldiers on them, to eftect such improvements as will
enable selectors to make a living off their sections. As far as possible
soldiers will be employed in effecting these improvements. For fruit farm-
ing it has been decided to plant areas with fruit trees, particularly apples.

RUSSIA.

THE FORESTS OF FINNISH TOWNS. — Uppsatser i skogsbruk ; Helsingfors. Septcmlit-r
1916 ; For landtmannahcm ; Helsingfors, September 1916.

In 1915 the Central Communal Office undertook an enquiry as to forest
economy in the towns, sending a detailed form of questions to all the towns
of the country. Only Kemi and Mariehamn made no response. The results
of this enquiry have been published in a stud}^ which forms part of a se-
ries showing the special researches of the Finnish Forestry Society, and
which is also among the publications of the Central Communal Office.

According to the information supplied by the financial commissions

122 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

of the towns, the forests of the different towns had in 1915 the following
areas :

Kajana 9521.01 hectares (i)

Tornea 5430.29

Kuopio 3876.42

Uleaborg 3485-57

Gamlakarleby 3149.48

Lovisa 2670.82

Raumo 2502.57

Heinola 2418.68

Kristinestad 2303.00

Ekenas 1847.38

Xykarleby 1638,60

Helsingfors 1536.00

Joensuu 1513.70

Viborg 1507.98

Nyslott 1450.00

Hango 1189.04

Vasa 1183.59

Brahestad 1044.50

Jakobstad 980.48

Kexholm 865.45

Tammerfors . . . ' 845.46

Nystad 833.92

Tavastehus 808.75

Idensalmi 736.38

Borga 719-33

Kasko 682.21

Lahtis 678.77

J^'vaskyla 653.26

Bjorneborg 642.82

St. Michel 598.35

Fredrikshamn 586.00

Abo 575-22

Willman strand 574-^7

Sordavala 367.40

Kotka 353-60

Xadendal 170.46

The total area of the communal forests is thus about 60,000 hectares.

The forest law of 1886 compelled the towns to draw up rules of forest

economy for the forests on their donation lands (2) and to derive profit from

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

(2) Landed property gremted to the towns by the State.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 1 23

them in accordance with these rules. If the area of the woodland be
one hundred hectares or more the Forest Administration must advise
concerning the projected rules before the municipal council accepts them.
Seme towns however have still no rules of forest economy.

The following notes shows the importance of the Finnish communal
forests to the economy of urban communes.

The towns of Kjana, Tornea, Kuopio, Gamlakarleb5% Kristinestad,
Ekenas, Lovisa, Heinola, Nykarleby, Hango, Kexholm, St. Michel and
Xadendal can take from their own forests only all the wood they need for
building but they may not sell wood. The towns of Raumo, Brahestad,
Jakobstad and Idensalmi take from their own forests all the carpentering
wood they need but do not sell any wood. The towns of Uleaborg, Nyslott,
N^-stad, Tavastehus, Borga, Kask5, Jyvaskyla and Willmanstrand have
sold building wood but have on the other hand made several purchases of
wood to meet their own needs. The towns of Joensuu, Vasa, Lahtis, Bjor-
neborg and Fredrikshamn have not been able to sell any wood but have
been obliged, on the contrary, to bu}^ it. Finally four towns — Kotka,
Abo, Sordavala and Mariehamm, have derived no economic profit from
their forests.

If we classify the towns according to the net income they obtain from
their forests they should be placed in the following order :

The first is the town of Jyvaskyla which in the quinquennial period
1910-1914 derived from its forests an average net income of 34.73 francs (i)
a hectare. The second is the town of Kuopio, if we include in the net in-
come the value of the wood with which the town has met its own needs.
The year 1914 then yielded a net income of 30.63 francs a hectare, sales
alone giving an average net income in this year of 14.63 francs a hectare.
Gamlakarley should probably be placed third, and Borga, with its average
of 23.42 francs, fourth. There follow Kristinestad — 22.18 francs;
S^- Michel — 19. 11 francs; Lovisa 17.81 francs (2); Kasko 15.32 francs;
Nadendal — 13.74 francs; Nyslott — 8.79 francs ; Kexholm — 6.14 francs (2);
Ekenas — 5.64 francs; Uleaborg — 5.49 francs (2) ; Hango — 3.04 francs;
Vasa — 2.44 francs ; Raumo — 2.26 francs (3) ; Lahtis — 2.17 francs (3) ;
Tavastehus — 2.21 francs ; Tornea — 2.09 francs ; Kajana — 1.99 francs (2);
Joensuu 1.74 francs (3) ; Nykarleby 1.59 francs ; Viborg — 1.22 francs
and Bjorneborg — 1.09 francs. The town of Helsingfors suffered a loss
of 3 centimes a hectare and that of Fredrikshamm one of 53 centimes a
hectare.

(i) I franc = 9 ^5 d- ^t P^r.
{2) Income from sales.
(3) In 1914.

124 I^OTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

the position and the activity of the grain elevators of the govern-
ment and the railway companies.

Sources :

i) A. XtopoiueHKO : " .'3aeBaTopHoe zitao bt, Pocciii bt. 1915 rojy ,. (A. Doros-
chenko : " The Work of the Elevators in Russia in 1915 ") in B'hcTHiiKb OiinaHCOBt,
IIpoMMiiiJieHHOCTH H ToprOBJiii (Messenger of Finances,. Industry and Commerce)
Nos. 31, 32 — 31 July, 13 August and 7/20 August 1916.

2) ToprOBO-IIpoMbiinJieHHaH Fasexa (Gazette of Commerce and Industry) Nos. 201,
203 — 17,27 and 17/30 August 1916.

If the two great agrarian reforms, that of 1S61 and that of 1905, had
effect, apart from their social and poUtical influences, on factors which bore
on agricultural production, the establishment of grain elevators was destined
to be among the most important influences which enhanced the commer-
cial value and the profitableness of the harvest jdelds when once they had
been obtained. Production and markets had to be brought nearer togeth-
er, the middlemen eliminated if possible, and grain of better quality' and
in a purer state more evenly brought into trade. These ideals were con-
ceived in Russia as early as the fortieth year of last centur>' (i), but it was
only in its eightieth 3'ear, after the advent of overseas competition, that
the idea of covering the Russian State with a system of elevators really
gained ground.

Railway companies and private persons then undertook the erection of
grain elevators. The first of them date from 1891 and were four in num-
ber, situated in Rjashsk (Government of Rjasan) and Koslov (Government
of Tambov) , the warehousing capacity in both these places being of 300, 000
ptids (2), and in Dankov and I,ebedjan (Government of Tambov), in both
of which the warehousing capacitj' was of 200,000 puds. In 1897 seven
elevators were at work and in 1902 twenty-seven. Before March 1897,
the date at which the erection of elevators by the means of the State Bank
begaU; sixty-one elevators of the railway companies and of private individ-
uals existed and their total warehousing capacity was of 23,524,000 puds.
In addition there was an elevator of the zemstvo administration of Jeletz
(Government of Orel) which could store 672,000 puds of grain.

The largest of these elevators, eight in ntimber, were erected in the
harbours, namely :

(i) See " Loans granted by the State Bank on Security of Grain and the Establishment
of Grain Elevators in Russia, " Monthly Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence, March
1914, page 85.

(2) I pud = 40 lbs.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL L2=,

In Petrograd . 2 elevators having a storage capacity of 3,200,000 puds

" Revel ... I " " " " 250,000

" Vindava . . i " " " " 2,362,000 "

" Riga . . . T " . " " " 750,000 "

" Novorossijsk i " " " " 3,000,000 "

Nikolaev . . i " " " " 1,750,000 "

Odessa . . i " " " " 1,000,000 "

Total 8 12,312,000

The storage capacity of the fifty-four elevators which were situated
in the interior was of 11,884,000 puds. Individual elevators among these
differ very much as to the amount of grain they can receive : it varies from
150,000 or 200,000 puds to 1,000,000 puds — the estimate being for r^'e —
in Moscow.

Judged by the num]:)er of times their contents change hands during
a trading season the biggest elevators attain the best results : thus in Mos-
cow this was effected 1.74 times, in Koslov (the nearest elevators being
included in the calculation) 1.81 times. Two other elevators in fertile dis-
tricts which chiefly serve purposes of loading also work very well. All
the others, that is the smaller elevators, have difficulty in obtaining a like
success, as appears in their financial results. Only the elevators in Moscow
and Koslov have attained to a profit. All others on the Rjasan-Ural
line brought a loss to their companies.

Year Receipt Expenditure Proiit Loss

1912 225,041 roubles (i) 199,215 roubles 25,826 roubles — roubles

1913 163,157 " 204,077 " — " 40,920

1914 218,483 " 247,042 " _ " 28,559

That the railway'- companies met with so little success in their erec-
tion of elevators is partly due to the fact that these for the mcst part were
built on sites chosen with little regard to their activities, and were connect-
ed neither with the banks or the exchanges, and that each of them work-
ed for itself alone, in isolation, the companies following onl)' their own
special and individual aims without seeking to influence the total trade in
grain. The employment of the elevators by the population was therefore
in no sense extensive. In 1897, 11,107,000 puds of grain were brought to
the elevators of the Rjasan-Ural line, which had a storage capacity of
6,350,000 puds; ten years later, in 1907,. 10,452,000 puds were brought to

(i) I rouble = about 2s i^d at par.

126 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAT<

them. Thus not only was' there no improvement: there was retrogression.
Even the amount of 1907 has not been reached of late years.

Grain brought
Year to the Elevators

1912 5,807,800 puds

I913 6,440,300 )

IQI4 8,446,500 >i

These figures shows indeed some progress, but 11,107,000 puds, the
amount of 1897, has not since been equalled.

To make the elevators more effective for purposes of trade, and to
heighten their activities as regarded both quantity and quality of grain,
the government decided to establish its own sj^stem of elevators by means
of the .State Bank. Hence arose :

in 1912 3 elevators having a storage capacity of. . . 2,500,000 puds

" 1913 6 " " " " ... 5,700,000

" 1914 9 " " " " ... 5,050,000

'' 1915 12 " " " " ... 7,500,000

In addition in these same 3'ears the State Bank acquired three eleva-
tors having a storage capacit}' of 850,000 puds from the Rjasan-Ural Rail-
way Company, and in the beginning of 191 6 one elevator having a storage
capacit}^ of 1,000,000 puds (Moscow). In the beginning of April 1916
the State Bank erected an elevator able to receive 600,000 puds. Thus
altogether there arose thirty-five elevators having a total storage capacity
of 23,200,000 puds. In addition thirty-four were being built and were
more or less completed. It was decided on 17 June 1916 to erect for the
grain districts of the north east and the south west and for the black earth
district seventy-seven elevators and granaries able to receive 62,750,000
puds. Through the medium of the State Bank it has also been planned
to cover Siberia with a system of elevators, placing in Novo-Xikolajevik
(Co\-ernment of Tomsk,) where the trade in grain is ver}^ great, an eleva-
tor to hold 2,000,000 puds, and at the station of Kulomsino, at the junc-
tion of the Omsk-Jekateripiburg and Tcheljabinsk - Irkutsk railways,
one to hold 1,500,000 puds and more.

The existing granaries in .Siberia numbered seventy-seven in the mid-
dle of July 1915 — they are said since to have increa.sed — , had a storage
ca]ntcity of 6,704,000 puds, and were subject to the Colonization Adminis-
tration.

The activities of the elevators of the State Bank cannot be measured
by their financial results, as can those of a private company, for they are
proportionate not to profits but to the efforts made to organize the home
trade in grain on a regular plan and to direct it to right paths. Financial
points of view should be diregarded especially at the present time, in which ,
all elevators have been placed under military direction. Nevertheless in

XOTICKS RKI,ATINa TO AGRICIU.TURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 1 27

IQ15 several elevators attained to very favourable balance-sheets, as ap-
pears from the following figures.

Elevators

Profits
Storage capacity 1 (Commission not
deducted)

Zemstvo
Commission

Net Profits

Gr5'asi (GjOV. of Tambov) .

Tolkaj ( 1^ » Voronesh).

Liski ( >. » » ).

Neprik ( » » vSamara) .

MiUcrovo (District of the
Danube)

Bosatoe (Gov. of Samara) .

SorotPhinskaja (Gov. of S:v

1,700,000 Puds I 71,853 Roubles; 30,559 Roubles I 41,294 Roubles

300,000 »

500,000 >

300,000 a

600,000 »

300,000 »

7,868
4,186

13.059
18,991

6,561
2,431

2,433
4,862

1,307
3,051
1.755

11,049
10,626

14,129

The elevators are developing a very valuable activity in the service
of the mihtary authorities. In the region of Tambov, for example, where
the State Bank possesses four elevators, 17 per cent, of all bought grain
passed through these from i January until i July 1915, and 28 per cent,
from I July 1915 to i Januan.^ 1916. In the south-eastern region 38 per
cent, of all bought grain was brought to the elevators from i July 1915
to 1 June 1916 and 45 per cent, of oats and barley.

Grain when received in the elevators is very carefully dried, cleaned
several times over, and carefully sorted. Drying machines have been
installed for twenty-four elevators. The building of the elevator in Nabe-
reshniie Tshelni, now nearly completed, will enable the total number of
drying machines to deal with 3,000 puds an hour.

As regards the number of times the contents of the elevators change
hands in a season this is effected four or even five times in the case of the
large erections near railwa}^ jimctions, and from one and a half times to
twice in that of the .small local elevators. In order to co-ordinate the ac-
tivities of elevators and more and more itself to control them, the vState
Bank will erect them in future only on a large scale. The smaller and lo-
cal granaries in the rural districts will continue to be decentralized and will
be conducted by the zemstvo administrations and the co-operative soci-
eties.

Thtis the countryman, by the medium of his co-operative society or
the zemstvo, can convey his grain to the State Bank's elevator which makes
the direct connection with the world's markets.

All that has been said makes clear that we have here a means of
giving a firm basis to the Russian trade in grain and a promise of a
continually improving output of Russian grain on foreign markets.

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Bureau of Economic and Sociai, Intelwgence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXVI.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 4

APRIL, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE

I917

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION.

British India.

Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in 1914-1915 Page

§ I. Bengal, page i. — § 2. Burma, page 2. — § 3. The United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh, page 3. — § 4. The Central Provinces and Berar, page 4. — § 5. Ajmer-
Merwara, page 5. — § 6. Coorg, page 6.

ITAI,Y.

Collective Dairies Pag.

§ I. The Various Forms of Collective Dairies, page 8. — § 2. Data and Information
as to Collective Dairies in Italy, page g.- — § 3. A Typical Example of Co-opera-
tive Cheesemaking, page 12. — § 4. Societies for the Ripening and the Sale of
Cheese, page 15. — § 5. The National Union of Collective Dairies and the Pro-
vincial Federations, page 17.

Russia.

Popular Co-operative Credit from 1914 to 1916 Page 19

§ I . Institutions of Popular Credit in General, page 19. — § 2. The Co-operative
Credit Societies and the Deposit and I,oan Funds, page 20. — § 3. The Federa-
tions of Co-operative Societies and the Funds of the Zemtsvos, page 24. —
§ 4. Government Subsidies to Institutions of Small Credit, page 26.

Miscei<i,aneous Information rei^ating to Co-operation and Asso-
ciation IN Various Countries Page 28

Austria : The Object and the Task of the " Al^emeine Oesterreichische Viehverwertimgs-
gesellschaft ", page 28.

IV CONTENTS

United States: i) The Co-operative Purchase of I<ive Stock in Wisconsin, page 31.
2) North Carolina Rural Banks, page 34.

PART II : INSURANCE AND THRIFT.

Chue.

The First Thrift Conference AND THE Savings Banks OF Chile Page 37

§ I. Development and Evolution of Savings Banks, page 33. — § 2. The Activity
and the Different Services of the Banks, page 40. — § 3. Measures favouring the
Working Class in Towns and in the Country, page 42. ^ — § 4. New Services of the
Banks organized in accordance with the Resolution of the First Thrift Conference,
page 45.

Uruguay.

Mortgage insurance Page 50

§ I. Preliminary Remarks, page 50. — § 2. Terms of Insurance, page 51.

PART III : CREDIT.

United vStates.

Federal Banks and Financial Organization Page 55

§ I . General View of the Development of the Financial System of the United
States, page 56. — § 2 . The Causes of the Reform of 1915, page 59. — § 3. The
Federal Reserve Banks, page 64. — § 5. Modifications under the Act of 1916,
page 68.

MiscEi,i.ANEous Information rei<ating to Credit in Various
Countries

Canada : The Application of the Agricultural Act in British Columbia, page 70.
Egypt : The Operations of the Eand Bank of Egypt in 1916, page 73.
United States : i) Determination of Federal I<and Bank Distiicts, page 75.

2) The Subscription of the Capital of the Federal I<and Banks, page 76.

PART IV : AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.
Germany.

The Subdivision of I,and in Old Bavaria Page

CONTENTS

Austria.

Some Agricultur.4l Problems in Dalmatia Page 84

§ I. Agricultural Area and Improvements, page 84.- — § 2. The Distribution of
lyanded Property, page 85. — § 3. The Farming Contract, page 87. — § 4. Dis-
tribution of Commimal I^anded Property, page 88. — § 5. Redivision, page 89.

United States.

Farm Tenancy in the United States by Prof. Benjamin H. Hibbard, University of

Wisconsifi Page go

Introduction, page 90. — § i. I^ength of Tenancies, page 93. — § 2. Speculation
and Tenancy, page 93. — § 3. Tenancy and Types of Agriculture, page 94. —
§ 4. Relation of Tenancy to Permanent Agriculture, pag. 96.
§5. Tenancy and Marketing Problems, page 97. — §6. The Outlook, page 98.

MiscEiyi^ANEous Information rei^ating to Agricuwurai, Economy in

GENERAI, Page 100

Australia : l^and Settlement in 1915-1916, page 100.

British India : The Colonization of Canal l<ands in the Punjab, page loi.

British West Indies : The Progress of l,and Settlement in Grenada, page 103.

France : Agricultural Wages during the War, page 104.

Great Britain and Ireland : Women Workers on the Faim, page 106.

It.aly : i) Institution of a National l^abour Exchange, page 108.

2) A General Commissariat for Food Consumption, page 109.

3) The Protection given by the Province of Florence to the Orphans of Peasants
killed during the War, page 110.

4) A Provincial I<abour Office at Rome, 112.
Russia : i) Government Aid to Home Industry, page 112.

2) The Settlement of Kirghiz Nomads on the Steppes of Turkestan, page 114.
Sweden : The Agricultural I,abour Supply in 191 5, page 115.
United States : I^and Settlement in California, page 118.

Part I : Co-operation and Association

BRITISH INDIA.

PROGRESS OF AGRICUIvTURAL CO-OPERATION
IN 1914-1915.

SOURCE :
The Madras Bulletin of Cooperation, Vol. VII, No. 2, Madras, December 191 5.

§ I. Bengal.

The general progress of co-operative societies in Bengal may be ga-
thered from the following statement :

Class of Societies

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Working Capital

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

Cerftral Societies . .

Agricultural societies

Non-agricultural so-
cieties

40
1.543

78

46
1,862

84

4.729
71,282

14.317

5,061

85,717

16,340

Rs. (I)

32,53.550
44.11.493

12,74,222

Rs.

40.93.136
52,95,099

16,13,382

Total . . .

1,661

1,992

90,328

107,118

89,38,265

110,91,617

(i) I rupee = is. ^d.

Central Societies. — At the end of the year 1914-1915 thefe were tliirty-
eight central banks and eight supervising unions in Bengal. The share
capital of the central banks had increa.sed from Rs. 383,555 to Rs. 4,89,548
and their reserve fund from Rs. 35,658 to Rs. 75,072. The combined

BRITISH INDIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

share capital plus the reserve fund formed 13 per cent. M the total liabili-
ties. The banks had taken up the supervision and control of the affiliated
societies, granting loans to societies at rates ranging from 9 ^/g to 10 ^^/^s
per cent.

Agricultural Societies. — 1,582 out of 1,862 agricultural societies
were afifiUated to central banks at the end of 1914-1915. The share capi-
tal of the societies had decreased from Rs. 57,564 to Rs. 50,482, but their
number, membership and capital had all risen by 20 per cent. The ave-
rage membership of a society was 46.03 as in the previous 3^ear and the
average capital Rs. 2,843.76. The average capital per member was Rs.
61.77. Grain banks and stores were working less successfully than pre-
viously. The Decca Co-operative Dairy was working satisfactorily and had
realized a net profit on the supply of milk of Rs. 414-9-9 in the year. A
society had been stared in Mymensingh for suppling bonemeal and potato
seed through the agency of societies in that locality. Another supply
society had been organized at Khelar to deal in ghee, mustard oil, dhutis
and chadars.

Audit and Inspection. — Auditing and inspecting are done by the
Registrar and his staff. The staff working under the control of central
banks and local organizers but paid by the government numbered twenty-
four at the end of 1914-1915. The central banks maintained a staff for
the supervision of societies affiliated to them.

§ 2. Burma.

The following table shows the general progress of Burmese co-opera-
tive societies in 1913-1914 and 1914-1915.

No. of

Societies

No. of Members

Working Capital

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

Rs.

Rs.

Central societies . .

96

117

2,748

3,162

26,57,113

34,34Ti33

Agricultural societies

1,214

1,329

29,889

32,375

32,65,893

41,62,560

Non-agricultural so-

cieties

49

43

3,414

3,574

6,14,107

9,03.119

Total . . .

1,359

1.489

36,051

39,111

65,37,113

81,99,812

Central Societies. — There were in Burma at the end of 1914-1915 one
provincial bank — the Upper Burma Central Bank — three district cen-
tral banks and 112 guaranteeing tmions. Afliliated societies had a major-
it}' of shares and a yet more pronounced majority of votes in the provin-
cial bank. This bank paid 6 ^/^ per cent, interest on deposits received

PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION

and lent at 9 per cent, to societies, which in turn lent to their members at 15
per cent., thus leaving a broad margin. The district central banks were
dependent to a large extent on the provincial bank, wliich supported them
with cash credit from time to time. Unions had increased from ninety-
two to 112, partly because .six large unions had split into two, three or
even four. The unions comprised 1,117 o^'''t of a total of 1,252 societies.

Agricultural Societies. — Of the 1,252 societies 606 were of the
lyUzzatti and 646 of the Raiffeisen type. Their total share capital was 7
lacs (i) and their reserve funds amounted to about 6 V2 ^^'^s. These two
items were respectively equivalent to 45 per cent, and 33 per cent, of the
societies' total liabilities. The model by-laws were being amended in order
that the general meeting might fix the maximum borrowing power of a
society and the maximum normal credit it could grant to a member. The
average membership of a society was twenty-seven and the average loan
per member Rs 136. On three tracts of land co-operation went hand in
hand with colonization, namely the Mon Canal Tract, the Mohnyin Valley
and the Kadonbaw Tract. The main features of the colonizing scheme
were that an area was let to co-operative societies formed of cultivators
migrating to it. and not granted .or let to individuals, and that such socie-
ties were based on co-partnership tenancy and had no capital, but bor-
rowed money from government as an agricultural advance. Cattle insur-
ance societies had increased by four and sale societies decreased by
forty-nine.

Audit and Inspection. — There was a proposal to separate adminis-
trative from auditing work in order to prevent the overlapping of respon-
sibility, appointing an auditor on a salary of from Rs. 70 to Rs. 120 for
every himdred societies and obtaining funds b}' let^ying an auditing fee.
Supervision was also to be undertaken by anion officials and honorary
organizers.

§ 3. The united province of agra and oudh.

The following table shows the progress of co-operation in 1914-1915
as compared with the previous year :

Class of Society

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Working Capital

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

Rs.

Rs.

Central societies. . .

55

58

12,959

11,250

59,09,745

62,99,749

Agricultural societies.

2,560

2,716

99,891

101,753

50,71,014

49,88,282

Non-agricultural so-

cieties

185

188

5,755

6,270

4.37.428

4,61,113

Total . . .

2,800

2,962

118,605

119,273

114,18,187

117,49.144

(1) T lac = Rs. 1,00,000.

BRITISH INDIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Central Societies. — There were at the end of the year 1914-1915
twenty-three district banks, twenty-four central banks and eleven cen-
tral banking unions. Of the thirty-five central banks and banking unions
twenty-six were affiliated to a larger central bank which financed and
super\dsed them while the other nine worked independentl}'. The
rapid increase shown in the previous year in the working capital had not
been maintained, chiefly owing to the war and the poor autumn harv^est.
The paid-up capital had increased from Rs. 6,30,631 to Rs. 7,56,147 and
the reserve funds from Rs. 3,11,477 to Rs. 3,86,449, which two sums
formed 18. i per cent, of the working capital as compared with 15.9 per
cent, in the previous year. The share capital and reserve funds were
together equivalent to 26.8 per cent, of the amount of deposits and loans
received by the banks. Reserve funds were being invested outside the
banks. The total profit of the banks amounted to Rs. 1,51,517.

Agricultural Societies. — In spite of the war and the disappointing
agricultural conditions the capital contributed by members as share capi-
tal, reserv'C funds, etc. was equivalent in 1914-1915 to 26 per cent., of the
total working capital, as against 17.5 per cent, and 19.2 per cent., respec-
tively, in the two previous years. The rate of interest paid by members
covered the cost of supervision and auditing and some miscellaneous ex-
penses. It was 15 or 15 ^/g per cent, whereas most central societies
charged 12 per cent.

Audit, Inspection and Staff. —•Auditing was done by government
inspectors, specially trained professional auditors, whole-time auditors
maintained by the central banks but controlled by the Registrar, honorar>"
workers, and the paid staff of the central banks. All the central banks
were frequently inspected by the Registrar and his staff.

§ 4. The CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BERAR.

The progress of the co-operative movement in the Central Provinces
and Berar is seen from the following statement :

Class of Society

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Workin

? Capital

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-191+

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-1915

Central societies. . .

Agricultural societies

Non-agricultural so-
cieties

38
2,087

88

46

2,158

93

6,131
34.313

1.778

7.074
37.053

2,023

Rs.

38,37.4"
25,76,238

96,284

Rs.

43,22,056
28,21,670

1.17,595

Total . . .

2,213

2,297

42,222

46,150

65,09,933

72,61,321

PROGRESS OF AGRICUI^TURAI, CO-OPERATION

Central Societies. — On 30 June 1915 there were one provincial
bank, twenty-nine central banks, fifteen agricultural unions and one Cen-
tral Provinces Union of Co-operative Banks. The working capital of
the pro\dncial bank had increased from Rs. 12, 22, 450 to Rs. 13,44,315
and the deposits from Rs. 5,35,933 to Rs. 9,(86,796. The working capi-
tal of the central banks had risen from Rs. 25,86,613 to Rs. 28,37,460, of
which latter sum the share capital formed 21 per cent., deposits by members
13 per cent., local deposits by non- members 27 per cent., and loans from
the provincial bank 37 per cent. The interest charged by the central
banks on loans was generally 9 per cent, while they paid 6 per cent, on de-
posits. The provincial bank lent money to societies at 7 per cent, and
paid 5 per cent, interest on deposits. The Central Provinces Union of Co-
operative Banks had continued to give valuable help to the Registrar in
securing unity of aim and effort. Its total income for the year was
Rs. 50,411. Failures of crops led to numerous renewals of loans.

Agricultural Societies. — The number of agricultural credit societies
based on unlimited liability rose from 2,083 to 2,154— 127 being newly re-
gistered in 1914-1915. 2,013 societies had been affihated to central banks
on 30 June 1915. Two cattle-breeding societies were working satisfac-
torily, one at Nawagaon and one at Khandwa.

Audit and Inspection. — The societies were inspected and their books
audited by the Registrar, his assistant, the chief auditor and his staff.
Considerable work of this sort was done by the Union.

§ 5. Ajmer-Merwara.

The following statement shows the comparative progress of co-operation
in Ajmer-Merwara in 1913-1914 and 1914-1915.

Class of Society

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Working Capital

1913-1914

1914-1915

1913-1914

1914-19x5

1913-1914

1914-1915

Central societies. . .

Agricultural societies.

Non-agricultural so-
cieties

5
352

5
355

774
10,387

841
11,264

Rs.

7,50,322
7,35,509

Rs.

8,15,242
7,03,016

Total . . .

357

360

11,161

12,105

14.85.831

15,18,258

Central Societies. — There were five central banking unions in 1914-
1915 as in 1913-1914. Ax the end of the former year 344 societies had
been affiliated to the banking unions and were financed by them, the
rate of interest charged being 10 per cent. The net profit of the banks

BRITISH INDIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

was Rs. 21,885 ^s againt Rs. 23,026 in the previous year. The reserve
fund amounted to Rs. 14,320 as against Rs. 7,373 in 1913-1914.

Agricultural Societies. — In 1914-1915 only three societies were re-
gistered, two in the Ajmer district and one in Berar. The share capital
of the agricultural societies rose from Rs. 1,23,039 to Rs. 1,68,809, and
government loans decreased from Rs. 31,667 to Rs. 21,067.

The societies generally utilized their reserve funds themselves.
Auditing and inspecting were done by the Registrar and his staff.

§ 6. COORG.

No new credit societj' was registered in 1914-1915. The amount of
working capital rose from Rs. 1,06,020 to Rs. 1,15,400 and the reserve fund
from Rs. 18,106 to Rs 23,514. The number of cattle insurance societies
increased from nine to ten; 434 heads of cattle were insured ; and the reserve
fund of the insurance societies rose from Rs. 188 to Rs. 590.

Nine co-operative credit societies resolved in 1914-1915 that the divi-
dend due to shareholders should thenceforth be employed on insuring
their cattle. The grain bank worked satisfactoril}^ and its profit for the
year was Rs. 594-12-5. The repa^-ment of loans was not encouraging, the
loans outstanding at the 3'ear's end being" 12 per cent of their total amount
as against 6 y^ per cent, in the previous year. The societies charged in-
terest at the rate of 12 i^ per cent on their loans and paid from 5 to 6 ^
per cent, on the money they borrowed.

The committee and controllers managed the societies satisfactorily
All accounts were audited by the registrar personally.

ITALY.

COI^IvRCTIVE DAIRIES.

•SOURCES :

Camparini (I,ui.gi) and Ruscelt.oni (Alfredo) : Manuale per le latterie. Appunti di legislazione,
amministrazione, contabilita {Dairy Manual. Notes on legislation, administration, and book
keeping) Published by the " Unione Nazionale delle I<atterie sociali e cooperative". Reg-
gio d'Emilia, Typ. R. Bondavilli, 1913.

Cerlini (A.) : l,a cooperazione casearia italiana {Italian Co-operative Cheesemaking) in " Gior-
nale di Agricoltuia della Domenica ". Special number on cheesemaking, No. 7, Piacenza,
14 February igi.v

Bassi (Dr. Ercole) : I,e latterie sociali in Italia {Collective Dairies in Italy). Milan, Casa editrice
Giacomo Agnelli, 1910.

Bernini (Dr. Professor Ottormo) : Manuale per le piccole latterie cooperative {Manual for
Small Co-operative Dairies). Mantua, Typ. A. Mondavi, 1914.

MoNTANABi (Dr. P.) : Associazioni per la stagionatura e lo sniercio dei prodotti caseari (Associa-
tion for Maturing and Selling the Products of Cheesemaking). Reggio d'Emilia, Cooperativa
lavoranti tipografi, 1912.

NiCCOLi (Prof. V.) Cooperative rurali (Rural Co-operative Societies). Milan, U. Hoepli, 1909.

Reggiani (E.) : I<a produzione del latte e le latterie sociali co-operative {Milk Production and
Co-operative Collective Dairies). Milan, U. Hoepli, 1908.

NoTiziE SULLA SocietA anonima Co-operativa l.^tteria So'R'E'Sii^'ESv: {Information as to the Co-
operative Dairy having Limited Laibility at Soresina) . Published on the occasion of the fourth
national congress of collective dairies at Cremona ^6,1- and 18 September, igi2. Soresina,
Mariani Brothers, 1912.

Unione nazion.\le delle latterie sociali e co-operative {National Union of C'Hective and
Co-opetative Dairies). Report on the moral activity of the union in roi.'^- Reggio d'Emilia,
Cooperativa fra lavoranti tipografi ed affini, 191 6.

The collective dairies are among the most noteworthy and happiest
manifestations of the co-operative movement. If indeed there is an agricul-
tural industry which can profit by co-operation — both in point of technique
and in point of economy — it is the cheesemaking industry ; and this fact
explains the rapid and admirable development of collective dairies
throughout most of Italy.

In Italy the}" have an ancient tradition for in their earliest form the}'
date back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries . This form was one

ITAI^Y - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

of spontaneous co-operation, resulting on the necessity of using milk in-
dustrially. The collective organizations appeared in the mountains where
society is most divided and combination is necessary to profit. They are
first found in Agordino and Friulia ; then gradually they spread over the
whole Alpine chain, penetrating into the provinces of Sondrio, Como, Bre-
scia, Novara and Turin ; they extended into the plain, to Treviso, Vicenza,
Reggio d'^Emilia and Parma ; and finally, little by httle, they conquered, as
we shall see, almost all the northern regions.

§ I. The VARIOUS FORMS OF COI,I,ECTIVE DAIRIES.

Historically collective dairies have three different forms. The first
and most rudimentary of these involved the reciprocal lending of milk on a
system by which families took turns (i). Some small producers of milk
combined and mutually lent each other milk in an order previously estab-
lished in order that each might treat a larger quantity at one time. Thus the
loss was avoided which results on the daily handhng of small quantities insuf-
ficient to allow of the production of good cheese, or on too long preserva-
ation of milk with a view to accumulating a certain quantity of it. The
milk was treated successively in the house of every member. The member
whose turn it was provided premises, labour, implements, combustibles,
rennet, etc., and then deducted a certain quantity of the product, in addi-
tion to that derived from his own milk, as compensation for his work ; or,
more commonly, he was in the position of having previously supphed
his fellow- members with as much milk as he received on the day or days
on which his own turn fell, and therefore appropriated the whole product.

It is however easy to see that the draw-backs to this system were
not few. Above all it obliged each member to have premises and imple-
ments sufficient to treat all the milk produced by the society. »Secondly
the products could not be uniform but were affected by the greater or less
skill of whoever manipulated them. Thirdly milk was collected for the
profit of different individuals at different seasons, and the return obtained
by individuals therefore varied markedly. These drawbacks suggested a
better S3^stem wliich is still extensively followed, especially in the Alpine
districts. By this each member to whom the products come in turn sup-
plies the wood, rennet and salt ; but, in distinction to the plan followed
under the earlier system, the milk is treated on premises and with imple-
ments and utensils held in common, under the direction of an expert in
cheesemaking chosen by the society.

However under this system also, although in less measure, each mem-
ber gains or loses according to whether his turn falls in more or less pro-
pitious seasons and the treatment of the milk is consequently more or less

(i) This form still exists to a limited extent in some districts but it is destined to disappear
completely.

COLLECTIVE DAIRIES

good. These dairies tend therefore to be transformed and to be organized
industrial!}'. The transformation is usually spontaneous for these soci-
eties already possess the elements from which a modern co-operative dairy,
the third form of collective dairy, can be born. This third form has the
following characteristics : milk is treated in common with implements and
means owned in common by a single cheesemaker to whom the handling
of the products is entrusted ; and the products, instead of being shared
in kind, are — since turns have been eliminated — preserved on the soci-
ety's premises and sold on the societ3^'s behalf to members or others. The
members share the products of sales proportionately to the milk they have
supplied and similarly bear the costs of the enterprise. They have a di-
rect interest in the realization of profits and are therefore bound to watch
the conduct of the enterprise.

It should be noted further that a collective dair^^ sometimes arises
from a union of small inilk producers to whom association is a technical
necessity, and sometimes from a union of medium or large producers for
whom it is merely a means of obtaining larger profits. In both cases some
societies apph' co-operative principles in their integrity, so that there are
no members who do not furnish milk, while in others co-operative princi-
ples are attenuated so that members who are only capitalists are admitted.

As regards their form, collective dairies in Italy are for the most part
still free. If they are legally constituted their form is generally that of
limited liabiUty co-operative societies and they have a share-capital subscrib-
ed by the producers of milk themselves. They also undertake the sale
of products. The installation of premises for the treatment of milk is
accomplished, and necessary material obtained, by borrowing from finan-
cial societies or capitalists. The members furnish the milk, as to the
amount of which they agree, settlement for any balance furnished being made
at the end of the year. Profits are distributed in proportion to the amount
of milk supplied, after a part has been deducted to form the share-capital
and the reserve and to amortize the costs of installation. The society is
directed by an administrative council constituted by a group of members
whose task it is to superintend the technical and economic progress of the
business.

§ 2. Data akd information as to collective dairiics in italy.

In the first place how many collective dairies are there in Italy ? What
is the number of their members and how nmch milk do they treat
altogether ? We are not in a position to answer these questions exactly
for there are no reliable statistics as to these organizations.

According to the data of the Unione nazionale delle lattene sociali, there
are 1,123 of these dairies, distributed as follows: Venetia455, Piedmont 358,
lyombardy 219, EmiUa 73, Liguria 6, Central and Southern Italy and the

10 ITALY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

islands 12 (i). There is information dating from 1915 as to co-operative
cheesemaking in the districts of Ital}', and this we will briefly notice.

Beginning with the north we find collective dairies vers- common in
fertile Piedmont. There are more than 200 of them in the district of Aosta.
These are very small dairies formed b}- small farmers of the district in which
fontina is made. They undertake merely the conversion of the milk, the
local dealers undertaking the ripening of the cheese. The latter centra-
lize the entire production, a large part of the product being exported. In
the province of Cuneo there are seven dairies, some of them very impor-
tant. The province of Alexandria has only two of them, but in the district
of Novara there are about fort}^ most of which manufacture gorgonzola.

In Liguria there are also some collective dairies, those of Masone and
Campoligure having a certain importance.

In Lombard}^ in the region of Pavia and Milan, the few large dairies
which exist have been let to individuals, but in Sondrio their number
reaches sevent^'-six. In Valtellina there is a much developed cheesemaking
industry, practised by numerous small collective dairies, generally of the
primitive family type. Cheesemaking is practised b}^ the dairies in winter
from October to April- June, general!}' ceasing in April or May when the
cattle go to the Ma}" pastures, to consume the forage and afterwards to
pass on to the Alps. While the cattle are on these pastures the farmers
themselves treat the milk, combined in sm.all groups of five or six families
who lend it to each other. Thej' collectively transform it into cheese,
taking shorter or longer turns according to the quantity supplied. In all
fhe dairies of the province butter and cheese made v/ithout cream are ma-
nufactured almost exclusivel3^ In the spring cheese made partly or wholly
with cream is manufactured. Only the dain,- of Bormio, one of the most
notable in the province, produces cheese of the Ermenthal type.

The province of Como has also a large number of collective dairies.
The last statistics show that there are more than thirty of them and that
they are spreading rapidly, especiall}^ in the district of Lecco.

The province of Cremona includes nine of these dairies. Except one
at Casalmaggiore, which is small, they are very important and they are
managed by the modern methods followed in large dairies. They include
the famous dair>' of Soresina, the largest in Itah', to which we will devote
a special paragraph.

The co-operative dairies in the province of Brescia number more than
fifty ; those in the province of Bergamo more than thirty (2). In the lat-

(i) These data are approximate, it being in practice difficult to establish precise statistics
for these societies, especially such of them as are virtuallj- constituted but are often at
work only for a few months, according to the district in which they are situated, dissolving
at the end of this period and subsequently reconstituting themselves after a short inter\-al.

(2) Detailed information as to the collective dairies of lyomliardy will be found in the report
of the jury for the prize competition opened in 1 9 1 4 by the Societd agraria di Lombardia for dairies
founded in this region before 191 3 and dealing with an average quantity of no more than
15 quintals (i quintal = 220 lbs.) of milk. Twenty-one societies took part in this competition.

COLI^ECTIVE DAIRIES II

ter province the dairies have united in a federation with the object of sell-
ing in common butter produced in excess of local needs, in order to obtain
higher prices by making collective offers. In the province of Mantua the
societies for the sale of milk have also united in a federation which is at-
tached to the agricultural union of Ouistello. They are foimd extensively.

In Venetia co-operative cheesemaking is commonest in \'icenza (for-
ty-two dairies) and Treviso (twenty-one dairies). Among these dairies
one is very important, that at Soligo which has establishments at Soligo,
Pieve de Soligo and Colle San Martino. In the province of Udine no count
can now be kept of the dairies : every village has its collective cheese-fac-
tory — there are more than 300 of them. In the region of Eelluna there
are as many as 160 of these dairies. The first federation of co-operative
dairies was founded in this province and has premises at Agordo. Its
object is the sale of butter produced by adherent organizations, and it still
exists and is working magnificently.

In Emilia some ten dairies are found in the province of Parma — most
of them let to business men ; there are twenty co-operative dairies in the
province of Reggio (i) and four in that of Bologna.

In southern and central Italy there are very few of these cheesemaking
industries (2). In Sardinia there is only the dairy of Bortigalli. Hence
it is necessary to intensify the propaganda for the formation of these co-
operative societies in the southern provinces and the islands.

Co-operative organizations have also been formed to provide milk
for the large urban centres, and are constituted by producers, an exception
being the Cooperative del lattc of Milan which is a mixed association of con-

From the report (BollMino deW Agricoltiira,nos. 31 and 32, Milan, 31 July and 7 August 1914)
we learn that most of them were of recent foundation. We note however that a few were older,
like those of Morbegno, Ponte and Tirano which have existed for more than thirty years. All
are co-operative societies except that at Casto which follows the systems of manufacture
by turns, and that at Tirano which follows two systems, that of co-operation and that of manu-
facture by turns. All but three have merely a constitution de facto. The building belongs to
the society at Gordona (50,000 liras), at Morbegno (18,000 liras) etc. The quantity of milk
contributed varies from ontf quintal a day (Valmores) to 1 2 quintals (EUo) . This milk is treated
by experts who oftcAi have a diploma for special courses in cheesemaking. The machines and
implements are those ordinarily foimd and form in many cases a very modest equipment ; in
some they are hired or let by the members. The machines are worked by hand or electricity.
The book-keeping of many dairies is excellent, being simple and complete ; but m some cases
it is insufficient, the defect being rather personal than one of method.

(i) For the organization of cheesemaking in the province of Reggio Emilia see " I^'industria
casearia nella provinda di Reggio Emilia. Quadri statistid con note illustrative (The Cheese-
making Industry in the Promnce of Reggio Emilia. Statistical Tables with Explanatory Notes),
Prof. Cav. Giuseppe F.^scetti . Published by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Reggio
EmDia. Typ. Bondavilli, 191 5.

N (2) Recently the Latteria sociale camerine'ie was constituted at Camerino. Its object is to
supply the population with a wholesome and pure product, inspected by the Office of Ilvgiene,
and to intensity milk production in order that it may keep pace with the demand for dair>'
produce.

12 ITALY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

stimers and producers. We should note the co-operative societies of milk
producers of Brescia, Tortona, Rome and Turin, as well as that of Milan
which we have just cited. In Genoa there is an agriciiltural consortium (i)
which provides the town with the milk it receives from agricultural
members. The service for selling the milk is admirabl}' organized b}^ the
consortium. The experiment ma}- be called the largest and best of its
kind hitherto made in the country.

Most Italian collective dairies, like those of which we have spoken,
are on the system of manufacture b}' turns, which is still the commonest,
but they are gradually being replaced by co-operative dairies having a
small production. "The dair}- of primitive form, working on the system of
turns ", says Cerlini in the study we have cited, " should succeed in meet-
ing better the fresh needs which follow on the change from this to the co-
operative form, as gradually the agricultural conditions of the districts
in which it is situated are transformed b}' new systems of agriculture and
intensified production, and as zootechnical conditions are modified by an
improvement in cattle-breeding aimed at increasing the yield of milk. It
is not only the conversion of the milk and the distribution of the product
which is now desired : a larger quantity' of milk is used in the dair^^ and
consequenth' its conversion results in a larger quantity- of dairy products,
which therefore have to be sold to outsiders so that the milk realizes a price
paid to the members no longer in cheese but in cash ".

Dairies of the average tj'pe are found more or less everj^where in Upper
Italy, from Friulia to the valley of Aosta in Upper Ivombardy and Emilia :
on an average from three to six thousand quintals of milk are treated in
them annually, on well arranged special premises, supplied with modern
implements and utensils, in which scientific methods are followed.

In the region of Emilia, which is that in which co-operative dairies of
the modern type are most extensively found, and especiall}^ in the district
of Reggio, dairies treating large quantities of milk are also found. For
example in 191 3 the dairy of IMassenzatico treated 6,993 quintals of milk.
In eight years it has been possible to obtain results allowing of production
on this scale, although at first only 3,425 quintals were treated. Other
dairies of the average type are found in the provinces of Reggio, Modena
and Parma. In the provinces of Vicenza, Treviso and Udine, in the dis-
trict of Novara and in Upper Piedmont organizations of the average type
are also found, scattered here and there among innumerable very small
dairies.

§ 3. A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF CO-OPERATIVK CHEESEMAKING.

Such an example is provided by the Latteria Sociale Cooperativa di
Soresina in the province of Cremona. This societj' has incontestably one

(i) See in this connection Monthly Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence, December
I9i5,pagc33," The Organization of the Agricultural Consortium of Genoa for the Sale of INIilk".

COLI<ECTIVE DAIRIES 1 3

of the largest cheesemaking establishments in Europe. Its organization
is excellent ; its working and the quality' of its products, a large part of
which it exports, might furnish a model to many countries in which the
dair\' industry is developed. It was founded in 1900, thanks to the action
of a great agriculturist, a true pioneer of agricultural co-operation — the
engineer Antonio Landrini who died some years ago.

Having constituted itself in the form of a limited liability co-oper-
ative society, it proposed to set up one or more cheese-factories in which
to treat by perfected methods the milk derived from the farms of members,
and to sell the products in common. It also proposed to buy and sell
other merchandise and practise certain agricultural industries. To ensure
, its existence it included two fundamental obligations in its by-laws : milk-
producing members nmst deliver the milk emanating from the land they
cultivate, the portion intended for the consumption of their famihes being
deducted, for thirty successive years ; landowning members or non-produ-
cers must oblige their farmers to become milk-supplying members. Parti-
cular provisions regulate the purchase of shares.

The dairy began to work on 11 November 1900, when it had 91 mem-
bers who had subscribed 2,913 shares of 50 liras (i) each and who furnish-
ed about 150 quintals of milk a day. They had then paid up only half
the value of the shares : the remainder was deducted from the profits real-
ized on the dairy products in the first year.

In 1900 the capital in shares amounted to 71,025 liras and the reserve
fund to 665 liras. The building of the .society's premises had entailed an
expense of 83,324 liras and the implements and utensils cost 87,990 liras.

In November 1901 the capital in shares amounted to 159,600 liras and
the reserve fund to 25,247 liras ; in 1902 they had increased, respectively,
to 191,350 liras, and 72,729 liras, and at the end of only a few years, in No-
vember 1908, to 208,100 Hras and 210,591 liras. The large sums paid into
the reserve allowed the repayment of the capital shares, for which the
by-laws provided, to be begun. This repayment could be effected wholly
in 1909. The number of members increased equally, passing from loi in
1900 to 153 in 1908, 171 in 1912 and about 300 in 1916.

While the administration of the dairy obtained these results its tech-
nique was also perfected ; so that while at first it could treat only 150 quin-
tals a day, it could finally treat on an average 500 quintals emanating
from within a radius of 10 kilometres (2). It produced at first 184,382
liras' worth of butter and 407,869 liras' worth (Si cheese, but in 1915 these
respective values were 550,000 liras and 1,570,000 hras. The society

(i) I lira = 9 '^ d at par.

(2) I kilometre = 1093.633 yards. The dairj' transports the milk from the farms to its
premises by means of 50 carts which it owns. During the hot months the milk is chilled at the
place of production by apparatus provided by the society. It reaches the dtiiry having a tem-
perature of from 25 to 26° centigrade.

14 ITAIvY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

manufactures daily about four quintals of whey butter and six quintals of
butter made from the complete milk and more than 500 cheeses.

The work being so much, it is not surprising that the dairy has a nu-
merous staff, one namely of about two hundred. The number varies with
the work as this is influenced by the market. In each season the staff
must be proportionate to the needs of manufacture. There are however
certain employees who are more stably employed and have even an interest
in the profits.

At the head of the dairy there is a manager, and at the head of the^fac-
tories of various kinds there are experts — Swiss for the Ermenthal, Fri-
bourg and Sbrinz factories ; workmen from the Lodi district for the but-
termaking ; southerners for making the cheeses in demand in the south.

Since the quantity of milk treated has, as has been said, gradually
passed from 150 to 500 quintals a day, it is clear that the dairy has develop-
ed considerably. It is now supplied with all the most modern cheese-
making machinery.

The society's buildings comprise several large halls. One for wash-
ing and sterilizing the cans, which measures about 130 square metres (i)
and holds 1,500 cans, is provided with a special mechanism which allows
125 of them to be washed in an hour.

The next in importance is the cheesemaking hall, which contains
sixteen boilers having a capacity of 15 hectolitres (2) each. Then there
is the buttermaking hall, and there are a large number of spacious rooms
in which lactose is prepared, and others used for the preparation of condensed
milk and sterilized milk, a recent enterprise.

The attention of visitors is more attracted by the storehouses for
the preservation of cheese. There are six of these; three underground,
measure altogether 235 metres (3) in length, from 4 to 6 in height and
6 to II in width ; and three above stairs measure 6 to 11 metres in width
and 3.5 to 6 in height. These storehouses contain 30,000 Swiss cheeses
and aboiit 130,000 Roman pecorino cheeses.

In view of the importance of the process to wliich the milk is subjected
the dairy is obliged to employ considerable motive power. It has six en-
gines : two worked by steam, the combined force of which is about 75 horse-
power, and four electric engines having a total force of more than 100
horse-power, as well as four steam boilers of 300 horse-power. The dair}'
sells and exports most of its products directly. Retail selling is specialh'
limited to cover only the needs of members and the provisioning of neigh-
bouring middlemen (4).

(i) I sqtiare metre = 1. 196 square yards.

(2) I hectolitre =- 22 gallons.

(3) I metre = 1.094 yards.

(4) The dairy of Soresina is a centre which imites all the farmers of the district. It helps them
in that it encourages among them various forms of initiative tending to the progress of agricul-
ture. In 1903 it became a branch of the co-operative agricultural consortium of the province
of Cremona. It buys on behalf of its members the coal they need for the engines necessary to

COI,L,ECTIVE DAIRIES 1 5

These large dairies are not however numerous in Italy. Besides a
few others in this same province of Cremona (Piadena, Acquanegra, etc.)
and a few in the Milanese and the province of Treviso, the only types fotind
are those of the dairy of average importance and the small co-operative
cheese-factory (i).

§ 4. Societies for the ripening and the sale of cheese.

In order that the products of the dairy may conquer the markets
they must fulfil certain very definite conditions. As regards cheese, in
order that the various kinds may be commercially recognized, form, weight,
composition and colour and the content of fat must be preserved unchanged.
In order that they may sell well the cheeses must also be well ripened.
But the processes necessary to giving them these necessary qualities
are not always easily practised in isolated collective daries or dairy
farms ; whereas they can be effected profitably by special organizations
(federated dairies) which concentrate the products of members, inspect
and classify them, distribute them in various groups according to their
quality or the needs of the market, undertake the ripening process on suit-
able premises, and sell them at opportune times, etc.

These ideas were first developed at the National Congress of the Milk
Industry at Turin in 1911 (2). Some societies have already attempted
something of the kmd in Italy for the ripem'ng and the sale of the products
of cheesemaking Thus the Societd Caricatori d'Alpi of Morbegno (Son-
drio), constituted with a capital of 17,000 liras, has formed a collective
industry for ripening Bitto cheese. This aims : a) at collecting and preserv-
ing in special storehouses the cheeses produced by members ; h) at faci-
litating their sale ; c) at promoting the granting of advances in cash, at low
rates of interest, by credit institutions to members applying for them,

their threshing and also provides them with the lubricators they use for their agricultural ma-
chines. It has founded a co-operative chemical depot which first provides members with all
the chemicals they need and secondly sells all manner of remedies to the public at low prices. It
has set up essicating ovens for cocoons and grants the use of these to its members in return for
a mere repayment of the expenses it thus incurs. It has organized lectures for the instruction
of employees in members' byres, and it employs inspectors who watch over the production of
the milk, the quality of forage, etc.

(i) In the province of Milan efforts have been made to iustal large dairies, especially in the
lower district (Casalpusterlengo, Melegnano, etc.) and in the district of Pavia (Robbio, Candia,
I/Dmellina), but no good results have been obtained. Initial errors, especially those of too ex-
pensive installations and of the application of mistaken criteria of technique, made important
initiative in favour of the dairy industry m the I<ombard district abortive. Other efforts have
been made in Piedmont, but outside events which cannot be narrated here caused the dairies
which were installed to pass into the hands of business-men and individual capitalists.

(2) See in this connection the report presented to the congress by Dr. P. Montanari which
is cited among the sources of this article.

l6 ITAI,Y - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

the cheese they have deposited being their security ; d) at assisting enter-
prises which aim at the development of the cheesemaking and zootechni-
cal ind^lstr^^

The society proposes to hold an annual exhibition of cheese, and to
pay attention to the improvement of thjis article of diet.

In order to improve the manufacture of dairy products it customarily
holds competitions, to which prizes attach, for producers and cheesema-
kers ; holds courses in cheesemaking ; and organizes cheese exhibitions.

The society's storehouses hold at least 2,500 cheeses. The members
who wish to take advantage of them must make application in writing
and pay a deposit of 5 liras for each group of 50 cheeses, each of which
must bear its owner's stamp. The application must indicate whether the
owner will himself take charge of his product, make some one else do so,
or make the society responsible for it. The society has special tariffs for
storage, and has its own staff who include a director of the storehouse
and a certain number of cheesemakers.

The Societd Viterhese Ovis, for the manufacture of Roman pecorino,
affords another example of bold initiative in the domain of co-operative
cheesemaking.

The large growth of recent j^-ears in the consumption of Roman peco-
rino in Italian and foreign markets has caused a need to be felt for an im-
provement in technique and commercial organization, were it only for the
purpose of protecting the pure product from the unfailing frauds of specu-
lators.

Thus several societies have been formed in Latium and in the Abruzzi
and Sardinia for the exportation of pecorino, and they have special estab-
Ushments for ripening the cheese. The society which has just been
named began its operations by salting the cheese made by the individual
shepherds. It now aims at collecting and treating the milk of members
on its premises in order that a standardized article of good quality may be
placed on the markets. As a guarantee to consumers each cheese is stamped
by heat with the word " romano ".

The " Ovis " society already has man}'- members. It ripens about
3,000 quintals of pecorino which is commercially absolutely uniform and
is sold for prices higher than any previously realized by the members.

In the district of Reggio several attempts have also been made to con-
struct large co-operative storehouses for ripening and selling grawa cheeses,
but hitherto no results have thus been obtained.

In the matter of buttermaking the problem, which is to centralize
production and trade in special co-operative organizations, is certainly
easier, given the greater simplicity of the technique and the rapid sale of
the product.

The Societd Cooperativa delle Latterie Agordine (Belluno) is incontes-
tably the most important example of its kind in Itah^ Another society
having a promising organization is the Federazione delle Latterie Sociali
Bergamsche, founded in 1909, especially with the object of selling on behalf
of its members the butter produced by the federated dairies and not sold

COLI.ECTIVE DAIRIES 17

by them. In 1913-1914 this federation received 6,231 kilogrammes (i)
of butter from its fourteen adherent dairies, and sold this butter at Ber-
gamo, Clusone and Trezzo for 19,731.65 liras. This sum, when 1,236.30
liras had been deducted for costs of transport and packing, postage, etc.,
gave a balance of 18,495.35 liras, that is 2.96 Hras a kilogramme. This
initiative was excellently received not only by the dairies but also by all
the agricultural institutions, the agricultural consortium of Bergamo un-
dertaking the society's book-keeping and treasurership.

§ 5. The national union of collective dairies
and the provincial federations.

With the object of co-ordinating the co-operative movement in Italy,
protecting and assisting collective dairies, promoting their diffusion, and or-
ganizing whatever can be useful to the cheesemaking industry and co-oper-
ation therein, there was formed in 1907 the Unione Nazionale delle Latterie
sociali e cooperative which has its premises at Rome. It groups 294 soci-
eties (2),; and by means of pamphlets of propaganda, other publications and
its official organ, // caseificio nwderno, it seeks to advance among agricul-
turists co-operative principles and all technical and scientific knowledge
which can develop and perfect the scientific technique of cheesemaking.

Among numerous and various forms of activity its organization of or
participation in important congresses should be recalled, among them
those of Reggio Emilia, Piacenza, Udine and Cremona, in which the most
urgent problems of cheesemaking technique and economy were discussed.
We note discussions on: "The exemption from income-tax of the collect-
ive dairies "; "Legislation relative to co-operative societies and especially
dairy societies " ; " Associations of milk producers and cheesemaking
societies " ; " IVIilk contracts and producers' societies " ; " Itinerant in-
structors in cheesemaking and co-operative cheesemaking ";" The collect-
ive sale of the products of cheesemaking ", etc.

Recently the society gave attention to two other questions, the ex-
port of dairy produce and the milk supply of large urban centres. With
regard to the former it took effective action in relation to public author-
ities in order that a limited right of export on stated terms might be grant-
ed in the interest of the cheesemaking industry, and it therefore formed
a special office of commercial information and assistance. With regard
to the second question it placed itself at the disposal of various administra-
tions, offering to siipply them with milk. It began with Rome and obtain-
ed that 25,000 litres (3) of milk should be sent there daily from the large

(i) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

(2) It is calculated that the federated dairy societies comprise about 20,000 agri-
cultimsts and treat more than half a million quintals of milk .

(3) I litre = 0.88 quart.

l8 ITALY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

collective dairy of Soresina of which we have already spoken. The com-
munal administrations of Cremona, ]Milan, Pisa, Reggio Emiha, Taranto,
Florence, Venice, Genoa, etc. were similarly approached.

The union is further in the habit of collaborating in the quarterh^
enquiries, into the conditions of the international market for milk and
dair^' produce, undertaken by the Swiss Peasants' League in the interest of
producers. These enquiries concern the prices curent for forage, and the
production and the prices of milk, cheese, butter, etc., The union collects
the data of this description needed throughout Italy. It employs in conse-
quence more than a hundred correspondents, who are scattered over the
various districts and give information as to conditions in each of these,
which the union resumes and comunicates to those interested and to the
press.

Finally, as a result of the union's encouragement and the initiative
of the itinerant chairs, provincial federations of collective dairies have
been formed and are in course of formation, and they conduct an enterprise
of technical assistance and advice and consultation. We should note in
this connection the Federazione delle Latter ie sociali agordine (Belluno),
the Federazione delle Latterie Bergamasche, the federations of dairies of
the distrct of Reggio, the lower district of Novara and Lomellina and that
of Cremona, and the Federazione delle Latterie now in course of formation.

It is evident that Italian co-operative cheesemaking is being, httle b}'
Httle, organized and completed tinder the impulse and direction given by
the Unione Nazionale delle Latterie Sociali.

RUSSIA.

POPUIvAR CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT FROM 1914 TO 1916.

B'fecTHHK'fc (I>HHaHCOBTj ripoMbimJieHHOCTH H ToproBJiii {Messeni^er of Finances, In-
dustry and Commerce) No. 44, 30 October/12 November 1916. Petrograd.

IIpaBiiTeJibCTBeHHHri: BtCTHiiKt {Government Messenger) No. 273, 21 December 1916-
3 January 1917. Petrograd.

§ I. Institutions of popular credit in general.

Present circumstances have not stopped the development of small
credit in Russia but have merely made it slower. This circumstance may
be said to have favoured establishments of which the previous growth had
been very rapid. Their comparative numerical decrease has been count-
erbalanced b}' a firmer economic position and a more extensive social
influence.

According to the Messenger of Small Credit the.foUowing new establish-
ments were founded between 1914 and 1916 :

Number of
Year Foundations

I914 1,606

1915 956

1916 (i July). 406

The pre\dous average was 2;000. The new foundations were distrib-
uted as follows among the different types of institutions on i January
and I July in each year :

1914 rgij 1916

I II I I.I

January July January July January July

Co-operative credit so-
cieties 9.536 10,401 10,687 11,176 11,412 11,649

Deposit and loan funds 3,479 3,728 3,815 3,983 4,042 4,195

Funds of Zemstvos , 203 215 232 239 248 266

Federations of co-op-
erative credit societies II II II 28 62 84

Total 13,029 14,355 14-745 15426 15,764 16,194

20 RUSSIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The number of the small credit establishments is seen to have passed
between i July 1914 and i July 1916 from 14,355 to 16,194, that is to have
increased by 1,739. The increase of the federations of co-operative cre-
dit societies from eleven to eighty-four should be especially noticed.

§ 2. The co-operative credit societies and the DEPOSIT

AND lyOAN Funds.

a) Number, members and capital in shares.

Of the two types of co-operative societies it is those for credit which
have most increased, in point of number, of their membership and of their
circulating capital. Saving 2.6 per cent, of them which have an urban
character they are situated in the country almost exclusively. On the
other hand almost half the number (44.6 per cent.) of the deposit and loan
funds are in the towns of the south and south-east of Russia.

I July I January i July i January

1914 1915 1915 1916

Number of co-operative societies :

Credit 10,401 10,687 11,176 11,412

Deposit and loan . . 3,728 3,815 3,983 4,042

Total .... * 14,129 14,502 15,159 15,454

Number of members :

Co-operative credit

societies 6,948,000 7,228,000 7,714,000 7,787,000

Savings and loan

funds 2,199,000 2,261,000 2,306,000 2,298,000

Total .... 9,147,000 9,489,000 10,020,000 10,085,000
Circulating capital (in terms of thousands of roubles) :

Co-operative credit

,

societies

428,173

382,335

468,138

452,909

Deposit and loan

funds

344,989

327,712

341,212

330.950

Total .... 773,162 710,047 809,350 783,859

On I July 1916 the institutions for co-operative small credit compris-
ed more than ten milUon members, allowing an average of six persons

POPULAR CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT

21

for each hoiisehold. This is to say that more than a tliird of the whole
Russian population belonged to them.

The membership of each co-operative societj^ increased at the fol-
lowins; average rate :

1912

1913
1914

1915

40

47
46

51

The number of the members of the deposit and loan funds which
reached 595 in 1915 has since been slightly reduced. These funds are less
popular than the co-operative credit societies. The latter included as
their members, in 1912, 47 per cent, of the population within their spheres
of activity, a fraction which has now probably come to be more than
half, whereas the funds grouped only 24 per cent, of the population within
their spheres.

The capital of the co-operative societies was distributed as follows :

I July 1914

I January 1915

I January 1916

Capital :

belonging to them-
selves

belonging to depo-
sitors

belonging to the

State

belonging to the
Zemstvos and others

Total . . .

in terms

of
thousands
of roubles

[in terms

of
thousands
of roubles

%

96,687 12.5

487,508 63.0

148,159 19.2

40,808 5.3

14.0

66.6

99.501
472,862
105,218 15.0

32,464 4.4

in terms

of
thousands
of roubles

110,078

535.372

95.509
42,900

%
154

68.6

12.3

3-7

773,162 100 710,045 ICO 783,859 100

In a certain number of districts the inflow of deposits was so great
that the co-operative societies could not utihze them. Paper and specie
have therefore augmented considerably, their value passing from 86,416,000
loubles to 141,416,000 roubles, that is 20 per cent of the amount on the
balance-sheets.

b) Purchases and sales effected by small credit establishments.

Owing to present circumstances the co-operative societies are under-
taking business usually outside their range of activity or only a very sub-
sidiary part thereof, such as the lending of agricultural machines for the
field work of their members, the lending of seed, the purchase and sale of

22 RUSSIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

the agricultural products and the medicinal plants of their members, and
the purchase of ahmentary products where there are no co-operative con-
sumers' societies or these have insufficient resources. The course of stim-
ulating the activity' of consumers' co-operative societies b}" making loans
to them is however preferred. Thus in May 1915 a ruling allowed co-
operative credit societies to lend 1,000 roubles — or even more in case of
necessity — to co-operative consumers' societies.

In 1915 the following sums, expressed in terms of thousands of rou-
bles, were employed on various purchases :

I January i October

Sums actually paid for purchases:

by co-operative credit societies 7994 ^>959

)) deposit and loan funds 397 828

Total . . . 1,196.4 2,787

Products of sales :

by co-operative credit societies 736 1,886

» deposit and loan funds no 647

Total ... 846 2,533

Merchandise bought •

by co-operative credit societies 9.275 ^5353

» deposit and loan funds 2,683 5,480

Total . . . 11,958 20,833

The enterprises organized b}^ the co-operative societies are, besides
the corn magazines, co-operative mills in Siberia near the stations of l,e-
begia, Cocenovo, etc. Quite recent foundations are those of tileworks in
the government of Kharkov, tanneries, factories for preserving fruit in
Dage.stan province, metallurgical establishments manufacturing the re-
quisites of domestic industry, experiments in realizing the value of peat, etc.

c) Distribution of co-ot>e'rative societies according to regions.

The following table shows the number of co-operative credit soci-
eties and of savings and loan funds in each region and their financial
importance on i October 1915 :

POPULAR CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT

23

a

Q

u

a

t!

C3

V

•a

•s

n

29

II i lit

I tors

<3 iC

o -3 -n

00

0

0

00

00

00

0

m

^

00

u-i

•o

0

r^

fO

00

0

0

o^

U-)

0

fO

<s

ro

N

CO

fO

M

c«

m

C^

1 1^

i 5 5
u ,g ^

24 RUSSIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

111 Transcaucasia popular credit has also begun to develop. There
are there 561 co-operative societies having a total capital of 12.3 milHon
roubles and deposits amounting to 2.2 million roubles. The small credit
establishments operate exclusively with capital belonging to the State
bank, for the Mussulman population is not sufificientl}^ rich to allow an in-
flux of deposits to the co-operative societies. The usefulness of the latter
appears in the educative part they play towards the natives and also in their
beneficent influence in raising the price of costly crops, such as cotton.

The same phenomenon is noticed in Turkestan where the co-oper-
ative societies operate only with State funds, amounting on an average to
70 roubles a member in the co-operative credit societies and 107 roubles
in the deposit and loan funds. In the province of Samarcanda there are
no co-operative credit societies and nine deposit and loan funds, in Fergansk
province 132 co-operatives credit societies and 116 deposit and loan funds.
The population is very honest and very exact in making repayments, but
owing to the religious prohibition to lend at interest co-operative societies
cannot obtain deposits.

§ 3. The FEDERATIONS OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND THE FUNDS
OF THE ZEMSTVOS.

The federations of co-operative societies and the funds of the zemstvos,
the two institutions which unite co-operative societies, materially or mo-
rally, in more or less important groups, have fared dift'erently during the
war. While the funds have grown somewhat more slowly than previously
the federations have had a relatively large increase, especially since August
1915. Their foundation, which once was a very complicated matter and
dependent on the Council of Ministers, has since that date become easier;
and federations may now be formed with the authorization of only the
Minister of Finances. Consequently their number has, as we have seen,
increased from eleven to eightj^-four. In January 1915 the average num-
ber of co-operative societies grouped b}' a federation was 1,322, in July
1916 only 188.

The distribution of federations according to regions is as follows :

Regions Number of federaUons

1. South 15

2. Ivittle Russia 10

3. Industrial 9

4. East 9

5. Central 8

6. Siberia 7

7. ITral 6

8. Caucasus 4

Q. South-West 3

Total ... 71

POPULAR CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT 25

In the other regions the development of federations is for the moment
unimportant.

Government foundation subsidies to the new federations amounted
in 1915 to 80,000 roubles for the federation of Jekaterinburg, 40,000 rou-
bles for that of Uofim, 30,000 roubles for that of Kheadrin and from 5.000
to 20,000 roubles for each of the other federations.

The increase in the sum in the balance-sheet of the ten federations
which existed before the war, between i January 1913 and T Januar^^
1916, shows their development.

Balance-sheet on i Janaury
Federations Year of foundation (in terms of thousands of roubles)

1913 1914 1915 1916

Kiev 1907 1,195-2 2,126.0 3,117.7 3,048.8

Coubanj 1911 286.3 784-2 1,119.4 2,274.5

Tersk 1911 - 378.2 781,7 ■i,.532.9

Jekaterinburg . . . 1907 223.3 384-8 570,4 1,561.8

Jekaterinoslav . . . 1911 79.4 230.6 516,7 745-9

Melitopol 1903 245,5 255.2 422.3 840.3

Nijnij -Novgorod . . 1911 — 190.0 570,2 1,124.1

Berdjansk .... 1901 143-5 ^55-9 284,8 281.7

Zlatooust 1911 31.8 83.7 133,2 349-7

Stavropol 1907 68.9 80.3 130,7 348-4

Total . . . ::^,273.9 4,667.9 7, 747-1 12,108.1

The sum on the balance-sheets of these same federations was
21,510,800 roubles on i April 1916 and that on those of fifty-two feder-
ations was 42,725,400 roubles on i July 1916.

Deposits occupy the first place on the balance-sheet, accounting for
4,521,300 roubles, namely 59 per cent, of the balance-sheet of i January
1915, and for 7,407,000 roubles, namely 61 per cent, of the balance-sheet
of I January 1916, in the case of the ten federations named. The purchase
of merchandise by the federations and the sale of articles produced by
members of the co-operative societies are sufficiently remarkable, as is
seen from the following figures which refer to thousands of roubles :

1916

Debts of federations to suppliers of raerchandisef .

Sales eft"ected

Amount of merchandise bought

175

385

197

494

302

1,026

The mutual relations of the federations begin to develop. Thus se-
ven southern federations have united to form a common selling and buying
office and to bring out a paper, "Southern Co-operation". The feder-
ation of PjatigOYsk has entered into relations with that of Zaritzin and
tho.se of the Caucasus in order to procure wood of good quality. A tendency

2b RUSSIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

is defining itself to form among the federations local units of the same
type, like the Popular Bank of Moscow (i).

The number of the funds of the zemstvos, of which the first was found-
ed in 1907, passed between July 1914 and Jtdy 1916 from 215 to 266,
increasing, that is, by forty-one. The total sum on the balance-sheets
of these funds was one hundred million roubles in July 1915, deposits
amounting to sixty-five million roubles. The very rapid development of
the federations of the co-operative societies and their larger activity has
raised the question of their relations with the funds of the zemstvos and the
definite organization of the latter. Perhaps they will transform themselves
iiito banks of the zemstvos, enlarging the sphere of their activity which
will come to embrace not onl}' small credit but also the more important
forms of agricultural, communal and co-operative credit.

§ 4. Government subsidies to institutions of smai.i, credit.

The chief sources of the government subsidies to small credit institu-
tions are, in the case of short-term loans, the Bank of the Empire, in that
of loans maturing slowly the savings banks (2), especially when the neces-
sary capital has to be obtained for the constitution of small credit estab-
lishments. The sums granted by the government have been of recent
years as follows :

1914 264 million roubles

19^:5 313 » »

and on 8 July 1916 380.9 » »

of which 320 million roubles or about 80 per cent, emanated from the Bank
of the Empire and 60.8 million roubles from the State savings banks.
Small credit institutions do not however exhaust all available credit in the
Bank of the Empire and the savings . banks. The following table shows
the relation existing between the credit granted by the Bank of the Empire
from 1914 to 1916 and the indebtedness to this bank of the small credit
institutions :

Credit granted Indebtedness %

(millions of roubles)

iqi4J October 240 129 53

^ ^ I Decembei 256 94 36

t January. « 260 84 32

i9i5,July 275 151 54

I December 306 75 25

igi6\l^'}''^'y 308 69 23

^ 'July 319 68 21

(i) See our issue Bulletin mensuel des Institutions iconomiques ct Sociales, October
191 2. uLa, Banque Populaire de Moscou et son origine «.

(2) See International Review of Agricultural Economics June 1916, page 24, " Popular
Co-operative Credit " (continued).

POPULAR CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT 27

The savings banks are in the same case. The credit the}' had granted
to small credit institutions amounted on i January 1916 to 143.9 million
roubles, of which sum only 48.2 million roubles — that is 33.5 per cent. —
had been effectively lent to the small credit establishments. The cause
of this state of aft'airs should be sought in the inflow of deposits to the small
credit establishments and the growth of their own resources. It is propos-
ed therefore to allow the funds of the State savings banks to be lent not
only to co-operative societies, as is provided b}^ the law of 21 June 1910,
but also to the zemstvos and to the federations of the co-operative soci-
eties, to be used for long-term agricultural and land credit and for the
building of granaries.

MiSCELIyANEOUS INFORMATION REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASvSOClATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

AUSTRIA.

THE OBJECT AND THE TASK OF THE <■ AXI^GEMEIXE OESTERREICHISCHE VIEH-
VERWERTUNGSGESEIvI<SCHAFT » (General Austrian Society for the Sale of Cattle)
Appendix to the report for 191 5-1 91 6, Vienna 191 6.

The General Austrian Society for the Sale ot Cattle was founded in
1913 on the advice and with the co-operation of the Imperial and Ro^-al
Ministry of Agriculture. Its aims are :

1. The establishment and use of a public market for breeding and
income-producing stock which will be equally accessible to production and
to trade in the kingdoms and provinces represented in the Reichsrat ;

2. The purchase and sale of breeding and income-producing stock
and stock kept for slaughter, on behalf of the society' itself and others ;

3. The acquisition and letting and emplo^'ment of properties,
the fattening of stock and the realization of profits thereon, and the
formation and management of enterprises intended to favour the sale of
live stock — the exigencies of provisioning being always taken into ac-
count fairly.

The chief object of the society is thus to establish business relations
between producers of live stock and those who realize profits on stock on
the one hand, and between butchers and others analogous^ placed and
consumers on the other.

The society's public usefulness is shown by the fact that it takes into
account the wants of all interested persons :

a) In that ever since its foundation it has offered to breeders of live
stock the opportunity to sell their produce as little expensively as possi-
ble, delivering them from the onerous guardianship of a superfluity of
middlemen ;

b) In that it takes common interests into account, participating,
by its inter\'ention in the central market for live stock of St. Marx and the
great market, in providing meat for the town.

The town of \^ienna, numerous agricultural organizations, certain
of the principal corporations, certain agriculturists, the Allgemeine Depo-
sitenhank — such are the organizations which participate in the enterprise
financially. As regards the financial management of its business the by-^

INFORMATION REL,ATING TO CO-OPERATlON AND ASSOCIATION 29

laws establish that the societ3^ is a commercial enterprise which should
fulfil the elementary duty devolving on every such organization, that
namely of meeting its working costs, paying fair interest on its working
capital, and forming certain funds which will allow it to reach as soon as
possible the end it has before itself.

With a view to this end the society undertakes the following business :

1. The sale on commission of live stock for slaughter in Vienna
and other towns of the province ;

2. Trade in live stock for slaughter, on its own account and on the
basis of the business relations already mentioned ;

3. The sale of slaughtered stock and meat in Vienna and the pro-
vinces, on commission and on the society's own account ;

4. The sale of breeding and income- producing stock.

The trade in breeding and income-producing stock, which has existed
since the initiation of the enterprise and has become a special branch of
the society's business, has affected 20,000 heads of stock a year. The
society furnishes an abundant supply of milch-cows from the Alps, Swit-
zerland and Holland to Vienna and other large towns. Fiom most farms
to which it sends milch-cows, stock intended for fattening and traction-
oxen, it receives stock fattened for slaughter. The society has given a
most important place on its future programme to the reorganization of the
\^iennese market by the formation of regular markets for breeding and
income-producing stock.

The live stock market in Vienna is exclusively occupied by butcher's
stock : the cattle brought to it are all without exception slaughtered, whe-
ther the}^ be fitted for the butcher's market or not. Naturall}^ many ani-
mals always enter it which have not reached the right stage for butchery,
and a deplorable state of affairs results.

The society therefore proposes in the interests of all concerned to de-
bar from the slaughterhouse this unfit stock, that is to say to prevent or
at least to reduce irrational slaughtering. Such an end might be reached
by joining to the markets for fat stock conrplementary markets for breed-
ing and income-producing stock. There should be a large weekly market
of the latter kind before that of stock for slaughter, into which beasts un-
ready for immediate slaughter would thus not enter even although economic
or speculative motives caused them to be sent to it. The selection thus
practised would cause those interested to procure and sell in the market
the animals which they raised, fattened, utilized for traction or otherwise,
or which they had bred for these various ends. At the same time a choice
could be made of animals suitable to slaughter or unsuitable to be kept, and
as soon as the first market closed they could be taken to that for butcher's
stock. Thus the latter would secure stock of a very different quality,
suited to the demands of the inspectors of meat and the interests which
ought to be respected. In practice the course of this trade would be such
that most of the animals brought to the market for income-producing stock
would be restored to agriculture and would return to the butchers' market
from three to six months later, when their condition was better suited to

30 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

the end in view. They would have been fed and have gained noticeably in
weight and quality. Thus consumption would not be robbed of this stock
which would on the contrarj^ eventualh^ augment the quantity of meat.
Since the society has already established business relations with large and
small stock keepers, breeders and fatteners in all the provinces, the insti-
tution and organization of such a market as we have described — at Vienna
in the first place — would meet with no insurmountable ol)stacles.

The Society's share in Vienna's provision of meal amounted in its first
year — 1913-1914 — to 5 per cent, of the total suppty and to 13 per cent, at
the end of the second year. The society has already, by this means alone,
acquired on the Viennese market an influence which majHncrease, the more
so because, being constantly superintendend b}^ the government, it can face
extreme fluctuations in prices.

Guided by the moral duty imposed by its participation in the provi-
sioning of Vienna, the society has often undertaken risk}^ business by which
it incurred loss, as for example the importation of live stock for slaughter
and meat from northern countries. Its very extensive business relations
and its important functions of public supply allowed it however to attain
during its third year to a turnover of about 170 million crowns (i) whence it
derived a net profit of 5,000,000 crowns.

When the war broke out the society was obliged to become busy over
the supply of war provisions, to w"hich the course of events naturalh" gave
a large preference over normal business. It offered to supply live .stock at
cost prices, as to which it furnished evidence, adding only the actual costs of
the transaction. Before the stage of providing public supplies of this kind was
reached, the society was for long responsible for buying on its own account
large quantities of live stock for slaughter and placing them at the disposal
of the imperial and royal administration of the army at given times and on
given terms. This mode of delivery involved enormous risks not exempli-
fied in the case of delivery on commission, those namety of the dangers run
by the stock and the losses they suffer during transport by railway. They
are then exposed to loss of weight, to the outbreak of illnesses, and
to the infection of epizooty attaching to large centres in which stock are
collected. We should mention also the fluctuations of prices wich cannot
be anticipated and for which no allowance can therefore be made.

The representative of the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Agriculture,
by which the entire administration is controlled, takes part in all the society's
councils, meetings and assemblies and can control at any time the manage-
ment of its business and enterprise.

Finally its by-laws, the governmental decrees and its engagements oblige
the General Austrian Society for the Sale of Cattle to limit the interest on
its shares to 5 per cent, and to paj' a part of its profits into the funds of which
the constitution is prescribed. As for eventual excess profits the Imperial
IMinistry of Agriculture will decide how they are to be employed.

(i) I crown of gold = lo^/jjt?. at par.

INFORaiATION KEI^ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 3I

UNITED STATES.

I. THE CO-OPERATIVE PURCHASE OF I,IVE STOCK IN WISCONSIN. — Article by
Howard I. Wodl in The Banker Farmer, Vol. IV, no 2, January 1917, Champaign, Illi-
nois.

In order to improve the quality of milch-cows and secure the general
inspection of their milk some banks in Marinette county, Wisconsin, form-
ed in 1915 a Co-operative Cattle Buying Association. The members
of this organization are business men, farmers and the eleven banks of the
count}'. In 1915 it bought only one car-load of cattle for the farmers,
who showed a disposition to await further results before doing more.
But every farmer supplied with cattle was satisfied, and in 1916 confidence
had been established. During 1916 fourteen car-loads of cattle, aver-
aging thirty head to a car, were imported from various parts of Southern
Wisconsin ; and a large number of good animals were also bought from
dealers in the count}' and sold to farmers who wished to build up their
dsLiTy herds.

The organization is very simple. The eleven banks advance money
for the purchase of pure-bred or grade Holstein or Guernsey dairy cattle,
and allow buyers to pay for them at the rate of from S3 to $5 per
month a head, paying interest at the rate of 6 per cent. Payment can be
made at the bank nearest to the home of the purchaser, who gives the
necessary security. When enough orders have been accepted to make up a
car-load the bu5^er of the association goes to some locality where he can ob-
tain an entire car-load in one lot at favourable prices. Expenses of transport
are thus kept low. Hitherto the cattle delivered in Marinette county have
cost only $9 a head more than the price at which they were bought. The
buyer has alwa^^s had without charge the services of an expert dairy cat-
tle buyer from the university of Wisconsin.

A small percentage is laid aside for a sinking fund in case losses due to
unsatisfactoriness of the bought stock have to be made good. But for
the fifteen car-loads, costing altogether about §40,000, there have been
only two or three minor cases of taking money from this fund.

The number of cattle bought and the amount of money spent give
only a meagre idea of what the association is doing. Besides the actual
addition to the value of the farms, an entire county has been brought to
believe in the value of dairy farming. Bankers have been taught what a
dairy cow is worth and what it ought to produce annually. It has become
easier for all dairy-farmers to obtain credit in the banks. A practical
proof of success is the fact that ten new cheese-factories were opened
in 1916.

We reproduce a series of questions and answers which show the asso-
ciation's skilfid method of explaining to farmers its procedure and the
advantages it offers :

" Question. How much do I have to pay down when I get my stock ?

32 IXFORMATIOX RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

" Answer. Nothing is required, but of course it is to your advan-
tage to pay a little down if possible.

" Q. I like to see my stock before I get it. Would it be possible
for me to go along and see the stock before they buy it ?

" A. Yes. If an applicant desires he may go with the men who
buy the stock and pick out those he wishes, but he must do so at his own
expense.

" Q. My neighbour has a good cow for sale, cheap, and I would like
to buy it but have not the money. Will the trustees buy it for me and
allow me to pay for it on time ?

" A. Yes, under certain conditions. If your application has already
been accepted the trustees will send some one to see the cow, and if their
report concerning her is favourable she will be bought for 3-ou.

" Q. How many cows will the association bu}^ for one person ?

" A. There is notliing to limit the number provided the applicant
shows he has pasture and feed for them and can give proper security. The
intention is not to buy whole herds for any one person but rather a few
head, and give the farmers who need assistance a start.

" Q. I like Je-isey cattle : will the trustees help me to get them ?

" A. W^hen the present plan was inaugurated it was decided to re-
strict the time payments to Holstein and Guernse}' cattle onh\ The
reason for this was that there were more of these in the count}-, and it would
be better to encourage the breeding of them and make this a centre for
these breeds. If however you can pay cash they will help you to get any
breed of dair>" cattle that 3^ou wish.

" Q. I have the money and intend to pay cash for my stock: what
advantage is there in buying through the association ?

" A. The advantages to you are these: 3^ou get cheaper transporta-
tion rates because the stock is shipped in car-load lots ; you also have the
services of an expert judge of dairy cattle, free of charge, to assist in the
selection of 5-our stock.

" Q. I do not like to give a- chattel mortgage on anything : will
the trustees accept my note if some responsible person would sign it with
me ?

" A. Yes, the trustees will accept a note if it has a good endorsement,
and not require a chattel mortgage. The onh' object of the mortgage
is to secure the note and protect the guarantors, as far as possible.

" Q. I am anxious to raise beef cattle. Will the trustees help me to
obtain them and allow time payments ?

" A. No. The trustees have received their instructions to buy
onh^ Guernsey and Holstein cattle, either grades or registered, and allow
payment on time.

" Q. I would like to pay for my cattle in payments six months apart,
rather than monthly. Could that be arranged ?

" A. Yes. The plan of monthly payments is not ironclad, and
we will try to accommodate those who, for good reasons, desire some
other method of payment.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 33

" Q. Is it alwa^-s possible to get exactly the kind of stock everyone
wants ?

" A. Sometimes it is very possible and in certain instances it may
be impossible. Where such diiRculty is encountered the men who are
buA'ing use their own best judgement and get as near as possible what
the applicant desires.

" O. If I do not like the stock when it arrives will I be compelled
to accept it ?

" A. Yes. According to the terms of the application and agreement
you are bound to accept the cattle when they arrive. The trustees are
your agents and you must take the stock they get for you.

" Q. How much commission is charged for buying the stock?

" A. None whatever. In addition to the actual cash expenses of
getting the stock and delivering them, a charge of two dollars per head
is made, to cover necessarj- expenses of printing, postage, interest on mo-
ney used on buj'ing the cattle, etc. In time this may possibly create a
small reserve that could be used to pay any losses that might occur.

" Q. Isn't there a danger of tuberculosis when stock is shipped
from so man^^ farms in different sections of the State ?

" A. None whatever : the cattle are all tested for tuberculosis before
being shipped ".

The following is the form of " application for time payment " :

" The undersigned hereby applies to trustees appointed by

the Marinette County Advancement Association, for the loan of .... ,
dollars, or a sulhcient sum to purchase .... cows , . . . . heifers and one
male .... j^ears old.

" The breed to be ... .

" The following is a true statement of the undersigned's resources
and liabilities :

Resources. Liabilities.

Description ...... Amount owing §

Acres land cleared ... To whom ?

Value $

Acres partlj' cleared . . Nature of security ?

Value $

Acres wild

Value $

Horses and cattle, value . $
Machinery ...» $
Other resources . » $

" I. The Undersigned For Value Received, Hereby agrees to pa}''
said Trustees, or their order, on or before three 3'ears from this date, the
sum required to pay the entire cost of the animal purchased by him, with
interest at 6 per cent, per annum, interest payable semi-annually, such
obligation to be evidenced by a promissory note to the undersigned.

34 INFORMATION REI^ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

" 2. The Undersigned Further Agrees, to pay to said Trustees or their
assigns at stated intervals each month not less than .... per month for
each animal so purchased by him until the aforesaid sum and interest is
fully paid.

"3. The Undersigned Further Agrees, to breed the cows and heifers
so purchased to a registered sire of the same breed.

" 4. The Undersigned Further Agrees, to secure the pa>Tnent of
said sum and interest and the perfomance of this agreement, by a-promis-
sory note and a chattel mortgage to said trustees upon the animals so pur-
chased and the following additional security ....

" 5. The Undersigned Further Agrees, To accept the animals that
are purchased for and delivered to him by the trustees hereunder and pay
for the same as herein provided.

" . . . . Animals will be labelled at time of purchase and delivered
to part}^ ordering same at point designated by trustees. Upon deHvery
the purchaser shall pay to the Trustees the original cost of the animals
together with the expense of purchasing and delivering of said animals . . . ".

2. NORTH CAROI^INA RURAI, BANKS. — The Country Gentleman. Philadelphia, 9 Decem-
ber 1916.

North CaroUna was the first state in the Union to estabhsh, by legisla-
tive enactment, rural credit unions. Short-term loans are made to farmers
at six per cent, interest.

These rural banks are modelled on the country banks of Northern
Italj^ and loans are restricted to purposes of acquiring land and making
farm improvements. The initial North Carohna society was organized at
lyowe's Grove, Durham Country', on 20 January. Since then six sim-
ilar clubs have been created. The marketing division of the State De-
partment of Agriculture controls the unions and a superintendent has been
emplo3^ed as whole-time officer.

A recent monthlj^ statement as to the condition of these banks makes
this composite showing : membership, 252 farmers ; depositors, 38 ; pay-
ments on shares, §1,763.20; deposits, $1,654.68; loans, §3,203.05; number
of borrowers, 35 ; rediscounts, $1 290.00 ; cash in banks, $1,597-89 ;
total resources, $4,883.70.

While the chief aim of the unions is to escape paAanent of exorbitant
rates of interest on loans for farm improvements, co-operative effort in
other fields is encouraged. The Uowe's Grove Union reports a purchase of
114.3 tons of fertilizers for a cash payment of $3,050.02 The saving effected
by the members of the union by bu3dng co-operativeh- instead of at the
prevailing community prices was $667.43. Drowning Creek, another credit
union, reports " the purchase of a carload of cottonseed meal co-operatively

INFORaiATlON RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 35

by eight members. They got the same prices and discounts that the richest
man of the biggest plantation in the State could get ".

Neighbouring city banks and deposits of members are the sources of
revenue of the rural banks. The union is empowered to borrow money
from any source, provided such indebtedness do not exceed the capital,
surplus and reserve fund.

Essentially the plan is as follows : members of the society in need of
financial aid make application to the finance committee, composed of
farmer members. I^oans are - pledged at six per cent, interest, without
commission, on property as security. Tenant farmers obtain loans on
securing the indorsement of their landlords. The farmer buys his supplies
for cash according to the plan of the co-operative society.

Part II: Insurance and Thrift

CHILE.

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFERENCE AND THE SAVINGS
BANKS OF CHIIvE.

SOURCES :

BoRROS BoRGONO (lyOuis) : I<as Cajas de Ahorros (Savings Banks). Communicated to the First

Thirft Conference. La Informacion (organ of the savings banks), Nos. i to 7, Santiago,

April to October 191 6.
R.OMERO Herrera (Alberto) : Las Cajas de Ahorros (Savings Banks). Antecedents, Chilian

Regime, Conclusions. Communicated to the same conference. La Informacion, No. 8,

Santiago, November 191 6.
Arce, I^eoncio : lyOS resultados lejanos de las Cajas de Ahorros (The Far-Reaching Effects

of Savings Banks). La Informacion, No. 5, Santiago, August igi6.
Baez.a Espineira (Agustin) : I,o que significa la Poblacion agricola de Graneros {What the

Agricultural Colony of Granero represents). La Informacion, No. i, Santiago, April 1916.
El Mercuric, journal of Santiago, years 1915 and 1916.

Our readers are already aware of the importance acquired in recent
years by savings banks in Chile. We have already had occasion to notice
in this Review the influence of these institutions on the development of
mortgage credit in the country (i). The importance of Chilian savings
banks becomes however more remarkable when it is remembered that
Chile is not an exclusively mining country but eminently one of agricul-
ture and colonization, and that a large part of the capital accum.ulated
in these banks emanates from the rural districts. The actiivity of the
savings banks is therefore largely directed towards procuring advantages
for the rural population.

(i) See Monthly Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence, March and April I9i3»
pp. 93, 109.

38 CHII,E - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

The development realized in spite of their youth b}^ the Chilian sav-
ings banks, and their wish to j ustify as completely as possible the coun-~
try's confidence and esteem, caused a meeting or congress of representa-
tives of all such banks in the republic to be held at »Santiago towards the
end of 1915. Its labours lasted into the first week of 1916. In this First
Thrift Conference the work of recapitulating the results obtained by the
various banks, from a historical and an economic point of view, was under-
taken ; and the method by which their development and progress could be
facilitated, allowing for increasing public support, was studied. With
this object the meeting approved the formation of new services especially
beneficial to small saving and therefore to the working classes. vSome
of them have already been at work in the banks since the last months
of 1916. We will explain their organization Vv'hen we have briefly re-
produced some of the data as to the activity and evolution of Chilian
savings banks which v*^ere placed before the meeting.

§ I. Development and evolution of savings banks.

In the article to which we have already referred the origin and orga-
nization of Chilian savings banks are explained (i). We will here give
some data as to their activit}' and their character.

We would recall that the pioneer savings bank of Chile was that of
Santiago, founded on 6 vSeptember 1884 on the initiative of the Mortgage
Credit Bank. The law constituting the latter provides (art. 126) that
" when the reserve fund is sufficient to fulfil the objects specified by the
law the council will assign its receipts in delayed interest to the assistance
and encouragement of the savings banks which are founded an-l which,
by the terms of their by-laws, must invest their funds in letters of credit ".

There had, it is true, already been attempts to institute savings banks
in Chile ; but these attempts had failed, and it may be stated that hitherto
their sole result had been to provoke the suspicion of the mass of the peo-
ple. To this fact must be ascribed the prudence with which the organiza-
tion of the new institution was undertaken, and the measures of foresight
and guarantee b}^ which it was safeguarded.

1'he Savings Bank of Santiago was placed under the auspices of the
Mortgage Credit Bank, the latter's managing council being responsible
for its administration and superintendence. The Mortgage Credit Banks
placed at the disposal of the savings bank the Tiecessary capital (50,000
pesos) (2) for the constitution of its reserve fund and its guarantee fund,
and further allotted to it an annual grant with which to meet all costs
of management. On these terms the Savings Bank of Santiago was orga-

(i) See the article, already cited, in our issue for April 191 3.
(2) I peso of gold = 1. 512 5 at par.

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFERENCE 39

nized as a private establishment under the general law of 2 J August i86i,
and it formed a corporation in virtue of the decree of 27 June 188 1. which
approved its bydaws.

In order to extend the advantage of thrift to other provinces and
encourage it throughout the country, the council of the Mortgage Credit
Bank accepted from the government a further charge to form other sav-
ings banks in different towns, with the help of sums supplied for such end
by the State. New banks, were thus founded between 1901 and 1910 in
Valparaiso, I(iui(|ue, Concepcion, Antofagasta, Taica, Chilian, Valdivia,
Serena, Curico, Ternuco, Tacua and San Felipe.

As the activit}^ and the working of these establishments won complete
approval, the public authority prescribed by the law of 22 August 1910
that all those in existence and all which should in future be constituted
should be grouped in a single institution called the National Savings Bank.
Its direction was entrusted to the council of the Mortgage Credit Bank ;
it received complete administrative autonomy and full liberty to organize
its activity. * .

We should note however that this fusion did not affect the Savings
Bank of vSantiago which continued to do business within the province from
which it took its name in the most complete inde[)endence of the National
Savings Bank, altbjugh it frlfilled the lattcr's function of a central bank
within Santiago province where it reigned exclusively. Thus it has come
about that there are now two organs of thrift in Chile : the Savings Bank
of Santiago, a private establishment ; and the official National Savings
Bank. The two are absolutely independent of each other, but generally
act in agreement in order to encourage thrift and popularize its principles.
Moreover both are directed by the managing council of the mortgage cre-
dit bank.

Since 1911, that is since its formation, the National Savings Bank
has founded central offices at Rancagua, Canquenes, I/inares, Angeles,
Asorno and Puerto Monti ; and these make, together with those founded
in the preceding period, a total of eighteen central offices. In addition
thirty-five Viranch offices and many post-office agencies are active in the
country.

Since they have been founded the Chilian savmgs banks have always
conducted their business with perfect regularit3^ Their administrati\'e
council, which has most extensive powers, has reformed and modified their
organization with a view to a better discharge of their tasks.

At first the by-laws allowed deposits to be invested only in letters of
credit of the Mortgage Credit Bank. This investment seemed at first
to be justified because it fulfilled the legal provision authorizing this in-
stitution to employ its funds for the. encouragement of savings banks.

But subsequently, in order to allow depo.sitors to utilize their depo-
sits rapidly as a means of becoming landov.'ners, and also in order to encou-
rage the formation of small holdings, the administrative council made the
decision — still recent — that deposits may also be used for the purchase
of properties to be ceded immediately to depositors, on certain conditions.

40 CHII.E - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

As the savings banks have never fixed a minimum for deposits all
workmen and artisans may bring them their savings, however modest.
For this purpose savings stamps and money-boxes have been instituted.
The stamps are sold at 0.20, 1 and 5 pesos ; and are placed in special books
which are presented in order that they may be converted into deposits.

The Savings Banks of Chile use for their business non-transferable
savings-bank books, and have opened two classes of current accounts —
those repayable at sight and those for fixed terms and on conditions.
Certain restrictions as to available sums and the orders which may be
issued are imposed with regard to the former. Interest at the rate of
5 per cent, is paid on savings deposits.

Savings banks are exempt in Chile from the payment of the tax on
stamped paper and the stamp tax, as from taxes on the postal orders the
send. They pay no postage on their postal and telegraphic correspon-
dence.

2. The activity and the different services of the banks.

The development of the business of the Chilian savings banks was at
first somewhat slow, but was afterwards accelerated — especially during
the last five years — so that the lack of initial speed has been outweighed.
Thus thirty-two years after the foundation of the Savings Bank of San-
tiago the banks at work in the country have a total sum in deposits of
107,415,241 pesos, corresponding to 604,420 savings-bank books.

In view of this diversit}^ in the intensity of the development of their
business, the activit^^ of the banks may be divided into two periods — one
of weak development lasting from the foundation of the Savings Bank of
Santiago to the constitution of the National »Savings Bank, and one of in-
tense development lasting from the time of that constitution until the
present day. This is not to say that the increased activity is due solely
to tlie National Savings Bank, for the development of the Santiago bank
is perhaps more considerable in the second period. It is however true
that the constitution of the national bank was coincident with the win-
ning by savings banks of public favour, and responded to the consequent
demand ; and that it marked the beginning of their most active period.

The following table shows the movement of deposits in these two
periods, for every five years and for every year, respectively.

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFERElSlCE

41

The Def)osHs and the Savings-bank Books of the Savings Banks.

On 31

December

Savings Bank

of

Santiago

National Savings
Bank

Total

for

the two institutions

Books

Deposits

Books

Deposits

Books

Deposits

pesos

pesos

pesos

1884 ....

861

76,225

—

—

—

—

1889

15,124

1,733,429

' —

—

—

1894

32,742

3,642,787

—

—

—

1899

41,708

3,429,917

—

—

1904

60,299

5,296,613

—

—

1909

85,640

12,055,063

—

—

1910

91,685

14,335,451

206,145

19,525,874

297,830

33,861,325

1911

112,232

20,933,019

256,181

26,301,754

368,413

47,234,773

1912

132,649

25,439.913

304,164

40,088,069

436,813

65,427,982

I913

153,066

29,427,391

359,622

57,032,670

512,688

86,460,061

1914

165,815

32,523,431

396,488

62,327,057

562,303

94,850,488

I915

177,481

35,213,213

426,948

72,202,028

604,429

107,415,241

These figures give rise to several observations. It is seen that those
having reference to the Savings Bank of Santiago show a larger propor-
ti(mate increase in the number of savings-bank books than in the amount
of deposits, while the converse is true of those referring to the National
Savings Bank. Hence it ma^^ be deduced that working people deposit
small savings more largely in the former than in the latter establishment
On the other hand the fact that from the time of its constitution the ser-
vices of the National .Savings Bank were — by its branches and agencies
and the post-offices — made available for the rural population, and the
fact that the total sum of deposits for the w-hole country is increasing con-
siderably, allow the conclusion that this increase is greatl^^ due to an in-
flux of deposits from rural districts.

The most important point brought out by the figures is however that
a certain habit of saving has been little by little acquired by the popula-
tion, and that there is absolute confidence in the investment offered by sav-
ings banks to capital and certainty as to their soundness. As regards
the employment of funds they are converted into first class conmiercial
values or into real estate, on behalf of the depositors.

The repayment of deposits is subject to no risks : the banks make
no difficulty about reimbursements — so long of course as the term of deposit
has been exhausted. Up to the present — even during the periods of eco-
nomic crisis through which the country has passed — the savings banks

42 CHILE - INSURANCE AXD THRIFT

have not deferred payments and reimbursements. It is even a fact that
during these periods there has not only been no diminution but also a slight
intensifioation of the movement of deposits. During the months of 1914,
which were characterized by general cautiousness and the paralysis of bu-
siness and of agricultural and industrial work, as a consequence of the Eu-
ropean war, the savings banks had to repay the deposits of many unem-
ploj^ed labourers and workmen. This demonstrated completely to the
whole working-class population the adv^antages they could derive from
the banks in times of famine and umemployment. The banks were able
to meet the withdrawals without any moratorium. General confidence
in them was strengthened; and the remarkable circumstance was produced
that at this abnormal time the increase of deposits in the banks of the
centre and south not onh- compensated for the important withdrawals
from the banks of the north — in consequence of the crisis in the saltpetre
industry — but caused the total business of the year to show considerable
improvement .on that of 1913, as is seen from the foregoing table.

The reserve funds accumulated by these two institutions, the San-
tiago Bank and the National Bank, amoimt to 3,361,234 pesos. In view
of the fact -that the annual profits begin to reach a considerable sum, the
administrative council of the bank ho]:)es the time is not distant at which
their reser\'es will enable them directly to advance social progress in the
country and the development of its wealth.

The management of the banks has modified their organization where-
ver experience has made this advisable in view of the constant progress.
Deposits on current account with a special service of cheques have been
introduced, as a complement to the ordinary savings deposits which bear
interest at a higher rate but which are limited in amount and subject to
certain rules. Thanks to these deposits on current account the small
proprietor, small tradesman or manufacturer who has a deposit in a sav-
ings bank can also deposit his other funds there, thus localizing the move-
ment of his business. The usefulness of deposits of this class compen-
sates for the costs entailed by small savings deposits, and allows moreover
the accounts called privileged to enjo}' a special rate of interest.

In all the offices of Chilian savings banks a service of cheques pa3'able
at sight and of telegraphic orders has been established. The service- of
savings stamps exists throughout the country- and aims at coUecling
savings less than ten pesos in amount. Post offices and thrift among school-
children are responsible for popularizing this device. The nione3''-boxes
have also been very well received, 8,000 of them having been distributed
in four ^-ears.

§ 3. Measures favouring the working class in towns

AND in the country.

The work accomplished for the working class by the savings banks
of Chile is not limited to the direct encouragement they give to popular

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFEREXCE 43

thrift, nor their indirect action in favour of credit, but has also other
forms and aims at procaring as much well-being as possible for working
people in the towns and in the country.

Therefore side by side with the services of which we have briefly spo-
ken, and which are peculiar to savings banks, there are forms of activity
which in a measure enter into the same sphere and which complete these
services b}- rendering it possible for the humbler classes of society to uti-
lize more rapidly and more profitably the fruits of their economv and their
thiift.

The first initiative of this kind dates from 1909 and consisted in the
building of hygienic and cheap houses for depositors in the Savings Bank
of Santiago. This bank bought lots of land in various workmen's quar-
ters in Santiago and began to build houses on a general plan, making-
allowance for the especial needs of each quarter. When the building was
completed the bank proceeded to sell the houses to its depositors on the
following terms : a cash pa^mient of 23 per cent, of the \-alue of the house
at the time of entry into possession, and the payment of the balance —
namely 75 per cent. — in monthly instalments usually spread over fifteen
years and secured by a mortgage on the house.

In 1911 and 1912 eighty-eight cottages were thus built on four lots
of land in the Huemul quarter : the}^ represented a value of 1,106,000 pe-
sos and were sold by the savings bank to its depositors. The results ob-
tained in the Huemul quaiirer decided the council to continue this work,
undertaking new building in the Nuiioa, Providencia, Arenida and Paz
quarters.

For the group of dwellings constructed in the Huemul quarter the
formation has recently been begun of an institution of public benefit which
— according to the plan we have been able to inspect — will comprise a
maternity home, a milk depot, a children's hospital, a children's home, a
model conveniillo (i), etc. This will certainly render valuable service to'
the many working-class families of tlie neighbourhood.

Another measure belonging to the same category was applied in 1909
In that year the administrative council decided to open a special branch of
the Savings Bank of Santiago which should facilitate the purchase of land
b}' its depositors. Special rules for the business of this section provide
that when a depositor wishes to acquire a property he nuist appear before
the administrative body of the bank and specify the terms on which an
estate is offered to him. The bank then studies antecedents, examines
titles, has the property valued, and buys it — paying the whole price in
cash — if it deem the transaction to be to the advantage of the depositor.
It then resells the propert}^ to him, he paying only a small sum in cash
and the rest in monthly instalments which are graduated to cover a sufti-

(i) The conventiUos are agglomerations of many small dwellings, usually more or less in-
sanitary and uncomfortable, which are inhabited by the employees of farms.

44 CHILE - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

cieutly long period and comprise interest and amortization (i). Proper-
ties which are the object of these transactions must be free from all bur-
dens. The section for the purchase of properties has thus, since it was
constituted, sold more than 400 holdings in real estate of which the value
is more than 7,000,000 pesos.

Finally, following the line of conduct adopted by the council and in
the interest of small rural property, the bank decided in Kjio to buy an
area of 232 hectares (2) which adjoined the station of the State railways
at Graneros, in order to divide it and resell it in parcels, converted into
small model farms or as bare land, and to adopt the procedure followed
in the case of the properties of which we have already spoken.

Having noticed this enterprise of the savings banks which aims solely'
at procuring advantages for the rural working-class population, we will
now speak of the colonist group called the " agricultural colony of Grane-
ros ". As has been said its land has an area of 232 hectares which were
bought for 551,000 pesos. Seventeen hectares were at once resold to a
purchaser who intended to instal a large establishmeni: for the exercise
of various rural industries and for giving advice to the colonists. The
land remaining available — 215 hectares — has been divided into lots
of about one hectare each which are still being sold. More than two
thirds of them have been sold hitherto.

(i) The period is generally eleven years and seven months. The purchasers repaj' their
debt according to the value of the property as follows :

of the Property

Sum to be paid
in Cash

Monthly Instalments

pesos

pesos

pesos

1,000

150

8.50

2,000.

300

17.00

3,000

450

25-50

4,000

600

34.00

5,000

750

42.50

6,000

900

51.00

7,000

1,050

59-50

8,000

1,200

68.00

9,000

1,350

76.50

10,000

1,500

85.00

11,000

2,200

88.00

12,000

2,400

96.00

13,000

2,600

104.00

14,000

2,800

112.00

15,000

3,000

120.00

16,000

3,200

128.00

17,000

3,400

136.00

18,000

3,600

144.00

19,000

3,800

152.00

20,000

4,000

160.00

(2) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFERENCE 45

This agricultural settlement places small farming properties within
the reach of the rural proletariat. The colony is pro^^ided with large ave-
nues, special plantations, an adequate system of irrigation, ditches for
outflow and drainage, captations of underground waters, installations
of drinking water and electric light, a farm school for practical instruction
as to growing all crops, a chair of theoretical agriculture, model stables,
etc : — in a word all that contributes to the agricultural labourer's intel-
lectual development and the improvement of his social position.

This colon}' has its special savings bank as have all those formed by
the Chilian savings banks.

§ 4. New services of the banks organized in accordance
with the resolution of the first thrift conference.

As we said at the beginning of this article a congress of representa-
tives of all savings banks in Chile, called the First Thrift Conference, met
at Santiago in December 1915. Its object was to study methods which
would allow an even better response to public trust and esteem by a multi-
plication of the advantages provided by saving^ banks, and to intensify
the propaganda of thrift as much as possible- b}' giving it a uniform orien-
tation.

Various new departments having such object were proposed and
examined by the representatives of the savings banks'. Some of them
have been adopted and are now at work ; others will soon become actual.
We will attempt briefly to explain the principal of them.

In the first place the conference studied with much interest the for-
mation of capital becoming due after a certain period and of old-age annui-
ties, problems which are very important to social thrift ; and it decided
unanimously to constitute two services ad hoc in banks receiving deposits,
in order to form a capital of savings a.nd to constitute an annuity or pen-
sion falling due after a period. The savings and annuity bonds which ful-
fil these two objects were instituted on the initiative of the conference.

Before we examine these bonds we must state that they are non-
transferable and, by the terms of the law^ exempt from seizure.

They belong to two classes, according to whether the capital is formed
by a single deposit or weekly deposits. In the former case they may fall
due in five, ten, fifteen, twentyor twenty-five years according to the amount
of the single deposit, as follows :

A) Basis 7 ys% annually.

Falling due after Sum deposited

5 pesos 695

TO '> 480

15 » 330

20 r. 230

25 » 160

46 CHU^E - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

When the sum corresponding to one of these five periods has been
deposited the bank issues to the depositor a savings bond of 1,000 pesos,
payable on the day on which it becomes due. If the depositor die before
this date his heir can hold the bond for the remaining period or, if he pre-
fer, can demand liquidation. In the latter case the bank will pay him the
deposited sum, plus interest at the rate of 6 per cent, a year up to the daj^
of liquidation.

The savings bond constituied by injeekly deposits is issued like the pre-
ceding one, and is for 1000 pesos falling due after five, ten, fifteen, twenty
or twenty-five years, the depositor being bound to pay the following sums
half-yearly :

Total payments

pesos 840

700

480
400

Six months after the payment of the last weekly deposit the bank
will pay the depositor the amount of his bond, that is 1000 pesos.

If any person acquiring a bond of this description make his weekly
deposits unpunctually he must pay interest for the period of delay at the
rate of 10 per cent., and if the delay is for more than eighteen months the
bank may liquidate the operation. In this case however it repays to the
bearer of the bonds the sums he has deposited, plus interest at the rate of
6 per cent, up to the day of liqiiidation. If he die his heir may demand a
liquidation or continue to make due payments. In either case the pro-
cedure is that applied where a savings bond constituted by a single de-
posit is concerned.

The annuity bond produces a fixed weekly sum for five, ten, fifteen,
twenty or twenty-five years, in return for the deposit of a given sum
which bu3^s the bond, as is shown by the following table :

B) Basis:

■ 6 ^ % annuall

Falling due
after

Amount of
weeklj' deposits

5- • .

pesos 84

10. . ,

35

IQ.50

15. . .

20. . .

12

25. . .

8

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFEREaCE

47

C) Basis 7 1/2 %•

Number of years

for which

the depositor receives

. the income

Single Deposit
made by him

Half-yearly income
paid to him
by the bank

Total sum i>aid
by the bank during
the stipulated period

pesos

pesos

pesos

5

820

100

1,000

10

1,390

100

2,000

15

1,785

100

3,000

20

2,055

100

4,000

25

2,245

100

5,000

The bank begins to pay the income six months after the deposit has
been made. It is, Hke the savings bond, non-transferable and exempt by
law from seizure.

An annuity bond can be bought so that the purchaser receives the
income after a period of five, ten, fifteen, twenty or twenty-five years,
instead of during one of these periods. The sum deposited of course varies
considerably in each case, for it depends on the number of years which
have to run before the bank has to begin to pa}* the rent and the number
for which it is payable. The following table shows these variations :

48

CHILE - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

D) Basis : 7 V2 % for the /ormatiun of tlie capital and 6 ^ % while
the income U payable.

Single initial
deposit

The bank
after

Pays each

week

to the purchaser

of the bond

For

Total sum

paid

by the bank

pesos

years

pesos

years

pesos

585

5

1

405

ID

-

280

15

100

5

1,000

195

20

i

135

25

I

1,005

5

■ ■

695

ID

1

480

15

100

10

2,000

325

20

\

230

25

1

1,315

5

910

10

630

^5 ,

> 100

15

3,000

435

20

300

25

1.535

5

1

1,065

1

1

735

15

, 100

20

4,000

510

20

355

25

1,700

3 \

1. 175

1

f

810

^5

ICO

25

5,000

560

20 '

i

590

25

I

THE FIRST THRIFT CONFERENCE 49

The new enterprises are seen to be exclusively enterprises of thrift
aiming at no gain : the bonds representing them are based solely on com-
pound interest.

It is easily iiuderstood that the new services will be of especial benefit
to the working classes. A savings bond of 1000 pesos, the capital of
which has been constituted by weekly payments for twenty years, requires
a deposit of 12 pesos every six months, and may therefore be said to
be within the reach of every workman, however humble, since it involves
a saving of only 0.50 peso a week.

The other services organized on the basis of the research and delibe-
rations of the First Thrift Conference, which will shortly become active
if the3- are not so now, are : a) a system of cheques with special depositing
forms ; b) special or privileged savings accounts ; c) safes , and d) the
organization of a home service within the sphere of each central or branch
office. The list of these services indicates their nature which has no par-
ticular interest for us. They will however give a certain elasticity to the
mechanism of the savings banks where the most modern banking opera-
tions are concerned.

We will end these brief notes with the statement that the First Thrift
Conference proved by figures and data the importance of the work accom-
plished by the Chilian savings banks. The figures we have reproduced show
a constant and increasing rise in the curve representing the deposits
received by this bank. It has been possible to utilize the savings for the
increase of the wealth of the country and social progress. The workmen's
dwellings, the purchase of rural properties, the formation of colonies of
small proprietors, and the new services and commercial schemes show that
the Chilian savings banks have left behind them their initial phase of hesit-
ation and have succeeded in centralizing savings which will doubtless
ser\-e as a basis to the future economic development of the country.

URUGUAY.

MORTGAGE INSURANCE.

SOURCE :

BANCO DE Seguros DEL Etado. Seguro Hipotecario. [Insurance Bank of the State.
Mortgage Insurance). Impr. Juan J. Dornaleche. Montevideo, 1916.

§ I. Preliminary Remarks.

The growing development in this country of long-term mortgage oper-
ations, thanks to the facilities afforded by the Mortgage Bank of Uruguay
and other similar institutions, has given birth — among other enterprises of
the vState Bank of Insurance (i) — to a scheme foi insurance which aims at
providing for the pa3'ment by mortgagers, in the case of their death, of the
interest and the amortization quotas which they have engaged to pay. In
other words an attempt has been made to find a method of avoiding that
the heirs of a mortgager, generally his wife and children, be in the sad neces-
sity of having to give up the property they ha\e inherited because they can-
not continue to fulfil the mortgager's engagements ; of avoiding, that is,
that they inherit not a property but a debt which they cannot pay.

The State Bank of Insurance gave attention to the solution of this prob-
lem, which froni the outset it considered to be in harmony with its mission
as the chief agent of thrift in the economy and society of Uruguay, and was
forced, in forming a basis for insurance of this type, to take different consi-
derations into account. First such insurance should effectively correspond
to the ends in view ; secondly its cariff" should be so low that the payment of
the premium does not involve a sacrifice for those paying it ; thirdly the
terms should be brought into line with the S3'stem of granting financial
facilities otherwise followed b}^ the bank ; and fourthly the delay before ])re-
miums are paid should be f.s short as possible.

In order to understand the insurance of mortgage debts we will take
a concrete example.

A married man, twent3'-five 3'ears old, having limited pecuniarj' re-
sources, buys a property worth .3,000 pesos (2) but has only 1,500 pesos at

(ij For the organization and operations of the Statt Bank of Insurance, see our issue
lor March 1917, page 35.

(2) I peso = 4.283 s. at par.

MORTGAGE INSURANCE 5 I

his disposal. He mortgages the property he has bought for the remaining
1,500 pesos, the loan being repayable in thirty years.

During his lifetime he paj^s the fixed annual instalments punctually, but
after six A^ears he dies. In the course of his life he has amortized 130.56
pesos which is to sa}' that at his death he still owes 1369.44 pesos. Can his
family still fulfil the obligation of the mortgage, namely make an an-
nual payment of 123.38 pesos for the twenty-four years which have still
to run before the obligation is cancelled ? There would not be this doubt
if the individual in question had guarded against the eventuality of his early
death b}' insuring his mortgage, in the manner which we will explain, at
the same time as he mortgaged his property. The Insurance Bank would
in this case have issued a pohcy by which it engaged to pay, to the heir or
heirs named therein, a sum equal to that needed by the terms of the mortgage
to pay the debt remaining a burden on the property from the time of the
mortgager's death until the conclusion of the term of the mortgage.

Further it is an essential condition of the mortgage in question that
the obligation assumed by the bank remain valid in spite of any delay of the
payments by the mortgager to the mortgagee, and in spite of payments in
advance which he may have made or his sale of the mortgaged property.
Thus the bank's engagement subsists for the period of thirty years and its
effectiveness cannot in any way be lessened within this period. The insu-
rance is therefore essentially a life insurance lasting for thirty years, in
virtue of which — in relation to the mortgage which gave it birth ~ the
bank must pay to the heirs of the insured person, if he die within the thirty
years and whether or not he has repaid the mortgage del:)t or sold the pro-
perty, the amount of the annual payments still pending at the time of his
death. In other words if the mortgager die after six years of insurance, as
we assumed previously, his heirs receive the sum of 1369.44 pesos even if
he have repaid his debt or sold his propert3^

The costs accompanying this form of insurance are low, as is shown by
the tariff which we give below, and they vary with the amount of the debt
and the age of the borrower. In the case already cited the mortgager in
order to insure his debt would have to pay one premium of 91.76 pesos or
the following annual sums :

ist. year 33.63 pesos

2nd " " . . . . 26.91 "

3rd. " 20.19

4th. " 1347

5th. •' 6.75

§ 2. Terms of insurance.

The following are the principal terms of the policy :

a) This contract is in force from the time of the payment of the single
premium or the first of the five annual instalments into which, if the con-
tracting person wish, this single premium can be divided.

52 URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

If the insured person die before five years have passed from the time
at which the contract comes to have force, the bank will deduct, from the
amount to be paid, the portion of the premium which still has to be paid
before the total sum of the single premium is reached.

b) Only long-term mortgages, constituted in conformity with the
by-laws of the Mortgage Bank of Uruguay or other similar organizations,
can be the objects of this insurance.

c) If it be discovered at any time that the true age of the insured per-
son is less than liis age as declared in the application wliich was the basis
of his policy, and if his true age be more than fift}^ or the difference between
his declared and his true age be more than five years, the insurance will be
null and void and the bank will not be obliged to repay the paid premium.
The insured person or his heirs nuist prove his age as often as the bank
desire.

d) The polic}^ makes no restrictions as to travelHng and place of re-
sidence ; but the insured person must not blow up rocks, engage in mining
or diving or the manufacture of inflammable or explosive substances, or
make aerial ascents without first notifj^ing the bank and obtaining its
consent, and causing the bank to establish that the premium i^hall still
be recoverable and the policy remain in force. In default of such declara-
tion, and in the case of an accident due to the causes here cited, the insu-
rance will be null and void, and the insured person or his heirs will be able
to claim no part of the amount of premium paid.

e) ]\Iilitary service withJn the country or for its defence entails no
increase of the premium ; but military service for a foreign nation annuls
the insurance so that the insured person or his heirs can claim no part of
the premium paid.

/) In the case of suicide the insurance is annulled and the Vjank
repays the premium or the annual payments it has received.

?) When the proofs of the death of the insured person have been
presented and the bank has accepted them, the bank will, according to
circumstances, pay or credit the sum due.

h) The policy will be annulled if the contracting person omit to pay,
when it falls due, any one of the annual instalments forming an integral part
of the single premiimi on which the contract is based.

We give below the tariff fixed by the bank for the insurance of mortgage
debts :

MORTGAGE INSURANCE

53

Amount of the Premium for jooo pesos insured for 30 years.

Age

Single

premium

in

pesos

Premiimi

paid by annual instalments in pesos

of
debtor

First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Total

of

instalments

years

25

60.17

22.42

17-94

13-46

8.98

4.50

67.30

26

6439

23.60

18.88

14.16

9-44

4.72

70.80

27

67.61

24.80

19.80

14.90

9.90

4.97

74-37

28

70.83

25-97

20.78

M-59

10.40

5-21

77-95

29

74-05

27-15

21.72

16.29

10.86

5.43

81.45

30

77.28

28.33

22.64

16.98

11.32

5-69

84.96

31

80.70

29.59

23.64

17-73

11.82

5-95

88.73

32

84.13

30.86

24-64

18.48

12.32

6.20

92.50

33

87.56

32.11

25.68

19.26

12.84

6.42

96.31

34

90.99

33-36

26.68

20.01

13-34

6.68

100.07

35

94-44

34.62

27.68

20.76

13-84

6.94

103.84

36

101.94

37-39

29.88

22.41

14.94

7-49

112. II

37

109.45

40.13

32.08

24.06

16.04

8.05

120.36

38

115.96

42.51

34-00

25-50

17.00

8.51

127.52

39

124.43

45.63

36.48

27.36

18.24

9.15

136.86

40

131.98

48.39

38.68

29.01

19.34

9.71

145-13

41

140.35

51.46

41.16

30.87

20.58

10.30

154-37

42

148.72

54-53

43.60

32.70

21.80

10.93

163.56

43

157.09

57-61

46.04

34-53

23.02

TI.55

172.55

44

165.46

60.68

48.52

36.39

24.26

12.14

181.99

45

173.85

63-75

50.91

38-22

25.48

12. 7§

191.19

From all that has been said it is easy to understand the importance
of this form of insurance to the rural population of a colonists' country
like Uruguay where mortgage credit plays so large a role.

Part III: Credit

UNITED STATES.

FEDERAL BANKS AND FINANCIAI, ORGANIZATION.

OFFICIAI, SOURCES:

An Act to provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an
elastic currency, to afford me.\ns of rediscounting commercial paper, to estab-
lish a more effective supervision of banking in the united-states, and for other
PURPOSES. Approved 23 December 1913. Public, N° 43, 63 D Gongiess.

The Federal FarmI^oan Act. Approved 17 July 1916. Senate, Document N°. 500, 64th. Con-
gress, ist session.

An Act to amend certain sections of the Act entitled " Federal reserve Act " ap-
proved 23 December 1913. Approved 7 September 1916. Public, No. 270, H. R. 13391,
64th Congress.

Davis (Andrew Mc Failand) : The Origin of the National Banking System. National Monetary
Commission. Washington. Government Printing Office. 1910.

NOYES (Alexander Dana) : History of the National-Bank Cuirency, ibid. 1910.

Holdsworth (John Thom) : The Fiist and Second Banks of the United States. National
Monetary Commission, ibid : 1910.

National Monelvry Comihssion. Special Report from the Banks of the United States, ibid.
1909.

OTHER SOURCES:

Sprague (O. M. W.) The Fedeial Reser\-e Banking System in Operation, The Qtiarferly Jouy-
nal of Economics, Vol. XXX, N° 41, August 1916, Cambridge (Mass) U. S. A.

MoiRE.\u (August e) : I<es nouvelles Banques federales aux Etats-Unis {The New Federal Bank^
in the United States), R^vue de Paiis, 24th year, N" i., Paris, i January 1917.

The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XXIV, N° 10., Chicago, December 1916.

Financial and banking organization in the United States, certain de-
fects of which were repeatedty pointed out b}^ financial experts and econo-
mists and were thrown into relief by the crisis of 1907, has undergone in
recent years a significant transformation.

Recurrent and multiplied attempts, and also numerous failures, pro-

56 UNITED STATES - CREDIT

found study and the resultant minute " knowledge of the country's real
needs and political necessities, seem at last to have led the government of
the States to institute a new organization of banking, grafted on the sur-
viving trading organization and aiming at providing remedies for the crises
which may eventually threaten the equilibrium of the money market.

The law of 23 December 1913, which created the Federal Reserve
Banks, gives its bases to the new system and is modified and amplified
by a law of 7 September 1916, which is connected at several points with the
law on agricultural credit of 17 July 191 6.

The new organization represents, as we shall show in examining its
outstanding features, a measured compromise between two political and
economic principles — complete centralization and localization — which
in turn have left their mark on the law and administration of the North
American republic since first it was formed, and wliich the force of exper-
ience and of a union of social forces tend more and more to merge.

In order justly to appreciate the reforms introduced into the mone-
tary and banking system of the States b}^ the Federal Reserve Act, and the
possibilities of economic growth which the new system offers to the various
States, we must realize the successive stages through which American fi-
nance has passed, and — maintaining a balance amongst fluctuating opin-
ions — arrive at the equilibrum established by one or more of the regula-
ting institutions.

§ I. GENERAI, view of the DEVEI.OPMENT OF THE FINANCIAI< SYSTEM
OF THE UNITED STATES.

a) The Two First Federal Banks.

After the first confused and precaiious years of provisional measures
and multifarious difficulty Congress had to consider the national credit's
lack of stability. In the revolutionary period three institutions had been
founded — the Bank of North America, the Bank of New York in 1781
and the Massachusetts Bank in 1784. Alexander Hamilton, first secre-
tary of the Treasurj^ considered that they did not suffice and proposed
to form a federal bank. In support of his proposal he argued i) that ca-
pital would thus become available because the trust circulation would
increase, 2) that the government would be able to borrow more easily,
and 3) that the citizens would be able to pay taxes more easilj', because
they would have less difficulty in procuring credit, which would lead to a
larger and more rapid circulation of money. After various discussions
Congiess finally approved the formation of the proposed bank, and it was
constituted in 1791 under the name of Bank of the United States, with a
capital of Sio,ooo,ooo of which one fifth was to be subscribed by the
government and the rest by the pubhc. The offices were at Philadelphia.
This was the first federal bank. It did good service to the government but
aroused the opposition of the anti-federahst or republican party which
under Jefferson soon rose to power and did not renew the privilege which

FEDERAL BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION 57

had been granted for tweiit^^ years. The Bank of the United States
therefore went into liquidation in 1811. The interests of the State Banks
were not without influence on such outcome. These banks had numbered
three in 1790 but in 1800 there were eighteen of them and their capital
amounted to .?2i,300,ooo, while in 1811 they were eightj'-eight and had
a capital of $42,600,000.

The State funds had therefore again to be entrusted to the local banks.
But after the second War of Independence (1812-1814) and during Mon-
roe's presidency Congress submitted to necessity and consented in 181 6
to the creation of a second Bank of the United States.* Its capital was
fixed at $35,000,000 which sum limited its circulation. Of this capital
the government subscribed $7,000,000 in specie, and three fourths of the
balance — namely $28,000,000 were subscribed in the funded debt of the
State. Five of the twenty-five directors were appointed by the president.
The bank was obliged to transfer the public funds of the government from
place to place without commission. In return for the privileges granted
in the charter the bank was obliged to pay $1,500,000 in three equal in-
stalments to the United States, and the United States undertook to estab-
lish no other bank under federal charter except in the District of Colum-
bia. Congress was given the power to inspect the books of the bank. The
new bank like its predecessor encountered political difiiculties : in 1836
it failed to secure a renewal of its corporate powers under a federal charter
and its interest as a fiscal institution of national importance ceased. A
strong political party supported President Jackson in the opposition to
the bank wliich led to its fall. State banks were subsequently carefully
selected to hold the funds of the government, stringent conditions being
imposed as to securities. But frenzied speculation in land in the Western
States led President Van Buren in 1837 to call an extra session of Congress.
He reviewed the situation and proposed to establish an independent trea-
sury system through which the government might in the future care for its
own funds. The sj'stem involved the institution of centres of deposit and
sub-treasuries : established at this time, it was afterwards repealed but in
1846 it was definitely adopted. The principal centres of deposit were at
New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charlestown, New Orleans and St.
lyouis. The chief advantages of the system were that it created a new de-
mand for specie, limited the expansion of bank paper money, avoided the
disturbance of business following on government association with banks,
prevented losses to the government, and gave to the Treasury a constant
control of its funds. These advantages were realized during the panic of
1857, when the national government was able to meet all its liabilities
although the State governments were gravely embarassed.

The system of sub-treasuries is still in force but has been amended to
allow surplus funds to be deposited in the National Banks.

b) The State Banks and the National Banks.

On I January' 1862 there were in the United States 1496 banks issuing
circulating notes, possessing an aggregate capital of $420,000,000 and

58 , UNITED STATES - CREDIT

carrying a circulation of $184,000,000. " They were established under
the laws of twenty-nine different States ; they were granted different pri-
vileges, subjected to different restrictions, and their circulation was based
on a great variety of securities, of different qualities and quantities. In
some States the bill-holder was secured by the daily redemption of notes
in the principal city ; in others b}' the pledge of State stocks ; and in others
by coin reserves. There were State banks with branches, independent
banks, free banks, banks organized under a general law, and banks with
special charters. " " In New York ", adds Professor Dewey in his Finan-
cial History of the United States, " there were banks incorporated by spe-
cial act, individual banks, and banks organized under the free banking
law (i) ; in Louisiana there were chartered banks and free banks ; in Ohio
independent banks, free banks and a State bank with niunerous branches ;
in Indiana a State bank with branches, and free banks ; in Massachusetts
banks under special charters and banks organized under a general law. In
some States there were boards of bank commissioners who made frequent
and thorough examinations, while in others no such boards existed or exis-
ted only in name ; in a few States the public was informed as to the condi-
tion of the banks by the publication of periodical statements, but as a
rule publicity was not insisted on ".

In only nine of the States did the law require the circulation to be se-
cured by State bonds, and the State securities pledged for the notes were
only $40,000,000, leaving over $120,000,000 provided for by other assets.
sometimes by none. All told, about 7,000 different kinds of notes circula-
ted, to say nothing of about 5,500 varieties of fraudulent notes.

Further the Treasury^ issued legal tender notes (greenbacks) to the
value of several hundred million dollars, guaranteed by the public credit
and constituting a forced currenc}^ which greatly lowered the rate of ex-
change ; and several loans were only partial^ subscribed. Such was the
situation with which Salmon Chase found himself faced in 1863. He had
to solve two problems — to create an organization which could absorb
the loans the government had been forced to issue during the War of Seces-
sion and to purif}^ the credit circulation by forming national agencies for
the issue of notes. The desired agencies were the National Banks, which
were differentiated from the State banks because a federal law allowed
their foundation in any territory of the Union, and because they could issue
notes, secured by a pledge of United States stock, which were legal tender (2).

(i) The Free Banking Act of 1838 guaranteed the trust circulation and the inspection of
banks, and supeiseded the .Safetj' Banking Act, the drawbacks to which had been revealed
in 1837.

(2) " The origin of the national banking system is probably to be found in the germ from
which sprang the establishment in 1838 in the State of New York of a set of local banks, having
the power to emit a currency secured by the deposit of State bonds. The success of this plan
suggested that a uniform national currency might in the same way be provided through the
emissions of special associations, which should secure their notes by the pledge of government
securities ". The Origin of the National Banking System, p. 7.

FEDERAL BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION 59

According to the law a banking association upon depositing bonds
with the treasurer of the United States could receive circulating notes to
the amount of 90 per cent, of the current market value of the bonds deposit-
ed — not exceeding however 90 per cent, of the par value. The amount of
notes to be issued was originally limited to .$300,000,000, to be apportion-
ed to banks in the different States according to population and existing
banking conditions and necessities. The system was to be supervised by a
bureau of currency in the Treasury department.

§ 2. The causes of the reform of 191 5.

Under the Act of 1900 a national bank could be organized with a ca-
pital of $ 25,000 (i) in a town with a population not exceeding 3,000. Cir-
culation was increased to the full face value of bonds deposited so long as
they stood at par or above par. The number of national banks increased
from 3,595, in 1899 to 7,301 in 1911. The extension of the national system
was especially rapid in the South and West on account of the reduction
in the stipulation as to minimum capitalization. State and private banks
were converted into national institutions and many new banks were organiz-
ed, nearly one half of the new organizations having a capital of only
§25,000. The circulation nearly trebled between 1900 and 1911, increas-
ing from §254,000,000 to §739,000,000, or by an annual average amount
of more than §40,000,000. The inflation was steady. A further conse-
quence of the extension of the national system was the absorption by na-
tional banks of federal bonds. In 1900 these banks owned § 245,000,000
of United States bonds ; in 1911 they owned § 714,000,000 or three fourths
of the total interest-bearing debt. Matters standing thus it was evident
that any reduction of the federal bonds in circulation would reduce the fa-
cilities for credit — a result which might be useful or even necessary but
only if commercial conditions were taken into account. The enquiry b}''
the National Monetary Commission, with which we will deal presently,
m.ade clear the fact that the mechanism of the national banks does not
move simultaneously with the fluctuations of trade. " In a country now
agricultural like the United States ", says M. Auguste Moireau, "it is at
harvest-time, when corn begins to reach the market, that the need for
capital is most apparent. Specie and notes are drained from New York
to the interior, rates of interest and discount rise rapidly. In harvest
time — the height of the summer — a far larger circulation is needed than
in the beginning of spring, owing to the larger sum which must be paid in
wages in the foraier season A system of issue which does not easily meet
the seasonal demands of agriculture and trade renders the country liable
to grave economic disturbance. If the circulation be insufficient at the
time of harvest the metal reserves of the urban banks are emptied or at
least markedly reduced, and their credit capacity is proportionately dimi-

(i) The minimum capital had hitherto been §50,000.
5

6o UNITED STATES - CREDIT

nished. If on the other hand the circulation be loo large in the interme-
diate period and cannot be automatically absorbed by the issuing establish-
ments, there is a use less accumulation of money in the towns and specu-
lation or the export abroad of gold is encouraged... The organization of
the national banks did not allow them to restrict their circulation in periods
of stagnation or enlarge it in periods of activity. The absence of this abi-
lity to contract and expand gave them the inelasticity for which the system
of credit circulation in the United States was so often blamed ".

The National Monetary Commission found that since the circulation
under this system depended on the amount of the Federal bonds pledged,
the following state of affairs is produced : in years of development and
intense agricultural and commercial activity, in which paper circulation
should increase, public receipts are likewise augmented, and in a country
like the United States in which operations are on an enormous scale receipts
rapidly come to exceed expenditure. With the available excess the gov-
ernment reduces the debt, that is reduces the amount of the bonds, and
this entails a diminution of the circulation which is opposed to what ought
to be. In this way between 1883 and i8gi the circulation was lowered
by 53 per cent., with especial rapidity in the autumn of 1886 and 1888, the
demand for bank notes being emphasized in that season. The danger of
this procedure is more apparent if it be remembered that in the same pe-
riod the demand for money for trade rose by 54 per cent. After 1893 the
contrary case appeared. The restriction of business ought to have been
reproduced in a contraction of the circulation.

The State's redemption of bonds ceased, owing to the budget's deficit,
and a new issue of State bonds was even necessary, so that the circulation
was enlarged. Finally the crisis of 1907 proved once more that the mecha-
nism of the National Banks was not adequate to the country's need.

As early as 1906 there had been agitation for the reform of the bank-
ing system, essentially with a view to giving the circulation the elasti-
city it lacked. The Association of American Bankers and the New York
Chamber of Commerce elaborated schemes. Making allowance for diffe-
rences of detail these schemes proposed to g'rant to the national banks
the power to issue bills secured by federal debt bonds, and other bills diffe-
rently secured, and to abolish all restriction on the withdrawal of issued
bills. In 1907 Congress merely raised from $3,000,000 to $9,000,000 the
amount of the bank notes which could be withdrawn from circulation
every month. The crisis of this year showed clearly the urgent need for a
change in the financial system. While the question was being examined
provisionary measures were taken, pending a complete solution. In 1908
the Vreeland-Aldrich Act provided that when money was tight the Na-
tional Banks could issue emergency notes up to the value of $500,000,000.
These notes would have only a temporary circulation and could be secured
b}^ American government or municipal bonds or commercial paper.

Simultaneously Congress decreed that there should be a National Mo-
netary Commission, charged to examine the financial and banking situa-
tion in all its aspects in the United States and in the principal European

FEDERAL BANKS AND FiNANClATv ORGANIZATION 6l

countries and to report its conclusions. The results obtained by this com-
mission were first published at the end of 1910 (i). They noted various
weaknesses which have been mentioned and favoured a greater centralization
of the banking system. The Commission did not however propose the
establishment of a single federal bank on the model of the great national
banks of Europe, but the creation of a Reserve Association of America
which would have the necessary authority and means to increase and re-
duce the volume of paper money in circulation as circumstances demanded.
It was hoped that both the Federahst party and their opponents would
approve this expedient.

Congress on 23 December 191 3 voted the Act creating the Federal
Reserve, in accordance with, the principles and the hopes which the commis-
sion had enunciated.

§ 3. The federai. reserve act.

We will now briefly analyse the law entitled " An Act to provide for
the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency,
to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more
effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other pur-
poses ".

Section 2 rules that as soon as ^practicable the secretary of the Treasury,
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Comptroller of the Currency, acting
as " The Reserve Bank Organization Committee, shall designate not less
than eight nor more than twelve cities to be known as Federal reserve
cities, and shall divide the continental United States, excluding Alaska,
into districts, each district to contain only one of such Federal reserve
cities... Such districts may be designated by a number... The said commit-
tee shall supervise the organization in each of the cities designated of a
Federal reserve bank... Every national banking association in the United
States is hereby required, and every eligible bank in the United States
and ever^^ trust company within the District of Columbia is hereby autho-
rized, to signif}' in writing, within sixty days after the passage of this Act,
its acceptance of the terms and provisions hereof. When the organiza-
tion committee shall have designated the cities in which Federal reserve
banks are to be organized, and fixed the geographical limits of the Federal
reserve districts, everj^ national banking association within that district

(i) In 1909 the commission had indeed published a special report on the banks of the Uni-
ted states. Its data concerned 22,491 of some 25,000 banks existing in the States on 28
Apiil 1909. The banks as to which there was no precise information confined their business
for the most part to brokerage and exchange.

The capital stock of the 22,491 reporting banks of all classes amounted to $ 1,800,036,368
and their resources aggregated $21,095,054,420.72. Banks to the number of 18,245 sub-
mitted supplementary statements, showing deposits aggregating $ I3.59.=^;599>850.66 to the
credit of 25,645,604 depositors (deposit accounts), including $5,678,735,379-65 savings and
time deposits, with 14,894,696 depositors.

UNITED STATES - CREDIT

shall be required within thirty days after notice from the organization
committee, to subscribe to the capital stock of such Federal reserve bank
in a sum equal to six per centum of the paid-up capital stock (i) and sur-
plus of such bank, one sixth of the subscription to be payable on call of
the organization committee or of the Federal Reserve Board, one sixth
within three months and one sixth within six months thereafter, and the
remainder of the subscription or any part thereof shall be subject to call
when deemed necessary by the Federal Reserve Board, said payments
to be in gold or gold certificates... Any national bank failing to signify
its acceptance of the terms of this Act within the sixty days aforesaid shall
cease to act as a reserve agent, upon thirty days' notice, to be given
within the discretion of the said organization committee or of the Federal
Reserve Board. Should an^^ national banking association in the United
States now organized fail within one j^ear after the passage of this Act to
become a member bank or fail to comply with any of the provisions of
this Act applicable thereto, all of the rights, privileges and franchises of
such association granted to it under the national bank Act (1863) or under
the provisions of this Act shall be tliereb}^ forfeited... Should the total
subscriptions b}' banks and the public to the said Federal reserve banks
or any one or more of them be, in the judgement of the organization com-
mittee, insufficient to provide the amount of capital required therefor,
then that committee shall allot to the United States such, an amount of
said stock as said committee shall determine... No Federal reserve bank
shall commence business with a subscribed capital less than S4, 000, 000 ".

Each Federal Reserve Bank is under the supervision and control of
a board of nine directors, of whom three represent and are chosen by the
stockholding banks, three must when elected be actively engaged in their
district in commerce, agriculture or other industrial pursuit, and three
are nominated by the Federal Reserve Board. The chairman of the board
of directors is chosen by the Federal Reserve Board from the last named
three, and also has the office of federal reserve agent, acting as official re-
presentative of the Federal Resei-ve Board for the performance of the func-
tions conferred on it b}^ the Act.

Any bank incorporated by special law of any State, or organized un-
der the general laws of any State or of the United States, may apply for
the right to subscribe to the stock of the Federal Reserve Bank organized
or to be organized within the Federal Reserve District in which it is situa-
ted. If such application be eccepted the applicant bank must conform
to the regulations as to reserves and capital and inspections which the Or-
ganization Committee or the Federal Reserve Board establish. No bank
may thus subscribe to the stock of a Federal Reserv^e bank if it have not
unimpaired paid-up capital sufficient to aallow it to become a National
Bank within its own locality in accordance with the law regulating such
banks. When admitted it shall be subject to all laws applicable to National
Banks. A dividend up to 6 per cent, on paid-up capital shares may be distrib-

(i) The shares are of Sioo.

FEDERAL BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION 63

iited to stockholders out of the net profits of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Half the surplus profits shall be paid to the government of the United States
and the other shall constitute a special reserve fund. When the latter
has reached an amount equal to 40 per cent, of the bank's paid up capital
the whole balance will return to the governement.

The property of Federal Reserve Banks — including their capital
shares, their reserves and all their revenue, is exempt from all taxation of
the United States Government or the States or other authority, except
the land tax.

When the Organization Committee has accomplished its task it gives
place to the Federal Reserve Board which meets in Washington and is
the motive power of the whole system. It has seven members, namely
the vSecretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency who
are members ex officio, and five others appointed to hold office for ten years
by the President of the United States with the consent of the Senate. In
appointing them the President has due regard to a fair representation of
the different commercial, industrial and geographical divisions of the coun-
try, and he designates one of them as governor and one as vice-governor
of the Federal Reserve Board, the former being the board's active execu-
tive officer.

The Act also creates a Federal Advisory Council, consisting of as many
members as there are Federal Reserve Districts, each Federal Reserve
Bank sending a representative to it. This council meets at least four
times a year : it confers directly with the Federal Reserve Board on gene-
ral business conditions ; it makes oral or written representations concern-
ing matters within the jurisdiction of this board ; and it calls for infor-
mation and makes recommendations in regard to discount rates, rediscount
business, note issues, reserve conditions in the various districts, the pur-
chase and sale of gold or securities by reserve banks, open market opera-
tions by these banks, and the general affairs of the reserve banking sj^stem.

Previously National Banks were obliged to have a reserve equal to
25 per cent, of the amount of their deposits in the reserve towns and 15 per
cent, in the other towns ; but the Act of 191 3 made this percentage 18 in
New York, Chicago and St. lyouis, 15 in other reserve towns, and 12 in non-
reserve towns. The excesses of available reserves should be transferred
in accordance with certain conditions to the Federal Reserve Bank.

For twenty years from 1915 the member banks of a Federal Reserve
Bank may apply to sell "all or some of their circulating notes which they
desire to retire.

The Federal Reserve Board will decide on such applications. A Fede-
ral Reserve Bank may not purchase more than §25,000,000 of such bonds
in a year.

Upon depositing with the Treasurer of the United States bonds so
purchased, or any bonds with the circulating privilege acquired under this
Act, any Federal Reserve Bank shall receive from the Comptroller of the
Currency circulating notes in blank equal in amount to the par value of
the deposited bonds. Such notes shall be issued and redeemed on the

64 UNITED STATES - CREDIT

same terms and conditions as National Bank notes, except that they shall
not be limited to the amount of the capital stock of the Federal Reserve
Bank issuing them. Thus the circulation of notes will eventually be ap-
preciably simplified and unified.

The law perfects the machiner\^ for controlling the banks. In addi-
tion to the inspections by the Comptroller of the Currenc}', inspections of
any bank by the Federal Reserve Bank of its district can be authorized
by the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Banks are them-
selves inspected annually and their member banks can obtain that they be
inspected specially.

As regards the special interests of agriculture — every National Bank
not situated in a central reserve town may make loans on cultivated, un-
mortgaged land within its district, for a term of no more than five years,
of amounts not exceeding 50 per cent, of the value of the property offered
as securit3^ Each of these banks may thus lend as much as 25 per cent,
of its capital and reser^^es or one third of its term deposits and continue
as previous^ to receive term deposits and pay interest on them.

The Federal Reserve Board will have the right to add other towns
from time to time to the list of those in which the National Banks may
not thus grant loans secured by landed property.

Federal Reserv^e Banks within the territory of the United States do no
business with the public directly but only with each other and with the Na-
tional Banks. Their deposits emanate only from their stockholders ' and
the government of the United States. By means of the notes they issue
they may rediscount the commercial paper of their respective National
Banks and discount the notes and acceptances of foreign banks. They
may open branches abroad which may transact all normal banking busi-
ness directl}'.

Both abroad and at home these banks are the government's fiscal
agents, and as such recover taxes and duties, pay arrears of the pubhc
debt, etc.

§ 4. The workixg of the federal reserve banks.

As soon as the Act had been passed the organization committee got
to work. Its first difficult}^ was to fix the number of the districts in which
there should be banks, for the interests of the different States could not be
neglected.

It was decided that there should be twelve districts, and that the
banks should have their sites in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleve-
land, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. lyOtiis, oVIinneapohs, Kansas City,
Dallas and San Francisco. The notice provided by the Act was giveil to
the various banks and on 18 Ma}- the decree for the organization of the
Federal Reserv^e Banks was drawn up. The banks of each district were
then divided into three equal groups, according to the amount of capital
and property they held. At the beginning of July 1914 each group in the

FEDERAI, BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION 65

various districts elected two directors of a Federal Reserve Bank. This
somewhat complicated procedure allows the small banks to be represented
on the directors' boards of their respective Federal Reserve Banks.

The election ended the task of the organization Committee and on 10
August the Federal Reserve Board was sworn in. It comprises in addition
to its statutory members an expert in foreign banking and investing, a
Southern banker, a jurist, an economist, and a railway expert. It had first
to nominate the three representatives of the government in the directors'
boards of the Federal Reserve Bank. Meanwhile the interior organization
of the. banks was studied by a technical committee. It was judged well
to divide the powers of the boards of directors into two. The chairman,
appointed by the Federal Reserve Board from the three official represen-
tatives, is this board's intermediary as regards the direction and superin-
tendence of the business of a bank, and the governor — whom the directors
appoint from their own number — is the effective president. The direc-
tors have been well chosen for their financial capabilities and have greatly
ministered to the scheme's development. Each Federal Reserve Bank is
largely an independent institution, managed by local persons. Its offi-
cials and directors can speak with authority for the different local interests
they represent.

The opinions of the governors, supported by their boards of directors
and amplified by the Federal Advisory Council, have had much weight in
this first period of the activity of the new banking machinery.

In October 1914 the work of organization was far from complete,
but in view of the conditions created by the European war it was thought
well not to defer the opening of the banks. The opening day was fixed
for 16 November and the first payment of capital was made on i November.
Of the 7,493 National Banks which were active only eighteen refused their
subscription. The first contribution was slightly over $18,000,000 ; and
the aggregate nominal capital was about $106,800,000, that is slightly
less than $14,000 for each stockholding bank. Succeeding pa^^ments
were made on i February and i May 1915. The other half of the sub-
scribed capital stock will probably not be called for so soon. In June 1916
the paid-up capital amounted to $54,864,000.

In addition the Federal Reserve Banks disposed on the opening day
of the part of the reserves of the stockholding banks which was to be trans-
ferred to them under the Act. The banks of the central reserve towns thus
transferred a sum equal to 7 per cent, of the deposits they held, the banks
of reserve towns made a preliminarv^ deposit of 3 per cent, and the others
one of 2 per cent. (i). The Federal Reserve Banks also received at one
time about $ 230,000,000, which with the first payment of capital brought
their available funds up to about $ 250,000,000. These transferences were
made quite easilj' and conveniently.

(i) The deposits of the two lattei were completed on 16 November 191 5 and 16 May and 16
November 1916, and their transferred reserves thus came to be 6 and 5 per cent., respectively.

66 UNITED STATES - CREDIT

The Act provided that the rediscount of the paper of stockholding
banks should in normal times constitute a Federal Bank's chief business.
The rate of such discount was first fixed at from 5 Y2, to 6 Y2 P^r cent.,
according to the term of the bills. But as the Act had lowered the mini-
mum neces.sary reserve of the National Banks, these disposed of large sums
which the}^ previously could not touch and were therefore able to extend
their business without rediscounting their paper. Thus the available
reserve of the National Banks of New York rose from 8 85,000,000. From
being tight money became plentiful ; the Reserve Banks had to meet no
demand for rediscoimt except in the three Southern districts ; and at the
end of 1914 the rate was brought to 4 7^ and 5 per cent. At this time the
whole rediscount business reached the sum of §10,593,000, of wliich
84,027,000 belonged to the Southern districts. The rate of rediscount was
lowered to 4 per cent, in 191 5 ; and at the end of this year the whole re-
discount business figured as §32,000,000, of which sum 74 per cent, belong
ed to the Southern banks. On 17 June 1916 this sum had been reduced
to §20,425,000, §13,307,000 belonging to the Southern banks. It is how-
ever probable that when the abnormal conditions created by the war are
at an end, that is when the large facilities for credit offered in consequence
of the great influx of gold into the Um'ted States are no more, rediscounting
by the Federal Reserve Banks will be more important.

The unimportance of this branch of business is not due to the nature
of the paper to be discounted. Under the Act the Reserve Banks may
only rediscount bills representing loans for commercial purposes ; but the
adjective is given a large interpretation, for all advances of funds
repaA'able within ninetj- days, and made b}' a bank to a borrower whose
current assets are in excess of liis liabilities, are considered to be com-
mercial loans.

Agricultural paper and bills given for loans on cattle are given a pre-
ference in that they may be rediscounted even if their term be six months.
A large part of the rediscounting done by the Reserve Banks has concerned
paper of this description. Thus on 17 June 1916 63 per cent, of the loans
granted by the Bank of Minneapolis were of this kind, as were 36 per cent,
of those of the Bank of Dallas and about 2^ per cent, of those of the Banks
of Kansas City and Chicago.

Rediscounting is naturally active only in districts in which ordinary
credit facilities do not suffice. The three Reserve Banks of the South
appear consequently likeh^ to be able to emplo}- considerable sums in bu-
siness of this kind.

The Act supplies another means of investment to the Federal Reserve
Banks. They may buy in the open market bonds of the United States,
bonds of the various States and municipal bonds at six months, and also
bills of exchange arising out of commercial transactions. On 17 June
1916 the}- held United States bonds for 859,000,000. Of municii:)al bonds,
which are far less liquid, they then held §22,300,000 and had at an earlier
date held §40,000,000.

The Act authorizes them to purchase and discount bills of exchange

FEDERAL BANKS AND I'lNAXCIAL ORGANIZATION 67

arising out of home trade, a form of paper which both the legislature and
the Federal Reserve Board prefer unhesitatingh- to simple bills payable on
order, whether these have only one signature or are endorsed by the signa-
tory's bank. But since commercial acceptances of this kind are few in num-
ber, business of this kind has hitherto been insignificant. Banking accep-
tances have on the other hand been most important. The development
of these transactions is due above all to the rapidit}' with which the Fede-
ral Reserve Banks have bought such acceptances at a moderate rate. In
February' 1915 the rate oscillated from 2 to 4 per cent, but most purchases
were made at 2 % and 2 ^/^ per cent. They comprise a large quantity of
foreign paper for which the normal market is London. At the date mention-
ed their total amount was §64,953,000. All the Reserve Banks except
that at Dallas had part in them ; but they were chiefly undertaken by the
banks of New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

On 10 November 1916 the liabilities of the Federal Banks amounted
to 8650,000,000, represented as to one tenth by the paid-up capital stock
and as to nine tenths by the deposits of stockholding banks. Their own
bills have hitherto circulated little, circumstances not rendering them ne-
cessaries. Their assets amounted to $400,000,000 in gold, 8110,000,000
in paper, a certain quantity of their bills, and accounts with neighbouring
banks.

The unification which the federal reserve system was designed to effect
was shown first by the adoption of a method of weeklj' settlements of ac-
counts among the various federal banks, the difference between the debit
and credit sides of such accounts being rectified by a remitment of specie
or bills. The deplacement of assets from one district to another is thus
reduced to the minimum. In the second place since 15 June 1916 the re-
covery without charge of cheques and bills has been enforced by the Fede-
ral Reserve Board. Every stockholding bank now sends to its Reserve
Bank its cheques and bills on other stockholding banks — who are bound
to pay them without deduction — and also on other banks which have
accepted this condition. The number of the establishments outside the
sphere of the Reserve Banks which already practised this method was
very considerable. This system may be considered to be almost general.
A commission which strictly covers the costs is charged on each transac-
tion. The procedure is expected to strengthen the banking machiner^'^
of the whole country, and to place it in this particular under the control
of the Federal Reserve Banks.

The attraction of the new financial organization seems not yet to have
been full)- felt by the vState and other banks, of wliich onh' some ha\'e be-
come stock holders of the Reserve Banks, either transforming themselves
into National Banks or keeping their particular charters.

It should be mentioned that most of the Federal Reserve Banks in
their first ^'•ear of activity did not succeed in realizing sufficient profits to
cover their co.sts and distribute the anticii)ated dividend of 6 per cent. ;
but these initial difficulties are disappearing.

68 UN^ITED STATES - CREDIT

§ 5. Modifications under the act of 1916.

On the seventh of last December Congress passed an Act modifying
that of igi6 in several respects with a view to ampUfying its scope.

Certain of these modifications were proposed by the Federal Reserve
Board in its last report.

The innovations aimed at making the federal reserve system more
attractive, that is to say more profitable, to the stockholding banks, and at
extending the scope and usefulness of the Federal Reserve Banks.

In abolishing restrictions on the acceptance by stockholding banks of
bills of exchange of home origin which are sufficiently guaranteed the Act
has placed within their reach a considerable source of profit, and has at
the same time provided a new means of credit to the agricultural, indus-
trial and commercial world ; for notes, drafts and bills of exchange secured
by agricultural products and other goods and merchandise can be thus
discounted. Agricultural paper maturing in six months at most ma}' be
discounted up to an amount equivalent to a percentage of the Federal
Bank's assets determined by the Federal Reserve Board.

Banks in districts having no more than 5,000 inhabitants are authoriz-
ed to act as agents of insurance companies and agents for transactions of
land credit, and are thus enabled to undertake two kinds of lucrative
business.

As regards land credit, the article of the earlier Act to which we have
referred is modified as follows : " Any national banking association not
situated in a central reserve city may make loans secured by improved
and unencumbered farm land situated within its Federal reserv^e district
or within a radius of one hundred miles of the place in which such bank
is located, irrespective of district lines, and may also make loans secured
by improved and unencumbered real estate within one hundred miles of
the place in which such bank is located, irrespective of district lines ; but
no loan made upon the security of such farm land shall be made for a longer
time than five A^ears, and no loan made upon the security of such real
estate as distinguished from farm land f.hall be made for a longer time
than one year, nor shall the amount of any such loan, whether upon such
farm land or upon such reale estate, exceed fifty per centum of the actual
value of the property offered as security. Any such bank may make such
loans, whether secured by such farm land or such real estate, in an aggre-
gate sum equal to twenty-five per centum of its capital and surplus or to
one third of its time deposits and such banks may continue hereafter as
heretofore to receive time deposits and to pay interest on the same".

• The Act increases the power of the Federal Reserve Banks in that it
allows the Federal Reserve Board to authorize " member banks to carry
in the Federal reserve banks of their respective districts any portion of
the reserves " previously required to be held in their own vaults ; and in
that it increases the faciUties of member banks for short term credit, secur-
ed by bills not actually discounted. Anj- national banking association

FEDERAL BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION 69

may apply to the Federal Reserve Board for permission " to establish
branches in foreign countries or dependencies or insular possessions of the
United States for the furtherance of the foreign commerce of the United
States and to act if required to do so as fiscal agents of the United States ".
Owing to the initial deposit of the reserves of member banks and the
transfer allowed by this Act the Federal Banks now hold about a quarter
of the country's grand stock of gold.

*
* *

Such is in outHne the financial and banking sstem instituted in 1913
and revised in 1916. It is seen to have involved no radical upheaval of the
previous organization. It merely added some new wheels which centra-
hzed, and in some respects gave a new direction to, the complex and some-
what unequal mechanism constructed since the beginning of the repubUc.
The State Banks, the National Banks, the sub-treasuries, the circulation
emanating from banks in direct contact with the people and secured by
Federal debt bonds, were not abolished. They subsist. But the concen-
tration of a considerable part of the national gold reserves in a small num-
ber of Federal banks, which could issue Federal notes in case of need,
makes incontestably a regularizing force in the money market, and will
probably ensure the normal course of commercial and banking operations
in times of crisis.

This centralizing tendency is equally appHed to agriculture by the Act
of 17 Jidy 1916 on agricultural credit. Under this Act also the territory
is divided into twelve districts, in this case in accordance with the needs
of the different districts for agricultural credit. A Federal land bank is
instituted in each of these districts and may open branches within their
respective limits. The Federal land banks are individually ruled by ad-
ministrative boards and collectively by a Federal board of agricultural
credit. The minimum subscribed capital — $4,000,000 in the case of
Federal Reserve Banks — is $750,000 in the case of Federal banks of agri-
cultural credit ; and as the former receive it from the National Banks so
do the latter receive it from national associations of agricultural credit,
the government of the United States supplying any deficiency in the case
of both. Banks of both categories act as fiscal agents of the government
and receive deposits of public funds.

Ever>^ Federal Reserve bank can buy and sell land bonds issued in
accordance with the agricultural credit Act, .exactl> as they can under-
take analogous operations involving district, county and municipal bonds.

Federal land banks are inspected according to the rules applicable to
National and to Federal Reserve Banks.

MISCElvIvANEOUS INFORI\IATION REI^ATING TO CREDIT
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

CANADA.

THE APPIvICATION OF THE AGRICUI^TURAI, ACT IN BRITISH COIyUlVIBIA. — The
Hon. Wm. Manson, superintendent of the Agricultural Credit Commission of British Co-
lumbia in The Agricultural Journal, Victoria 'British Columbia), Vol. I. No. g, November
1916.

The Agricultural Act was placed upon the Statute Book of British
Columbia in March 1915. It authorizes the borrowing of .$15,000,000 to
be administered b}^ a Commission, the debentures of this Commission being
guaranteed by the government of the province.

The money market has been unfavourable to borrowing money for
some time before and since the oubreak of the war, but last spring a loan
of S 1,000,000 was obtained under the Act to begin the work and give
definite aid in developing agriculture. The monej'^ cost 5.63 percent, and
is being lent to the farmers at 6 14 P^r cent.

Long term loans for twenty, thirty and thirtj^-six and a half years
ma}' be made on the amortization plan, interest and principal being pay-
able half-yearly.

Short term loans for from three to ten years need not be amortizable.
The Commission has decided that, while it prefers all such loans to be amor-
tizable, it will yet for the present grant straight loans for three, four or five
3'^ears, the interest on which will be payable half-3'early ; and that loans
for from six to ten years must, like the long term loans, be payable on the
instalment plan, the interest and principal being payable half-yearly.

Borrowers may from time to time, on any date at which interest is
due, pay off % 25 or any multiple of $ 25 in addition to the regular half-
yearly payments.

The Act requires that money lent for the improvement of agricultural
land be advanced only as such improvements are made, and the Com-
mission is arranging accordingly in granting each loan.

A great manj^ applications are being received for money to pay off
existing mortgages. In view of the limited amount of money at its dispo-

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

71

sal it is the policy of the Commission to give first consideration to applica-
tions for money to be used towards the definite increase of agricultural
production. The applications for money to be used exclusively to pay
oft" mortgages are therefore being held abeyant for the time being.

As the system is still new in British Columbia statistical information
is limited^ but the following figures may be of interest.

Applications received to date
» appraised ■ » »

Loans granted » »

Applications withdrawn » »
» refused » »

)) held over » »

(for mone}' to pay off existing
mortgages)

Number

Average Amount

Total Amount

. . 104

$ 1,554

$ 2,175,443

. . 464

)) 2,324

» 1,078,606

• . 144

» 1,628

» 234,430

• • 7

» 2,368

-£6,575

. . 142

» 2,425

» 344.405

. . —

—

--"

121

» 3.078

372.450

Loans Granted.

5

of

2

»

21

»

2

»

3

))

2

))

2

» ;

26

»

4

» '

12

»

I

))

16

»

4

»

16

»

I

))

8

»

4

»

2

))

4

»

I

))

6

»

I

»

I

»

144

250

__ c

1,250

300

=

600

500

=

10,500

600

=

1,200

750

=

2,250

800

=

1,600

850

=

1,700

1,000

=

26,000

1,200

=

4,800

1,250

=

15,000

1,300

=

1,300

1,500

=

24,000

1,800

=

7,200

2,000

=

32,000

2,280

=

2,280

2,500

=

20,000

3,000

=

12,000

3,500

=

7,000

4,000

=

16,000

4.250

=

4.250

5,000

=

30,000

5.500

=

5.500

8,000

=

8,000

$ 234,430

72

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

The terms for which loans have been granted are as follows ;

3 years, straight loans 3

5 » » » 28

7 » amortizable » i

8 » » » 3

9 » » » I

ID » » » 42

20 )) » » 32

30 » » » 14

36 ^ » » » 20

Total ... 144

Appraisal Fees.

S 500 or under

Over S 500 up to 8 1,250. . .'

)) S 1,250 » » S 2,500. . .

» S 2,500 » 1) S 10,000. . .

Legal Fees.

Up to S 2,500

Over S 2,500 up to .S 3,750. . .

>' S 3,750 » )) 8 5,000. .■ .

» 8 5,000 » » S 7,500. . .

» S 7.500 )) » 8 10,000. . .

2.50
5.00

750
10.00

5.00

7-50

10.00

15.00

20.00

Half yearly repayments on loans are as follows, interest and principal
being included :

On 8 1,000 for

3

years

S 186.00

4

»

145.00

5

))

119.00

6

»

102.00

7
8

))

M

90.25
81.25

9
10

»
»

74-25
69.00

20
30

36 1/2

»
»

45.00

38.25
36.00

The Commission was employing last November five appraisers in
different parts of the province and every effort was being made to complete
the work of appraising before the winter weather set in.

IXFORMATIOX REI,ATING TO CREDIT 73

Two of the directors of the board have spent a considerable time in
the field with the appraisers, in order to obtain first-hand information as
to agricultural land and conditions throughout the province and to help
them to establish a proper basis of valuation.

The reports of the appraisers are received at the head office weekly,
and as they come in the Commission decides on the applications.

EGYPT.

THE OPERATIONS OF THE lyAND BANK OF EGYPT IN 191 6. — From the reports of
the board of directors and of the auditors for 1915-1916. Alexandria, Societede publications
egyptienncs 19 16.

The improvement in financial conditions apparent in Egypt as early
as the autumn of 1915 persisted throughout 1915-1916, important supple-
mentar}' resources, determined by the European conflict, compensating
partially for the deficit due to the insufficiency of the cotton harvest.

This general situation influenced the business of the Land Bank of
Eg3'pt in the year which closed on 30 September 1916.

Mortage business, which had been arrested since the beginning of
the war, consisted principally in transactions tending to consolidate and
regularize certain old loans. However towards the end of the year the
bank thought it right to resume on a very modest and prudent scale the
examination of certain business which presented particularly advantageous
conditions in the matter of security. The total sum of the mortgage loans
in being on the date mentioned was 91,643,830 francs (i). Since the Eand
Bank was founded it has concluded 2,552 amortizable loans and 99 sales
of real estate, also amortizable, for the total sum of 195,723,088 francs.
Only 26 of these loans were made last year, their total sum being 15,978,528
francs, to which a current mprtgage account of 77,770 francs must be
added.

Advances for short terms made last year to borrowers on mortages,
who applied for them for the needs of their holdings, such loans being with-
in the limits of the returns from the land cultivated, amounted to 476,332
francs.

Although receipts in coin were far larger than in the preceding year,
the restrictions of credit which circumstances imposed on the fellah, and the
necessity of meeting none the less, with a defective production, agricultural
costs increased by costliness of primary materials, increased arrears which
passed from 10,486,893 francs on 30 September 1915 to 11,621,890 francs
on 30 September 1916.

(1)1 franc =a (j^/^d at par.

74

INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

The liquidation of real estate forming the bank's propert}* was, like
annual payments, affected by events. This property comprised when the
preceding banking-3-ear ended about 2,842 feddans (i) and 31,980 square
pikes (2) of building land (two urban real estate holdings and fifty-three
rural holdings), representing altogether a credit of '3,757,116 francs. Last
3-ear new expropriations added to this propert}' fort^^-nine rural and
one urban real estate holdings, representing a credit of 3,154,535 francs.
When the amount covered by the sales (twenty entire holdings, eleven
parts of holdings and one urban holding), 1,527,861 francs, had been
deducted there remained on 30 September igi6 two urban and 82 rural
holdings having a total area of 3,813 feddans and 132,136 square pikes and
representing a credit of 5,383,790 francs. The administration resulted in
a total profit of 1,820,768 francs.

The following tables show the nature and the terms of the loans granted :

Classification of Citrrent Loans according to the Nature of the Security
(30 September 191 6).

Nature of loan

Number

Capital still due

Rural loans

1,678

47

4

Egyptian pounds (i)

3,393.536
110,616

Urban »

Mixed »

31,008

Total . . .

1.729

3.535,160

(i) Egyptian pound = £1.828.

Thus according to these figures the rural loans represent about 97 per
cent, of the total amount of the mortgage loans of the Land Bank.

Classificaiion of Amortizahle Loans according to their term.

Term

Number of loans

Capital still due

lycss than 10 years,

from 10 to 20 » .

from 21 to 30 »

from 31 to 40 n .

from 41 to 50 « .

Total

Egyptian pounds

92

77.917-797

983

982,515.012

608

1,386,640.147

16

592,130.294

I

359,244.493

1,700

3,398,447.743

The average term of the loans is twentj'-three years and two months.

(i) I feddan = 1.79374 acres.

(2) I square pike = 1.67153 square yards.

INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CREDIT 75

UNITED STATES.

I. DETHRISIINATION OF FEDERAI^ I,AND BANK DISTRICTS.

On 27 December 1916 the Federal Farm lyoan Board, created under
the Federal Farm lyoan Act, announced its determinations as to the States
to be included in each of the twelve Federal Land Bank Districts provided
b}- the Act, and the town chosen as the site of the Dand Bank in each dis-
trict. The following list shows these conclusions.

District No. 1. — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. The bank to
be at Springfield, Massachusetts.

District N° 2. — Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West
Virginia and district of Columbia. The bank to be at Baltimore, Maryland.

District N^. 3. — North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
The bank to be at Columbia, South Carolina.

District N° 4. — Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. The
bank to be at Louisville, Kentucky.

District A^o 5. — Alabama, Mississipi and Louisiana. The bank to
be at New Orleans, lyouisiana.

District N° 6. — Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. The bank to be at
St. Lotus, Missouri.

District A^o 7. — Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota.
The bank to be at St. Paul, Minnesota.

District N^ 8. — Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. The
bank to be at Omaha, Nebraska.

District N° 9. — Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. The
bank to be at Wicliita, Kansas.

District A" 10. — Texas. The bank to be at Houston, Texas.

District N° 11. — California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The bank
to be at Berkeley, California.

District N° 12. -- Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho. The
bank to be at Spokane, Washington.

To this list the board added the following statement :

" In determining the Federal I^and Bank Districts, and in designating
the cities within such districts where Federal Land Banks shall be located,
the Federal Farm Loan Board has given careful consideration to the farm
loan needs of the country. The board held public hearings in nearly ever}'-
State in the L'nion, and in this manner collected information of great value
in determining its decision.

" Ever}- reasonable opportunity has been afforded applicant cities
to furnish evidence to sujjport their claim as locations of Federal Land
Banks. More than seventy-five cities applied to be designated as the head
quarters of a bank and were heard through representative committees
and individuals ".

76 INFORMATION RELATING TO CREDIT

Officials of the Farm lyoan Boards announce that before the end
of 1916 more than 50,000 farmers had applied for mortgage loans, of which
the approximate aggregate amount was S 150,000,000 or more than
seventeen times the sum which would be immediately available for loans
when the twelve farm loan banks were organized.

Most of the applications came from the south and west, 2,000 of them
from Iowa alone.

It was expected that almost immediately after their organization the
banks would find it necessary to issue bonds virtually for their entire capi-
tal stock, in order to meet the demands of borrowers.

2.^THE SUBSCRIPTION OF THE CAPITAIv OF THE FEDERAL LAND BANKS. —

The Economic World, New York, 10 March 1917.

In accordance with the terms of the Federal Farm Loan Act subscrip-
tion books were opened to the public to the capital stock of the Federal
Land Banks, which are to represent in the new Federal Farm Loan System
that for which the Federal Reser^^e Banks stand in the Federal Reserve
System. The fact that the banks were unlikely to pay an}- dividends on
this stock during the first year and that it will ultimately be retired at par
naturally made it unattractive to investors. Subsciiption in none of the
twelve districts nearly reached §750,000, the minimum issue of capital
stock of each bank under the terms of the Act.

The total sum subscribed was onl}- S 120,095, distributed as follows :
Springfield, Mass.. § 10,275 '> Baltimore, Md., $9,780; Columbia, S. C, S410;
Louisville, Ky., $7,735; New Orleans, La., $4,570; St. Louis, Mo.,
$ 7,925 ; St. Paul, Minn., $5,360; Omaha, Neb., | 41,735 ; Wichita, Kan.,
$ 6,335 ; Houston, Tex., $ 14,715 ; Berkeley, Cal., $ 6,110; Spokane, Wash.,

S 5MS-

The Treasur}^ Department has therefore been obliged to subscribe no
less than $8,879,905 of the capital stock of the twelve Land Banks. It
is of course expected that the stock now subscribed for will be gradually
retired, through the operation of the provision of the Act which requires the
Farm Loan Associations — that is in the last resort the borrowing farmers
themselves — to subscribe for stock of the banks to the extent of 5 per
cent, of the amount they apply for as loans.

The fact that legislation is now pending which will make farm loan
bonds legal investments for trust fxmds and the funds of savings banks and
insurance companies in most States in which they are not such already,
should insure for them a ready market at a satisfactory' rate of interest.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

GERMANY.

THE SUBDIVIvSION OF I,AND IN OIvD BAVARIA.

OFFICIAL SOURCE :

Beitrage zu Statistik des K5NIGREICHS Bayern. I^anchvirtschaftliche Betriebsstatistik
Bd. 51, 64, 81. Giiterzertrummeningen Bd. 59. Anhang 66 [Contributions to the Statistics of
the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Statistics of Farms. The Subdivision of Lands).

OTHER SOURCES :

Rabel (Dr. B.) lyandwirtschaftlidie Besitzverteilung und Besitzverschiebuiig in Altbayem
{The Distribtition and Conveyance of Farms in old Bavaria) I^eipzig, 191 5.

Stechele (Dr. F.) : Die Giiterzertriiminerung und landwirtschaftliche Zwangsveraussungen
in Bayern {The Distribution of Lands and Forced Transference of Landed Property in Bavaria)
Annalen des Deutschen Reichs, Nos. 10-12, 1915.

The name " Old Bavaria " is given to the three Bavarian provinces
of Oberbayern, Niederbayern and Oberpfalz, of which the area and popula-
tion are as follows :

Area in Hectares (i) Number of Inhabitants

Oberbayern . 1,704,653 1,434,792

Niederbayern 1,076,756 702,450

Oberpfalz 966,476 577,912

3,747,885 2,715,154

Agriculture employs the greater part of the population namely :

in Oberbayern 62.7 per cent.

" Niederbayern .... 65.6

" Oberpfalz 59.7 " "

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

GERMANY AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

The cultivated area measured in 1910 2,119,677 hectares, when there
were 248,054 farms, which is to vSay that the average area of a farm was 8.5
hectares.

Most farms measure from two to twenty hectares, and farms of this
size occupy the largest part, of the cultivated area, as follows :

Percentage Percentage

of Number of Cultivated

of Farms Area

Oberbayern 62.9 51.6

Niedcrbayern 62.7 56.2

Oberpfalz 64.8 62

The group occupying the second largest part of the. cultivated area is
that of the farms of from twenty to a hundred hectares :

Percentage

of Number

of Farms

Percentage

of Cultivated

Area

I3-I

45

10.5

40.7

8.9

33-3

Oberbayern

Niederbayern

Oberpfalz

Farms of less than two or more than a hundred hectares cover an
insignificant area, but the number of those measuring less than two hectares
is very large.

Percentage Percentage

of Number of Farms of Cultivated Area

Less More Less More

than 2 hectares than 200 hectares than 2 hectares than 200 hectares

Oberbayern . . 23.7 0.3 1.8 1.6

Niederbayern . 26.6 0.2 2.7 1.3

Oberpfalz . . . 26.1 0.2 2.7 2

From 1882 to 1907 there were very important changes in the various
groups as regards the cultivated area, the number of farms and these percen-
tages. The number of the farms and the cultivated area at these two
dates were as follows :

1882 1907

Number Area Niunber Area

of in of in

Farms Hectares Farms Hectares

Oberbayern 98,296 913,116 92,243 904,227

Niederbayern ..... 83,891 687,131 82,520 680,218
Oberpfalz 65,867 519,380 64,071 494,929

THE SUBDIVISION OF LAND IN OLD BAVARIA 79

As is seen from this table both the number of farms and the ciiltiva-
ted area were diminishing, doubtless as a result of the development of in-
dustry.

In the same period the percentage of farms having an area of from two
to twenty hectares changed as follows :

1882 1907

Percentage Percentage

Farms Area F, rms Area

Oberbayern . 58.2 49.8 62.9 51.6

Niederbayern 57.1 52.1 62.7 56.2

Oberpfalz 59.0 55.8 64.8 62.0

This is to say that the percentage formed both by the number of these
farms and by their area had increased, while these percentages concerned
with farms of less than two and of more than twenty acres had decreased,
as is seen from the following table :

1882 1907

Percentage Percentage

Number Nimiber

-rA e J 1 1 j_ of Farms Area of Farms Area

Farms oi more than 20 hectares _ _ _ _

Oberbaj^ern 13.2 48.1 13.4 46.6

Niederbayern 11.2 44.8 10.7 41. 1

Oberpfalz " . . lO.i 40.8 9.1 35.3

Farms of less than 2 hectares

Oberbayern 28.6 2.1 23.7 1.8

Niederbayern 31.7 3.1 26.6 2,7

Oberpfalz 30.9 3.4 26.1 2.7

The average extent has remained almost unchanged, as follows :

1882 1907

Percentage Percentage

Oberbayern 9.3 9.8

Niederbayern 8.2 8.2

Oberpfalz 7.9 7.7

The official statistics give us no data as to landed property. With
respect to it particular statistics, concerned only with isolated districts, must
be consulted. From these we can deduce :

i) That the farms having an area of from two to a hundred hec-
tares are cultivated b}^ their owners, those held and cultivated by lessees
representing only from 1.7 to 3 per cent, of the cultivated area.

2) That this percentage is slightly higher in the cases of farms of
less than two and more than a hundred hectares. From about 15 to 20 per
cent, of the total area of these groups is cultivated by lessees.
The extent of the farms has been influenced by :

i) the system of hereditary succession ;

8o

GERMANY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

2) the sale of property in parcels which produces excessive subdivi-
sion {Guterzertriimmenrng).

In all old Bavaria the system of single succession is in force. I^anded
propert}^ is inherited by a single heir, the other heirs being paid the price of
their shares. This S3^ste^l has a feudal origin and has been preserved by
the conservative spirit of the agriculturists who have remained faithful
to ancient customs.

Landed property is generally, or at least oftenest, inherited by the
youngest heir, for reasons both economic and social. It is the custom for chil-
dren when they marry to leave the paternal home in order to settle on their
own farms. A farmer generall}^ marries when he is between twenty and
twenty-five years old ; and when his children marry in their turn he is
still able to cultivate his farm without them.

The price which the heirs receive as their share is always a little less
than it would be if the land were sold freely. The price of buying back the
shares is none the less very high, so that the net profit yielded by the farm
is brought only with difficulty up to 2 or 3 per cent.

Besides pajdng the shares of his brothers and sisters the heir of the land
has to maintain his parents. The conditions of this maintenance are fixed
by a contract in which the quantit}^ and quaHty of the objects agreed upon
are minutel}^ specified. The stipulation that the value of the maintenance
be paid in cash is very rare.

This system of succession prevents the formation of too minute hold-
ings, but it leaves the holdings burdened with debts ; and the eventual
result of this is that there is after all subdivision. In other words holdings
are sold in parcels.

These sales are made :

a) By the owner who retains his dwelhng-house and the appurte-
nant lands and divides his remaining land into parcels which he sells se-
parately.

b) By the medium of a speculator in land wdio bu3''s the whole hold-
ing and divides it into lots which he sells on his owai account.

,Such division has attained to enormous proportions of recent years,
as is seen from the following table :

1901-1902
1902-1903
1903-1904
1904-1905
1905-1906
1906-1907
1907-1908
1908-1909
1909-1910

Properties so'ds in lots

Number

Area

425

8,411.77

425

8,824.85

519

11,049.23

589

11,500.44

7OQ

14,019.19

759

14.911-55

802

16,035.42

802

14,461.64

810

12,914.68

hectares

THE SUBDIVISION OF LAND IN OLD BAVARIA

In 1903 a commission was nominated to investigate the causes of this
phenomenon and its consequences. The commission's report states that :

I. The following are the causes of the excessive subdivision :

1. The debt burdening landed property, owing to the S3^stem of
succession and that of subdividing the lands, that is to say to the high
price which the farmer pays for the parcels he buys.

2. The insufficiency of labour which makes the costs of agriculture
heavy, especially in the case of the larger farms having an area of more than
twenty hectares.

3. The speculation of those who increase their profits by subdividing
the lands.

II. The following are the consequences of the excessive subdivision :
T. The wasting of woods, for speculators in land cut down the woods

on a holding before they sell it in parcels.

2. The withdrawal from agriculture of the circulating capital repre-
sented by the profits of speculators which attained to nearly four and. a half
million pounds in the period between 1892 and 1904.

These consequences of subdivision, so detrimental to agriculture, in-
duced the Bavarian government to take measures to prevent or at least
to impede its progress. The first of these measures dates from about 1850
when a law forbidding subdivision by speculators was promulgated. It
was however only in force for some years, being repealed about i860,
between which date and 1894 subdivision was again unhampered.

The measures taken by the government in 1894 and 1899 allow subdi-
vision but regulate it. Special laws forbid the sale of immature woods and
make the .speculator liable for arrears of taxes with which the subdivided
lands ma3^ be burdened.

The commission in 1903 was instructed not only to examine the caiises
and consequences of subdividion but also to answer the two following
questions :

1. W^ould it be opportune to forbid subdivision by decree, as was
done in Wurtemberg ?

2. Would it be opportune to offer special privileges to rural banks
as inducements to them to substitute themselves for speculators in land ?

The commission in its report answered the first question in the nega-
tive, the second in the affirmative.

On the basis of this report the law on the subdivision of lands was pro-
mulgated on 13 August 1910. Its most important provisions are contain-
ed in its first and second articles.

The fir.st article establishes a right of pre-emption in favour of :

a) Rural banks of the district.

b) Credit institutions authorized to such end by the Minister of Agri-
culture (the co-operative agriculttiral unions having their headquarters
at Munich and Regensburg have also been thus authorized).

c) The respective communes.

In order that this right of pre-emption may be valid it must be declar-
ed within twenty-one days.

82 GERMANY - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL,

The second article gives a right to withdraw :

a) to the farmer who sells his land to a speculator, within seven days ;

b) to farmers buying parcels of land from speculators, within five
days.

The official statistics give us the following data as to the subdivision
of land from I March 191 1 to the end of 1912 :

1911
1912

umber Area

of subdivided properties

295 4.861.36

hectares

453 5.184.97

"

If these data be compared with those for preceding j^ears the law will
be seen to have lessened subdividion.

The following figures show the participation of rural banks in these
transactions from 1905 to 1912 :

Number Area

of subdivided properties

1905-1906 25 361.70 hectares

1906-1907 25 41747

1907-1908 27 312.92

1908-1909 26 344.22

1909-1910 33 430-99

1910-1911 (i) 51 953-58

1911 (2) '74 1,652.96

1912 106 ^,577-87

As is seen from this table the participation of rural banks has notice-
ably increased since the law of 13 August 1910 has been enforced, while that
of speculators has diminished. The following figures show the part played
by speculators in the aggregate subdivision accomplished in 1912.

Oberbayem 24.2 per cent.

Niederbayern 46.2

Oberpfalz . 49.1

(i) Up to I March.
(2) From I March.

THE SUBDIVISION OF I^AND IN OLD BAVARIA 83

In spite of the favourable results obtained in 1911 and 1912 those who
understand the question do not anticipate that the rural banks will com-
pletely supersede the speculators. Subdivision does not entirely square
with the business of rural banks. It is a transaction which needs large ca-
pital and time for its conclusion ; and if is moreover an entirely commer-
cial transaction which cannot be free from a speculative element. There-
fore it is somewhat outside the scope of the rural banks ; and the found-
ation of special institutions which will undertake it has been proposed.

AUSTRIA.

SOME AGRTCULTURAIv PROBI^EMS IN DALMATIA.

OFFICIAI, SOURCE.

OE3TERREICHI3CHES Jahrbuch FUR 1912 (AustHan Yearbook for 1912), Vienna 1912.

OTHER SOURCES :

GrubisiC (A.) : Agranie operazije kas sredstvo za podigxince ekonomi&ik okolnosti Dalmacije
[Agricultural Operations as a means of promoting Economic Progress in Dalmatia), I'ola,
1911.

ViNSKA Kriza. IzvesCe o ankeli [The Crisis in Wine Production. Reports of the Enquiry) Spa-
lato, 1909.

lyElTHE (Dr. H.) : Dalmatinische Agrarprobleme [Dahnatian Agrarian Problems), Wrena, 1912.

§ I. Agricultural area and umprovements.

Dalmatia is pre-eniinently au agricultural country\ According to
the available statistics it had, in 1911, 642,810 inhabitants of whom
518,790 or 86 per cent, belonged to the agricultural 'class. Nevertheless
Dalmatia exports no agricultural products, but in fact imports a large quan-
tity of them. In 1912 it imported :

240,500 crowns' (i) worth of cereals

797,300 " " fruit and vegetables

293,200 " " " animal products.

The values of the merchandise of these respective categories exported
were 69,400, 133,100 and 81,900 crowns. Onl}' with respect to Uve stock
did the value of exports — 674,000 crowns — exceed that of imports —
26,800 crowns. Thus the case of Dalmatia is the singular one of an
agricultural country which has an agricultural production inadequate to
its own needs. It is worth while to seek the causes of this phenomenon.

(i) I crown of gold =10 — d. at par.

12

SOME AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS IN DALMATIA (S5

Dalmatia has an area of 1,283,000 hectares (2) distributed as follows

Arable land 137,238 hectares

Vineyards 81,853

Olive plantations .' . . . 31,992

Gardens 37.024

Prairie-land 10,492

Pasturage • 562,900

Woods 329,627

Marshy lands 63,383

Roads, water-courses, buildings, etCi . . . 29,000

The terms pasturage and woods need explanation. The official statistics
include as woods all lands once wooded, even in a somewhat remote past
and even if to-day they are bare save for occasional shrubs and bushes.
The name pasturage is applied even to lands on wliich grass grows sparsely
for three or four months of the year while for eight or nine months the}' are
completely bare.

The table we have given shows that 22 per cent, of the whole area is
cultivated while 78 per cent, is formed of uncultivated land.

With respect to the soil's natural fertility the total area of Dalmatia
can be divided into land of three categories :

1. The land of the first category has an area of from 180,000 to
200,000 hectares. It comprises the so-called " polja " strips of land b'ing
along the shores and the banks of the water-courses. This land is excep-
tionally fertile.

2. The second category includes all the woodland and most of the
pastureland and may be considered to have a minimum fertility.

3. Between these two extremes is a third category, that of the marshy
lands and the mountain slopes. In point of natural fertility these lands ap-
proximate to those of the first category. But before they can be brought
under cultivation preliminary measures are necessary — the draining of the
marshy lands and the reforestation of the mountain lands. Without these
improvements these lands approximate rather to those of the second cate-
gory, remaining lands of minimum fertility.

The facts stated point to the first agricultural problem which has to
be solved in Dalmatia, that namely of extending the cultivated area. For
this improvements of two kinds are needed — works of drainage and of
reforestation.

§ 2. The distribution^ of landed property.

With respect to the distribution of landed property Dalmatia presents
two extremes : properties are very large or very small. This is due to spe-

(2) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

86 AUSTRIA - AGRICULTRAI. ECOXOMY IX GEXER.^L

cial conditions in the country. The feudal regime estabhshed under the
influence of Venetian dominion, Turkish dominion and Slav customs has
been preserv^ed until to-da^^

The large properties belong todndividuals or to the communes, the latter
owning altogether 656,000 hectares or 50 per cent, of the countr>^'s whole
area.

Side by side with the large properties, which are an outcome of the
feudal system, properties of very small extent have gradually been formed
as follows :

a) By means of contracts of sale and purchase. The large landowners
are not averse from selling their property, for in Dalmatia there is almost
always a lack of labour and very extensive areas are therefore left uncultiv-
ated.

b) By means of a distribution among members of a commune of
the comnmnal landed property. Hitherto about 12,000 hectares have
thus been distributed.

c) By means of encroachments on the communal property.

Large and small properties are alike often scattered. Small proprie-
tors generally own from three to four quarter or half-hectare plots. Large
proprietors often possess fifty scattered parcels of land, sometimes even more.
Among the reasons for this state of affairs are the unequal fertility of the
lands, the distribution caused b}^ inheritance and the encroachments.

A small proprietor himself cultivates and realizes the value of his land ;
whereas a large proprietor nearly always lets it. The latter himself cul-
tivates it and realizes its value only exceptionally, most frequently in the
south of Dalmatia, in the province of KanaH where there is an abundant
supply of Montenegrin labour.

Large properties are alwa3"S let in parcels. There are two forms of
leases ; a) the ordinary lease which is very rare ; and b) the contract of cul-
tivation, a type to which from 85 to 90 per cent, of the contracts conform.
Parcels let b^^ these contracts have an area of from one to three hectares.

The communes, especially those in the northern islands, also let the
arable lands which form part of their landed propert3^ Their woods and
pasturelands are used by all their members.

Owing to the lack of labour consequent on the emigrations of recent
years an important amount of land admitting of citltivation is lying fal-
low.

The distribution of landed property, as this has been explained, and
the method by which it is cultivated, bring us to three further agrarian
problems : those nameh', of i) the farming contract, 2) the distribution of
communal landed property, and 3) the redivision of lands.

SOME AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS IX DALMATIA 87

§ 3. The FARMING CONTRACT.

This contract is from a legal point of view a lease sui generis, whereas
from an economic point of view it ma^^ be regarded as imposing a sUghtly
modified feudal tenure.

Its content is as follows :

1. The proprietor lets to the cultivator the land when it is still
hdng waste. The cultivator must therefore bring it under cultivation
before he can farm it.

2. The duration of the contract depends on the duration of crops.
Where grain is grown it is from one to two years, in the case of vineyards
from twenty-five to fifty years.

3. The contract obliges the lessee to give a part of the gross products,
generally a quarter, to the proprietor.

Such is the content of the normal and most usual type of contract.
Exceptionally there aie deviations from it as regards the duration of the
lease and its terms.

The most important results of such contracts are :

a) Extensive agriculture.

b) Difficulties, unfortunateh^ too frequent, arising between the pro-
prittor and the lessee.

Since the lessee is obliged to render a share of the gross products to
the proprietor, he does no more than cultivate the land on the extensive
system, for otherwise he would have to give the proprietor all or almost all
its net 3'ield owing to the law as to a rental which is less than proportionate.
Extensive agriculture is facilitated by the fact that the lessee is as a rule
himself a small proprietor. It is therefore entirely to his interest to culti-
vate his own property first, and the land he rents is in consequence often
not cultivated in time.

The lessee looks upon the proprietor as a parasite who steals from
him a part of liis products. He therefore seeks by every means in his power
to take back what he considers to have been robbed from him.

About 1894 an event occurred which resulted in the supersession of a
fair number of farming contracts by ordinars' leases.

Towards 1890 the phylloxera appeared in the countr5^ Gradually the
vineyards of Dalmatia were devastated. Tliis fact in itself annulled the
contracts relevant to them. Everywhere people began to replace the indi-
genous vine with the American variety. Plantation however necessitated
larger expenditure. Contracts of lease are more easily adapted than
farming contracts to plantations of this kind ; and so it came about that
a misfortune produced good results. The farming contracts were reduced
by 20 per cent.

AUSTRIV - AGRICUIvTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

§ 4. Distribution of communal landed property.

The communal property has an area of 656,000 hectares. Its greater
part, that is about 55 per cent., is pastureland. Woodland constitutes 30 per
cent, and the rest is arable land. The words woodland and pastureland
must be given the denotation we have already explained.

On the pastureland the animals of all the members of a commune are
pastured. In the woods animals are pastured and wood is cut. In this
connection woodcutting properh'^ so-called must be distinguished from the
gathering of leaves for forage. Woodcutting is undertaken without any
method and the result is real devastation.

Arable land is let by farming contracts. This generally takes place
in the islands of the north. Cultivatois settled on land belonging to
the communes enjoy slightly better conditions than those on private land.
In its capacity as proprietor the commune is satisfied with little, as a rule
one seventh of the yield converted into cash.

Communal property constitutes an inexhaustible source of.controversy
among the members of one commune and among adjacent communes. In
a government report of 1870 it was said to produce a little grass and many
lawsuits. The shepherds are well armed while the3^ pasture their flocks
and are almost always at war with members of their commune or with
the shepherds of adjacent communes.

Communal property is being more and more reduced in extent b}^ en-
croachments on the part of those members of comnumes who are protected
by the communal council. These are declared to be proprietors after they
have been occupiers for a certain number of years. But it is not rare for
a second encroachment to supersede the first on the occasion of a change in
the communal council.

Until 1850 the communes paid no taxes on their property because
their members paid a tax as usufructories. From 1850 the State placed a
land tax on the communal propert}^ and the contribution of the usufructories
was thereafter paid to the communes.

Until 1850 no change was introduced into communal property. In
that 3'ear, after the cadaster had been established, it became Hable, as has
been said, to the land tax. In the same year occurred the first scheme for
the distribution of communal property to the members of communes.
There have been many subsequent and similar schemes.

For twent3'-six years none of them produced any effect ; but on
27 March 1876 they had an important result, namely the promulgation of
the law on the distribution of communal property.

The terms of this law are as follows :

1. The distribution of communal property' is optional. Every com-
mune may either distribute it or retain it as communal.

2. Distribution is made on the following conditions :

a) A majority of the communal council must have voted in favour
of a proposed distribution.

SOME AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS IN DALMATIA 89

b) It must he accepted by an absolute majority of all the inhabi -
tants registered by the census of the commune.

3. The distribution among the members of the commune will be
made by the communal authorities, assisted b^' a surve^'or.

4. Before a distribution is made the land which it should not affect,
that is the land which will remain the commune's property, will be
surrounded b^^ a hedge.

Hitherto 12,000 hectares have been distributed in fourteen communes,
in accordance with this law.

§ 5. Redivision.

We will devote a few words to the problem of redi vision.

It has already been said that landed property in Dalmatia is too much
scattered, many proprietors owning from fifty to eighty parcels of land.

In -vdew of this state of affairs redivision would be very useful. It
is however very rarely proposed and the law on subidvision promulgated
in 18S3 has never been applied. The reason for these circumstances is
not hard to seek.

The problems of the farming contracts and of the distribution of
landed property are distinct. That of division cannot however be solved
finally, in view of existing agrarian relations, until after the two former.
If a redivision were to be undertaken today it could be only provisional
and would have to be renewed after the other two problems had been
solved.

Owing to such dependence on other questions redivision cannot be
considered in isolation. Redivision was last proposed in 19 10 by Deputy
Sununcitch, who suggested that it should be undertaken simultaneously
with the solution of the problems of the farming contracts and of the
di'^tribution of communal property,

UNITED STATES.

FARM TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES

by Prof. Benjamin H. Hibbard,

University of Wisconsin.

Introduction.

So far as the authentic history of tenancy in the United States is
concerned it ma^^ be said to begin with the year 1880 since at that time the
first tenancy census was taken. The percentage of farms operated by ten-
ants for the four census years, by divisions, were as follows :

United States

North Atlantic division
South Atlantic division
North Central division .
South Central division.
Western division . . .

I9IO

1900

1890

1880

37-0

35-3

28.4

25.5

18.2

20.8

18.4

16.0

45-9

44.2

38.5

36.1

28.9

27.9

33-4

20.5

517

48.6

38.5

36.2

14.1

16.6

12. 1

14.0

It will be seen that in 1880, about one in four farms was operated by a
tenant ; in 1910 almost two out of five were in the tenant group. Unques-
tionably the proportion is somewhat higher by this time than it was six
years ago. The number of tenant farms increased 130 per cent, during the
thirty year period coveredby the statistics, while during the same time there
was an increase of but 34 per cent, in the number of farms worked by owners.
At these disproportionate rates of increase it will take but another three
decades to result in a larger number of tenants than landowning farmers, thus
making us unmistakably a nation of tenants and landlords. It is, however,
by no means certain that the proportion of tenants will continue to show an
uninterrupted increase. In fact the increase has alread}^ ceased, and a turn
in the other direction been made, according to the last census, in tweWe

FARM TENANCY 9 1

of the older States. There was also a decrease in tenancy percen-
tages in several of the newer States but the significance of the change
in these States is different from that in the older settled part of the
country.

Tenanc}- reaches its highest point in the cotton belt. For instance in
Georgia two thirds of all farms are rented. The percentage is also high in
the corn belt ; in Illinois over two fifths of the farms are rented, and largely
in the best part of the State,

It is, then, plain that the growth of tenancy in the United vStates has for
at least three decades been rapid. Before the year 1880, there had undoubt-
edly been a much less rapid growth, yet it had reached important propor-
tions nevertheless. The question may very properly be asked why so many
farms should be farmed by others than their owners. Especially is this
a pertinent question in view of the fact that within a half century the federal
government has disposed of immense tracts of public domain on terms
so favourable as to make ownership easy and the necessity of renting land
of a landlord remote. Several hundred million acres of land have within
a half century either been granted free of charge to the settler, or sold at
such low prices as to suggest a gift. And this plan of disposing of the land was
with the conscious idea of putting land into the hands of the men who
should acquire it for their own use. And yet upon much of the land given
awa3^ or sold for S 1-25 per acre during the seventies or the eighties,
are now to be found tenants, in many instances as man}^ tenants as
owners.

The causes of this remarkable development of a tenant class, if class
it may be called, are complex. In the first place it may be remarked that
ver\' few American farmers prefer to be tenants rather than owners. So far
as the man on the farm is concerned he is either the owner or a prospective
owner. The young man expects to rent land, but always with the hope and
the expectation that the tenancy will lead to ownership. Farmers remain
tenants because they find the price of land high, or sometimes it may mean
that the price of the farm is high not so much because of high price per acre
as because it requires many acres to make an efficient unit. High price per
acre would rule in the case of truck farming land, in fruit land, irrigated
districts, or in general farm land near a great city. High cost of the farm
as a whole, due primarily to great size, would obtain in the wheat belt and
still more in the grazing belt. But whichever the cause, the fact remains
that it is no easy matter for a young man to gain possession of a farm worth
Sio,ooo to §20,000. Somebody must make a considerable payment on a
farm of this kind before the owner is willirg to take a mortgage for the
balance, or a bank is willing to advance the funds.

Kearly two thirds of the farms rented are rented for a share of the pro-
duct. Out of each hundred farms, twenty-four are rented in whole or in
part on shares, and thirteen are rented for cash. The cash rent as used in
the census figures does not always means actual money, but instead signifies
some other form of fixed payment, such as a specified quantity of cotton. It
cannot be said that one form of rent payment is good and the other bad,

92 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

or that one is even better than the other. There are, however, advantages
of each from the standpoint of both landlord and tenant. For instance cash
rent is simpler ; there is no room for disagreement as to amount, or as to
time of paj'ment. It is supposed that cash payment of rent signifies a more
independent position of the tenant. He is free to do as he pleases in many
particulars. Under the condition of cash rent the landlord as a rule exer-
cises relativel}^ little control over the management of the farm. In fact
inability or unwillingness to do so is a prime reason on his part for prefer-
ring cash, even though somewhat less in amount than share rent. The prob-
lem to the landlord of sales of produce is eliminated in the case of cash pay-
ment, and all fear of an unfair division eliminated.

On the contran,' there are manj^ advantages to both parties in the shar-
ing of the income. The tenant runs less risk, since in case of a failure or
partial failure of crops, he is permitted to pay a rental proportionate to the
income instead of a cash charge much beyond it. Moreover, it requires
less capital on the tenai-t's part to start farming on shares since under
these circumstances he furnishes but half, or possibly some other fraction,
of the live stock, feed, and seed needed. As an offset to these advantages
the tenant has less freedom of choice in running the farm, though he has the
advantage of the landlord's more mature judgement. Control over the
farm and its management is one of the foremost reasons for preferring to let
land out on shares instead of for cash. It is the general belief on the part
of landlords that on an average the returns are greater in the case of share
than of cash rent. This is unquestionably true when prices of produce are
above normal, or during a period of rising prices such as has obtained during
the past fifteen or twenty years. For twentj^ years after the first tenancy
census was taken cash rent gained much more rapidly than share rent and
it looked as though it was to become the prevailing S5'stem. Then came the
census of 1910, with the information that cash rented farms had increased in
number but half as rapidly as those rented for a share. This was so pro-
nounced a change as to call for an explanation. While other factors may
have entered, the outstanding one seems to be that with the rise in prices
of farm produce the share going to the landlord increased rapidly, sa rapidly
in fact that it was hard to pull cash rent up to the same level. As a cortse-
quence landlords were anxious to change from the cash to the share system.
Tenants, although not usually so anxious for the change, would acquiesce
rather than run the risk on a much increased cash basis. Even the weather
may have played a part, since a prolonged series of wet years made crops un-
certain in many districts and caused a change in the minds of tenants in
favour of share paj^ment. The most encouraging form of tenancy is where
landlord and tenant share in both management and income, becoming as
it were partners.

FARM TENAMCY 93

§ I. lyENGTH OF TENANCIES.

According to the best information available a tenant stays on a given
farm hardly three years. The share tenants move a little oftener than do
those paying cash. In contrast to the short period of occupancy by ten-
ants the farms operated b^^ owners are held by a given owner probably about
sixteen years. Thus even the owners are not in the habit of staying on the
same farm permanently. It must be remembered that America is a new
country, and that there is still a strong tendency among farmers to move
west and take advantage of the cheaper price of land. Likewise there are
many small farms sold in order to purchase larger ones. As a result the farm
population at best is not extremely stable.

Tenants are continually on the mtDve because of a variety of circum-
stances. Many times it has been said that the short lease is the curse of
American tenant farming. But the short lease is the result rather than the
cause of evils. American farm land has been rising rapidly in value. It has
been, in consequence, for sale. As a result of these facts many a farm chang-
es occupants because of a change in ownership, and the owner, so long as
he holds the farm for sale, is bound to lease it for short periods of time.

Another important cause of short tenures is the fact that the tenants are
themselves developing into farm ow'ners. In the normal course of events
a 3-oung man starts farming on a small scale, and therefore wants a small
farm. A few years later he is better satisfied with a somewhat larger farm,
and hence moves if he finds an opportunity, as he usually does. But fully
as important as the desire to rent a bigger farm is the prospect of owning
a farm for himself. The rate at which tenants become owners is growing
somewhat slower. Nevertheless the great majority of those who stay in the
farming business a lifetime manage by some means to become landowners.
Of all farmers below the age of twenty-five, over three fourths are tenants,
whereas of those over sixty-five years of age about six sevenths are owners.
It is thus plain that the short periods of occupancy of farms by tenants is
in no small measure due to the constant rise of tenant^ to ownership on their
own account.

§ 2. Speculation and tenancy.

Very closely related to length of tenure and to the amount of tenancy
is speculation in land. From the very beginning of the public land policies
of the country speculation on the part of individuals has played a major
role. The cheap government price has alwa\'s been tempting to investors,
and rare indeed is the case of land which has not been held many years
primarih^ for the rise in value. This speculative period has lasted well
beyond the early years when land was cheap, and mainly unused. It pre-

94 UNITED STAGES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

vails to a great extent throughout the country today. The speculator
wants to get what he can out of the land while he holds it and thus puts it
on the market for rent. He is even willing to take a very moderate ren-
tal rather than not let it at all, and above all he will not tie his own hands
with a long lease. In parts of the grain belt where speculation has reached
its greatest development half of the farms are rented. The landlords when
asked whether or not the investment is a paying one are likelj^ to reply that
the rise in land values makes it pay, though rent alone would not. So long
as land continues to rise in value, so long will it be the object of specula-
tion, and so long as non-farmers are tempted to buy it for speculation, so
long again will it be offered for rent. The relationship between specula-
tion and rent is a close one. , I^est the reasoning concerning this point seem
to be unduly deductive it may be said that in the older parts of the United
States, where the rise in values has become much less rapid than formerly,
and especially much less rapid than in the Middle West , the percentage of
tenanc}^ is in the first place lower than a few years ago, and in the second
place decidedly lower than in the latter section. Moreover, in Europe where
farm land is much more stable in value than in America^ tenures are likewise
more stable. So long as there are such splendid opportunities for profitable
investments to be made in American farm lands, there is sure to be a conti-
nuation or even an increase in the proportion of farms owned by one class
and operated by another.

§ 3. Tenancy and types of agriculture.

The evidence is abundant to show that tenancy follows as the natur-
al outcome of conditions, and one of the most important of the conditions
is the character of the agriculture in practice. The tenant is transient.
Consequently he is bound to adapt himself to an environment which ad-
mits of relatively easy shifts. He must get into the routine quickly on
arrival at his new home, and must be able to take his possessions along with
him from the farm he is leaving. This means that he owns relatively little
live stock, that he plants few perennials or biennials, that he invests little
money in fertilizers or sub-soil ploughs. The tenants deal with animals and
crops that can be made to yield their increase within twelve months. In
the truck districts they grow tomatoes, but not asparagus ; potatoes, but
not rhubarb. What the tenant wants is a chance to sow, harv^est and sell,
all within a year. It is therefore not surprising that tenancy is most pre-
valent in the greatest cotton, corn, and wheat districts. In the cotton belt
all things seem to conspire to divorce the ownership from the tillage of the
soil. The crop is given within the year ; it requires but little capital on
the part of the tenant, and but little improvement in the way of buildings
and fences on the part of the land level. In the corn belt the broad acres
capable of cultivation on a wholesale plan, with the prospect of much pro-

FARM TENANCY 95

duce for the market within a few months, appeal strongly to the man who
can command relatively more labour than capital.

The northern tenant is a grain producer and grain seller. He produces
more grain of every kind than is produced by the landowning farmer. This
means that the tenant raises less of the crops vised for feeding young stock,
such as hay and pasture crops. The grain which he raises has two main mar-
kets. One market is the city ; the other is the neighbouring farmer who feeds
stock, feeds more grain than he can raise.

The tenant does not go extensively into such business as dairying
and for very obvious and important reasons. He must have, in order to
do dair3-ing successfully, well equipped barns, milk house, fences and the
like. The landlord does not care to furnish facilities of this kind, especially
the landlord who holds the farm mainly for speculation. Or again the land-
lord who lives at a distance from the farm hesistates to put up man}^ improve-
ments of this kind because of the rapid deterioration in careless hands, and
many tenants are careless with property which is not their own. Another
reason why tenants do not care especially to go into a business like dairying
is because it makes it much harder to move and adjust themselves to farms,
barns, and surroundings, such as they are likely to find in another neigh-
bourhood. By moving they may not only be obliged to put up with equip-
ment less adequate, but they may, by going ten miles, get away from market-
ing opportunities, such as milk routes, creameries, or cheese factories.
The tenant is not a cattle feeder because of lack of capital required in hand-
ling the business, and lack of equipment for handling the cattle and the
feed.

The tenant seldom goes into specialized farming such as fruit growing.
Fruit growing is a continuous process extending over some years. The ten-
ant has no security of tenure such as to warrant investment in trees, shrubs
and labour such as fruit growing requires. Neither does he have charac-
ter, habits and skill so developed as to make it desirable to lease him a
fruit farm which has already been put into shape. The chances are that
he will be much more interested in the crop in sight than in subsequent
harvests. Only two to four per cent, of the citrus fruits are grown by ten-
ants and an unimportant part of the commercially grown apples are so pro-
duced. vSpecialized farming, such as tobacco or vegetable growing, lends
itself very well to tenant conditions, since these crops require little equip-
ment, and but few months.

vSumming up the question of the relation of type of agriculture to
tenancy, it appears that the tenant is an exploiter of the soil. He does a
hand-to-mouth business, and not much may be expected of the farmer
whose interests in the farm begin and end within a space of two or three
years.

Relative Profits Made by Tenants and Landoietning Farmers.

It is usually taken for granted that tenants are poor. As shown above
they have not accumulated a great deal of property from their own opera-
tions. Not a great many young farmers inherit a fortune, and even should

96 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL

they inherit a considerable amount of property it is hkely to fall into their
hands in middle Ufe , not when thej^ are making a beginning as farmers. The
tenant is, without doubt, in most cases a poor man. How^ever,. he is not
doomed to remain a poor man always. Somewhat surprising was the result
of a government sur\'ey made a few years ago into the condition of over
seven hundred representative farmers in several northern States. It appears
from this sur^'e3"[that tenants make a larger labour income than do landown-
ing farmers. This is another way of saying that under present conditions
and circumstances farming as a business does not return a large percentage
on the investment. In other v/ords, land rentals have been capitalized at a
low rate of interest and in consequence land values are high. Rentals do not
rise as readil}- as the selling value of land and, therefore, other things being
equal, it is cheaper to rent land than to bu}^ it. Of course, other things are
by no means equal, and it would be hazardous to say that it is better to rent
than to buy, but it is safe to say that one must pay for the advantages of
owning land. The tenants have more to show for a year's work, so far as
immediate income is concerned, than have farmers who own the bnd they
work. This is true if five per cent, interest be charged on the investment in
land . Turning the problem around, it may be shown that, since the landowner
earns fully as much as a labourer as does the tenant, he has but three to three
and a half per cent, interest on his investment. This suggests strongly that
the prices of land are too high, and that a farmer will do better to rent than
to buy. However, land is stiU rising in value, especially in the parts of the
country where tenancy' is prevalent, and the owner has the advantage of
the increase in value while the tenant does not. Add to this the great ad-
vantage in ha\ang control over the operations of a farm for a considerable
period of years, the satisfaction of staying in one place and building up a
business, and, all told, it suggests caution in advising a man who is able to
buy to refrain from doing so. The labour income of the tenant is indeed
larger than that of the landowning farmer, but the accumulated wealth at the
end of a few years is larger in the case of the landowner.

§ 4. Relation of tenancy to permanent agriculture.

The (H^estion maj' well be asked whether tenancy is or is not compatible
with the maintenance of soil fertility. In England it has been found pos-
sible to keep the soil up to its best over several generations of a landlord-
tenant system. But in England the landlords are neither retired farmers,
hoping to leave as large an estate in immediate value as possible, nor yet
are they speculators who hope to make a sale at an advanced price. The
interest of the landlord in the land is a permanent one, and as a corollary
to this the interest of the tenant in the land is hardly less permanent. The
tenant moves ver\' infrequently and has no hope, usually no desire, to buy
land. As the tenant does desire to have the land continue to yield well.

FARM TENANCY 97

he is willing to make investments to that end, but he does not want to lose
the investment in the event of leaving the farm. In America we have hardh^
reached the point of taking such matters into consideration. First, the land-
lord usually owns the farm but a decade or two, and the soil will not be greatly
depleted in so short a time. Secondly, the tenant who is to stay but a
quarter of a decade can hardly take any profound interest in building up
the soil. Thus the arrangement which most often obtains impels neither
landlord nor tenant to take a great deal of interest in permanent agriculture.
The landlord expects to sell the land ; the tenant expects to leave it. Very
little is invested in fertilizers throughout the grain belt ; the tenant very
rarely puts any sort of improvement upon the land. Hence, there is but
Httle over which to debate concerning rights when the farm changes hands.

It cannot be held that the fertility is being maintained on the great ma-
jority of rented farms. In the very best parts of the country the contrary is
the case. True, the census reports show that tenants raise about as much
grain per acre as is raised by the owners. This is accounted for in part by
the fact that the tenant farms are not a separate group always rented, as
distinguished from another group always operated by owner?. There is a
good deal of interchange. But after all, the fact that the tenants raise about
as much produce per acre as the owners proves too much. The tenant
sells a large part of his produce in the bulky form of field crops, and tliis in
itself must eventually result in soil depletion, The tenant has decidedly less
interest in soil maintenance than has the landlord, and the landlord's in-
terest under present conditions is little enough. When stable values elimi-
nate the speculator, and when few farmers can retire on the strength of unearn-
ed increment gains, then we shall have a class of landlords who take a
more fundamental interest in the soil and likewise a class of tenants who
can afford to co-operate in the up-building of better farming.

The laws at present do not protect the tenant in his right to improve-
ments. On the other hand it is a rare thing for the tenant to wish to make
improvements. He may complain because improvements are inadequate,
he ma}^ urge the landlord to improve; more likely he will move to another
farm if conditions are found to be to bad. But that he should put improve-
ments of anj' sort on the farm will seldom occur to an American tenant.
Should laws be made protecting the tenant in this right, it is more than Ukely
that gradually tenants would begin a new regime of land improvement, but
it would never progress far while the tenure is, on an average, so short.

§ 5. Tenancy and marketing problems.

One of the worst of the tenant evils is the helpless condition in which the
tenant is placed with respect to marketing. It is folly to ])roceed with pro-
cesses leading always to greater production without taking the marketing
possibilities into account. The tenant is a poor bargainer in the market be-

98 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

cause so often he is forced to sell almost immediately. In the South the cot-
ton tenant is nearly always in debt for the supplies of the 3'ear, and his obli-
gations are due i October, or i November. This means that he must sell
his cotton almost at the earliest possible moment after it is harvested. In
farmers' organizations the tenants are very poorly represented. An inves-
tigation made a 3'ear ago showed that in sections of the grain belt, where
tenants are almost as numerous as owners and substantially always
grain sellers, the membership in co-operative companies was but one fourth
tenants. This means that only half as high a proportion of tenants as
owners belonged to the marketing organizations. In other words while ten-
ants seU more grain than owners, there are three owners to one tenant in
the selling company.

Tenants as a class are seldom found in organizations. They do not
join since they are so likely to move, or on account of lack of mone}', or
again on account of indifference.

Tenants are poor community members. It is not their fault alto-
gether but rather the fault of the system. They cannot be good community
members in very solid ways since that implies investment, and for a tenant
to invest in schools, roads or churches means an investment for which he
gets no title. When a farm owner sells out, he sells his right to community
investments along with the farm. When a tenant moves he takes his per-
sonal property along with him, and if he has any interest in community
property he leaves it behind. As a result he is usually careful that little
is created to be so left.

§ 6. The outlook.

What then is the outlook ? Is America doomed to become a nation of
landlords and tenants ? True, the proportion of tenants is on the increase, but
not in quite all sections. Neither is there an increase in tenancy in all
kinds of farming. Another fact that is fairly encouraging is that along with
the increase in tenancy there is little tendency toward centralization in land
ownership. In about 60 per Cent, of the instances of tenanc}^ the owner of
the farm owns but the one. And moreover the tenant farms differ little
in size from owned farms. Thus landlords own but little more land than is
owned by an equal number of landowning farmers. Of course there are
many important and unfortunate exceptions to this. Such exceptions
are found oftener than an^'where else in the cotton belt, where the owner-
ship of several farms by one man is not uncommon.

Tenancy has often been called a step in the agricultural ladder. The
figure of speech is a ver\' good one, since the majorit}' of tenants rise
to owrership. However the step is a more difficult one to take now than it
was a decade or a quarter century ago. Should it continue to become more
difficult for another generation, we must eventually face the fact of a tenant

FARM TEXAXCY 99

class, a class which can hardl^^ be said to exist outside of the coloured popu-
lation of the South.

The tide will turn in favour of ownership if ever we reach the stage where
the speculative value of land disappears ; where few farmers are able to
retire on the basis of wealth accruing through unearned increment ; and
where, therefore, land is worth a sum based on its productivity.

This is on the assumption that a system of agricultural credit favourable
to the farmers will in the meantime be worked out. One of the main rea-
sons why it seems safe to suggest that these conditions will result in owner-
ship rather than tenancy is because it is not likely that an}' S3'stem will soon
be devised whereby the fertility of the soil will be as well conserved under
a tenant system as under a system of ownership.

MISCElvIvANKOUS INFOR]\IATION
REI.ATING TO AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAI,.

AUSTRALIA.

I, AND SETTIvHMENT IN 19 15- 191 6

New South Wales. — The annual report of the Lands Department
for the year ending 30 June 1916 shows that in that 3^ear 2,279,417 acres
of land became available for settlement in New South Wales. Areas
aggregating 1,345,218 acres were withdrawn from long leases and 535,478
acres were resumed. Four estates were acquired under the Closer Set-
tlement Acts. In all thirty-four estates, providing 1660 farms, were ac-
quired. Forty-six of these farms, comprising 41,637 acres, were vacant on
30 June 1916.

The following figures show the progress of settlement on the various
estates acquired under the Closer Settlement Acts : — Number of farms
allotted, 1609 ; area allotted, 748,573 acres ; persons resident, 7,410 ; area
prepared for cultivation, 357,591 acres ; value of improvements, £1,149,802;
value of plant and machinery, £326,844 ; number of horses, 17,584 ; sheep,
191,924 ; cattle 12,610.

The report of the Western Land Board states that, owing to the con-
tinuance of drought and the absence of so many men at the war, there
was little demand for land in the western division. Seven new leases were
issued and concerned an aggregate area of 29,936 acres. The receipts for
the year amounted to £90,073 and the expenditure to £10,518.

Victoria. — As regards Victoria the report of the Lands Department
for the year ending 30 June 1916 states that the absence on mihtary service
of a large proportion of the young men of the State was a grave deterrent
to new settlement. The following figures show its progress in the year :
— 568 holdings aggregating 101,556 acres, exclusive of Mallee land, new-
ly selected ; 238 holdings of Mallee land, aggregating 140,325 acres, newly
selected; 146 holdings aggregating 46,522 acres selected out of grazing
area leaseholds ; 179 holdings aggregating 3,175 acres converted to selec-
tion tenure.

There was an appreciable decline in the demand for Mallee land.

It was hoped in the esaXy part of the year that the exceptionally
large wheat harvest would result in considerable payments of the arrears
of rent due to the department, but against this the war conditions
operated. These arrears on 30 June.1915 were on crown lands, £49,233
i8s. 5^. and on Mallee lands £127,184 is. 5^,; and on 30 June 1916 they
were £45,141 on crown lands and £140,060 on Mallee lands. Not less

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL lOI

than one third of the amount advanced for the purchase of seed and fodder
should have been a charge on the returns of 1915-1916, but the ministry
decided to make no deduction from the advance of 2s. 6d. a bushel, and to
defer the collection of instalments until a further amount, or dividend,
should have been paid. Tliis concession seriously reduced the amount
received as repa3'ment of advances. Up to the end of the financial year
a sum of £95,535 was repaid out of the total sum of money lent in the pre-
vious 3'ear, £516,000. Of the balance one third is payable from the 1916
harvest and one third ma}' be carried on to the next year. For the year
1916 the number of crop liens registered was 3,032.

BRITISH INDIA.

THE COLONIZATION OF CANAL LANDS IN THE PUNJAB. — Van Burren Henry L-
in The Tropical Agrmdturist Vol. XLVII., No. 6, Peradenij'a (Ceylon), December 1916.

The south western Punjab is part of a vast desert which may be said
to extend from the Sahara to Manchuria. It supported only a sparse and
nomadic population until 1849, when the British annexed this part of the
Punjab, and colonization of its desert wastes was not seriously thought of
until 1885 when a policy of canal irrigation was initiated.

Five great perennial canals, which together irrigate a wheat area rather
more than twice the size of Ceylon, were then taken in hand. One of them,
completed in 1892, commands three and a third million acres, three fourths
of such area being State property, and irrigates over two and a half mil-
lion acres a year. The capital expended on it was 300 lacs of rupees (i)
which now bring in interest at the average rate of about 28 per cent. An-
other canal which was finished about 1911 irrigates some three quarters of
a milHon acres and pays interest on the capital invested in it at the rate of
more than 10 per cent.

Before 1892 the population of the Ivyallpur district could not have been
more than 2,000. In 1912 it had increased to over 850,000.

To settle so large an agricultural population was no easy matter. The
problem needed wise statesmanship, a very intimate knowledge of the peas-
ant farmer and his ideas, enthusiasm and a kindly sympathy. That these
are of more importance than the principles on which projects and schemes
were based should be emphasized. Thus Sir James Douie writes : — " The
colonies have been admirable training ground for the ablest of the yoiinger
Punjab officers. It was necessary to give them a pretty free hand, the work
was novel and important, and involved great responsibilities. While he
was controlled from outside, the colony officer inside his colony had to be
a benevolent autocrat. Autocracy is tolerable when the autocrat is con-
tent to be also the servant of liis people, and in this respect the Punjab offi-
cers did not show themselves lacking ".

(i) I lac — • i,oo,oof rupees; i rupee = is \d.

102 NOTICES REIvATlXG TO AGRlCULTUEAIv ECONOMY IX GENERAL

It must not be thought that no mistakes were made, for the problems
were novel and at times very difficult. Nor must it be thought that there
were no setbacks. Plague invaded the province in 1897 and broke out
virulently in the canal districts in 1904 and 1907. Outbreaks of cholera
were also frequent. In 1905 crops were injured by frost and almost the
whole crop of cotton was destroyed by the boll-worm.

The settlement scheme has now passed the experimental stage and
stands out as one of the most notable achievements of British administra-
tion in India.

Sir James I/yaU's name will always be associated with this work. He
gave his conception of a scheme of colonization thus : — " An attempt
should be made to establish estates owned by bodies of peasant propietors.
[The Punjab is chiefly a country of small holdings]. In the eastern part
of the Punjab and in the sub-Himalayan tracts there are found not infre-
quently villages peopled by agrictdturists of the best type, who have in-
creased in numbers until the lands which they own are insufficient for their
support ; often the owners of such estates have been accustomed to culti-
vate as tenants in neighbouring villages. But, owing to the owners of
those villages now requiring the lands for themselves, (they) are gradually
being ejected. It would improve the general condition... if some of the
proprietors would emigrate to other countries... A number of men of
this class might be induced to settle in the Gujranwala Bar by being allowed
to migrate in bodies... formed by themselves, and by the promise on cer-
tain conditions of grants of land ... The experiment might be tried in the
following way.... Go to places in the thickl}' populated districts, where
groups of adjacent villages are owned by men of the same clan, and.... search
among them for men of some amount of enterprise, capital and influence,
and ask such men..... to lead down bodies of men of their own clan to the
government lands irrigated by the canal. Well selected blocks would be
made over to the bodies so migrating. The leader of the colony would
be given an interest in its success not only by receiving a share in the pro-
prietorship but also by his being made headman of the new estate ".

Sir James Lyall thought it " essential to preserve the tradition of the
Punjab as a country of peasant farmers ". He however made three kinds
of grants. " Yeoman grants " were to attract a class above the ordinary
peasantrj^ — the middle class. " Capitalist " holdings were granted so as
to supply " natural leaders for the new society ". It is interesting to note
that yeoman and capitalist grants have been given up. Grants of land
to native officials for meritorious service are condemned as a result of ex-
perience. Grants are occasionally made, however, to members of the her-
editary landed gentry. The peasant farmers' settlements were most suc-
cessful, and from settlers on them leaders and captains of industry are
gradually arising.

The system of allocating land now approved is to give each peasant
a rectangle of twenty-five acres. On fulfilling the conditions of the lease
he can, after five years, acquire a permanent right of occupancy, which can
be converted into ownership if he pay the market value of the land, as de-

NOTICES REI.ATIXG TO AGRICULTRAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL IO3

duced from auction sales, less a fixed percentage. The purchase money
may be paid in instalments which may extend over thirty years. Until
it is paid the settler remains a tenant, and pays R. i an acre, in addition to
water rates, land revenue and cesses.

The pioneering attempts to colonize the land allowed the settler, after
five years and on fulfilling the terms of the lease, to acquire ownership bj^
pa3'ing onl}' Rs. 3 an acre. Subsequent modifications were due to the
eager competition for the land after pioneering difficulties had been over-
come.

Before the land was let out on leases contour maps of the irrigable
lands were made and the areas served b}- separate water-courses defined.
Village areas were made to coincide with water-course areas, and each vil-
lage was subdivided into squares or rectangles which formed the units for
allotment. It was found necessary later also to survey the soil before al-
lotment ; for there must be discrimination between good and mediocre
land and land too poor for cultivation, if it be desired that water-courses
should not be carried uselessly into land not worth irrigating, and many
difficulties raised.

The selection of peasant settlers, their location on the land and care
for their future welfare are by no means the least part of the scheme, but
may on the contrary be said to sum it up. It is to work of the kind which
has been emphasized that the success of this colonization is largely due.

BRITISH WEST INDIES.

THE PROGRESS OF LAND SETTLE:VIENT IN GRENADA.

The Report of the Agricultural Department for 1915-1916 shows con-
siderable activity in Grenada in the matter of land settlement. The gov-
ernment acquired the estate known as the St. Cyr Mountain I^ands, sit-
uated about ten miles from St. Georges, for £2,184, which sum with the
cost of a survey and of road construction and other expenses brought the
total cost up to £3,597-105. The roads for the purpose of giving access from
every lot to the by-ways of the district cost £235 and their total length
was three and a half miles. Their construction, and that of a connection,
one and a half miles long, between the Beauregard and Adelphi by-ways,
were carried out by the Agricultural Department.

Thirty-six lots bear cacao or mixed cacao and nutmeg trees on a quarter
of an acre or more land, on their entire area in only a few cases. Other
eighty- four lots are bus'h or forest land. The average area of a lot is two
acres.

The lots on which there is cacao were sold at from about £14 to £35
an acre, according to the number and condition of the trees ; the unculti-
vated lots at £io-ios and £12 an acre. Purchasers of the more costly
lots, which contained cacao, had to pay a deposit of at least is 3^ and
the balance of the total price in five annual instalments. The uncultiva-

104 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

ted land was sold on the usual land settlement terms. One fourth or one
twelfth of the price was deposited : and the balance is to be paid when a
fourth has been deposited, in nine annual instalments of which the first
falls due three years after the allotment ; and when onh- a twelfth has
been deposited, in eleven annual instalments beginning a year after alio -
ment. Interest is charged on all unpaid instalments at the rate of 5 per cent.

A special committee of the district board of St. Andrew's parish, in
which the settlement is situated, co-operated with the Agricultural Depart-
ment in selecting desirable settlers. Two hundred and ninety-one appli-
cations were considered.

The superintendent's report on the valuation of the lots for sale was
submitted in March 1915. The first applications were dealt with in April,
and by the end of the year under review practically all the lots had been
allotted and occupied. They are. being worked, except a few of those occu-
pied lately, and on some ver>" good progress has been made. These results
are on the whole very satisfactory, and are proof of the activity of the Agri-
cultural Department even in its present understaffed condition.

The estate is well watered by four tributaries of the Fond Perdu River ;
and the climate is damp, the annual rainfall being estimated at 100 inches.
The soil is mostly a fairly deep loam, dark brown in colour, and the subsoil
red clay, interspersed with boulders about two feet below the surface which
crop out here and there. The subsoil is rather close in texture, but the
surface soil is fairly friable and therefore can be improved by tillage and
drainage. It is well suited to the cultivation of ground crops. The cacao
can be considerabh^ improved, particularly b}^ draining the land and ad-
ding organic matter to enhance its permanent fertilit3^ The estate is
fertile except in the south-east corner. It has two warm mineral springs,
one at the west end and one in the river.

FRANCE.

AGRICULTURAL WAGES DURING THE WAR. — Communication mad e by M. Paul
Vincey to the Academic d' Agriculture de France at the meeting of 21 March 1917.

M. Paul Vincey resumes as follows the facts as to the increase in agri-
cultural wages which has occurred during the present war in the district
of Paris, more particularly in the three departments of Seine, Seine-
et-Oise and Seine-et-Marne.

As is the case everywhere in France mobilization has reduced the
available supply of labour by the enormous amount of two thirds, or even
perhaps three fourths.

For reasons easy to understand the production of the labourers who
have remained on the soil or have come to it — old men, women, children,
refugees from the north, soldiers on leave — has also diminished markedly,
apparently by one third as compared with the normal production before
the war.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

105

The following table shows for the three years 1914 (before the war) 1915
and 1916 and the district under consideration the average wages of per-
sons lodged and fed and otherwise, paid by the day, the month and the
piece, and employed on the special works of dressing and uprooting
beetroot and of the hay and corn-harvests.

These wages are paid in the three departments within the district
considered. It should be remembered that in Seine wages are generally
higher and in Seine-et-Marne lower than in Seine-et-Oise, where they
reach an intermediary level.

Agriadiural Wages in the District of Paris.

Class of Labourer

Employees neither lodged
nor fed

Francs (i)

1915

1916

Employees lodged
aud fed

1914

1915

1916

Journeymen

Workmen

Mechanics

Threshers

Smiths, harness- makers, wheel-wrights

Harvesters .
Mowers . .
Ha%Tnakers .

Farm clerks
Ploughmen .
Cattle herds
Shepherds .
Cowmen . .

Farm servants

Men . .
Women

Dressing beetroot

Uprooting beetroot ....'.

Mowing

Harvest {reaping and binding)

Daily

II

10

6

Daily Wages,
6 2

550 2
8.50
6.50
7-50
Wages for Special Work.

450

5.50

6

2

3

4-50

5

5-50

2

2.50

6.50

7-50

8.50

5

5-50

6.50

550

6.50

7-50

13

15

12

14

7

8

Monthly

Wages.

270

300

160

190

170

180

75

90

160

170

75

85

150

160

75

80

155

160

75

80

140

150

65

75

100

no

50

55 1

230
150

140
140

145

130

90

Wages for

3-50
3

70

80

90

60

70

80

30

40

50

60

85

100

210
100

90

85
85
80
60

Piece-Work per Hectare (2)

(i) I franc = 9 3/5 d. at par (2) i hectare = 2.47 acres.

I06 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

These results, which were obtained by a correspondence with persons in
the industry, should be regarded only as giving the averages obtaining in
the Paris district. In manj^ cases the wages in use are above, or below those
in the table.

For a working day the wages given as those of the employees who are
fed are generally less by from 2.50 to 3 francs than those of similar labourers
finding their Own food. It is none the less true that the cost of food rose
progressively from 2.50 francs to 3.50 francs and more for one working
day between 1914 and 1916.

A comparison between daily and monthly wages in 1916 and 1914
shows a general increase of about 33 per cent.

If the diminution already cited in average production be taken into
account, it appears that the real wages of agricultural labour have increas-
ed by about two thirds during the present war.

This is also the rate at which the wages of piece-work, mowing and
harvesting, and in many cases those of dressing and uprooting beetroot,
have increased.

In the Paris district the wages of military labourers — that is of men
on leave or belonging to estabhshments — are as follows :

Balance (every rank) 0.25 francs

Indemnity for clothes 0.25

» » labour 1.65

2.15 francs,

that is 5.15 francs with food which can be valued, on an average, at
3 francs a day.

This rise in the price of labour is certainly the chief factor which has
raised the price of the various agricultural products, as the scarcit}^ of
labour is chiefl}'- responsible for the progressive diminution of agricultural
production.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRKLAND.

WOIVCEN WORKERS ON THE FARM. — Agricultural Gazette, London, Vol. LXXXIV,
No. 2243, 25 December 1916.

The suitability of women to perform many of the branches of farm
and horticultural work was recognized at an early date of the war, and in
order to promote their employment special steps were taken by the Board
of Trade, acting in conjunction with the Board of Agriculture. The pro-
gress made in the substitution of women for men in agriculture has been
slow, and is in no way commensurate with that achieved in industrial

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL IO7

and commercial occupations. The difficulties attendant on the work have
been most serious. Prejudice on the part of the farmers, reluctance on the
part of the women, insufficiency of housing accommodation, lowness of
wages, have all proved serious obstacles.

To try to overcome these difficulties, a campaign of propaganda work
was instituted in the spring of 1915 by .the Board of Agriculture and the
Board of Trade. As a result of the combined action of the boards, local
voluntary committees, known generally as Women's County War Agri-
cultural Committees, have been formed. At the present time there are
sixty-three such committees, whose function is :

i) To carry on propaganda work to promote the employment of
women in agriculture.

2) To register women, and arrange for placing them in work and for
their training where necessary.

3) To increase the production of home-grown food in ever3^ village.
The organization which it has been sought to establish has been in

the nature of a county committee working through local committees or
village registrars — the usual procedure being to divide the county into
districts, each having a representative. The representatives form the
county committee, in charge of the general organization, and each of
them is responsible for the work carried on in liis or her own localitj^ by
means of a district committee or a registrar, or both, appointed in each
village. There are now 1,060 district representatives and 4,000 village
registrars. In some cases the Women's County Committees have a separ-
ate existence, although they work in co-operation with the men's County
War Agricultural Conmiittees, called into being by Lord Selborne in
August 1915. In others they are sub-committees of the War Agricultural
Committees.

A certificate has been issued to workers at the discretion of the
committees, at the time of registration or only after proved service, or in
some cases not at all. After the)' have completed thiity da^-s' service on
the land, registered women are entitled to wear a government armlet of
green baize which bears the royal crown in scarlet. 72,021 certificates
and 62,000 armlets have been issued.

It has been very difficult to obtain statistics from the committees
and such as the}- have supplied are not reliable. The approximate returns
indicate that nearly 140,000 women have been registered, including all
who have volunteered both for whole and for part time service. In cer-
tain counties — as Northumberland, Wilts, Devon, Kent and parts of lyin-
colnshire — and also in Wales, women have always been on the land in
large numbers, and many of these do not care to register as they think
that by so doing they may make themselves liable to some form of com-
pulsory' service. In one of the divisions of Lincolnshire, for instance,
599 women have been returned as registered and 2,041 as working ; and in
many villages the registrars can give no accurate idea of the number
working as the farmers so frequently make their own independent
arrangements. It appears that the comparatively small demand by

I08 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

farmers for the service of women up to the last few months has been
due in the main to the following reasons :

(i) The number of farm labourers exempted.

(2) The fact that the shortage of labour has been largely met by :

a) Release of soldiers.

b) Release of school children.

c) Increased use of machinery

d) A lower standard of cultivation.

(3) The unwillingness on the part of large numbers of farmers to
employ women.

(4) The diflficulty of providing accommodation for imported women.
The housing problem in rural districts, alread}' existent before the war,
has been much intensified by the fact that the wives and families
of men who joined the colours have been permitted to remain in their cot-
tages. The result of this has been that the farmer has often been unable
to replace the men either by other men or by women.

The work undertaken bj^ the woman worker on the land is of a diverse
character, and includes some occupations which do not in any wa3', as a
rule, fall witliin the women's province.

The following is a list of occupations in which women have been and
are now engaged in various parts of the country : —

I. General farm work — (a) cleaning land ; {b) stone picking; (c) weed-
ing ; (d) thistle cutting ; (e) manure spreading ; (/) singling and hoeing
turnips ; (g) potato setting and lifting ; and (/?) vegetable planting and
transplanting. 2. Milking. 3. Stock tending and rearing. 4. Butter mak-
ing. 5. Cheese making. 6. Poultry rearing. 7. Haymaking. 8. Har-
vesting, g. Sheep shearing. 10. Thatching. 11. Stacking. 12. Plough-
ing. 13. I.oading and unloading. 14. Threshing. 15. Fruit picking
16. Hop picking. 17. Reed stripping. 18. Bark puling. 19. Timber
felling. 20. Gardening — (a) jobbing ; (b) market gardening ; (c) domestic
gardening ; {d) cultivating allotments and waste land ; and {e) co-
operative gardening.

The experience gained during the war goes to prove that some
women can do an>i;hing and everything on the land, and do it well, but
that the average woman is useful chiefly for occupations i to 7 and for
15, 16 and 20. In numbers 2 and 3 they have shown themselves very
successful.

ITALY.

1. THE INSTITUTION OF A NATIONAL, I^ABOUR EXCHANGE. — L'Umanitaria, Mi-
lan, No. I, 31 January 191 7.

In order to provide for the placing of the labour belonging especially to
agricultural and public works, the demand for which occurs now in one and

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRlCUI,TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAl, lOQ

now in another district, tlie Socield Umaniiaria of J\Iilan has instituted h^-
bour exchanges for peasants which complete the organization of the urban
labour exchanges, and also — in co-operation with the office of Emigration
— has set up a National lyabour Exchange called the Ufficio Ncizionale di
CoUocaDiento. The essential task of the latter is the placing of groups of
labourers, that of isolated labourers being left to the office at IMilan even if
the demand comes from elsewhere.

The exchange places labour in Italy exclusively : outside Ital}^ this func-
tion, in view of the necessity of estimating local conditions, belongs to the
Office of Emigration. The exchange collects offers of labour by the medium
of the sections of the Socield Umaniiaria, the local labour exchanges, the sec-
retariats of emigration, the offices and chambers of labour, the trade organi-
zations, and — where such associations and institutions are lacking — by
means of correspondence. By the medium of such bodies or otherwise it
should methodically collect the available labour supply. It provokes
demands for lal;our, causing them to be directed to itself as much as possible
and therefore maintaining constant relations with the ambulant chairs of
agriculture, agricultural associations and committees, and — for the period
of the war — with the provincial conmiissions of agriculture. In placing
labour it takes into account the condition of laboiirers in the districts
w^hence there is emigration, as well as unemployment in the various provin-
ces, and seeks to form squadrons of labourers whose techniqvie and territorial
origin give them homogeneity. It aims at the regvilation of conditions of
labour by written contracts. In the case of a strike or a lock-out the
placing of labour is interrupted. The exchange inspects places of employ-
ment when necessary, either before labour is allocated or while work is in
course.

It proposes further to contribute, as suitably as possiljle and in har-
mony with the work developed b}' the Socield Umanitaria, to raising the
moral and intellectual standard of labourers in employment, and to
spreading a knowledge of laws affecting labour, thrift, etc.

There is at the exchange a commission of consultation and vigilance
constituted by a representative of the general confederation of labour, a
representative of the federation of labourers on the soil, a representative
of the building federation and a representative of the secretariats of emigra-
tion. This commission meets at lea.st once in every three months, when it
takes note of the work which has been done, makes suggestions for the bet-
ter working of the exchange, and sees that labour is placed in the best con-
ditions.

2. A GENERAI^ COMMISSARIAT FOR FOOD CONSUMPTION. — Gazzctta Uficiale del
Regno d'ltalia, Rome, No. 21, 26 Janiiarj^ I'ji/-

To guarantee to the policy with regard to consumption the largest, the
most prompt and the most effective development, in relation to the neces-

I ro NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAI,

sities arising out of present circumstances, a lieutenant's decree of i6 Jan-
uary 1917 (no. 76) has provided that the powers of the government to
regulate the consumption of food shall be exercised for the duration of the
war by a committee composed of the Ministers of Agriculture, of the Interior,
of Marine and Railwaj' Transport and of War, and a minister without a
portfolio.

As the organ of this committee of ministers, and dependent on it, a
general commissariat for food consumption has been instituted and has the
following duties : a) to requisition for the needs of public administrations and
the civil population merchandise and if necessary producing establishments,
fixing prices and the amount of compensation to be paid for the requisition ;
b) to fix the maximum prices at which foods may be sold to the public and
see that they are applied ; c) to supply imported and requisitioned mer-
chandise to be sold to the public by the mediimi of local public admini-
strations ; d) to authorize the eventual constitution of autonomous bodies
of consumers (i) ; e) to regulate the sale and consumption of merchanchse
of which there is a manifest shortage.

The general commissariat takes the action necessary to the fulfil-
ment of these ends and watches over the execution of all measures tending
to regulate the consumption of food. It can issue ordinances for the exe-
cution of provisions regarding consumption, and can decide on an}^ measure
thus rendered necessary, according to the resolutions of the majority of the
aforesaid committee of ministers to which it is directly responsible. Prefects
and all local authorities must execute the ordinances and pro\nsions thus
issued. Finally the commissariat can act towards the two houses of parlia-
ment as a government commissary, in conformity with the statutes of the
kingdom.

3. THE PROTECTION GIVEN BY THE PROVINCE OF FI^ORENCE TO THE ORPHANS
OF PEASANTS KII,I,ED DURING THE WAR. — L'Agricoltura Toscana, Florence,
No. 4, 28 Febraury 1917.

Readers of this Review know that last December there was formed in
Rome the Opera nazionale per gli orfani dei contadini morti in guerra, which

(i) The autonomous bodies of consumers are constituted and financed by the local admin-
istrations, the co-operative societies, the institutions of credit and individuals, and are destin-
ed to exercise a healthy and moderating influence and even to compel private dealers to lower
prices. The commissariat of which we have spoken facilitates their task in every way for it
hopes to profit by the effect of their action. There are already such bodies in the pro\'iuces
of Genoa, Rome, Piacenza, Portomaurizio, Siena, Mantua, Aquila, lyucca, Cosenza, Turin,
Ascoli-Piceno, etc., and many others are in course of formation. In order to hasten their legal
recognition the government has issued special rules and instructions. By force of the lieute-
nant's decree of 11 April 1917, no. 85, the acts of their constitution are exempt from the stamp
and registration duties ; and all other acts which thej' may pass after their constitution are
subject to the ordinary stamp duties and are registered on payment of the fixed duty of 2.70
liias (i lira = 9 ^/g d at par).

NOTICES RlCr,AT[NG TO AGRICUI.TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL III

aims at promoting in Italy a complete and vast organization for helping
the orphans of peasants killed in the war and giving them an agricultural
training. The basis of this organization is the foundation — already accom-
plished — in the respective Italian provinces of special protecting
agencies (i) which propose in general to assist the orphans in two ways : to
increase a widow's pension when that paid by the State is insufficient, as
when the number of children is excessive ; and to see that the orphans
have suitable instruction in agriculture and the necessary education, receiving
them, when they cannot be maintained in their families or by their mothers,
in special institutions — agricultural colonies — in which an agricultural
training is given so essentially practical that they return to the soil
capable of improving it and increasing its production (2).

Recently, by a prefectoral decree of 27 January 1917, there was con-
stituted the Patronato provincialc per gli orfani dei contadini morti in
guerra which has its headquarters at Florence. It proposes to assist the
orphans of peasants who have died on the field or in consequence of the
state of war ; and small labourer proprietors and leaseholders, as well as
labourers habituall}^ employed on fieldwork, are assimilated to peasants.
The assistance takes the form of a) guardianship of rights and interests ;
h) responsibility for the upbringing, education and instruction adapted to
the childrens' condition and the kind of agriculture they will practise. Mor-
al assistance will be given to all the orphans, material assistance to the most
needy of them. To reach its ends this protective agency will secure that the
orphans are as a rule left in their own families, and are entrusted, when these
are non-existent or offer insufficient moral guarantees, to parents belonging
to the colony or other colonists' families. The agency will promote the
formation of special local committees. For its working expenses it disposes
of: a) the eventual returns on its capital ; b) the annual contributions of
its members ; c) subsidies ; d) eventual donations, legacies, temporary allo-
cations and extraordinary income. The agency has the following catego-
ries of members: a) ordinary members who engage for three years to pay at

(i) Certain of the 69 protective agencies for the oq^hans of peasants killed in the war, al-
ready formed in all the provinces of Italy, own a capital of more than 500,000 liras, accumulated
bj^ means of contributions from the provinces, the communes, individuals and various corpora-
tions ; and others have already ensured an annual budget of more than 50,000 liras. We sig-
nalize the instance of Parma. Among the provinces Verona has already voted a budget for
the orphans of 100,000 liras, Mantua one of 100,000 liras, Vicenza oneof 20,000 liras, etc. For
the organization of the agencies for protecting the orphans of peasants killed in the war see an
article by Alfredo F.^race in the Niiova Antologia, Rome, No. 1085, i April 191 7.

(2) We would cite in particular the Colonia Agricola Provincialc del Foresta. This arose
by the initiative of the provincial administration of Mantua which placed at the colony's
disposal a holding of 37 hectares (i hectare = 2.47 acres), and a fund of 100,000 liras,
which the communes and the local bodies were called upon to form. See in this connection
Gli orfani contadini, the monthly bulletin of the Opera nazionale, Rome, no. 1,15 January 1917.
Recently the Colonia Agticola \'icentina has also been formed with a capital of 514,000 liras
arising partly out of unsolicited private contributions. See in this connection L'.4i,'/7'co^/Mra
Vicentina, No. 2, 31 January 191 7.

112 >;OTICES RELATING TO AGRICUI.TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

least 10 liras a year ; b) perpetual members who make one payment of at least
100 liras ; c) members of merit who make an annual grant to the agency of
at least 300 liras. The administration belongs to a directing council which
has fifteen members.

4. A PROVINCIAL LABOUR OFFICE AT ROJME.

•

On 25 February 191 6 the provincial council of Rome resolved to insti-
tute a pro^dncial labour office, and charged a special commisssion to draw
up the necessary rules. These rules, which have been approved, define the
following as the aims of the new office : the study of the various manifesta-
tions of the economic, agricultural and industrial life of the province and the
compilation of relevant statistics ; the study and regulation of the deplace-
ment of the rural population with a view to facilitating the allocation of
labour ; the observation, in the interest of labour, of the phenomena of
labour and relative legislative measures, with a view to taking any action
which may be demanded ; tlie study of the conditions of hygiene enjoyed
by the labouring classes, both urban and rural, with a view to promoting
measures fitted to combat the diseases which attack them ; co-operation in
the progressive improvement of labour, technical and economic, and
encouragement of the adoption of contracts better fitted to the special con-
ditions of the different districts ; conciliatory action when controversies
arise between employers and labourers, especially where iisi civici are con-
cerned, and interv^ention by arbitration at the request of the conflicting par-
ties ; the promotion of direct grants of land for cultivation ; vigilance for the
observation and application of laws for improvements ; and finally vigilance
for the observation of labour legislation.

In exercising its functions this office will co-ordinate its efforts with those
of the National Office and the Communal Office of Labour.

RUSSIA.

I. GOVERNMENT AID TO HOME INDUSTRY. npaBiiTe.ibCTBeHHMii B-fecTHiiKB

(Gorernment Ma.'icna'^y) No. 231, 39 October-ii November 1916, Petrograd.

Home industries, called in Russian Kustdrnoje proiswodstivo (KusT =
shrub, bush), have spread chiefly over the middle and northern districts
of the Russian kingdom, those governments namely of which the soil is
not black earth — Moscow, Tvjer, Tula, Nishni^Novgord, Vjatka etc : —
and are practised by the peasants either as accessories to farming
or as independent callings. They include a whole series of different
and numerous forms of production : woodwork and skilled woodcutting ;

NOTICES REIvATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAI, II

the production of linen, silk, laces and cotton ; the production of fur,
leatherv\^ork, metalwork, the production of fanc}' articles, work in horn,
potten,' etc.

Present circumstances have brought certain of these industries more
or less into the foreground and somewhat overshadowed others, thus ad-
justing all of them to the present demands of the countr}-. The total value
of the articles annually produced by home industry is about two thousand
million roubles (i) and is therefore a very important element in Russian
political economy.

Home industry is in Russia as ancient as agriculture, but it became
an object of State care onl}^ in the seventieth year of last century, when a
special commission for its study was established in the Council of Trade
and Industr5^

In 1888 the regulation of home industry was subjected to the supreme
authority of the Ministry of the State Domains ; and in 1894 to that of the
reorganized ]\Iinistr\' of Agriciilture, where a committee for home industry
was called into being as part of the lately founded Section for Agriculture
and Agricultural Statistics. This supreme authority is very notably sup-
ported by the public corporations — the zemstvos, the agricultural societies
and the local committees established in various places.

The annual grants of the government to home industry have reached
considerable sums of late years, as appears from the following figures :

Year Roubles

1888 30,000

1903 100,000

1909 492,415

19^0 773,547

I9II 1,045,826

I916 2,429,699

For 1917 the Ministry of Agriculture is asked to give 2,459,734 rou-
bles.

The raising of the standard of the technique of production by home
industry and its development form a constant aim : trade and industrial
schools are founded ; large workshops are set up ; courses of instruction
are given ; museums are established ; and exhibitions are held. In '1912
there were 120 such exhibitions. The admission to the all-Russian exhibi-
tions held in Petrograd in 1902 and 1913 was of particular interest. The
formation of co-operative societies for collective supply and marketing
among those engaged in home industries, the Kiistari, is also forwarded
by the Section for Agriculture and Agricultural Statistcs.

In order to render possible the marketing of the products of home in-
dustry abroad, a representative of the section was sent with specimens of
these products to the United States at the end of 1915. Already orders

(i) I rouble = about 2s. i ^Ind. at par.

114 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

have come- from America for articles of an artistic kind produced by home
industry, and a connection has successfully been made with two large Amer-
ican firms which have undertaken to market and to popularize goods so
produced. In the spring of 1916 the section sent samples of them to the
Lyons market, with most fruitful results. An important future market has
thus been certainly secured.

In the course of years an office of intelligence and information is to be
established in Petrograd, where collections of samples and illustrated cat-
alogues will be found, and where all the conditions of the trade and other
information regarding home industry will be comnumicated to those inter-
ested. It is also considered necessary to found in Paris a depository of
specimen articles in which direct orders will be taken. Everything pro-
mises that such a depository will have a practically certain commercial
success. The experience gained in Paris will lead to the formation of a scien-
tifically organized market in England, in which only the articles for which
there is a demand will be supplied. So soon as this organization of markets
begins to develop on the right lines, indicated by the government depart-
ment, the supreme authority will leave the further conduct of the enter-
prise to the zemstvos, who will develop still more the market for the arti-
cles produced and trace new paths for home industry.

2. THE SETTIyEMENT OF KIRGHIZ NOMADS ON THE STEPPES OF TURKESTAN.
— HaBtcTiH SoMCKaro (JrAiiaa {Bulletin of the Division of the Zemstvos), No. 10, Octo-
ber, 19 1 6, Petrograd.

Since the colonization of districts of Central Asia with settlers from
European Russia has progressed, and railways have ensured the country's
economic development, the Kirghiz — once the sole inhabitants of the
vast regions of Turkestan — have little by little begun to abandon their
nomadic life and settle down on the soil.

Migration having been rendered more difficult by the establishment
of the Russian colonies, the Kirghiz learnt how to till and cultivate tlie
soil from the colonists and were converted to faith in the advantages of
agriculture. First owners of tents and then whole villages asked the au-
thorities to assign to them in full ownership clearly determined lots of agri-
cultural land, to be held by the same legal forms as those of the Russian
colonists. Consequently in igo8 the Council of Ministers decided to orga-
nize the lands to be colonized in Turkestan so that they might be available
not only for Russian colonists but also for the Kirghiz, and to give equal
rights to ±he two peoples.

This measure was at first adopted only in the district of Cokcetav.sc
in the province of Acmolinsc, but its application was extended on 8 June
1909 to the other provinces of Turkestan.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL. ECONOMY IN GENERAL II5

The lots were allocated b}^ a special office within the Mnistry of Agri-
culture and b}' temporary commissions on which the leaders of the peasants
and of the Kirghiz were represented. A grant to one man might not be of
more than fifteen deciatines (i) of land admitting of cultivation.

734 allotments had been made on 31 December 1915 of a total area of
3,350,226 deciatines, of which 2,133,338 deciatines admitted of cultivation.
On the land so granted 174,363 Kirghiz men — or 8 per cent, of the male
Kirghiz nomad population — had been settled.

SWEDEN.

THE AGRICULTURAL LABOUR SUPPLY IN 1915. -— Sverigcs Officiella StaUstik: Arbe-
tartillgdng, atbctsiid och arbdslon inoni Sveriges jadbruk dr 1915 (Swedish Official Stati-
stics : The Labour Supplj^ in relation to the Need and Duration of Work and to Wages
in Swedish Agriculture in 191 5) Stockholm, 191 6.

The official enquiry as to the relation between the labour supply,
and wages and the duration of the working day in Swedish agriculture
in 1915 followed the same plan as in 1914, and made use of similar docu-
ments, namely fairly detailed forms of questions which were filled up by
the }/residents of communal assemblies in 2,206 rural communes, that is
in 94.4 per cent, of those comprised by the enquiry.

The first question on these forms concerned the proportions of the
labour suppl}^ in each rural commune. The answer should have been a
general estimate, and should have indicated whether the agricultural la-
/ourers domiciled in the place, or returning to it regularly, would ensure
/sufficient labour for all the coming agricultural operations. The material
collected shows that in 194 of the communes making returns, that is in 8.8
percent, of them, the labour supply was good, in 1,485 or 67.3 per cent,
of them it was sufficient and in 513 or 23.3 per cent, insufficient, while 14
or 0.6 per cent of them thought themselves unable to answer with cer-
tainty. As compared with those of the previous year these figures show
a slight diminution in the proportions of the labour-supply — evidently
due to the fact that the industrial depression produced after the outbreak
of war in the autumn of 1914, which caused the supply of labour on the
agricultural market to be abundant, has, it seems, gradually ceased to be
felt.

The proportions of the labour supply in the various districts were
very different. But the figures which indicate the number of communes
in the different departments in which the labour supply was inadequate
do not allow certain conclusions to be made as to the greater or less
number of labourers in each department in relation to the cultivated area.
What is abo\-e all reflected in these figures is the greater or less progress
of agricultural organization in -different places, and the greater or less abil-

(i) I deciatinc — 2.69 acres.

Il6 NOTICES RELATI^:G to AGRlCUIvTURAI, ECONOMY IN G ENERAi

itj' of the employers to reduce work by using machinery and means of
transport, and to make shift with the labour at their disposal by gener-
alh" economical farming.

The information given as to the hours and division of labour concerns
onh* the working-day in agriculture proper, that is to say field-work, work
in barns and on threshing-floors., etc. ; and does not appl}" to persons
tending beasts, who have a considerably longer working day, chiefly pass-
ed in stables and byres.

Further as regards agriculture proper the figures supplied concern
onl}' the hours of work in summer, this word being taken in the question-
form- to cover the full agricultural season, that is the three summer months
in which labour generall}' begins earliest and ends latest. As the days
shorten the duration of the agricultural working day graduall}- lessens
until it has come to be less by several hours than in summer.

The gross average length of a summer working-day in the whole
country, that is to say the day including inter\'als for rest, is twelve hours
and a half ; that of the intervals is two hours and twelve minutes ; and the
average net working day is therefore one of ten hours and eighteen minutes.
During the five 3'ears during which enquiries as to agricultural labourers
have been made, it has been impossible to ascertain what changes in these
conditions are due to the whole organization of agricultural labour and
therefore more or less constant.

The duration and di^dsion of labour differ in the various parts of the
country. If its net duration be principally considered it is seen that there
are in Sweden three zones in which this is less than or equal to the average
ascertained for the whole country- ; the zone, namely, which comprises the
three departments {Idn) of Southern Sweden and the department of Kalmar,
the zone formed by the departments of Gothemburg and Bohus, and that
which comprises the large district of Central Sweden, extending inclusively
from the department of Kopparberg to that of East Gothland. In the
rest of the country the working day is relatively long.

The usual price of labour differs much with districts. Taking the
country as a whole, however, the case, is as follows :

As regards the class of labourers most important to agriculture on
a small scale — unmarried men and women permanently employed — the
paATnent consists in annual mone}^ wages and food and lodging. The
amount of these several forms of renumeration varies greatly with districts
but the average for the whole country of the annual wage of a ser\'ing man
is 343 crowns (i) in money, liis food is valued at 412 crowns or 1.13 crowds
a day, and his total wage is therefore 755 crowns a 3'ear. For a woman
the correspondent averages are 212 crowns, 335 crowns (0.92 crowns a da3')
and 547 crowns. Especial^ in Norrand clothes are also given and their
value is sometimes considerable.

Labourers who are generallj- married, and who under the name of
stature (agricultural labourers receiving mixed wages) work on the large

(i) I Swedish crowu of gold = about i s. i ^|^d. at par.

NOTICES REI^ATING I,0 AGRICUI^TURAI^ ECONOMY IN GENERAI, II7

properties in the agricultural districts properly so-called, receive, in ad-
dition to their annual wages averaging 346 crowns, a payment in kind call-
ed stat, which consists of milk, corn, potatoes, etc., and they are lodged
together with their families ; so that the average return they receive for
their work is 883 crowns a 3'ear, according to the estimate of those who
have furnished these data. The figure comprises the value of a free cot-
tage, which in South Sweden generally has two rooms and a kitchen and in
the rest of the country a single room. The average vahie of such lodging
is estimated at 68 crowns and that of free fuel at 53 crowns. These data do
not hovever concern the ordinary ploughmen. The labourers who tend
live stock receive larger money wages and sometimes also larger wages
in kind, so that their annual earnings are placed at 939 crowns.

Besides these labourers receiving mixed wages {stature) there are jour-
neymen workmen permanently employed, who are paid entirel}^ or al-
most entirely in money and whose daily wage varies much with districts.
Its average amount is 2.72 crowns in summer and 2.07 crowns in winter,
but is less by the average sums of 0.84 crowns and 0.76 crowns in these
respective seasons, if the workman be fed by his employer.

Besides these journeymen workmen, habitually engaged for a year or
at least for six months by one employer, there are agricultural labourers
who take work now for one and now for another, according to the needs
of the moment. In summer the daily wage of one of these casual labourers
averages 3.13 crowns, in winter 2.34 crowns, if he find his own food. If he
be fed by his employer he is paid on an average 2.18 crowns in summer
and 1.55 crowns in winter.

Among the workpeople paid by the day there are also a large num-
ber of women, who help in beetroot and potato-growing, in the hay and corn
harvest, etc. They receive on an average 1.7 1 crowns for a summer day's
work, or 1.16 crowns with food, if they are considered as part of the farm's
fixed staff. For casual work they receive a little more, namely on an
average for the whole country 1.87 crowns without and 1.29 crowns with
food. In the winter months their wages diminish markedly as do also
those of the men in the same category.

A general comparison between wages in 1915 and in the years from 1911
to 1914 — if men tending live stock and receiving mixed wages, whose
pay owing to their remuneration in kind remains almost stationar3^ be
excepted — shows that wages of agricultural labourers of all categories
increased by from 3.3 to 6.5 per cent, in 1914-1915, by from 5.2 to 10. i
per cent, in the years from 1913 to 1915 and by from 10.2 to 18. i per cent,
in those from 1911 to 1915. The increase seems to have been particularly
marked in the case of the journeymen and the women employed ])erma-
nently. On the other hand if total remuneration in money and kind be
considered the greatest increase is seen to have been in the case of the la-
bourers receiving mixed wages [stature) and the other agricultural labotir-
ers who are paid chiefly in products in kind, for the price of most provi-
sions has risen considerably owing to the international crisis. Thus in
1914-1915 the value of wages in kind rose by about 13 per cent, and

Il8 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

from 1913 to 1915 by 37 per cent, which makes the increase in the value
of the total wages of the stature labourers 9 per cent in 1914-1915 and 23
per cent, from 1913 to 1915. Compared therefore with the journeymen
or with industrial workers they were much better paid than in the pre-
vious year.

UNITED STATEvS.

LAND vSETTLEMENT IN CALIFORNIA.

The progress of land settlement in California is revealed by a report
lately rendered by the ComiTiission on I,and Colonization and Rural Credits.

CaHfornia has had no State land policy. The subdivision of land for
settlers, the character of the settlers, the kind of agriculture and the con-
ditions of purchase of land have all been left to unregulated private enter-
prise. There has been neither public control of the selection of coloni.sts,
to insure their being effective agents of rural development, nor public scru-
tiny of the soil and conditions of purchase, to render it certain that colonists
find an opportunity rather than a temptation.

The State has an immense area of fertile and unpeopled land, only
11,000,000 acres out of the 28,000,000 acres of farm land being cultivated.
Yet comparatively^ few settlers are going to the country and many who
have arrived in recent years have left. Neither costly advertising nor
still more costly personal solicitation has served to attract colonists. Pro-
gress in the country has not kept pace with progress in the towns ; for in
the five years from 1910 to 1915 the gain in population of Californian cities
and towns was three times that of the countr3\

The principal causes of the arrested development seem to be the high
prices of land, the high rates of interest and the short terms for payment
given in colonization contracts. Under these contracts it is practically
impossible to earn the money required to pay for a farm in the time usually
given. Many also complain that opportunities have been so exaggerated
and the expenses of developing a farm so minimized, that settlers have been
induced to undertake what on trial has proved to be impossible.

It is to the interest of the whole State that its fertile lands should be
cultivated and active colonization promoted. A large share of the meat
consumed and many other farm products are now bought abroad ; and in-
creased production would lessen the cost of living and keep at home money
now sent out of the country to pay for food. Moreover the great proper-
ties which are owned by non-residents and cultivated by tenants or by
nomadic and unsatisfactory hired labour ought to be subdivided and culti-
vated by residents. From statistics furnished by the tax commissioner
it appears that 310 landed proprietors own over 4,000,000 acres of land
suitable to intensive cultivation and capable of supporting a dense popu-
lation. This land would make 10,000 forty-acre farms. One firm owns

NOTICES REI,ATING TO AGRICUI^TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL IIQ

nearly i, 000,000 acres ; one railroad owns 500,000 acres ; in Kern county
1,000,000 acres — or more than half all the land in private ownership —
are owned by four companies. The evils of such ownership are every
year becoming more apparent. At one end of the social scale there are a
few rich men who as a rule do not live on their estates, at the other a shif-
ting body of farm labourers or a farm tenantr}-, made up largely of aliens
and taking small interest in the progress of the communit3^ The interests
of political stability, of agriculture and of society require that this inheri-
tance from a Mexican land system and from former land laws of the United
vStates be abolished.

In California settlers have to pay for farms in periods of from three to
ten years, while in other countries periods of from thirty to seventy-five
years have been found necessary. Consequently a settler without a large
cash capital or some income from another source has not been able to buy
a farm. The Commissioners did not discover a single instance of a settler
who brought with him only the limited capital required by State systems
in other countries and was able to pay for his land within the time agreed
upon in his contract.

The experience of practical^ every colonization company, no matter
how successful, has been that it would have been better for both the set-
tler and the company if the original enterprise had been organized on a fi-
nancial basis giving the settler more money for improvements and a longer
time in which to pay for his farm.

Dealers in real estate flocked from the overdone and less profitable
fields of the Middle West, not to develop agriculture in California but to
exploit it. It was the paradise of the boomer because it stands alone as
regards rural advantages and attractions : in no other State can such a
wide range of products or so many highly priced products be grown ; no
other State affords the farmer or fruit grower an equal opportunity to exer-
cise intelligence and scientific knowledge in planning his work.

But more is necessary for good results than a subdivision of farms and
an inflation of land prices. Not every man is suited to becoming an orange
grower or has the habits of careful thoroughness needed in intensive agricul-
ture of any kind. To create communities like P.edlands in th^ south or the
Santa Clara Valley in the north workers of superior intelligence are requir-
ed. If they be not already trained they must be willing to undergo ap-
prenticeship in a most exacting form of agriculture which makes far great-
er demands on knowledge and skill than do the fertile corn and wheat
growing States of the Middle West.

The best results in California can only be secured when colonization
is carried out in accordance with carefully thought out plans, aimed at the
creation of a definite form of agriculture or horticulture. This fact was
not recognized b}' the speculative colonizing agent, who gave no more
thought to the welfare of the community or the ultimate results of his en-
terprise than he would have done had he been buying or selling grain or
coal. Land was to him merchandise to be bought at the cheapest price
and sold for as much money as the settler could be induced to pay.

120 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Relatively few of the men engaged in this business were knowingly
dishonest but the majority of them were unthinking and ignorant. They
did not know, and apparently did not care to know, how settlers were to
obtain mone}' to improve and equip the farms sold to them or how they
were to earn a living income. The prosperity of the settler was his own
affair. The land agent's business was to make money out of him rather
than to make money for him.

An instance of the extent to which the land agent inflated prices is the
case of a wheat ranch which was bought for seven dollars an acre. The
buyer organized a syndicate composed of himself and his typist to which
he sold the land for § loo an acre. Then as a syndicate he subdivided
it and sold it to settlers for S 200 an acre. No settler who paid this outra-
geous price could earn either its amount or the interest on it out of the soil.
Yet sales of this character were made with ease. In part this was due to
the fact that many of the buyers were also speculators. The}' were given
evidence that land bought for seven dollars an acre was selling for § 200 an
acre ; the prediction was made — and did not seem incredible — that next
year it would sell for S 400 an acre. The air was full of stories of the mil-
lions made b}'' subdividing land.

This speculative colonization, which began about 1900 and culmina-
ted about fifteen years later, has now run its course. It worked infinite
harm to many honest and industrious but over-sanguine and credulous set-
tlers. It interrupted and changed the conservative and successful develop-
ment which was in process when it began. It has enabled non-resident
speculators to take away from the State millions of dollars as the profits
of the unwarranted inflation of prices ; and it has caused or will cause anx-
iety and heavy losses to man}^ landowners who depend on the paying off
of mortgages b)^ settlers having neither capital nor experience. A legacy
of high land prices has been left to the State ; and it threatens to be a heavy
economic burden, for practical and experienced farmers wiU not come to
California if land of equal productive value in other States be cheaper.

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INTERKATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai. Intelligence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BUXLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXVII.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 5

:SL\Y, 1917.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE

1917

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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXVII.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 5

MAY, 191 7.

ROME

PRINTING OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE
IQI7

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION.

BEi<GiUM.
The Activity of thf. Belgian Boerenbond in kjis Pai^e i

Denmark.
The Activity OF THE Royal Society OF Danish Agriculture IN 1015-1916 . . Page 9

Great Britain and Irei^and.

The Agricultural Organization Society in England and Wales Pa^c 15

§ I. Introduction, page 13. — § 2. General Review of the Work in 1015-1016,
page 16. — § 3. The Affiliated Societies, page 20. — § ^. A Directirm of Future
Effort, page 23.

MiscEi<i,ANEous Information rei^ating to Co-operation and Asso-
ciation IN Various Countries Page 25

Germany : Some Facts as to the Co-operative Movement, page 25.

Italy: i) A Meeting of the Representatives of the Catholic Economic Organizations
of the Southern Provinces, page 26.

2) The Federations of the Catholic Rural Finids of the Provinces of Bologna,
Reggio d'Emilia, Forli and Salerno in 1(115-1916, page 28.

3) The Inspecting and Book-keeping Offices for Co-operative Societies, page 30.

4) I^a Federazione Apistica Italiana, page 31.

5) The Constitution of I<a Federazione dellc I^atterie Sociali Cremonesi , page 32.

Part I : Co-operation and Association

BELGIUM.

thp: actr'ity of the Belgian " boerenbond " in 1915.

SOURCE ;

Boerenbond belge ou I,igue des Paysans {Belgian Boerenbond or Peasants' League).
Short report presented to the general assembly on 12 June 1916 by Cauonlyiiytgaerens,
general secretary.

The powerful organism constituted by the Peasants' Eeagne has not
interrupted its labours during the German occupation, as we will prove,
rapidly sketching its work in 1915.

Speaking generally it is true that ever3?thing founded by the Boeren-
bond before the war has survived, and moreover new plans have been real-
ized. Thus the general secretary's report notes the organization of two new
agricultural gilds, one in the province of Antwerp, two in Brabant and one
in East Flanders. Means of communication had hardly been re-established,
in the last months of 1914, when the league's inspectors began once more to
travel abotit the country in order to visit the rural associations and to co-
operate, in the words of the report, " in reviving social and economic life in
the rural districts ". They were entrusted at the same time with the addition-
al duty of collecting information and noting the most lugent needs in
order to enable a directing committee to organize committees for relief and
nourishment everywhere. F'urther as soon as it was possible the Boerenbond ,
in agreement with some influential personages in the agricultural world,
undertook the defence of the interests of tillers of the soil and participated
in the formation of an agrictiltural section of the national connnittee for
relief and nourishment which came into being at the end of December 1914.
Two of its administrators are members of this section and have taken a
large part in all its work. The co-operative society, Agricultural Assistance,
which aims at buying food for live stock and all supplies indispensable to
agriculture, was founded towards the end of February ; and a delegate
of the Boerenbond is on its administrative council.

" It was not however enough to create an agricultural .section for the

BELGIUM - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

whole country : it was necessary also to consider agricultural interests
in the different pro\'inces. The want was best supplied by founding in each
of them an agricultural sub-section, having an autonomous existence. This
was done in the provinces of Brabant, Antwerp and Limbourg among others.
The Boerenhond had its share in the formation of these three sections,
within which it is represented by its delegates ".

Until the Agricultural Assistance should be able to maintain agriculture
with foodstuffs, manures and primarj' material of every kind, the Boeren-
hond itself undertook to fulfil this task and to reduce to the minimum the
difficulties which the agriciitural world had to meet.

" The Boerenhond — or more accurately its counter for sale and pur-
chase — bought in the first place, for the provinces of Antwerp and Brabant,
the food for live stock which the German civil administration granted, at
the first distribution, to agriculture in these two provinces, and remitted
the food to the agricultural sections. Had there been opportunity it would
have been equally zealous to render this service to the other provinces.
Soon aterwards it took over from the German civil administration a sufficient-
.ly important quantity of Unen oilcakes of which it aftersvards made grants
^n accordance with the instructions of the national agricultural section.

" In agreement with the latter it made a bargain with the Drogueries
et Huileries anrersoises for 2,500 tons of arachis and sesamum oilcakes which
were distributed among all the provinces, but did not reach their destina-
tion until long afterwards because part of the merchandise was being ma-
nufactured at the time of purchase and because the formaHties required
for its Uberation were retarded.

" Hitherto no concentrated food whatever had crossed the frontier.
Moved by the distress of agriculture the Boerenhond did everything possible
to remedy the situation. In the course of February it was at its own re-
quest commissioned by the Agricultural Assistance to send a delegate to
Holland to treat for the purchase and importation of 4,000 tons of hnen oil-
cakes. This was a deUcate mission but after many difficulties it was satis-
factorily concluded.

" These were the only edible oilcakes imported in 1915 in addition to
the unimportant quantity bought in Holland in December 1914 by the re-
presentatives of the Boerenhond ".

Thanks to these efforts Belgian agriculturists were more or less provid-
ed with various products with which to meet the difficulties in the way of
feeding live stock. The Boerenhond then turned its attention to procuring
manures.

As early as the spring of 1915 all chemical manures had been seized by
the German administration. The Boerenhond negotiated and obtained for
its members some tons of superphosphates and guano and small quantities
of scoria.

It was however even more difficult to encounter the consequences
of the seizure of harvests. The Boerenhond gave ever\' care to regulating
this matter in the best interests of its members.

" As early as the first fortnight of July the Boerenhond had occasion to

THE ACTIVITY OF THE BELGIAN " BOERENBOND "

formulate its desires to the German civil administration. It proposed
tariffs in harmony with the general situation, giving prices at which the
cultivators should themselves buy the goods they needed ; and it asked
that they shovild be allowed to retain such quantities of grain as were rea-
sonably necessary for household and farming purposes. In this way
it claimed looo kilogrammes (i) of oats for each horse, and in this at
least obtained satisfaction since the decree ordered an allowance of two and
a half kilogrammes a day or 920 kilogrammes in all. Later this quantity
was notably diminished .

" For the rest, the allowance of rye for every head of horned cattle
was, as is known, fixed at seven and a half kilogrammes a month or a to-
tal of ninet}^ kilogrammes — an entirety insufficient amount.

" As regards food for the people the allowance of wheat was 340 gram-
mes (2) a day for each person, but producers of rye might retain only a third
of this amount of rye, being allowed to buy the other two thirds of their
ration in wheat from the committees.

" The authorization to reserve ninet}^ kilogrammes of rye for a head
of cattle was a concession, however slight ; that of utilizing this quantit}^
at pleasure, instead of being obliged to keep one twelfth for every month
until the next harvest, was another ; and finally producers of rye were al-
lowed to take out two thirds of their ration in rye. In spite of our most
persistent efforts it was impossible to obtain more.

" Although here again residts have not been quite equal to expecta-
tion we cannot regret ha\ing done our duty. Our gilds, which have seen
their efforts partially fail on some occasions, should also argue thus, and
should rejoice with us in the least success. The position of our cultivators
would, without our and their intervention, have been far worse in many
respects ".

Thus new difficulties, affecting agriculture and the rural population,
arose at ever^- moment. The regulation of the sale of potatoes, the acquisi-
tion of seeds and plants, the struggle against the unrestrainedly audacious
adulteration of foods for live stock and of manures, the efforts to obtain sub-
sidies for the reinsurance of cattle and horses, the intervention of unemploy-
ment funds in favour of unemployed workpeople — these and others were
so many problems which the Boerenbond attempted to solve, multiplying
all the necessar}' procedure in relation to the ci\nl and the militarv' authori-
ties. Not the least arduous task was that of helping small cultivators in the
districts which have suffered most from the war. To estimate damages, to
combat the discouragement of the poor peasants whom the war had ruined,
to draw up plans for bringing lands under cultivation and resuming the
tilth of abandoned lands, to organize a system of small loans which would
particularly favour those most tried, to collaborate in fact in every possible
way in the resumption of work and life on this countryside ravaged by the
war — this has been the essential aim which the variotis sections and the

(i) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.
(2) I gramme = 0.564 drams.

BEI<GIUM - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

directing committee have laboriousl}^ pursued. No consideration, including
regard for hygiene, has failed to influence the association's conduct and
to contribute to the efforts to reconstruct destroyed villages and farms.

" We have made a point "says the report, " of rendering yet another
service to the country people who were obliged to reconstruct their houses
or farms. We wished to make them understand that in building it is easy
for them to observe the rules of comfort and primary notions of hygiene
without any consequent increase of expense. There are already in the
country too many insanitary dwelling and too many farms constructed in
defiance of the rules of good sense.

" A commission was nominated and it prepared in the two languages,
French and Flemish, a small pamphlet, which was especially the work of
Messrs. J. Giele and G. Van den Abeele and is called Construction de I' habi-
tation rurale et de ses dependances {Construction of a Rural Dwelling and its
Dependencies).

" This is a collection, as concise as possible, of explanations and prac-
tical advice on the choice and use of materials, dimensions, the divStribution
of space, airing and ventilation, the means of obtaining good drinking water,
of guarding against damp, etc. The pamphlet is written very simply so as
to be within the comprehension of all.

" The vSpecial Commission for the Reconstruction of Farms, Rural
Dwellings and Villages, created within the National Agricultural Section,
wished to collaborate with us. We acceded very willingl}^ to such request
and in January the pamphlet was published under the auspices of this com-
mission and of the Boerenbond.

" A copy was sent to each of our gilds and others were distributed
by the care of the special commission.

" This was a first and an interesting attempt at rebuilding on our coun-
trysides. The special commission and its provincial sections continued to
study the problem actively. May their efforts result in an embellishment
of our villages and in procuring truly improved dwellings for our husband-
men ! ".

So much as to the league's general activity. As regards the particu-
lar activity of each of the organisms within its framework, this has been no
less fruitful; and we wish we could mention aU that has been accomplished
by the parochial gilds, the farmwives' circles, the federations of horticul-
turists, the counter for sale and purchase, the inspectorate of milk, the cen-
tral credit fund and the insurance section. But necessarily our remarks
must be limited and we will only give some figures.

We will take first the Farmwives' League. This was not only increased
in 1915 by four new circles, which grouped altogether 463 members, but
it has constantly kept in touch with the bodies affiliated to it, has multi-
plied lectures and local meetings, and has been prodigal of practical advice
and instruction to its members, thus stimulating the zeal of all and giving
a direction to their activit3^

" The problem of feeding the people, which has so great a practical
interest for women, has preoccupied the Farmwives' I^eague to the highest

THE ACTIVITY OF THE BELGIAN " BOERENBOND "

degree. It was to be feared that the population would be fed only insuffi-
ciently ; for a large quantity of articles of food, all of which seemed to be
of the first necessity, had been completely exhausted or had become
extremely scarce. It was therefore necessary to teach our farm wives to
employ the products of their farms and fields more rationally and to
utilize food supplies imported from abroad. To realize this programme
it was necessary to give lectures, distribute pamplilets, etc.

" The league lost no time in sending to each of its circles two copies of
the tract prepared by Messrs. Giele et Van den Abeele, Quelques conseils
sur r alimentation humaine, I'elevage et la culture des piantes (Some Advice on
Human Diet, the Growth and Culture of Plants) ; and soon afterwards it
distributed leaflets containing recipes and practical advice on human diet.

" In February the Central Commission of Alimentary Economy was
formed at Brussels, and it soon founded sections in the different provinces.
From the beginning the Farmwives' L,eague was represented on it. The chief
aim of the commission was to arrange for lectures on economical diet. The
league's secretary was active in the matter, especially in the province of
Antwerp. Mile. Marie lyemaire, who represents the league on the Commission
ofAlimentary Econom}^ takes charge of the organization of lectures in the
arrondissement of Lou vain and the canton of Vilvorde.

" At Tirlemont, Aerschot, Diest, Vilvorde, Erps-Guerbs, Haecht,
Vossem, Huldenberg, L,ouvain and Leau meetings took place to which all
local schoolmistresses and others who might be useful were invited. An
initial lecture on economical feeding v/as given, with a practical demon-
stration in the shape of the preparation of some cheap and substantial meals,
and the audience were begged to disseminate the ideas they received as
much as possible among housewives of the people. Thus lectures on diet
were soon held in every village ;and the numerous reports sent to us are
proof of multiple efforts in these districts to improve the popular diet.

" In order to faciUtate the task of the lecturers the league, together
with the provincial Commission of AHmentary Economy, published for
them a Lecturers' Vade Mecum, of which it sent two copies to each of its
circles.

" The old peripatetic school of agricultural housekeeping, which used
to spend three or four consecutive months in one village, gave place in 1915
to an eight days' course of domestic economy. This consists especially in
practical cooking lessons. Owing to the league's intervention more than
one farmwives' circle has asked for and obtained this course, and the mem-
bers have derived much profit from it. There were even some small vil-
lages in which the school was obliged to extend its courses over two or three
weeks in order to satisfy all demands ".

On the other hand we find mention, under the heading Federation of
Horticulturists, of lectures and lessons in vegetable growing ; of numerous
collective sales on behalf of the members, bringing in a total sum of 42,260
francs; and of provision of vegetable seeds costing altogether 5,176 francs.

The balance-sheet of the counter for purchase and sale gives the fol-
lowing figures :

BELGIUM - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Number of orders executed 361!

Circulating funds 2,967,987 francs

Namely ! ^^^^^P^'^^ i,489>88i "

.Namely ^ ;E;xpenditure 1,478,106

Tiurnover 6,205,930

The inspectorate of dairies was obliged on the other hand to confine
its action to the provinces of Antwerp, Brabant and Limbourg, in which
seventy-eight co-operative societies are at work, only seven having interrupt-
ed their activity since the opening of hostiUties. A certain slackening of
business, due to the diminution in membership and also in the number of
cows and the quantity of milk dealt with, has however been noted. Thus
in the sixty-one dairies, as to which it has been possible to obtain precise
data, the number of members is said to have been lowered by 10 per cent,
and that of registered animals by 16 per cent, since 1913. The cows have
moreover given less milk, a natural consequence of the famine in concentrat-
ed foods. Therefore while in 1913 the average quantity of milk suppUed
daily was 7.165 kilogrammes a cow in 1915 it was 5.910 kilogranmies, giv-
ing a decrease of [18 per cent. Nevertheless 29,108,440 kilogrammes were
dealt with in the dairies visited and 1,024,074 kilogrammes of butter
manufactured.

One of the association's most active branches has been indisputably the
Central Credit Fund.

The year 1915 was, says the report, one of the most important years
it has had since its foundation. Not only was the number of affiliated local
funds increased by forty-four but the savings deposits were more numerous
than ever and hundreds of new small loans were made to cultivators in
needy circumstances. Of 821 rural funds existing in Belgium at the end
of 1915, 437 were affiliated to the central fund. At this date the number of
the latter's subscribed shares was 8,987, ha\4ng increased by 420 since the
preceding year. The capital in shares was thus brought up to 8,987,000
francs. The funds circulated in the year amounted to 63,009,921 francs,
thus considerably surpassing their ordinary level. Twenty-one new credit
accounts were opened for affihated funds, the total credit thus accorded
being for 363,550 francs, which brought the amount of the credit in force on
31 December 1915 to 4,904,450 francs. The total of the savings deposits
was 22,723,841 francs, having increased by 6,202,311 francs since 1914
and by 6,613,469 since 1913, the last normal year.

" This considerable increase in the amount of savings deposits in the
second year of the war is partly explained by the fact that cultivators have
had partiall}^ to realize their invested capital. It was impo.ssible for them
to procure the desired quantities of manures for their fields and of concen-
trated food for their live stock. Thanks to the reserv^es of fertilizing sub-
stances preserved in the soil they had generally verj' satisfactory'' harvests,
and therefore had more liquid cash in hand than usual, but this was to the
detriment of the wealth of the soil. They fed their live stock as the}^ could,
having no choice but to avoid the expense of purchasing the concentrated

THE ACTIVITY OF THK BEI.GIAN ' BOERENBOND

foods usually on the market ; but the value of their stock was diminished
in consequence, and the animals of which they got rid were seldom or ne-
ver replaced. Analogous circumstances ruled in other branches of their
farming. In a word husbandmen disposed of relative^ large sums of money
but the fact was not always advantageous to them.

What were they to do with these savings? Where could they invest
them well, when banks and financial estabUshments were constantly lower-
ing their rate of interest, and were as much as possible avoiding the accept-
ance of payments, owing to the superabundance of money ? The husband-
men turned to the savings and credit funds. These enjoyed their confi-
dence, and were able further, because they were afiiliated to the central fund,
to continue to pay interest at the rate of 3 per cent., which was in existing
circumstances extraordinarily profitable for the deposits in question.
It goes v\ithout sa3dng that the fund was obliged, in order to continue
these terms, to be very circumspect and to be guided not by desire for gain
but by a wish to render service to the husbandmen ".

lyoans on land numbered twenty-seven and were of a total sum of
115,400 francs. There is further a new system of loans, particularly^ ad-
vantageous to the husbandmen precariously situated owing to present
circumstances, and known as small credit, and it gave excellent resiilts. It
is as follows :

" A loan may not surpass 600 francs and is repayable in annual in-
talments in five years, unless the borrower formally express a desire to
have this term extended to seven years, in which case he is held, during the
first two years, only to the payment of the interest, which is at the rate of
2 per cent, a year.

" If as a consequence of the war the object bought with the borrowed
money is destroyed wholly or partially, the debt is remitted pro rata, ac-
cording to the loss incurred, but the borrower must prove the loss.

" He must find a third person as his surety.

" Loans are granted to coimtrypeople in needy circumstances, espe-
cially such as have suft'ered loss by the war. At first these conditions were
interpreted fairly liberally, but later loans were made exclu.sively to per-
sons within the following categories :

1. Husbandmen who have incurred certain definite losses by the war
and the famiUes deprived of their support.

2. Husbandmen and workmen ctiltivating land and having suffered
a reduction, due to the war, of such external resources as wages.

" The borrowed money must serve an agricultural purpose, that is
to say the purchase of live stock, small agricultural requisites, seeds, ma-
nures, etc.

" lyoans are made by the medium of the local savings and credit fund
or, failing it, through a committee of three or four persons duly approved
by the central fund.

" On 31 December 1915 about forty of these loan committees were
active.

BELGIUM - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

" Funds and commitees become liable for per cent, of all losses

20 ^

eventually suffered by the central fund from the loans they make.

The new service of credit, thus organized, met at once with great fa-
vour which is proof of the extent to which it supplied a real need.

At the end of the year the number of these small war loans had reached
2,561 and their total value was 1,262,045 francs. The greatest niimber
were granted in the province of Brabant where 926,020 francs were advan-
ced to small cultivators who had suffered particularly.

The various insurance and mutual aid organizations continued to do
business represented by a very respectable figure. Fire and life insurance
and insurance against hail and mortality among live stock perceptibly
increased the number of their policies, the amount of the premiums they
received and the capital they insured.

DENMARK.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE ROYAI, SOCIETY
OF DANISH AGRICUI^TURE IN 1915-1916.

SOURCE:

Aarsberetning om det Kon'gelige Danske I<andhusholdningsselskabs Virksomed in
1915-1916 (Annual Report of the Wark of the Royal Society of Danish Agriculture in
1915-1916). Copenhagen, 1916.

The Royal Society of Danish Agriciiltiire is a private society but is
recognized and subsidized by the vState. It was founded in 1759 and it
aims at the progress of agriculture and related industries (Article i of the
by-laws, approved in 1872). It is one of the most powerful agricultural
societies in Europe. It has about 750 members and its budget of receipts
and expenditure covers about 150,000 crowns (i). Its own property
amounted on 31 March 1915 to about 300,000 crowns and it also admini-
sters a property formed of legacies and other donations to the society which
at the same date surpassed .400,000 cronws. By means of its resources and
of ordinary and extraordinary State subsidies this society extends its acti-
vity over the most varied agriciiltural spheres.

A list of the departments it has instituted which were at work
in 1915-1916 comprises, among others : the committee for the inspection
of wheat and foodstuffs in the port of Copenhagen ; the committee for
superintending the schools of agriculture founded by the society; the
commission for the distribution of medals and prizes in money to
agriculturists and agricultural labourers who have distinguished them-
selvefi during the year ; the commission for scientific book-keeping by
agriculturists ; the committee for the diffusion of agricultural literature ;
the committee for economic journeys having an agricultural aim ; the
committee for goat-breeding ; the commission for the scientific improve-
ment of the soil.

The society further nominates members of various State commis-
sions concerned with agriculture ; and " Tidskrift for Landekonomi ", the
important review of agricultural economy, is among its publications.

In 1915-1916 it proposed in particular to direct its activity towards
the dissemination of scientific and technical publications on agricultural
subjects ; the encouragement of research in agricultural chemistry ; the
application of scientific principles to the breeding and feeding of domestic
animals and the production of milk ; the construction and use of agricultural
machines ; the development of agricultural industries ; the subsidizing of

(i) I crown of gold = about i s. i ^/id. at i)ar.

10 DENMARK - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

agricultural exhibitions ; the improvement of the conditions enjoyed by
agricultural labourers ; and the institution of bursaries for agricultural
education abroad, and of journeys for agricultural education at home and
abroad.

The importance to Danish agriculture of the society's work appears how-
ever in particular in the reports of the various committees and institutions
it has foimded. It will be well briefly to notice the chief among them, thus
gaining an exact idea of the conditions of Danish agriculture.

A first report is concerned with the breeding of domestic animals
and the diffusion of pedigree-books. These begin now to be kept, in the
case of cattle, not only by large producers but also by small farmers.
The task of the delegates of the society is to visit the breeders, to see
that they possess registers and to inspect these, making sure that all births
are registered and that the animals are entered accurate^, and to
establish registers for those who have none.

In the case of pigs the society has continued the experiments underta-
ken in its three experimental stations as to the products obtained from ani-
mals of various races. The results of the experiments are communicated
immediately to the owners of the animals under observation. An immense
amount of material, very important to this flourishing Danish industry, is
thus accumulated at the stations.

In the case of poultry, in which Denmark has a growing interest in view
of the high prices obtained for eggs and birds, the chief problems are those
of feeding, artificial hatching, the cleansing of poiUtry-houses and the
prevention of diseases.

In order that scientific principles may be appUed to all of these the so-
ciety's representative spent seventy-eight days in 1915 in travelling in dif-
ferent parts of the coimtry, and he gave fifty- six lectures, inspected poultry-
yards, planned modern poultry-j^ards, opened exhibitions, and responded to
constant requests for advice.Many free courses were held in various dis-
tricts and were well attended. An effort was made to popularize the prin-
ciple that the exterior beauty of the birds should be less regarded than their
yield and the purity of their race. It is remarked that electiic machines
for aitificial hatching, the success of which seems to have been proved, are
increasingly used, and that artificial eggs are used for such hatching. The
society's delegates constantly exhort breeders to keep pedigree-books
and regular accounts.

As regards goat-breeding the commission specially devoted to this in-
dustry' was founded in 1912 and has constituted new breeding societies of
which there are now thirty-four in the country. These local institutions,
which the society subsidizes, hold meetings, reported in the local newspapers,
for the discussion of problems connected with the industr}'. The commis-
sion recognizes the importance of pure-bred bucks and has interested large
breeders in placing a certain number of them at the disposal of small farmers,
thus obtaining noteworthy results. The commission has further made, on
the most strictly scientific principles, a research into the milk provided by

THE ACTl\aTY OF THE ROYAI, SOCIETY II

forty goats of three or four different races, thus determining the content
of fatty substances in relation to race and to feeding.

One of the commission's principal tasks is to give breeders scientific
ideas as to the management of their animals, especially by means of newspa-
per articles and lectures. With this object the society has puVjhshed a
pamphlet entitled " Goat-breeding and Goat-keeping". It has also success
fully encouraged a larger opening of zootechnical exhibitions to goats, and
has formed offices for the sale and purchase of the animals which bring
buyers and sellers together. The usefulness of the work of these offices
has been recognized, and the number of sales and purchases effected by their
means increases annually. The society now intends to institute prizes for
good goat-stables, the importance of which is not yet fiilly understood by
all the farmers.

*
* *

The Society- of Danish Agriciilture also exercices a useful acti\'ity in the
matter of milk production. It here directs its attention especially to the
matter of technical education for which it receives a subsidy from the State.
This amounted in 1915-1916 to 25,000 crowns, which sum was divided among
116 persons desirous of learning the methods of this industry or improving
their knowledge thereof by means of bursaries allowing them to study in se-
lected dairies inspected by the society, or to make short educational tours.
The society thus limits its action to the choice of model dairies, iii connec-
tion with which the biirsaries are instituted ; to the reception of applications
from candidates and the examination of the latter, in order to discover whe-
ther they have the necessary' aptitudes ; to the distribution of subsidies ;
and to the superintendence of the progress made by bursars.

However the society has also undertaken the publication of a technical
periodical, " Danske Mejerier", which has attained to a large circulation.
Further on 28 January 1916 a meeting was held * n the society's premises,
which was attended b3- representati\'es of the society, the federation of
co-operative dairies, the association of milk producers and the laboratory for
testing milk. A proposal for the grant of an adequate State subsid}' has
been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and is now before Parlia-
ment.

The committee instituted by the society for the improvement of land
by drainage and irrigation should also be noticed. It has a technico-eco-
nomic and a juridico-economic .section. The latter brought forward in 191 5
three proposals for the modification of the law as to public waters, and
these have been approved by the society, and transmitted to the competent
ministry in order that proposals relative to them may be made in the
Chamber.

A form of the society's activity in the interests of agriculture is its ma-
nagement on behalf of the State of a service of consultation. It nominates
the official of this service, whom the State nuist approve, and contribvites
to its costs. An office of consultation has been founded in the current year

12 DENMARK - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

for agricultural machines and implements. The usefulness of the function
of the official responsible for this department appears in the fact that after
several months it was necessarj^ to place a sum of 3,500 crowns at his dispo-
sal, in order that he might pay for the services of various technical assistants,
one person being no longer sufficient to meet all the demands. The rules
which regulate his action prescribe that he shall keep himself au courant as to
all progress made in the matter of agricvdtural machines and implements,
and acquaint the public therewith in the fittest manner, experimenting there-
fore on the most suitable properties. He must also respond to <J1 requests
for explanations as to the matters within his competence. Ever>' year
he must send the society a report on his activity. Normally the »State has
no direct relations with the official responsible for consultations although
he is a State functionary', but deals with him only through the medium
of the society which superintends and pays him. An office of consultation
has also been created in Russia. The official stationed there has those du-
ties in relation to agriculture which fall in Italy to the commercial delegates
abroad.

This new office was created in 1914. It has aimed at encouraging the
exchange of agricultural products and the means of agricultural production
between Russia and Denmark, and making public in the two countries the
general and special economic conditions of their agriculture, at SHbtuitting
proposals tending to encourage such exchange to the ministry, at answering
the relevant enquiries of public bodies and of individuals in the two States,
and at counteracting in the Russian press all information which might be
detrimental to Danish agriculture and its products. In 1915 the delegate
undertook a long journey through all Russia in order to study the conditions
most favourable to the sale of grain, which Denmark produces largely, and
thus to supersede in this market Germany, hitherto almost a monopolist
in respect of this article ol merchandise.

A long account is published in the society's annual report of this jour-
ney which had good results. The delegate succeeded in establishing com-
m.ercial relations between Dani.sh producers and Russian consumers and
in concluding numerous sales of seeds of vegetables, flowering plants and
trees, of animals for reproduction and of agricultural machines. For pur-
poses of jjropaganda the society has published two pamphlets on experience
in cultivating plants in Denmark and on several noteworthy forms of Danish
agriculture. The official responsible for the service of consultation trans-
lated these into Russian and circulated them largely. As well as a series
of articles in Rus.sian agricultural periodicals, which make Danish agricul-
ture known, he has jjiublished others in Dnnish periodicals, and he has person-
ally undertaken a large propaganda for the dissemination of knowledge
of the conditions of Russian agriculture. Thanks to all these efforts, and
in spite of obstjjcles raised by the war, many Danish producers have been
able to find a footing in Russia and establish with this country sure relations
which will soon vield excellent results.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE ROYAI. SOCIETY 1 3

*

* *

The society's activity in the matter of agricultural education is very
interesting. Places for study are of three kinds: they are on large farms, on
small farms and on farms specially devoted to stock breeding.

The education on the first of these lasts three years, each year spent on
a different farm in order that the student may have a large and varied ex-
perience. His instruction is essentially practical, but the society also en-
courages theoretical knowledge, sending to each student a certain number
of scientific manuals which remain his property after he has finally and suc-
cessfully passed his examinations. In order to obtain a jDlace a student
must be seventeen years old and must already have followed a two years'
elementary course in agriculture. The students receive from 150 to 250
crowns a year ; they are lodged and kept and are regarded as in the employ-
ment of the owner of the farm. They must enter the work the}- execute
in a diarj- and cannot otherwise obtain a final certificate. In 1915 fiftj^-eight
of these places were assigned and sixteen certificates of completed studies
were awarded.

Places for study on small farms are granted for two years. In addition
to board and lodging the students receive from the owner 175 crowns in
the first and 200 crowns in the second year.

Bursaries for stock-keeping always last for three years which are spent
on two different farms. The owner boards and lodges the students, and
pays them 175 crowns in the first, 200 crowns in the second and 250 crowns
in the third year. They must do all the work they are ordered to do, learn-
ing especially to milk, to understand forage, to clean and care for animals,
to kill pigs and to perform kindred tasks.

*

* *

A very important share of the society's activity is devoted to scien-
tific publications and methods of propaganda.

In 1915 it published : the periodical " Tidsskrift fur I.andekonomie "
{Review of AgriatUnral Economy) ; 2,400 copies of its annual report ; 1600 co-
pies of the " Landekonomisk Aarburg 1916 " {Agricultural Yearbook 1916)
and various less important matter.

In order to circulate this literature of agriculture the publications were
sent to 960 circulating libraries, many popular schools, the best elementary
schoolmasters, and all the Sold.iterhyeni (Soldiers' Homes) depending on the
Ministry of War. Moreover six lectiires on various agricultural subjects
were held in January, February and March.

The society has distributed a certain number of silver cups to agricul-
tiirists who have particularly distinguished themselves by transforming,
by indefatigable labour almost imaided by financial resources, uncultivated
land into small properties having a high yield ; and has also given twenty
medals to peasants and labourers, both men and women, who have shown
particular skill in certain branches of the agricultural industry' or who have

14 DENMARK - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

seived their masters long and faithfully. Other prizes and medals, arising
out of legacies to the society by various benefactors for determined objects,
have also been awarded, and two competitions, to which prizes attach, for
publications on seed-drying and horse-breeding, have been opened, f^^l^
The society has a special fund of about 25,000 crowns intended^for
grants to poor students who have to pass examinations in agriculture at the
Higher School of Agrictdture and the Veterinary School. Monthly grants of
no more than 20 crowns are made for the maximum period of a year. Six
students received in 1915-1916 such grants amounting altogether to about
900 crowns.

*
* *

Mention should finally be made of four meetings, held on the initia-
tive of the Society of Agriculture, by its representatives and those of three
other large agricultural associations in the kingdom, namely the Associa-
tion of Mutual Agricultural Societies, the Federation of Co-operative Socie-
ties, and the Peasants' Association {Husnuind). At the first meetings no
more was done than amply to discuss and to vote on an order of the day ad-
dressed to the Minister of the Interior. This expressed a wish that agri-
culture should be more largely represented in the commissions responsible
for fixing the prices of foodstuffs. At the other meetings various other sub-
jects were discussed, such as the employment of agricultural machines, the
protection of agricultural interests abroad, the formation of an agricultural
office of accounts. All the meetings were well attended and their results
have been very important to agriculture. Summary accounts of their
discussions have been published in differerent agricultural reviews.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

THE AGRICUIvTURAI. ORGANIZATION SOCIETY
IN ENGlvAND AND WAIVES.

source:

Thj-: Report of the AGRicin-TURAL Organization Society for the year ended March
31st, igi6. I^ondon, The Stepney Press, 1916.

§ I. Introduction.

The Agricultural Organization Society was founded in 1901 for the
purpose of advancing co-operation among English and Welsh farmers.
Its work is of a twofold character :

i) It is a propagandist body — as such it seeks to spread the co-
operative principle and helps in the formation of new societies.

2) It is an organizing body and as such advises and helps the socie-
ties already formed.

The co-operative societies with which it concerns itself may have one
or more of the foil sowing objects :

i) They may buy for their members manures, seeds, feeding stuffs,
implements and other articles, securing their purity and obtaining whole-
sale terms from the manufacturers, importers or wholesale merchants.

2) They ma}^ help to market produce :

a) by organizing the milk supply on a co-operative basis, thus
eliminating the middlemen's profits which lower the price to the producer
and raise it to the consumer;

b) by establishing co-operative butter and cheese factories in
suitable districts ;

c) by establishing co-operative depots for the collection of eggs;

d) by grading and packing fruit in order to place it on the market
in a fresh and attractive condition;

e) by organizing the proper classing and packing of wool, thus
securing a better price in the market for sheep breeders ;

/) by organizing co-operative markets and by breaking down
the rings formed against the producer ;

g) by organizing the consignment of goods in bulk and arranging
terms with railway companies and carriers, thus reducing the costs of
transport.

3) They may hire or buy pedigree stallions, btdls or boars, for the
use of their members at reasonable fees.

4) They may arrange for all kinds of agricultural insurance.

l6 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

5) They may acquire land and let it to their members in small hold-
ings and allotments.

6) They may establish agricidtural credit societies.
Co-operative societies having these objects become affiliated to the

Agricultural Organization Society on applying for membership and on
paying a small subscription. They continue to be entirely self-supporting
and self-governed but affiliation brings them many benefits. It enables
them to receive copies of model rules at their time of formation, to be ad-
vised in matters of policy, to be helped with their book-keeping, and to
be assisted in their negotiations with government departments, railway
companies and others. The affiliated societies may avail themselves with-
out payment of the services of the experts on the staff of the Agricul-
tural Organization Society, whose special knowledge covers such subjects
as dairy farming, eggs and poultry, wool, small holdings and allotments,
accounts and the rules of co-operative societies. Finally all of them pro-
fit by the fact that the parent society co-ordinates them.

The parent society itself does no trade and makes no profit. For
many years it was supported entirely by voluntary contributions, but it
now also receives grants from the Development Fund in aid of its work
for the general development of agricultural co-operation, and from the
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in aid of its promotion of co-operation
in connection with small holdings and allotments.

As regards its organization the society has offices in Westminster and *
employs a general secretary. Its affairs are managed by thirty-two go-
vernors who include three nominees of the Board of Agriculture; and two
each of the County Councils' Association and the Co-operative Union.
Seventeen further governors are elected by the affiliated societies
and of this number one fourth retire each year in alphabetical rotation.
The society divides its local work among eight branches which cover all
England and Wales, having their respective offices at York, Preston,
Derby, Tonbridge, Salisbury, Plymouth, Bangor and Brecon.

§ 2. General Review of the Work in 1915-1916.

The war has created opportunities for the Agricultural Organization
Society : first because the need for national economy and the interruption'
of overseas trade have at last caused British agriculture to be recognized
as a basic and essential industry ; and secondly because the scarcity of la-
bour, the difficulties of transport and the novel conditions of the market
have brought the farmer face to face with problems which have shaken
his conservatism and made him turn to co-operation as a possible solution.
It was therefore possible to extend the society's enterprise in several di-
rections in 1915-1916.

a) New Branches.

Two of its eight branches were formed between i April 1915 and 31
March 1916. They are the North Midlands Branch, which covers the

THE AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 1 7

counties of Nottingham, Stafford, Leicester, Derby and Rutland and has
its offices at Derb}^ ; and the South Western Branch, for Devon and Corn-
wall, wliich has its offices at Plj'mouth.

b) New Soieties.

In the same period forty new societies were affiliated to the Organi-
zation Society. They are distributed as follows according to their objects

Purchase of Agricultural Requirements .... 17

Dair>' 3

Eggs and Poultry 10

Auctions etc 2

Land Renting (Small holdings and allotments) . 5

Credit i

Miscellaneous 2

40

The Board of Agriculture having drawn especial attention to the use-
fulness of forming Village Food Societies, to increase the growing of vege-
tables, encourage the cultivation of allotments and gardens, and bring any
pieces of uncultivated land into cultivation, the society endeavoured with
success to bring several of these into existence. In some instances the
Womens' Institutes filled the part of Village Food Societies. .

c) Women's Institutes.

The Agricultural Education Conference on Agricultural Education
for Women reported in favour of the formation of Women's Institutes
which should stim_ulate a desire for rural education ; and at the annual
meeting of the .Agricultural Organization Society in 1915-1916 a resolu-
tion was accordingly passed recommending that the society should under-
take the work of such formation. The services were secured of the lady
who is secretarN' to the National Council of Women's Institutes of Canada,
a country in which these institutions play an important part, and up to
31 March 1916 fourteen of them had been founded in England and Wales.
It is their object " to study home economics, to provide a centre for educa-
tional and social intercourse, to encourage home and local industries, to
develop co-operative enterprises, and to stimulate interest in the agricul-
tural industrj' ".

d) The Supply of Produce to the Army.

The system under which the military camps obtained tlieir supplies
of fruit and vegetables was often unsatisfactory, the different units compet-
ing with each other so that prices rose while quality frequently remained
indifferent. In October 1915 the Agricultural Organization Society toge-
ther with the Purchasing Officer of the 68th Division, stationed at Bed-
ford, formulated a scheme for purchasing the Division's whole supply in
bulk ; and this was approved by the General Officer Commanding and was

l8 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - COrOPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

at once put in force. The society's expert in fruit and market garden pro-
duce was placed at the disposal of the military authorities, as adviser.
The result was a rapid improvement in the qualit}'' of the supply, an econo-
my to the military authorities, better prices for the producers who profited
by the elimination of the middleman, and cheaper fruit and vegetables
for the civihan population since general prices fell with army prices. The
matter was brought to the attention of the War Office and the Army Coun-
cil has in consequence approved the gradual extension of the scheme to
other camps. A new committee, called the Army Canteen Committee,
has been formed to take over the powers and duties in respect of canteens
hitherto entrusted to the Board of Control of Regimental Institutes ; and
also a Command Canteen Committee for each command. The Agricultu-
ral Organization Society is represented bj^ its nominee on the Army Can-
teen Committee and on each of the Command Canteen Committees.

The necessary' central purchasing body has been found in a new so-
ciety affiliated to the Agricultural Organization Society, the Agricultural
Produce Supplies, limited. The Agricultural Organization Society's late
expert in fruit and market-garden produce is its secretary and manager.
It distributes no profits, but charges a commission to cover management
expenses and returns any surplus funds to the War Office.

e) Relations with the County War Agricultural Committees and with
other Bodies.

In November 1915 the Board of Agriculture notified the County Wax
Agicultural Committees that the societ}' had placed its services and those
of its branches and organizers at their disposal ; and the society itself sent
them a circular letter confirming this information and drawing their atten-
tion to certain branches of agricultural work to which co-operation was
particularly applicable.

The subse(juent action varied in different counties : in some direct
representation on the war agricultural committees has been given to the
farmers' co-operative societies ; in some the Womens' Institutes have been
recognized as District War Agricultural Committees ; in Glamorganshire
the farmers' co-operative societies have been appointed to act as the Dis-
trict War Agricultural Committees ; in Cornwall the countj^ committee or-
ganized the supply of sulphate of ammonia through the Farmer's Central
Trading Board which is affiliated to the Agricultural Organization Society.

The society has also worked in close touch with the Scottish and
Irish Agricultural Organization Societies, the Housing Organization
Society, the Fisheries Organization Society and the Co-operative Union,
and with County Councils. Agricultural Colleges and many other public
associations. Its relations with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries
have been both harmonious and important.

/) Publications.

The society's monthly journal, Co-operation in Agriculture, has been
suspended in the interests of economy. By arrangement with the pro-

THE AGRICUI^TURAL ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

19

prietors of the Smallholder a column of that paper is however devoted
ever}^ week to matter supplied by the society, and such columns are repro-
duced every month and sent to all who formerly received Co-operation in
Agricnlhire. A proposal to issue a quarter^ has been abandoned for the
present ; but the society has inaugurated a series of booklets, each of
which will deal with an important aspect of agricultural co-operation,
and which will be published at a price sufficient only to cover the cost of
printing.

g) Finance.

The following is a summarized account of the society's expenses in
1914-15 and 1915-1916 :

T914-1915

1915-1916

Salaries

& S D

6,098 9 10

2,022 I 3
1,100 2 10

725 8 2 1/2

265 16 2 1/2

229 5 6
104 4 3

& S D

6,420 14 9

2,839 18 I
1,147 10 2 1/2

574 6 10 1/2
327 0 3
57 II 0
337 8 10
131 18 II

Travelling and maintenance of governors and
others

Rent and other expenses connected with office.

Printing, duplicating, literature

Postage, telegrams, telephone

Audit fees of affiliated societies

Egg or Poultry Demonstration Train . . .

Other expenses

Total . . .

10,545 8 I

11,836 8 II

The society's income in the same two j-ears was as follows :

1914-1915

1915-1916

Subscriptions

Donations

Contributions from affiliated societies . , .
Advertisements in Journal and Report . . .
Sale of Journal or other literature ....
Bank interest

& S D

1,782 13

56 18 6

262 16 3

126 II 0

13 6 I

13 10 7

& S D

1 ,605 9 6

382 9 3

52 5 4

3 14 2

Total . . .

2,255 15 5

2,043 18 3

20 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The excess of expenditure over income was therefore £ 8,289 ^^s Sd
in 1914-1915 and £ 9,792 los Sd in 1915-1916. These deficits were covered
by government grants, as is seen in the published balance-sheets, here
reproduced.

Debit

1914-1915

1915-1916

Credit

1914-1915

1915-1016

Amount refunded to His
Majesty's Treasury . .

Excess of Expenditure
over Income

Balance

£ S D

394 8 5

8,289 12 8
1,710 7 4

£ S D

1,710 7 4

9,792 10 8
183 9 4

Balance as per last Ba-
lance-Shat

Grants :

Small Holdings Account .

Development Fund . . .

£ S D

394 8 5

2,000 0 0
8,000 0 0

£ S D

1,710 7 4
1,988 0 0

7,988 0 0

10,394 8 5

11,686 7 4

10.394 8 5

11,686 7 4

It is clear therefore that the Agricultural Organization Society is
mainly supported by government subsidies.

§ 3. The Affiliated Societies.

a) The Suciefies in General.

The affiliated societies experienced in 1915-1916 a very general in-
crease both in their membership and in the amount of their business, and
this in spite of the impediment? to agriculture which are due tj the war —
the scarcity- of labour, the difficulties of transport. The disturbance of
the market has on the whole favoured the farmer ; he has had to pay more
for certain of his requirements but the price of his produce has risen to a
more than compensatory extent, and the creation of the armj'^ has provided
a new and profitable demand for his supplies. The rise in prices has
naturally increased the turnover of the societies, a fact which should be
borne in mind in drawing conclusions from their balance-sheets.

The total membership of the 550 aflBliated societies in the year under
review was 55,831 and their total turnover was £3,428,960. Of this sum
more than two thirds, namely £ 2,450,397, belonged to the societies for
the purchase of agricultural requirements, most of whom sell farm produce
as a secondary business. These societies numbered 213 and their combined
membership was 26,241. The following table shows the comparative
importance of the different groups of societies :

THE AGRICULTURAI, ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

21

Class of Scxuety

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Turnover

Purchase of Agricultural Requirements

Dairy

Egg and Poultry

Auction and Produce

Small Holdings and Allotments ....

Miscellaneous

Credit

550

213

26,241

-2.450,397

38

4,086

722,620

29

2,996

87,954

27

2,029

140.363

177

15,975

12,434

18

3.563

15,192

48

941

—

55,831

3,428,960

The following are the ten counties in which the co-operative societies
had a turnover running into six figures :

County

No. of Societies

No. of Members

Suffolk ....
Yorkshire . . .
Hampshire . .
Carmarthen . .
I^ncashire . .
Cheshire. . . .
Wiltshire . . .
Gloucestershire.

Essex

lyondon ....

5
44
31
10
II
10
27
10

9
13

2,241

450,962

^,985

373,618

4.741

246,161

3,650

245,030

1,467

232.552

2,385

231,892

2,221

192,412

1,309

158.865

503

158,117

3.704

129,388

The importance of co-operation in each of these counties except Glou-
cestersliire is explained by the existence in it of one very strong society.
In 1915-1916 a co-operative society for the purchase of agricultural imple-
ments in each of the first six of them, and a co-operative dairy society in
Wiltshire, in Essex and in London, had itself a turnover rurming into six
figures. In Gloucestershire several societies of secondary importance
were responsible for the large turnover.

In the report of the parent society the affiliated societies are'^critici-
zed for their frequent lack of sufficient working capital. " Hardly any

22 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

society has as much as it could usefully employ and in many progress is
retarded because the management is hampered by want of money... The
real necessity for it has not hitherto been fully realized. It is in truth
extraordinary on what small capital some societies have built up large turn-
overs.... The S3'stem of v^orking through central and branch depots is gain-
ing more and more favour in the case both of trading and of produce so-
cieties. For this and other reasons m.ore capital is desirable ". As a sup-
plement to the issue of loans many societies find it convenient to invite
loans from members, repayable at a certain notice and carrying regular
interest.

The societies do not aim at making large profits in order to pay divi-
dends to their members, but generally prefer to return the benefits which
accrue from co-operative purchase immediately, in the form of lower pri-
ces, merely retaining a sufficient margin to secure against loss. However
an increasing number of societies find themselves in a position at each
year's end to grant members, as a bonus, a small sum in the pound on the
goods sold. The system tends to increase both membership and the
amount of business done.

By a clause in the Finance Act (No. 2) 1915 excess profits are com-
puted in the case of co-operative societies not on the basis of the total profit
of a socictA^ but on that of the individual profit accruing to each member.
This provision is most important, for the increased profits made by many
societies since the war are entirely due to an increased membership.

h) Small Holdings and Allotment Societies.

As regards societies of this tj^pe progress is shown in the number that
were formed during the year, but the total acreage they held and the num-
ber of their tenants diminished. The reduction in acreage is probably
due to the expiry- of leases and to the increased demand for small allot-
ments, to be made into gardens by town workers. A considerable num-
ber of new societies were formed for the purpose of acquiring land for such
garden allotments, and most of these were registered in the latter part of
• the year and had not yet acquired land when the report was made.

The following comparative data should not therefore be taken as
indicating anj- real retrogression. The figures for 1914, which are taken
from the Board of Trade Labour Gazette are incomplete, since they con-
cern only 147 societies whereas 172 were registered in that year by the
Agricultural Organization Society.

1915-16

Number of Societies.
)^ ') Members
» » Tenants

Acreage held. . . .

147

177

16,205

15.975

12,234

10,498

15432

14,646

THE AGRICULTURAIv ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 23

c) Agricultural Credit Societies.

The forty-eight co-operative credit societies lent during the year the
total sum of £ 1,087. ^^^^ is a very limited success and one which has
little relation to the demand for credit : many farmers, small holders and
others are seriously hampered because they cannot obtain temporary
loans on easy terms. The Agricultural Organization »Society decided in
1915-1916 on an investigation into the causes of the slow progress of agri-
cultural credit societies.

d) The Agricultural and General Co-operative Insurance Society.

This is the single insurance society affiliated to the Agricultural Or-
ganization Society. The year 1915 showed an increase of 25 per cent, in
its premium income and the gross sums insured against fire amounted
to over £4,000,000. A 5 per cent, dividend was declared on shares and
a bonus of 5 per cent, on life premiums. The net claims on account of fires
were considerably higher than the average of recent years, so, although the
society had worked at a profit, no bonus was declared to the holders of
fire policies in accordance with the practice which has been such an inter-
esting feature in the society's work since its formation. In consequence
too of the unsettled state of the investment market, the investment re-
serve fund was increased, and the balance remaining was carried forward.

e) The Farmers' Central Trading Board.

This board is a central wholesale establishment for all kinds of agri-
cultural requirements and it receives applications for membership from
societies affiliated to the Agricultural Organization Society. In 1915 it
absorbed the Agricultural Co-operative Federation and its headquarters
were then transferred to lyondon.

It quickly became apparent that since many districts obtain their
agricultural supplies from other ports than I/ondon some local organiza-
tion would be useful. North- Western, North-Eastern and Welsh Sections
of the board therefore came into being.

The increase of sales in 1915 was satisfactory' and they promised to
be yet more considerable in the following year.

§ 4. A Direction of Future Effort.

The Agricultural Organization Society is especially desirous of pro-
moting in England and Wales continuous crops and the co-operative
ownership of farm implements. To this end Mr. T. Wibberley, who had
had much experience of such work in Ireland, was sent on a lecture tour
through the English and Welsh counties in the winter of 1915-1916. We
quote from his report :

" Undoubtedly in comparison with other English industries agricul-
ture is in many places very backward, but the recognition of this fact by

24 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

those engaged in agriculture is the first essential step towards progress.
As to the progress made and likely to be made, it was with pleasurable
surprise that I found a number of farmers at practically every place I
visited who, from the somewhat meagre writings which so far I have been
able to put before the public on the subject, have during the past few
years been growing continuous crops, on what they call a small scale and
what we in Ireland would call a very large scale. From the information so
obtained it is very evident that the system with adaptations is just as sui-
table for English as for Irish conditions — in Wales and the south western
districts of England even more suitable.

" Again as regards the co-operative purchase and use of implements,
the recent introduction of motor and motor implements into agricultural
work has opened up a vast field for development in this direction on
the part of the bigger farmer.';. On the other hand the spread of the
vSmall Holdings Act calls for — even demands for the success of the Act —
a far more extended use of modern machinery, which in the case of the
smallholder must be purchased and used conjointly... Already several
both large and small implement societies have been formed or are in the
process of formation. There are difficulties in the way, the chief one being
the extreme difficult}^ which some societies are meeting in the procuring
of machinery - a difficulty which I have tried several times to fpcus at-
tention upon, and one which it is to be hoped will shortly receive the se-
rious attention of the authorities concerned ".

MISCKlvIvANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CO OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

GERMANY.

SOME FACTS AS TO THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEIVEENT IN GERMANY. — Jahrbuch
des allgemeinen Verbatidcs der auf Selhsthilfe heruhenden deutschen Erwerbs- und Wirt-
schaftsgenossenschafien e. v. fiir 1914. XVIII Jahtgang, Berlin, 1915.

On I January 1915 there were 117 central and 36,032 ordinary co-ope-
rative societies. More than half of these — 55.4 per cent. — were in Prus-
sia. The number of central co-operative societies had not changed since i
January 1914, but that of the others had increased by 1,006. All or almost
all this increase dated however from the months before the war. The in-
crease between i January and i August 1914 was one of 941 which is to
say that between i August 1914 and i January 1915 it was only of 65. It
should be noted that between i January and i August 1915 it was of 122.

As compared with preceding years 1914 showed lessened progress, the
increase having been 1369 in 1913, 1676 in 1912, and 1426 in 1911. The
increase of 1006 in 1914 was not equally distributed among the various kinds
of co-operative societies. It included 400 credit societies, 168 trade socie-
ties, 199 societies for the purchase of primary materials, 116 breeding
societies, 69 house-letting societies, 52 rural producers' societies, and no
important number of any society of another kind.

The total number of 36,032 co-operative societies was distributed as
follows :

1. Credit societies 19.700

2. Societies for the purchase of the primary materials of

industry' 846

3. Rural societies for the purchase of primary materials 3.167

4. Merchants'societies for the purchase of merchandise 306

5. Consumers' societies 2,418

6. Societies for the purchase of agricultural machines 22

7. Labour societies ^ 2,368

8. Producers'societies 4-555

9. Breeding societies 39^

10. Societies for letting dwellings 1.538

11. Various societies 7^6

Total . . . 36,032

26 lNFORiL\TION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

As regards form of liability the societies were distributed as follows:

1. Unlimited liability societies . . . 21,849 or 60.6 per cent.

2. Societis to which new payments

were unlimited 168 " 0.4

3. Limited liabiUt}^ societies - . . . 14,015 " 39 " "

The unlimited Uabilit^- societies were diminishing while the percentage
of societies having limited hability was increasing. In 1905, 68.8 per cent,
of the societies had unlimited and only 30.6 limited liability. Unlimited
liability prevailed in 1915 among the credit societies, 87 per cent, of which
had this form, and among the rural producers' societies of which 65 per
cent, had it. Limited HabiHty predominated on the other hand among
all the others, especially among the trade societies, the merchants' societies
and the producers' societies.

ITALY.

I. A MEETING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE^ OF THE CATHOLIC ECONOMIC OR-
GANIZATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES. — Azione Sociale, organ of the
Unione Economico-social e fra i cattolici iialiani, No. 17, Faenza, 15-31 December 1916.

Under the auspices of the Economico-Social Union of Catholic Italians
and on the initiative of Federazione Bancaria Italiana (i) in agreement
with the Federazione Italiana delle Casse Riirali Cattoliche, a meeting of re-
presentatives of the Catholic economic institutions of vSouthern Italy was
recently held at Rome. Its object was to find practical means of inten-
sifying Catholic economic activity' in the south. The organization and
the present condition of the Catholic banks and the rural funds and agri-
cultural union of the provinces of the district were examined, and discus-
sions were held as to the methods best adapted to promote their develop-
ment and co-ordination. As regarded, in particular, the banks, this meeting
decided to entrust to the Federazione Bancaria Italiana the task of : a)
promoting and bringing to a conclusion action for the formation of provin-
cial or local institutions of credit in the most important centres ; h) facili-
tating the transformation of existing banks from co-operative limited liability

(i) This federation of Italian Catholic banks was formed at Milan " in order to afford
reciprocal protection, \igilance, co-ordination and assistance to each bank in its autonomous
exercise of economic activity ". The bank discharges the following fimctions by the means of
a federal committee: a) it visits federated banks and causes their inspection at least once a year:
h) it acts as an intermediary relating them mutuallj' in order to ensure that the activ-ity of each
harmonizes with the collective interest; c) it endeavours to make them take opportune mea-
sures for the avoidance and defeat of the moral and financial difficulties which they may en-
counter ; d) it assists and represents the federated banks where their general interests are
concerned.

I^rFORMATION REI,ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 27

societies to simple limited liability societies, facilitating the desired increase
of their capital ; c) helping these banks to perfect and complete the
branches of their activity, actively relating the interests of the various
Catholic institutions, etc.

As regards rural funds we should state, as does the report, that in these
provinces " there are numerous Cathohc rural funds but all of them do not
fulfil the objects for which they were founded ". In order to intensify the
movement it was therefore judged necessary to reinforce, co-ordinate and
improve it. For the execution of this work of organization the Federa-
zione delle Casse Ruyali Cattoliche of Bologna had long delegated the Cre-
dito Centrah of Latium wliich, in view of the fact that it is an institution
federating the Catholic economic institutions of the Roman and adjacent
provinces, was particularly fitted for the task. The meeting noticed the
action taken by the Credito Centrale of Latium, which promoted the forma-
tion of provincial federations of the rural funds of Reggio in Calabria, Sa-
lerno and Benevento, and, with a view to collaboration entered into rela-
tion with those of Cosenza and Amatrice ; and which caused various re-
unions to be held in other provinces. The meeting therefore confirmed the
mandate of the Credito Centrale. It then decided : a) to work for the consti-
tution of legally founded federating centres in regions where none exist, pref-
erably in provincial capitals, and where this is impossible to make the
strongest and best administered rural fund in a given zone its federating
centre ; b) to cause all federations to correspond with the Credito Centrale
of Latium which will act as their intermediary in their relations with the
Federazione italiana delle casse rurali and afford them particular assistance
in technical, legal and fiscal matters, f aciliting all their financial business ;
c) to cause all CathoHc rural funds, in order that thej- may complete^ dis-
charge their social and economic function, not only to afford cheap credit
but also to facilitate active habits of thrift among the agricultural classes.
Such action wiU place at their disposal a sufficient amount of deposits and
thus allow them to be maintaned and to discharge their functions by means
of local resources. If their resources prove insufficient the local federations
■will undertake to supplement them, taking all desirable precautions.

There was question at the meeting of the organization of agricultural
unions (Catholic societies for the purchase of article useful to agriculture).
In the south there are very few of them (at Benevento, Campobasso, Std-
mona, etc.) although they could very usefully assist the development of
local agriculture. The meeting recognized their importance and deliber-
ated concerning them, and then decided : a) to work for the constitution
in legal form of agricultural unions, either provincial or regional, which
■would operate in centres where their influence is least strong and bring
into being efficient societies for the protection of the moral and economic
interests of agriculturists ; b) to take action causing these agricultural unions
not to confine themselves to the collective purchase of merchandise and
manures necessary to agriculture, but to undertake also the export of
products of the soil, entering therefore with this object into relations
with the Catholic agricultural unions of North Italy. For the execution

28 INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

of this work the action of the national federation of agricultural unions,
which has yet to be founded, will be necessary. It will undertake the
formation at Rome of a special office for the needed work of propaganda.

*

2. THE FEDERATIONS OF THE CATHOI^IC RURAl, FUNDS OF THE PROVINCES
OF BOI^OGNA, REGGIO D'EMILIA, FORI, AND SAI^ERNO IN 1915-1916.— Coope-
razione Popolare, nos 22-24. Parma, 31 decembrer 1916.

We borrow from Cooperazione Popolare, the organ of the Catholic
rural funds, the following data as to the position and activity of some pro-
vincial federations of rural funds in 1915-1916. The Federazione delle
Casse Ritrali e Popolari of the province of Bologna is one of the most im-
portant Catholic federations of rural funds. A year ago it grouped 86
funds, 77 of them rural and g of them poptdar, which comprised altoge-
ther 7,541 members. It now groups 88 funds, 78 of them rural and 10 of
them popular, which have 7,617 members. We here resume the general
position of the federated funds on 31 October 1914, 31 October 1915 and
31 October 1916 :

On 31 October 1914 1915 1916

Federated funds 83 86 88

Number of members inscribed. 7>385 7>54i 7.617

Loans to members 1,870,065.74 1,810,060.95 1,581,904.68

Securities 573.565-73 708.682.33 1,067,237.34

Deposits on current credit ac-
count 863,138.91 982,745.64 1,903.131.77

Assets in coin, merchandise and

miscellaneous assets .... 198,864.90 221,646.68 336,088.39

Total. : . 3.5»5.635-28 3,723,135.60 4,888,362.18
Iviabilities in interest and costs

for 10 months 106,660.98 110,691.64 130,208.02

Total. . . 3.612,296.26 2,833,827.24 5,018,570.20

Liabilities.

Trust deposits 3,276,908.17 3,455,818.73 4,649,820.76

Current debit accounts .... 60,122.85 57,667.31 17,376.33
Interest not due and various

liabilities 24,810.77 42,771.98 40,645.05

Total . . . 3,361,841.79 3,556,258.02 4,707,842.14
vSociety's capital 125,528.37 147,315.14 167,788.97

Total . . . 3,487,370.16 3.703,57316 4,875,631.11
Assets in interest and profits

for 10 months 124,926.10 130,254.08 142,939.09

Total . . . 3,612,296.26 3,833,827.24 5,018,570.20

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATJON 29

This table shows above all a constant increase of deposits whidi
is proof of the confidence felt in these institutions. Thus on 31 October
1914 deposits amounted only to some 3,277,000 liras, on 31 October 1915
to 3,456,000 liras, and on 31 October 1916 to 4,650,000 liras ; that is they
increased by nearly 180,000 liras between 1914 and 1915, and by 1,200,000
liras or an average of 100,000 liras a month between 1915 and 1916.

It should be remembered that this increase in deposits and the accom-
panying reduction in loans are partly due to an abandonment, on account
of the war, of much agricultural and even of commercial and industrial
enterprise. We may therefore expect that at the end of the war, when
life returns to its normal course, deposits will diminish and applications
for loans, which have become insignificant, will increase. L,oans decreas-
ed from about 1,870,000 liras on 31 October 1914 to 1,810,000 liras on
31 October 1915 and 1,582,000 liras on 31 October igi6. Thus the dimi-
nution was one of nearly 60,000 liras between 1914 and 1915 and of 228,000
liras between 1915 and 1916.

If this increase in deposits be added to the reduction of loans a total
sum of about 1,700,000 liras is obtained. If secondary items in the
account be left out this sum comes to be one of more than a million liras
which went to swell that comprised under the heading " deposits on credit
current accounts in credit institutions ", while nearly half a million liras
was entered under the heading " securities ".

As in preceding 3-ears the federation did not neglect to give assistance
in technique, book-keeping and legal matters to the federated societies.

The Federazione delle Casse Rurali of Reggio d'Emilia groups twenty-
three rural funds. We take the following data from their balance-sheets
for 31 December 1915.

Capital and reserve 92,774.40 liras

Trust deposits 2,183,476.25 »

Bills held 1,279,414.11 »

In general the ])osition of the rural funds in the province is good.

The Federazione delle Casse Rurali of the province of Forli groups,
according to the report presented by the presidents to the federal meeting
on 8 June igi6, societies which are in an entirely satisfactory economic
and financial position, in spite of the crisis due to the abnormal state of
affairs.

They were able in the year in question to afford the same credit to their
members as in IQ15, but by a wise provision they gradually reduced their
paper and then formed a reserve in the form of a credit current account
at the Banca del Credito Romagnolo from which they receive a preferential
rate. The diminution in their investments is due rather to the diminished
demands of their members than to the imposition of restrictions.

The recently formed funds are those which have most increased the
sum of their deposits. The others faced an alternative of increase or di-
minution, but increases prevailed at the end of the year, showing that

30 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPICRATION AND ASSOCIATION

the war had notably reacted on those institutions which still enjo}^ popnlar
confidence.

The punctuality of members in repaying the amounts they borrowed
has been entirely praiseworthy. Loans numbered 3,025 on 31 December

1914 and had risen to 3,114 at the end of 1915. Deposits on 31 December

1915 amounted to 854,800.49 liras as against 807,901.27 liras on 31 Decem-
ber 1914 : that is they increased by 46,899.22 liras. This increase shows
that even the poorest .classes, from whom the deposits emanated, were
well-to-do, a fact confirmed by the diminution in loans which allowed the
funds to augment their reserves in specie. The amount of the bills held
was lowered from 840,450.35 liras in December 1914 to 720,809.17 liras at
the end of December 1915.

The Federation of Salerno was founded in April 1916. It immedi-
ately undertook the formation of new funds in the vast region of Salerno
and lyucania. The rural funds of Siano, Vietri-sul-Mare, Bracigliano,
Castel San Giorgio, Toirello, Pastena and Fosaro were thus constituted,
and others are in course of formation at Eboli, Danzara, Cioriani, Fisciano,
S. Cipriano Picentino and Agliara.

3. THE INSPECTING AND BOOK-KEEPING OFFICES FOR CO-OPERATIVE SOCI-
ETIES. — IsHtuto di credito per le cooperative. Branch at Reggio d'Emilia. Extract
from the report on the balance-sheet for 1916.

The Istituto di credito per le cooperative of Milan founded long since
and most opportunely offices for the inspection and book-keeping of co-op-
erative societies. The reason for their existence is explained as follows
in the report on the budget for 1916 of the Reggio d'Emilia branch. " The
needs of co-operation become larger and more and more complex and the
desire of the Istituto di Credito for a regulation of credit grows proportion-
atel}'. Hence the necessity that there shotUd always be at hand the ma-
terial for learning the conditions of the enterprises as regards their economy
and their capital in real estate. This gives a motive to all the co-operative
societies to prove the value of their organizations, for it is from all of them
together that operations of credit in general and of fiduciary credit in par-
ticular can derive their indispensable effective guarantees ". The report
cited shows the activity of these societies. In 1916 they kept the books
of 54 co-operative societies and drew up their balance sheets : the office
of Reggio did this for 31, that of Guastalla for 23.

The inspecting office imdertook notable work. It revised 164 bal-
ance-sheets, belonging, respectively, to 67 consumers' and 97 labourers'
co-operative societies ; and it gave 195 consultations.

The results obtained by revising the balance-sheets were the bases
for the compilation of statistics of 1914, and the like are now being compil-
ed for 1915. If the data collected be resumed the progress of co-opera-

INFORMATION REI,ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 3 1

ticn in the region of Reggio in 1914 will be seen to present the following
facts :

Co-operative societies adhering to the Office of Inspection number
156 of which 74 are consumer's societies, 69 labour societies and 13 agricul-
tural societies.' The total number of members is 20,580, distributed as
follows : 9,204 in co-operative consumers' societies ; 8,876 in co-operative
labourers' societies and 2,500 in co-operative agricultural societies.

The subscribed capital amounts to 1,755,907 liras and reserves to
738,876 liras.

The following figures represent the turnover : sales, 4,198,961 liras ;
work 5,845,648 liras.

The total amount of operations of credit effected by this institution
of credit is as follows :

From I Jul}^ 1911 to 31 December 1912

(18 months) 6,226,784.57 Hras

In 1913 4.85'5,936.29 »

» 1914 5,317,068.22 » .

» 1915 6,134,063.15 ))

» 1916 6,882,608.30 »

Total . . . 29,417,460.53 »

These data are proof of the importance of the work accomplished and
also of the useful ser\dce rendered by this institution to co-operation.

*

4. I,A FEDERAZIONE APISTICA ITAI^IANA. — UAgricoltura italiana, organ of the
federation, Nos. i and 2, Ancona, January and Februarj', 1917.

This Italian Apiarist Federation, which has its headquarters at Ancona,
is a limited liabilit^^ co-operative society, having an unlimited capital and
aiming at the production and sale of honey and wax (i). It was founded
in 1904 on a modest scale but has developed constantly, as is shown by
the following table.

(i) The Federazione apistica subalpina is in course of construction at Turin in the form of
a limited liability co-operative society aiming at a) the progress and popularization of rational
apiculture ; b) the improvement of members' apiculture ; d) the collective purchase and use of
everything necessary to the rational practice of this industry ; d) tlie marketing of products.
See in this connection Apicoltore moderno, Nos. 3 and 4, Turin, March and April 191 7.

32

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Development of the Federation from 1904 to 1916.

Year

Society's
capital

Number

of Turnover
members

Exporta- Total
tion sales

i

Price

by

quintal,

including

packing

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

Liras

1.3 14
9,236
10,342
11,246
22,798
31,097
35.793
38,352
40,704

43,041
46,731
48,736
49,343

72
456

534
600
607
629
658
667

674
690

740
766
772

Iviras Quintals 1 Quintals

I
2,087 . _ _

419,226 175 : 757
1,392,060 385 1,606

1,640,864 625 1,453
1,995,906 605 2,032
3,237,223 707 1,889
2,608,849 1,598 2,714
3,021,493 1,168 1,495
2,058,948 i 582 1,207

3,555,330 ! 1. 137 2,577
4,694,611 1 1,420 3,741

— ! 958 2,414

- 1 - 2.135

Liras

76
68

77
76

71

74

100

98

84
72

The continuall}' increasing membership is explained by the advan-
tages procured by this federation, and also by a very wise provision of the
administrative council that members need pay immediately only half in-
stead of the whole amount of a share of 50 liras, paying the rest in three
annual instalments.

5. THE CONSTITUTION OF LA FEDERAZIONE DELLE LATTERIE SOCIAI^I CRE-
MONESI. — Bollettino deU'Agricoltura, No. 7, Milan, 15 Februarj' 1917.

Their common interests and the desirability of an interchange of ad-
vice and assistance suggested to the collective dairies in the district of Cre-
mona the idea of forming a federation, and to this the dairies of Soresina,
Acquanegra, vSesto, Forcello, Ca de Stefani, Ca de Corti and Piadena
have already adhered. The federation proposes to buy on behalf of
the federated societies merchandise and products for common use and
implements and machines ; to furnish information as to the most profit-
able method of treating milk and the best markets ; to act in the markets
as an intermediary ; to constitute depositing warehouses in order to faci-
litate advances of funds ; and to organize the sale of products and produc-
tion by specialization, by improvements and by encouraging the founda-
tion of new co-operative societies.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCL^TION

33

RUSSIA.

FINNISH CO-OPERATIVE DAIRIES IN 1915. — Suomen Osuustoimin talehti ; Helsing-
fors, Year 1916, No. 10.

At the end of 1915 there were 421 co-operative dairies in Finland,
twenty-one of them having been founded during the year. These societies
had 45,000 members, as against 41,500 in 1914 and 39,000 in 1913. Of the
members 38.8 per cent, possessed from one to three cows, 53.9 per cent, from
four to fifteen, and 7.3 per cent, more than fifteen. In 1913 the correspond-
ing percentages were 38.4, 53.1 and 8.5 ; in 1911 they were 37.8,53.9 and 8.7.

The following table shows the number of cows belonging to co-operative
dairies and the proportion this bore to the country's total herd from 1912
to 1915 :

In igi2 the co-operative societies possessed 250,000 cows or 21.6 % of the country's herd

" 1913 " " " " 255,000 " " 21.7 %

1914
1915

269,000
288,000

22.7 %
25.7 %

The increased percentage in 1915 was influenced by the notable reduc-
tion in the country's total herd in that year.

From the 421 co-operative dairies 316 million kilogrammes (i) of milk
were obtained while in 191 4 the 396 co-operative dairies supplied 321 mil-
lion kilogrammes. The chief cause of the diminished milk production in
1915 was doubtless the fixing of too low prices for butter which led to the
slaughter of many milch-cows and thus paralysed all measures taken to
increase milk production.

As regards motive power, steam is employed by 266 dairies, h^-draulic
power b}' eleven and electricity^ by seven, while fifty-four are content to
use human labour and forty-eight have recourse to animal traction.

The financial position of 330 co-operative dairies at the end of Decem-
ber 1915 was as follows :

Assets

I^iabilities

In hand

Deposits and credit ....
Real estate ... ....

Frs.

739,919
4,173,229
6,131,944

.':4i,250
1,181,131

lyoans granted by the State .
lyoans granted by the banks

and other loans

Capital owned by dairies. . .
Excess of assets over liabilities

Total . . .

Frs.

1,144,279

2,405,775
6,7i3.f'65
2,303,754

Accessory industries ....
Products and plant ....

Total . .

• 12,567.473

12,567,473

(i) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

34

INFORMATION KEI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The financial position of the co-operative dairies is thus seen to have
been excellent. The following table shows their financial dvelopment from
1904 to 1915 :

Assets

I,iabilities

Real Estate

Other

property

(in hand,

deposits, etc.)

Capital owned
by dairies

Ivoans

83.0%

17-0%

23-1 %

76.9 %

84.1 %

15.9%

26.8%

73.2 %

81.7%

18-3 %

34.0 %

66.0 %

77.7%

22.3 %

46.2 <%

53.8 %

67.7 %

32.3 %

60.5%

39.5 %

63.3 %

36.7 %

63.7 %

36.3 %

51.5%

48.5 %

71.8%

28.2 %

1904

1906
1908
I9IO
I9I2

I9I4
I9I5

An examination of this table wiU convince the reader that the develop-
ment of the co-operative dairies has been continuous and rapid. In 1904 they
owned hardly a quarter of the capital they employed, but in 1912 they owned
much more than half thereof, namely 60.5 per cent. And while their own
capital increased the proportion of their real estate to their other property
was modified to the advantage of the latter ; which in 1914 constituted
36.7 per cent, of all their assets, being thus equal to their debts (36.3 per
cent.), whereas in 1915 the position had much improved.

In 1915 the value of the products sold by the Finnish co-operative dai-
ries was fifty million francs. The average income of a dairy was larger than
it had ever been, namely 141,667 francs as against 110,727 francs in 1914 and
113,210 francs in 1913. But most of the dairies — 52.1 per cent, of them —
have not yet attained to an annual turnover of 100,000 francs. There
were at the end of 1915 nineteen large dairies having an annual turnover
of more than 400,000 francs.

The average price of the products was 379.53 francs for one hundred
kilogrammes of butter in 1915, as against 281.05 francs in 1914. The cor-
respondent cost of production reached 36.^13 francs and the net profit 343.10
francs. If 2 % per cent, be allowed for usurer's amortization a final net
profit of 3.34 francs remains on one kilogramme of butter. To produce one
kilogramme of butter 24.3 kilogrammes of milk are needed.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

35

UNITED STATES.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE JEWISH AGRICUIvTURAI, AND INDUSTRIAI, AID SOCIETY
IN 1916 (i). — From the society's annual report for 1916.

The activity' of this society in 1916 was facilitated by the excellent
economic situation of the United States and the high prices of agricultural
products.

Credit operations extended into thirty-six States ; 386 loans were
made in the year for a total amount of $229,827, as against 396 in 1915
for a total amount of $190,036. Since the number of loans diminished
while their total sum increased it follows that the average individual loan
was larger : it rose from $480 in 1915 to $595 in 1916. This business
brought the total number of loans made by the society since its foundation
up to 4,100, and the total sum lent up to $ 2,330,091. At the close of 1916
loans which had not been repaid numbered 1,713 and amounted to $ 977,423.

The following table shows the chief objects for which loans were made :

Object of I<oans

Number

Percentage

Purchase of a farm

47
100

62
166

II

17

» ') agricultural implements

Building and repair of buildings

26
16

Repayment ot mortgage and other debts

Working capital

43
3

Total . . .

386

100

Non-recoverable credit entered in 1916 in the profit and loss account
amounted to § 7,227. The total sum which the society has lost under this
head is $ 64,217 or 3. 11 per cent, of the total sum lent.

All the others sections of the society have continued to work with
the same success as in previous years. The office of agricultural labour
placed last year, 1,446 persons or 449 more than in 1915.

The office for co-operative purchase, founded in 191 0, not only enabled
Jewish farmers to obtain the products they needed at cost price, but also
accomplished an educative work, teaching them to use improved machinery
and new kinds of seeds, to mix manures, etc. Thanks to the efforts of this
section some hundred silos have been installed in recent years. In the
seven years for which it has existed the office for co-operative purchase has
done business for more than $200,000.

(i) International Review of Agricultural Economics, September 1916, page i.

36 rXFORMATION REIwATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The first agricultural savings and loan society, organized about two
years ago at Centerville (New York) had 157 members at the end of 1916
and a capital in shares of S 23, 276. It had then granted fourteen mortgages
on agricultural real estate for a total sum of §32,800. The co-operative
society for insurance against fire in Sullivan county, founded four years
ago, had then issued 504 policies, still active, for a total value of S 1,211,395,
The business of the year yielded a profit of about $5,000.

Finally the organization department took partictilar interest in the
application of the Federal Farm Loan Act and conducted an intensive work
of propaganda in order to induce Jewish farmers to form, in accordance
with the law, national associations of agricultural credit.

Part II: Insurance and Thrift

CANADA.

MUNICIPAlv INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN.

OFFICIAL SOURCES:

An act respecting hail Insurance by Municipalities (Canadian Legislature) 1915, c. 22.

An Act to Amend the Statute Law, ibid : 1916, c. 37.

A Review of the work of the Municipal hail Insurance Commission for the years

1913, 1914, 1915. Regina (Saskatchewan) October 1915.
Report of the Work of the Municipal Insurance Commission of Saskatchewan for

YEAR ENDING 29 FEBRUARY 1916, Regina, March 1916.

OTHER SOURCES :

The Agricultur.'^l Gazette of Canada, Ottawa, September 19 16.

The Grain Growers' Guide, Winnipeg, 8 November and 13 December 1916.

The Public Service Monthly, Regina, Vol. V, No. 5, December 1916.

§ I. The scheme as initiated in 1912.

a) The Hail Insurance Commission.

In Saskatchewan there is a system of municipal insurance against
hail based primarily on the Municipal Hail Insurance Act of 1912. This
created a Hail Insurance Commission which has three members of whom the
chairman is appointed by and holds office at the pleasure of the Lieutenant
Governor in Council, and the other two members are nominated at a meet-
ing of the reeves of the municipalities affected by the Act and are in office
for two years. The Lieutenant Governor in Council has however power
to fill all vacancies temporarily.

The constitution of the Commission was intended to secure it from
political influence while making it responsible to the people, and to give it
continuity. The Commissioners receive salaries fixed by the Lieutenant
Governor in Council and their travelling expenses are reimbursed to them ;
and they appoint a secretary -treasurer who is paid for his services as they
decide. They form a legal corporation. All salaries of the Conmiission
and its officers are paid out of the funds held b}' it under the Act.

38 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

b) Qualification for Insurance.

It is the municipalities who are insured under the Act. Any muni-
cipality in Saskatchewan may benefit by its provisions, and therefore enter
the sphere of the Commission; but such participation is in every case entire-
ly voluntary. The council of a nmnicipality may at any meeting held
between i August and i October in any year resolve to submit to the elec-
tors at the next ensuing annual election a by-law of a stipulated form em-
powering the municipality to insure under the Act. This will receive its first
and second reading only in response to a demand made before i Novem-
ber in any year, in a petition signed by at least 25 per cent, of the resident
ratepayers of the municipality ; on receipt of which the council will put the
by-law to the vote as soon as possible.

The right to vote on the by-law belongs to persons owning or occupying
or having an interest in lands within the municipaHty not exempted
from payment of the insurance tax.

The voting is by ballot and votes are recorded on especially provided
forms. If the majority of voters assent to the by-law it is finally passed
on 10 January next after the poU ; and within the month two copies of
it, and a certified statement as to the number of votes recorded for and
against it, are sent to the minister. It is vahd from the day on which a
notice of the minister's approval of it appears in the Saskatchewan Gazette
and the minister immediately informs the Hail Insurance Commission that
it is in force.

c) Assessment of Premiums.

Subsequently the secretary-treasurer of the municipal council is
obliged to publish before i May in every year and in two successive weekly
issues of a local newspaper an intimation, according to a prescribed form,
that the lands of the municipality are liable to assessment under the Act.
Lands held under a grazing lease from the Dominion of Canada and lands
within any hamlet are exempt ; and exemption for the current year ma}' be
claimed for lands belonging to certain specified categories. Claims for
exemption are made to the municipal council before i June, and if success-
ful are sent by the council to the Commission, who may cancel the
exemption.

All non-exempted lands of a municipalitj' which has come under the
Act are liable to be assessed by the Commission at the rate of four cents
an acre. The full amount of the rate, less the cost of printing the special
hail insurance tax notice and charges connected with remittance, is sent
by the municipality to the Commission. The risks are thus shared e jually
by all the mimicipalities under the Act, a circumstance which gives this
system of insurance its truly co-operative character.

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN 39

d) Indemnification for Loss.

Owners and lessees of land insured under the Act are entitled to indem-
nification at the rate of five cents an acre for every one per cent, of damage
by hail incurred by their crops between 16 June and 15 September : in
other words for every acre on which the crops have been totally ruined they
receive 8 5.00. The Act of 1912 provided no indemnification for losses
amounting to less than ten per cent, of the crop. Notice of the damage
must be given within five days of the date at which it is sustained, by re-
gistered letter to the secretar^^ of the Commis.sion at Regina, and must be
in the form of a full statement witnessed and verified by a neighbour. The
secretary of the Commission delivers this statement to an inspector who ve-
rifies it and reports on it.

All acknowledged claims must be met by the Commission before 15
December in each year, unless the Commission consider that its revenues
do not permit of full payment, in which case claims must be met pro rata.

No money due as indemnities can be assigned or garnisheed.

§ 2. The FIRST THREE YEARS OF INSURANCE.

For three years the Municipal Hail Insurance Act justified most of the
hopes entertained for it.

a) The Field of Insurance. — The manner in which the farmers of Saskat-
chewan took advantage of the provisions of the Act proved that it supplied
a real need, and seemed to prove also that it supplied it adequately. At the
first municipal elections held after the Act had been passed one hundred and
fifteen municipalities voted the by-law which brought them within the sphere
of insurance, and as a consequence some twenty million acres of land, of
which approximately five million were under crop, were automatically
insured against damage by hail. At the next municipal elections, those of
the autumn of 19 13, three municipalities repealed the by-law but it was
passed by an additional number of fourteen, thus giving a net increase of
eleven in the total number insured, which was thereafter 126. After the
elections of 1914, 127 municipalities were under the Act and 22,000,000 acres
or 34,000 square miles of land — of which 7,000,000 acres were estimated
to be under crop -- were in consequence insured for 1915. The working
of the scheme in this 5'ear gave such satisfaction that after the elections in
the autumn of 1915, 139 municipalities were under the Act.

The complete freedom to repeal the insurance by-law in anj^ year
probabh' caused it to be voted willinglj', the municipalities feeling that they
were not committing themselves to the system permanently but merely
making trial of it. One municipality passed the by-law in 1913, repealed it
in 1914 and passed it again in 1915 : in this case the ratepayers paid the
hail insurance tax in 1913 and 1915 but not in 1914.

It was \-er\ noticeable that the municipalities which were the later
adherents to the scheme adjoined others previously in enjoyment of its

40 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

benefits. In other words this form of insurance had the advantage of
the most legitimate of forms of all advertisement.

])) The Minimum of Indemnifidde Loss. — Under the Act of 191 2 no
farmer conld claim indemnification for a loss of less than 10 per cent of his
crop. It was deemed advisable to lower this minimum, by an amendment
passed in 1915, to 5 per cent. Since the rate fixed b}- the Act of 1912 was
five cents for one per cent, of damage, the minimum indemnity payable
came to be 25 cents an acre.

c) Wifhdrawal oj Lands from- Lnsurnnc^. — A criticism of the scheme is
that it causes all lands to be taxed for insurance against hail alike, wheth-
er or not they are cultivated. Its defenders point out th»t this system
allows the tax to be comparatively low, and moreover brings under contri-
bution — ultiniatel}' to the benefit of the farmers — the big land compa-
nies and speculators who do nothing to enrich the country-. From the be-
ginning howe\'er certain categories of land were exempted, as has already
been said, from obligation to pay the tax — in practice lands pernianently
under grass and the sites of villages — , and exemption for cne year can
be obtained for lands belonging to certain other categories. The latter
were modified by the amendment to the Act passed in 1915 ; and as
the law afterwards stood they included :

i) Lands which compiise one or more quarter sections in area, are
completeh' surrounded b>' a substantial fence of not less than two strands
of barbed wire upon posts not more than 33 feet apart, and are used ex-
clusively for grazing and for growing hay, only b^' the person who wishes
to withdrav/ them from insurance.

2) Unpatented quarter sections held under homestead, jjre-eniption
or purchased homestead entrv', having less than 25 acres under cultivation.
The ability to withdraw these allows new settlers and others who have only
a small holding of cultivated land, exclusiveh^ on unpatented lands, to a\'oid
paying the hail insurance tax until their lands are patented or until tliey
come to be grain growers on a large scale.

3) A patented or unpatented quarter section in which less than 25
acres is under cultivation and the remaining land fenced as described un-
der i). The provision for the withdrawal of land of this category is made in
the interests of certain parts of the cotuitry where most of the land is graz-
ing land and only a minor portion arable.

d) Inspection oj Damage toy which Lndemnity is Claimed. -- This
very important part of any scheme of insurance was inevitably found to
admit of improvment after experience of it had been gained.

In igiz] the Commission provided that an}' claimant who was dissat-
isfied with the inspector's estimate of the damage his crop had incurred
might ask to have it re-inspected. The system of re-inspection thus inaug-
urated proved to be so useful that in 1915 the Commission further provid-
ed that if after re-inspection the claimant were still dissatisfied, his claims
could be referred to two arbitrators, one chosen by himself and the other
by the chief or general inspector, and that these, after they had inspected
the crop in question, had power to call in a third person who should de-

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN

41

cide points on wliich they could not agree. The Commission's regulations
as to this provision are printed on the back of the report which the inspector
leaves with the claimant after his first inspection. Onl}^ two claimants
availed themselves of the provision in 1915, and in both cases the two arbi-
trators agreed without calling in a third person and the award was not in-
creased but reduced.

Two general and twenty-one regular inspectors weie employed in 1915,
all of them then or recently engaged in farming and eleven of them reeves
or councillors of a municipality at the time of their appointment.

e) Finance. — The following figures show the financial working of
the scheme before 191 6.

Number
of Municipal-
ities under
the Act

Number
of Claims
Received

Amount paid

in

Claims

Costs

of

Administration

1913
1914

I915

115
126
127

S 788,389.50
896,365.26
917.293 96

5,300 •

3.568

3,991

S 756,960.11
512,900.75
670,809.42

•S 26,928.52

30,029.24

35,871.51

These results were received as evidence of a great success by the Hail
Insurance Commission. Nearly two million dollars had been paid to the
farmers in indemnities ; in 1914 and 1915 payments, aggregating % 35,000,
had been made into a tax adjustment reserve fund ; and a surplus of more
than half a million dollars had been accumulated.

In the report issued early in 1916 the Commissioners l^id stress on the
economical nature of the scheme they administered. They stated that out
of every dollar collected from the farmers 73 cents had been returned to
them in the form of indemnities, 21 cents were held as a reser^^e fund against
future abnormal losses, and only 6 cents were absorbed by the expenses of
the Commission and the commission paid to secretaries of municipalities.
In the case, however, of nineteen private insurance companies, which were
the rivals of the Commission in the province, only ^j cents out of every dol-
lar collected were returned to the farmers in the form of indemnities, and the
remaining 67 cents went to pay expenses and make the profits of sharehold-
ers. The insurance effected by the Commission would, if it had been car-
ried on by private companies, have cost the farmers $ 3,000,000.00 more
than had been the case.

The Commission had originally no power to borrow money except for
administrative purposes. It was however deemed advisable to in\est a
portion of the surplus, and therefore the Act as amended in 1915 allowed the
Commission to borrow money for any purpose, using its securities as colla-
teral.

f ) Additional Insurance. — There was some discontent with the amount
of indemnities received for losse. was sit stated that when a crop was en-

42 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

tirely ruined by hail the indemnity of $ 5 an acre compensated not for the
full value lost but onl}' for the cost of putting the crop in. To meet this com-
plaint the Commission, as empowered by the amendments of 1915, inaugu-
rated a system by which farmers in municipalities already under the Act
might, by appl3dng to the secretary of their municipality, pay an addition-
al rate of 5 cents an acre, and thus insure their crops for an additional § 5
an acre, or § 10 an acre in all.

Participation in the additional insurance thus initiated was naturally
confined to grain growers within the 139 municipahties under the Act, and
even on their part it w^s entirely voluntary. There was therefore a danger
that risks would not be sufficiently distributed. The Commissioners stated
that to guard against this they had in the first place employed agents
in all the municipalities under the Act to solicit adherence to the scheme
for additional insurance ; and in the second place had arranged with several
good insurance companies for reinsurance, in every district where risks
which could not easily be faced were in the least likely to occur. The rate
of 5 cents an acre was less by one cent than the usual rate, but the Commis-
sioners claimed that this fact was justified by the economy of their adminis-
tration.

According to an approximate estimate pubhshed in vSeptember 1916
the value of the additional insurance in force was $ 2,000,000 and the
total revenue from insurance $ 1,000,000.

§ 3. The BREAKDOWN OF THE SCHEME.

a) The Results of 1906.

In a review of the first three A^ears of their labours published at the end
of 191 5 the Commissioners hint at a jjossible eventual abatement of the
assessment rate of 4 cents an acre for insurance under the Act of 1912.
"It is the intention of the Commission ", they say, ' to maintain the 4
cent assessment rate at least until the reserve fund equals one year's
re\'enue, thus placing its finances upon a sound basis so that claims can
be settled earlier in the season ".

But far from bringing them nearer a point at which the}^ can lower
the rate, 19 16 has proved the whole financial basis of this scheme for in-
surance to be unsound. The following figures summarize the business of
the year :

Number of municipalities under the Act. . . 139

Approximate acreage under crop insured. . . 7,000,000

Number of Claims 10,000

Amount of Claims $3,600,000 I t. c.^

TA Z ( S3,DCO,000

Expenses $ 50,000 )

Revenue $ 950,000

Deficit on the year $2,700,000

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN

43

In connection with this formidable deficit further remarks from the
official re\dew issued late in 1915 may be cited. " The hail insurance levy
of 5 cents per acre amounting to only $ 6.40 for 160 acres is a very small
premiufn to carry a risk of $ 800, which is the case where all the acreage is
under crop... In other words it takes 4 cents per acre levy upon 125 acres
to pay... $ 5 upon one acre destroj-ei by hail ".

It is instructive to compare with the results obtained by the Munici-
pal Hail Insurance Commission those reached from 1913 to 1916 by pri-
vate companies insuring against hail in Saskatchewan.

In the aggregate they were as follows :

Year Premiums Losses

I9I3 $783,194.42

I9I4 747,838.68

I915 1,363,001.66

I916 1,417,853.21

1485.30579
I7344344

438,619.57
1.872,408.75

The following table shows the gross income and gross losses of each
company insuring against hail in the province in 1916.

Name of Company

St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company

Middle West

Excess

Acadia Fire

Canadian Indemnity

Canada Hail

" National

Rochester Underwriters 'Agency
British American Assurance
Wiimipeg Fire Underwriters' Agency
Nova Scotia" "

Home Insurance
Canada Security Assurance
British Crown "

Canada Weather Insurance
American Cential "

Connecticut Fire "

Hartford

New York Underwriters' Agencj-
Great North Insurance
Northwestern National Insurance
Dominion Fire "

Glens Falls "

Westchester Fire "

Losses

54,802.10

$ 86,251.54

39,662.35

49,690.94

102,437.75

130,739.14

31,860.86

66,593-02

82,582.10

124,728.45

72,542.95

95,127-67

95,685.18

193,055-43

20,909.56

29,243.26

48,176.13

64,539-13

3,150.96

3,887.50

9,657-87

11,686.87

102,646.13

176,608.61

70,898.97

83,93480

193,517.89

213,330.37

21,420.63

17,391-56

18,155-41

49,823.07

13,553-45

24,312.05

96,360.96

112,592.95

26,192.80

30,023.13

60,474.21

56,780.99

111,751.48

114,692.84

37,282.47

26,439.05

80,987.46

76,827.06

23,143-54

34,209.32

$ 1,417,853.21 $ 1,872,408.75

44 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

The expenses of the private companies in 1916 averaged 30 per cent of
their premium inconK'. Since the losses were equivalent to about 132 per
cent, of such income they owed, at the end of 1916, 162 per cent, of the
total amount they had received in this year. The position was sufficiently
serious, yet vastly less so than that of tlie Municipal Insurance Commission
which, in spite of its much more economical administration, would have
had to pay 394 per cent, of its premium income in order fully to indemnifj^
losses at the rate of $ 5 an acre.

The private companies were able to meet all claims on them from their
reserves. The Mimicipal Hail Insurance Commission was under no obli-
gation to pay f uU compensation at the $ 5 an acre rate, for a clause, already
cited, of the Act of 1912 provides that if the Commission consider that its
revenues do not permit of full payment it shall meet claims pro rata. Only
the 127 municipalities which were under the Act before 1916 had an}- claim
to the reserves accumulated from surplus income before that year. It
was calculated that the Commission was in a position to indemnify the
farmers of these 127 municipalities for their losses at the rate of about
S 2.15 an acre ; and those in the remaining thirteen municipalities, who
had no claim on the reserves, at that of about .S 1.30 an acre. Indemni-
fication at these rates could not go far to compensate for the actual loss, in
view especially of the fact that the destruction of a large part of the crop
would enormously raise the price of seed.

b) Defects of the Scheme.

i) As regards the causes of the breakdown the first defect in the mu-
nicipal hail insurance scheme brought to light b}' the breakdown of 1916 was
that it had been based on an inadequate estimate of risks.

The rate of premium allowed for an average annual loss of 4 per cent,
of the total crop. The loss in 1913 was 3 per cent., in 1914 it was i ^/^ per
cent, in 1915 it was 2 per cent. : the average annual loss for these three
years was therefore 2 V^ per cent. But in 1916 the loss was 10 per cent,
and thus for the four years the annual average was 5 per cent, or i per cent,
in excess of the estimate. Hence the failure of the scheme. It is stated
that an absolute annual average should be calculated on a period of from
fifty to sevent3"-five j^ears, and that no period of less than twenty-five years
can give dependable data.

2) The scheme was therefore speculative. It was so in a second re-
spect because while it competed with firms affording absolute insurance, the
measure of insurace it actually gave was hypothetical, being limited by the
pro rata clause. It is clear however that the commissioners advertised their
benefits as equivalent or superior to those afforded by the private compa-
nies, and that the insured farmers considered that their crops were unre-
servedly insured against hail at the rate of $ 5 an acre. Further the pubHc
character of the scheme seems to have given some of these farmers an idea
that their compensation at tliis rate was guaranteed by the government.
Thus a mass meeting held at Venn after the breakdown of the scheme

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAII, IN SASKATCHEWAN 45

resolved " that the provincial government be requested to loan the
Commission enough money to pay all claims in full ".

§ 4. The PROPOSED AMENDEMNT OF THE SCHEME.

A very general desire was shown by Saskatchewan farmers for the con-
tinuance of the Municipal Hail Insurance Scheme in an amended form.

It had been abundantly proved that insurance of this nature, since it
was not profit-making but co-operative, and since it could be administered
by the municipal organization, was less costly than the insurance af-
forded by private firms if it could but be made equally secure. But under
the existing scheme farmers could not have complete protection unless they
insured with a private company the risk left uncovered by the Commission.

Representatives of the rural municipalities under the Municipal Hail
Insurance Act held a convention to consider the amendment of the scheme.
At this meeting 39 municipaHties did not vote or were not represented, but
78 voted in favour, and only 22 against, the full payment of all the claims
of 1916. Proposals for amending the scheme were submitted to the con-
vention and all of thenr provided for a) such full payment, b) the rendering
absolute of insurance as afforded by the scheme.

Subsequently the convention appointed a committee consisting of
the three Commissioners, the secretary of the Grain Growers' Association
and five representative of the municipalities ; and these, at meetings held
in Regina from 10 to 27 November 1916, considered the proposals submit-
ted to the convention and other suggestions for amending the scheme. Their
report was presented to the reeves and representatives of rural municipa-
lities under the Act and to the provincial government on 27 November.

a) Provision for Meeting Losses of 1916 in Full.

The committee offered two alternative suggestions for the meeting
of the losses of 1 916 in full.

i) They proposed that the ratepayers should be consulted as to whe-
ther they would agree to a special levy of 2 cents an acre during 1917 only,
the amount accruing from such levy to be applied in part payment of the
losses of 1 91 6.

2) They pro])Osed that the rural municipalities under the Act should
have an opportunity of voting as to whether they would accept resj^onsi-
bility for the 1916 deficit, on condition that if not less than eighty of them
agreed to meet their proportion of such deficit, such eighty would be re-
quired to make provision, by sinking fund, debenture issue or otherwise
or through the commission, to meet for ten years an annual call for not more
than $3,000 from each municipality.

46 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

b) Provision for Making Insurance Absolute.

i) Suggested Plans. — The committee pointed out in their report that
insurance could be made absolute by three methods : by the possession of
a surplus of other assets equal to the insurance at risk ; by a mutual company
in which each of the insured would agree to pay the levies in full in any 3^ear ;
or by an unknown compulsory tax upon the land.

The first of these expedients was out of the question because the 1916
losses would leave over neither surplus nor current revenue, and the as-
sets pro\4ding for the future were Umited. The second method was only
appHcable to a scheme under which individuals voluntarily applied for
insurance.

The third method if appHed in its simplest form would involve the
levying on all assessable lands, at the end of an^^ year in wliich revenue
had been inadequate to paying indemnities at the agreed rate, of a tax suf-
ficient to cover the deficit. Such additional assessment would in 1916
have been 16 cents, an acre if this method of indemnifying at the rate of $5
an acre had been adopted. The full cost of insurance in that year would
therefore have been 20 cents an acre.

The committee did not deem it wise or just to burden the land with
liability to such a tax. Even so important a matter as insurance against
hail did not, in their opinion, justify this placing on the land, which already
contributed largely to public objects, of a bvurden which could not be estimat-
ed beforehand and might be very onerous.

Under the existing system holders of land in municipalities under the
Act are in the position of members of a limited mutual company in which
the majority, who are grain growers, compel not only themselves but
also the minority, who are not grain growers, to pay a fixed charge upon
their lands in order to protect only the grain growers. Proposals were
therefore made which sought to limit liabilit}^ to an additional tax to
grain growers.

The details of one of these plans may be given. It aimed at ensur-
ing that those actually enjoying protection should have full mutual respon-
sibility for the insurance ; and that a sufficient accumulated surplus should
be procured to give ample protection in case of a year or years of extraor-
dinary loss. It proposed therefore that neither the 4 cent per acre assess-
ment rate nor the $ 5 maximum indemnity should be altered ; but that an
extra and variable rate beginning at 12 cents an acre should be levied on all
crops at risk, which rate should be lowered only when a surplus equal to
10 per cent, of the risk carried had been accumulated. Any farmer was to
be allowed to withdraw his crop acreage from this assessment b}' foregoing
aU claim upon the protection of the Commission. No municipality was
to be permitted to withdraw from the scheme while it was indebted to the
Commission, or in any circumstances without two 5'ears' notice. The Com-
mission was to have power to levy on the insured crop acreage an emergency
rate, not exceeding 20 cents an acre in any one year, with which to meet

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN 47

any deficit which might occur. Should this be insufficient a pro rata distri-
bution of available funds was to be made among claimants, and any re-
maining deficit paid out of the possible surplus in the succeeding year, or
if this should fail by means of the levy of another and similar 20 cent rate.

This and kindred plans were however rejected by the committee on
the grounds of impracticability. " A great deal has been said and written" ,
thej^ state in their report, " about making an assessment upon the assessed
acreage or upon the ' excess seeded acreage '. We have fully discusssed
the advisabiHty of making an assessment of this kind and our opinion is
that such assessment would not be practicable at the present time. In
the course of a few years it might be possible to provide the administra-
tive municipal machinery necessary to secure the accurate information upon
which such an assessment must be based, and which would have to be se-
cured yearly prior to 15 June from each individual ratepayer. To make
such an assessment in 1917 would be practically impossible without a heavy
expense being incurred in each municipaUty. The ' excess seeded acreage '
assessment is a more or less compHcated form of assessment upon the seeded
acreage basis ".

2. Plan adopted by the Committee. — The proposal of the committee was
that " the revenue of the commission be raised by a flat rate of 6 cents per
acre upon all assessable lands in the municipalities except such as are
withdrawn and that the pro rata clause be retained ".

The adoption of the committee's proposal by the legislature will there-
fore leave the insurance still hypothetical, in theory if not in practice. The
committee in substance declined the responsibility of making a proposal
for guaranteed absolute protection. " There is no doubt ", runs their report,
' ' that reUable data to place hail insurance rates upon cannot be secured ;
hail insurance has not been in general operation long enough to provide
such information, we can only use such figures as are available and when
we recommend an increase of 50 per cent, over the existing rate, and when
we consider that if stich a rate had been in operation from the inception of
the scheme all the losses including 1916 could have been paid in full, we
beheve that we are recommending a rate that will not be oppressive, that
will not depart from the present method of assessment, that will give full
protection in ordinary years and a fair protection in disastrous years, a
rate that the ratepa3-er will know is the maximum amount that can be
charged upon him, and a rate that will place the present system upon a
safer and sounder financial basis than it has been on heretofore ".

The committee further proposed that the Commission should be dis-
abled from reducing the fixed rate of premiums " until a surplus has been
accumulated which together with the current rate would equal 12 per cent,
of the risk carried ".

c) Further Amendments Proposed.

As regards lands which may annually be withdrawn from insurance, the
committee proposed that the second and third categories of these should
include patented or unpatented quarter sections, as already described,

48 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

in which less than 40 acres were under cultivation, instead of 25 acres as at
present. They proposed also to add to these categories two others —
namely holdings of not more than 640 acres of land of any owner or occu-
pant, of which one fourth or more were under cultivation ; and holdings of like
extent of which one half or more were under cultivation — and proposed
further that land in these two additional categories might be withdrawn
for three years.

They proposed to render it necessary to give notice of damage incurred
by a crop to the secretary of the Commission within three days of the fall
of hail, instead of within five days as at present.

They proposed that the Act should be administered b}" a board of nine
directors who should be elected by the annual meeting of the reeves of the
municipalities under the Act, nine to be elected by the first meeting and
thereafter three each year.

Finally they proposed that the government should be asked to provide
that all rural municipahties which did not submit a repeaUng b^^-law, upon
a petition signed by fifty resident ratepayers, and did not approve such by-
law before a date in 1917 yet to be fixed, should automatically remain under
the amended Act.

In presenting their report to the municipalities the committee stated
that they intended to meet again before the amending legislation was
enacted, and expressed themselves ready to receive suggestions made
after the report had been considered in the municipal councils or the
annual ratepayers' meetings.

Part III: Credit

RUMANIA.

AGRICUIvTURAL CREDIT IN RUMANIA.

OFPICIAI, SOURCE :
Anurul statistic al Romaniei {Statistical Yearbook of Rumania). — Bucharest, i<ji2.

OTHER SOURCES :

Serban (Dr. M.): Rumaiiiens Agrarverhaltnisse (Agrarian Relations inRumaniu). — Berlin, 1914.

Keilh.\uer (A. V.) : Die Entwickelimg der landlichen Kreditinstitutc iii Rumanien (The Deve-
lopment of Rural Credit I nsiitutions in Rumania) . — Fribourg, 1912.

Creanca (Dr. G. D.): Grundbesitzverteiliuig mid Bauenifrage in Rumanien (The Distribution
• of Landed Property and Agrarian Questions in Rumania). — l,eipzig, 1907, 1909.

I<e mouvement 6conomique, 1914, 1915, 1916 (I'he Economic Movement, 1914, 1915, 1916). —
Bucharest.

§ I. Agricultural Credit.

For an examination of agricultural credit in Rumania some economic
data are necessar>- as to the agricultural class ; for in this country more than
elsewhere there has been a division of labour among the different institutions
giving agricultural credit, and this division is based on the differences between
the agricultural classes.

Until 1862 the feudal system obtained in Rumania. All the land belong-
ed to a limited class of feudatories, who were called boyards and numbered
bout 5000, and it was cultivated by 470,000 families belonging to the class
of land serfs. The class of small proprietors was represented only by the
100,000 families of the Mosneni in Vallachia and the Rasesi in Moldavia.

Side by side with individual feudatories the State and the churches and
monasteries held vast territories.

In 1862 the feudal system was abolished. The law of 15 August 1864
ordered that part of the ]jroperty of the feudatories should be distributed
among the cultivators. Later in 1866, 1869, 1876, 1881 and 1889 the dis-
tribution of the lands belonging to the State and the churches was ordered ;
and in 1908 a rural bank was formed with the object of granting credit to
the fanners in order that they might buy land

50

RUMANIA - CREDIT

Nevertheless the distribution of landed property in Rumania is far from
satisfactory, as is seen from the following table :

62,832 farmers have less than %- hectare (i) that is 26,426 hectares or 0.34 %

81,039 "

14-1

147,900 "

" " 1-2

131,630 "

2-3

172,446

3-4

148,717

4-5

744,564

5

176,375

5-10

36,318

" " 10-50

2,405

" " 50-100

38,723

" " 10-100

4,171

" more than 100

72,757 "

" 0.93 %

237,029

3-01 %

337,000

4-30 %

631,964 "

8.08 %

711,033 "

" 9-o8 %

2,016,209 "

'•' 25.74 %

1,137,136 "

" 14-55 %

695,953 "

" 2.13 %

166,847

" 8.89 %

862,800

" 11.02 %

3,810,351

" 48.69 %

Side by side with this class of farmer-proprietors there is one of landless
agriculturists which comprises from 250,000 to 300,000 families.

The table we have given shows that there are two classes of landed pro-
prietors in Rumania :

i) Farmers owning a small property of less than 10 hectares. This
class is represented by about 920,939 families who own altogether 3,153.675
hectares or 40.29 per cent, of the cultivated land.

2) The class of large proprietors, owning more than 100 hectares, is
represented by 4,171 families owning altogether 3,810,351 hectares or 48.69
per cent, of the cultivated land.

Besides these classes there are that of the landless agriculturists, repre-
sented by from 250,000 to 300,000 families ; and that of owners of medium-
sized properties, of from ten to a hundred hectares, which is represented
by only 38,723 families who own 862,800 hectares or 11 per cent, of the
cultivated land.

The work attached to credit transactions with large and with small
proprietors has been divided among the various institutions of agricultural
credit. Those dealing with the large proprietors are :
i) Creiliiul fonder rural,

2) Banca aqricola.

Those dealing with the small proprietors are :

3) Crditul af.ricol si viticol,

4) Banctle popidare,

5) Casa rurala.

We will deal with these institutions later.

(1) I hectare = 2.47 acres. ,

AGRlCUIvTURAI, CREDIT 5 1

' § 2. Rural I^anu Credit (Creditul foncikr rural).

The first credit institution in Rumania to do business in mortgage credit
was the Moldavian Bank formed in 1856. This was a stock company, form-
ed with foreign capital, which in addition to its other banking business
granted short or long-term mortgage credit to large proprietors. The long
term mortgages were redeemable in seventeen years, the mortgagers being
obliged to pay ten per cent, as interest and amortization quota.

Towards i860 this bank ceased to deal in credit and from that date its
only transaction within that sphere has been the liquidation of business then
in course.

In 1872 the government brought before the chamber a scheme for the
formation of a mortgage bank. According to this scheme the bank would
have been a stock company and would have enjoyed the monopoly of grant-
ing mortgage credit and issuing mortgage titles on the basis of the credit
granted. It would bave been authorized to grant to landowners not onl}^ mort-
gage credit but also short-term credit for working funds, and to make ad-
vances to the State and the communes.

The scheme encountered in the chamber the lively opposition of the
large proprietors who criticized it vehemently under the three follow-
ing heads ;

i) They proposed that instead of a stock-company there should be a
co-operative society of large proprietors based on the principle of collective
liability.

2) They proposed that there should not be a single institution enjoy-
ing a monopoly of the business of mortgage credits and the issue of mortgage
titles, but that the law shoxdd prescribe the conditions on which such business
should norniallj' be done, so that every society of landowners would have
to fulfil these conditions before it would be authorized to grant credit or
issue mortgage titles.

3) Finally they proposed that the task of granting mortgage credit on
rural and on urban lands should be di^'ided among the institutions.

These proposals were all passed by a majority in the chamber and were
reproduced in the law of 5-17 April 1873.

Under this laW sixty large proprietors having property worth at least
three million francs (i) were authorized to form a mortgage bank., if they
would accept the clause imposing collective liability. The bank was to
have the form of a co-operative society which could have no members other
than landowners. The entrance of these into the society was to be o]:)tional:
but all landowners receiving credit were to be considered as members
ipso facto and to be collectively responsible for all the bank's engagements to
the extent of the value of their mortgaged lands. The law prescribes the
division of functions to obtain between banks granting mortgage credit on

(i) I franc = 9 '/g ^ at par.

52 RUMANIA - CREDIT

cultivated land and those granting it to proprietors of urban land. It
makes the maximum rate of interest 7 per cent.

On the basis of this law there have hitherto been founded: a mortgage
bank for granting credit to proprietors of rural lands, and two mortgage
banks — at Bucharest and J assy — for granting it to owners of urban land.
We will here deal only with the first of these banks which was founded 1-13
June 1873 at Bucharest and is called the Prima Societate de Creditul Fun-
ciar Ruman (First Society of Rumanian Ivand Credit).

The following are the chief characteristics of this bank :

i) It has no capital in shares, that is its members pay no admis-
sion fee. A due of 2 per cent, is however levied on the credit granted, and
thus is formed a guarantee fund which remains in the bank until the debt
is extinguished. When it has been extinguished the mortgager receives the
whole deducted sum without interest. Side by side with this guarantee fund
there is a reserve fund, formed of : a) ^ per cent, on all credit granted ;
b) 90 per cent, of net profits. The reserve fund is the bank's property and is
restored to the mortgagers only after the extinction of debts. The deduction
of 14 ^^^ 90 P^'^ cent, is interrupted as soon as the reserve fund amounts
to 5 per cent, of the amount of existing debts.

2) The bank grants credit onl}^ to owners of rural land. The grants are
for long and short terms. lyong-term credit (ten to sixty years) is secured by
a first mortgage of rural lands and may not be for more than 50 per cent,
of the value of the mortgaged land. The debt is extinguished by annual
amortization. Short-term credit (three to ten years) is also guaranteed by
a first mortgage on rural lands : the debt is extinguished by annual amortiza-
tion or it is repaid in a single sum. Mortgagers used in the bank's first
years to pay interest at the rate of 7 per cent, but this rate is now 5 per cent

3) The mortgager receives the amount of his advance in mortgage
titles at par. He must himself place them on the market for securities.
When he pays the amortization quota of his debt he may do so in cash or
in mortgage titles at par.

The mortgage titles are payable to bearer in sixl}^ years, and all State
banks accept them as security. Until 1881 they produced interest at the
rate of 7 per cent. The rate was in that year reduced to 5 per cent, and titles
previously issued were then convertd. Since 1898 only mortgage titles
at 4 per cent, have been issued. Those at 5 per cent, have not however been
converted so that both are in circulation.

4) Until 1882 the bank was authorized to grant credit seciired by
mortgage titles, but business of this nature has since been forbidden and
suspended.

5) The adininistrative council has eight members elected by the ge-
neral meeting. Side by side with it there are the managers, namely one
manager and two vice-managers, all nominated by the administrative coiin-
cil. The right of inspection belongs to a government commissioner nomi-
nated by the Minister of Finances.

6) A deduction ofjjgo per cent, is made from net profits in order to

AGRICULTURAI, CREDIT 53

form a reserve fund ; the remaining 10 per cent, is divided among the mem-
bers in proportion to their amortization. payments.
The business of 1914 gave the following data :

Guarantee fund 10,600,900 francs

Reser\^e " 30,409,826

Credit granted 467,613,834

Mortgage titles in circulation . . . 467,585,964

namely ! ^^ 5 per cent . . . 327,385,112.50

} " 4 " " ... 140,200,851.50

Altogether 2,000 properties were mortgaged.

§ 3. The Agriculturai. Bank (Banca Agricdla).

Besides the Credikd fonder rural, which gives land credit to large proprie-
tors, there is the bank called the Banca Agricola wliich provides them with
working capital. It was founded in 1894 on the basis of the law passed on
28 March of that year. It is legally a stock company. During the parlia-
mentary debate on the law cited, in 1893-1894, the large proprietors proposed
the formation of a societ}' based on the principle of the collective liability
of all its members, but this proposal was not accepted and the bank re-
tained the form of a stock compan}', in accordance with the government's
scheme.

The bank has its headquarterst at Bucharest ; and has five branches

— at Braila, Jassy, Constanza, Craiova and Galatz — , and twelve agencies,

— at Botosani, Buzen, Calafat, Calara.si, Palticeni, Guirgni, Roman, Fecuci
Fulcea, Vaseni, Ramnicu-Sarat and Turnu-Magurele.

Its capital in shares is 7,938,125 francs, di\dded into 24,425 shares of
325 francs each. A capital in shares of 12,212,500 francs was at first antici-
pated, that is 24,425 shares of 500 francs each. Before however it was com-
pletely paid up a reduction of 175 francs a share was made. This capital
in shares can, if need be, be brought up to twenty million francs.

The Banca Agricola receives, in addition to its own capital, outside
capital : a) credit granted by the national bank ; h) deposits of individuals.
It may also issue bonds (Kaesabons) secured by the credit it lias granted.
These bear the number of the credit operation on the security of which they
have been issued, and may be in circulation for a month or more. The total
sum of bonds in circulation must not exceed 50 per cent, of the paid-up
capital.

The business of the Banca Agricola is as follows :

i) It grants credit secured by pledged property- — cereals, live stock
and agricultural implements — and on warrants. The cereals may be
pledged before the harvest. The credit granted may not exceed 50 per
cent, of the value of the pledges, or — if granted before the harvest — 30
per cent. All pledges must be insured.

54 RUMANIA - CREDIT

2) It Opens current accounts on the security of values.

3) It discounts and rediscounts bills.

Transactions of these three descriptions are for short terras, the loans
falling due in from three to nine months. The rate of interest varies
with that of the National Bank but may not surpass 3 per cent.

Further the Banca Agricola undertakes the following business: it
receives payments on behalf on its clients ; it buys and sells provisions on
commission ; on behalf of its clients it undertakes all the business connected
with the storage of merchandise etc. B}^ the law of 1906 it is authorized
to found general storehouses and to store merchandise, but it has not yet
begun business of this sort.

The management of the bank in 1911 furnished the following figures :

Capital in shares fr. 7,938,125.00

Reserve fund " 3,366,630.54

Deposits " 20,684,405.05

Debts on rediscounted bills ... " 10,036,976.96
Current liability accounts at the Na-
tional Bank " 11,405,932

Various current liability accounts . " 8,152,623

Advances on cereals ...... " 8,082,166.33

values " 10,781,032.10

Ciirrent credit accounts " 18,658,695.43

Credit in bills " 16,016,601.41

Various assets " 7,787,542.75

§ 4. The Credit Institutions favouring small Properties.
The " Casa Rurai.e ".

This rural bank was formed in 1908. The special law passed on 4 April
1908 aimed at providing credit for landless agriculturists or those having
only a very small property, thus enabling them, to buy land or increase their
property. The tendency of the law is thus to create small proprietors.

The formation of small properties was from 1862 part of the economic
programme of the Rumanian government. In that year the feudal system was
abolished. Soon afterwards, in 1864, the law was passed as to the compulsory
sale of part of the propert}^ of large proprietors. In subsequent years
— 1866, 1869, 1876, 1881 and 1889 — the laws were passed as to the distribu-
tion of the lands of domains and churches among landless farmers or
those owning only a verj' small property. The distribution of landed pro-
perty is however still far from being reasonable. The exceSvSive increase
of the agricultural population on the one hand and the laws on succession
on the other have attenuated the effects of the laws we have enumerated,
so that the commission of enquiry nominated after the peasants' revolt
of 1907 could state in its report :

i) that from 250,000 to 300,000 agricultural families had no property;

AGRlCUIvTURAI, CREDIT 55

2) that 423,401 agricultural families, or 46 per cent, of their whole
number, owned less than three hectares, which in view of the fact that ex-
tensive agriculture prevails may be taken to be insufficent for the mainte-
nance of a family.

Thus from 673,000 to 723,000 families are constrained to seek work on
the estates of the large proprietors.

The first scheme for the formation of a rural bank dates from 1897.
The Minister of the Pubhc Domain, P. S. Aurelian, presented to the chamber
a scheme for the formation of a rural bank as a credit institution of the State.
But the change in the ministry which took place soon afterwards delayed
this scheme.

In igo6 the qiiestion was again inserted in the agenda. A commission,
to which D. Strudza, J. Bratianu nd G. D. Creanga belonged, was then nomi-
nated and charged to recast Aurelian's scheme. The commission drew up
an entirely new scheme which it presented to the chamber in igo8 ; and hav-
ing been voted by ParUament and received the royal sanction the law en-
tered into force on 4 April 1908.

The Rural Bank has its offices at Bucharest. Legally it is a stock com-
pany. Its capital in shares is of ten million francs divided into 20,000 shares
of 500 francs each. Half the shares were subscribed by the State which at
once paid up 60 per cent ; the other half were subscribed by individual capi-
talists who must pay up at least 10 per cent, of their subscription. The shares
are nominative and can be bought only by Rumanians. The capital in
shares may be brought up to the sum of 20,000,000 francs on condition
half the shares are acquired by the State. Besides its capital in .shares the
bank obtains credit from the National Bank and capitalists by its issue
of rural bonds.

The following business is undertaken b}^ the bank :

i) The purchase of domanial landed property and private property in
order to divide it into parcels and sell it to landless agriculturists or small pro-
prietors, and exceptionally to the communes or the State. Where the pur-
chase of State lands is concerned no legal provision limits the action of the
Rural Bank. In the case of private property the law forbids the purcha.se
of estates of less than 200 hectares. It is clearly the aim of the law to pre-
serve medium-sized properties.

The Rural Bank pays the price of the land to the sellers either in cash
or in bonds. These bonds bear interest at the rate of 5 per cent, and are
amortizable in fifty years. They are issued on the security of the mortgage
credit afforded by the bank to agriculturists or the land bought by the rural
bank. The total value of the bonds in circulation nmst not surpass the
sum of the mortgage credit granted, plus 80 per cent, of the value of the
lands which the bank has bought and which are provisionally in its posses-
sion.

2) The lands bought by the bank are sold to agriculturists and excep-
tionally to the communes and the State. Before the sale those on the ])lain
are divided into five-hectare and those in the mountains into three-hectare
parcels. Exceptionally and when there are no purchasers for such lots

56 RUMANIA - CREDIT

they may be divided into larger lots having a maximum area of fifty hec-
tares. In accordance with the size of the purchasing family, and the cir-
cumstance that the agriculturist purchaser is or is not already in possession
of a small landed property, the number of lots which he may buy is deter-
mined, the maximum being five.

The price of each lot is calculated on the basis that it may not exceed
by more than lo per cent, that paid by the bank.

Purchasers are bound to pay in cash a part of the price, namely :

10 to 15 per cent, thereof if they buy i parcel,

25 " " " " " " 2 or 3 parcels

30 " " " " " " ^ to 5

The remainder of the price is debited to the purchaser by the Rural
Bank and secured by a mortgage on the parcels bought. These debts are
for long terms, amortizable in 50 years and paying interest at the rate of
5 per cent., plus 2 per cent, for unpunctual debtors.

Purchasers of the parcels become owners thereof but do not enjoy them
quite freely. Certain restrictions are imposed by the contract of purchase
and sale, for example :

a) the proprietor may rot resell his property nor let it on lease ;

h) division by inheritance may take place only if the area of the pro-
perty surpass five hectares, and may in this case only afi'ect the area in
excess of five hectares ;

c) the Rural Bank may inspect the farming of the parcels and does
so by means of agricultural experts.

If the land intended to be sold in parcels is six kilometres (i) or more
distant from a village, a new village is formed ; and then before the division
takes place land is set aside as the site of private dwellings and also of the
church, the school, the mayoralty, etc.

We have already said that the Rural Bank may sell land exceptionally
to the communes and the State. To the communes the land needed to
form communal pastures is sold ; to the State woodland.

In the interval between the purchase of lands and their sale to small
farmers the Rural Banks may grant them on lease or cultivate them directly.
Beases are given by preference to co-operative letting societies. The bank's
direct cultivation and the leases it grants are considered provisional and have
force only pending the division into parcels or the execution of works of
improvement, the ultimate object of the bank's purchase of lands being
always to resell them in parcels.

3) The Rural Bank also intervenes between large and small proprie-
tors in negotiations for the purchase and sale of lands. It is even authoriz-
ed by law to fix the price of land, either by whole properties or by hectare.
This right is incontestably a serious restriction of individual liberty ; but
it is considered necessary because the agriculturist is alwa^^s very anxious
to acquire land and therefore might easily consent to pay an exorbitant
price for it.

(i) I Kilometre = 1093.633 yards.

agricuIvTtjRai, credit 57

4) The Rural Bank grants mortgage credit to agriculturists :

a) for the purchase of parcels from itself ; b) for the direct purchase of land
from large proprietors ; c) for the conversion of debts incurred by such pur-
chase of lands before the foundation of the. bank. Credit for these purposes
is secured by mortgages of the land in question. The mortgage is for a long
term and the interest is at the rate of 3 per cent. The creditors of the debts
mentioned under c) maj' be paid by the bank either in cash or in bonds, as
they please.

As well as the long-term credit, granted as stated, the Rural Bank grants
to agriculturists short-term credit, secured by bills or pledged agricultural
products, agricultural machines, live stock and values.

5) The Rural Bank is authorized by the law to carr}^ on every kind
of banking business: the discount of commercial bills, the purchase and sale
of titles, etc. This legal provision is justifiably criticized for it makes possi-
ble the diminution of the bank's capital to the detriment of the business
cited under numbers i) to 4). In practice however the Rural Bank does little
of this banking business.

Net profits are di\ided as follows : 70 per cent, to shareholders and
30 per cent, to the reserve fund. The State takes, in its capacity of share-
holder, only 6 per cent, on the capital it has paid up, all the balance being
assigned to the improvements fund.

The conduct of the Rural Bank has provided the following figures :
From the time it was founded until 31 Decembre 1913 it bought the
following properties :

Year Hectares Value

190S 8,308 4,200,940 francs

1909 18,736 9,532,828

191^ 30,597 16.392,155

191 1 18,459 13,256,991

I9I2 12,893 12,342,146

I9I3 26,473 20,068,824

115,467 15,793,886

Of these 115,467 hectares only 20,171 are wooded and therefore capable
of being sold to the vState.

The Rural Bank has sold a) to the communes ^,709 hectares for
28,909,600 francs ; and h) to agriculturists as follows :

Number
Year of parcels Hectares Francs

1909 124 519 43^'.43o

1910 458 2,183 1,778,288

1911 856 3,751 2,696,774

1912 1,324 5,971 4,695,285

1913 870 3,943 3,537.845

3,632 16,369 13,144,621

58 RUMANIA - CREDIT

These 3,632 parcels '.vere sold to 3,318 agriculturists, which is to say
that 89 per cerxt. bought only one parcel each.

In addition to its sales the bank has let on lease: 20,856 hectares to
fourteen collective farms comprising 3,677 members ; and 17,777 hectares
to 5,099 agriculturists.

The remainder — namely 32,187 hectares of arable land and 20,171 hec-
tares of woodland — is directly cultivated and its profits realized Ijy the
bank.

The Rural Bank has granted 4,128,912 francs on mortgages to agricul-
turists who have bought their lands directly from large proprietors. At the
end of 1913 the shoit-term credit granted amounted to 5,602,048.65 francs.
The value of the credit granted to communes was 28,647,200 francs. Net
profits in 1913 were 990,450.69 francs. This sum was distributed as follows :

To the reserve fund 30 per cent. 297,135.00 francs

To the .shareholders 30 » » 646,657.80 »

To the improvement funds . . 30 » » 46,657.89 »

According to the balance-sheet of 1913 the reserve fund was 1,179,754
francs.

§ 5. Agricui^tural and Viticulturai, Credit
(Creditul Agricol si VlilCOI.).

On 30 Ma}^ 1881 the law as to departmental agricultural banks was
passed in Rumania. The first of these banks was founded in 1882 and
gradually there came to be one of them in each department.

lyCgally they are stock-companies. In the intention of the law aU
shares were to be subscribed by the agriculturists of the departments, but
this was reahzed only in the agricultural bank of Jassy. The subscription
of shares in all other departments was very small and the State was obhged
to provide the necessary working capital in the form of loans to the
banks. In 1892, the year in which the working of the banks was arrested,
the loans granted by the vState amounted to seven milhon francs.

The activity of each bank was limited to the department in which it
was situated. The banks were completely independent of each other.
They were authorized to grant to agriculturists only short-term credit, for
terms of nine months, the security being : a) hills ; b) pledged agricultural
products or macliines and values. The rate of interest was at first 7 per
cent, but was raised to 11 per cent., and if dues to be paid on documentary
evidence supplied or drawn up be included the actual rate was often from
15 to 20 per cent.

The law prescribed no maximum for loans to agriculturists. Thus at
the beginning of each year all or almost all the available capital was engrossed
b)^ a restricted number of medium-sized proprietors, and small proprietors
derived no benefit from the banks. Their unsatisfactory results decided

/

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT 59

the government to decree their suspension by the law of 2 July 1892, and
to supersede them, by the Agricultural Credit which began business on i Jan-
uary 1913.

Instead of the decentralization which had hitherto prevailed a cen-
tralization of business was brought about by the law of 1S92. An agricul-
tural bank was formed which was situated at Bucharest and had branches
in all the departmental centres in which there had previously been an agri-
cultural departmental bank.

Tliis institution of agricultural credit is a State institution depenchng
on the Minister of Finances (art. 9). It has three sections :

a) Section I. is concerned with mortgage credit.

b) Section II. is concerned with long-term debts of a particular
kind, debts namely incurred for initial installation under the law of 1889.

c;) Section III., formed in 1906, grants long-term credit for the plan-
tation of vineyards.

The capital in shares paid by the State is 25,000,000 francs, namely :
20,000,000 francs to the first, 3,000,000 francs to the second and 2,000,000
francs to the third section. The capital was paid as follows :

i) The first section received the sums granted by the State in the form
of a loan to the departmental banks, namely 7,000,000 francs, and i': received
13,000,000 francs in State bonds (art. 12). *

2) The second section was granted a current account at the National
Bank and the »State issued bonds up to the value of the credit granted.

3) The third section received for four years 500,000 francs a year
— namely a total sum of 2,000,000 francs -— deducted from the net profits of
the first section .

Besides the capital in shares belonging to the State the Agricidtural
Credit uses capital emanating from other sources. The first section is
authorized : u) to accept deposits ; I) to borrow from the National Bank
proportiotiately to the credit granted to its clients. The third section is
also authorized to issue bonds secured by the credit granted. These
bonds of 100-200 francs and 500 trancs are at 4 ^/2 per cent, redeemable in
twenty years, and the total value of those issued must not surpass
20,000,000 francs.

Section I. grants short-term credit, for from three to nine months, secured
b}'' pledged agricultural products and machines and live stock. The
rate of interest is 11 per cent, for costs of administration, plus 2 per cent,
for unpunctual debtors. The total credit granted to a borrower must not
be more than 1000 francs. Section I. is, as has already been said, authoriz-
ed to accept deposits and also to receive payments on behalf of the Na-
tional and the Agricultural Bank.

From 1903 to 1906 Section I. had the responsibility of acting as a
central bank for the agricultural co-operativ^e credit societies ; and as such
was authorized to discount and rediscount the societies' bills and make loans
to them on current account. In 1906 a truely independent central bank
for the co-operative societies was formed, and thus the Agricultural Credit
no longer undertook business of this description.

60 RUMANIA. - CREDIT

Of the net profits 90 per cent, belong to the State and 10 per cent, are
deducted to he paid into the reser\^e fund. The deductions for the reserve
fund will cease as soon as its amount has reached 5,000,000 francs.

Section II. grants both long and short-term credit for from three to
ten years. This credit is granted for initial installation. According to the
law of 1889 (art. 3) the Ministry of the Public Domains is authorized to
sell the State's landed property in 5-hectare lots. The purchasers of these
lots are obliged to establish themselves on them within three years. Sec-
tion II. facilitates settlement of this description by granting to the settlers
loans enabling them to build dwellings and buy live stock and agricultural
implements. No more than 600 francs may thus be lent to a single bor-
rower. The rate of interest is 5 per cent.

Section III. was formed on 16 Januarj^ 1906. On 27 May of that year
it was separated from the Agricultural Credit and remained separate until
30 INIarch 1908 when it once more became Section III. thereof.

It makes long-term loans, for twenty years, for the plantation of vines.
All its loans are guaranteed by the State on the security of a mortgage on
the planted vines. The sum of the loan may not exceed two thirds of the
value of the vineyard. The credit granted is supplied to the borrower on
account as gradually the planting, which is inspected by an emplo3'ee of the
lending institution, is effected.

The rate of interest is 5 % per cent., plus i per cent, for impunctual
borrowers (art. 7). The loans are amortizable in fifteen years but the first
repayment does not take place until after five years, at which date the vines
are beginning to be productive.

From 1882 to 1892 the departmental banks granted creditfor 188,194,892
francs. When they ceased to work in 1892 the total credit they had grant-
ed was for 19,988,041.35 francs, and this credit was transferred to the Agri-
cultural Credit.

From 1903 to 31 December 1911 Section I. of the Agricultural Credit
granted credit for 504,594,240 francs. At the end of 1911 the amount of
the credit was 16,984,046.05 francs.

At the same time the following deposits were received :

From 1882 to 1892 5.133.534 francs

" 1893 " 1911 33,111,507.26

On I January 1912 deposits amounted to 3,374,123.84 francs.

On 31 December 1911 the reser^^e fmid amounted to 2,608,693. 12 francs.

From 1893 to 31 December 1911 the net profits paid to the State amoun-
ted to 27,478,238.08 francs, that is a sum 4,478,238.08 francs in excess of
the amount of the capital advanced by the State.

Section II. in only four yearS (1894, 1895, 1897 and 1898) granted cre-
dit to the amount of 862,060 francs.

Section III. began business in 1907 and granted credit for the following
sums : 943,100 francs in 1907 ; 1,297,600 francs in 1908 ; 1,045,600 francs
in 1909; 846,800 francs in 1910 ; 3,271,000 francs from 1911 to 1914 —
that is a total sum of 7,404,100 francs from 1907 to 1914.

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT 6 1

One fifth of this credit was granted in the district of Prahova and large
sums in the districts of Buzan, Doej and Valcea. The other districts par-
ticipated only to a small extent.

Bonds in circulation amounted on 31 March 1915 to 5,404,100 francs.

The repayment of loans begins, as we have said, only after five years ;
that is to say payments were made in 1912 for loans of 1907, in 1913 for
loans of 1907 and 190S, and in 1914 for loans of 1907,1908 and 1909. This
delay of five years before first repayments are made brings about that
books are closed showing a loss which is only apparent. For the year 1915
it was 767,346.49 francs.

§ 6. The Rural Co-operative Credit Societies.

The first rural co-operative credit society was formed at Urziceni in the
department of Jalomiza in Januar>^ 1891. In subsequent years until 1898
the co-operative movement did not make much progress. Agriculturists
had no confidence in the societies. The large farmers and the usurers were
opposed to them seeing in them formidable competitors. The State was
completely indifferent. For all these reasons the co-operative movement
was slow in these first years. Only twenty-five rural co-operative credit
societies were founded from 1891 to 1898.

In 1898 Spira Haret was nominated Minister of Religion and he devoted
himself to the development of the co-operative movement. He charged some
masters of primary schools to teach the peasants the usefulness of co-opera-
tive societies and the need there was for them. From this year the co-opera-
tive movement developed, and when the law on co-operative societies
was passed in 1903 there were already more than 700 of them. All were
of the Schultze-Dehtsch type — that is to say they were limited liability
societies.

The law of 1903 caused the co-operative movement to enter into a new
phase. The proposed law as presented to parhament contained the follow-
ing principles : i) the limited liability of members ; 2) the State s minute in-
spection of the management of the societes. These principles were however
atteimated by parliament, and the law which has been in force since 28
March 1903 contains the following :

i) All co-operative societies, whether credit or other, are legal corpo-
rations. They may be formed on the basis of either unlimited or limited
liability. Those of the first form enjoy however a preference under the
law which declares them exempt from taxes. Co-operative societies founded
on the principle of hmited liability are obliged to .subscribe a capital in shares
of at least a thousand francs ; those founded on the principle of unlimited
Hability can be formed without any capital in shares.

2) All the co-operative societies are subject to the inspection of the
Agricultural Credit, that is to say of the Central Bank which was a section
of the Agricultural Credit and is obliged to hold an inspection at least once

62 RUMANIA - CREDIT

3) A Central Bank was formed for the co-operative societies, as a
section of the Agricultural Credit, and gives credit to the co-operative cre-
dit societies. Since 1906 the Central Bank has been separated from the Agri-
cultural Credit, and works as an autonomous institution. The law lays
down conditions which the co-operative societies must fulfil in order to
obtain credit from the Central Bank. These are as follows : i) a society
must accept as members only the peasants of the village in which it is
situated ; 2) the rate of interest it receives will be fi.'ced by the central
bank ; 3) 10 per cent, of the net profits will be paid into a reserve fund.
All these conditions show a desire to favour co-operative societies having
unlimited liability.

At first the Central Bank was, as we have said, attached to the Agricul-
tural Credit ; i) because the latter had a very large capital at its disposal ;
2) because it had experience in the credit business transacted with peasants.

Later, in 1906, when the Central Bank was separated from the Agricul-
tural Credit, the special law prescribed that its working capital should be
supplied by the Agricultural Credit.

Of recent years there has been a movement towards forming district
federations. Four of these have been formed ; one at Dumbraveni which
unites ten co-operative societies and has a capital in shares of 27,000 francs,
one at Fg. Bujor which comprises eighteen co-operative societies and has
a capital in shares of 45,000 francs ; one at Topoloveni which has eleven
co-operative societies and a capital in shares of 23,200 francs ; and one at
Fg. Giacenea which has ten societies and a capital of 50,000 francs.

The co-operative credit societies grant credit to their members, and
also to outsiders who receive about one third of their loans. The loans are
for long and for short terms: namely for from nine months to three years for
the purchase of provisions, forage and seeds ; and for from three to ten
years for that of live stock and agricultural implements and for the renting
and purchase of land.

The business of the co-operative societies furnishes the following figures,
In 1902 there were 2,862 rural co-operative credit societies, having 563,270
members ; 99,067.74 francs of paid-up capital ; 7,151,799 francs in reserve
funds ; 16,503,381 francs in deposits : and debts to the Central Bank of
11,447,529 francs. They had granted 138,652,562 francs in credit. This
credit was distributed as follows : i) For provisions and forage 17.37 per
cent ; for live stock and agricultural implements 32.34 per cent. ; for the
purchase and renting of land 20.78 per cent. ; various 16.74 P^^ cent.
2) Personal credit amounted to 37.75 per cent, and credit on chattels to 62.25
per cent (27.33 per cent, on bills and 34.92 per cent, on pledgfes). 3) The fol-
lowing shows the amounts of the credit granted ; 6.46 per cent, of the
grants were of less than 50 francs; 18.62 per cent, were from 50 to 100 francs;
68.40 per cent, from 100. to 1000 francs; 6.52 per cent, more than 1000 francs.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

UNITED STATES.

IvAND TENURE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE
ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

prepared under the direction of Cato Sells,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

§ I. lyAND TENURE.

On June 30, 1916, there were 312,654 Indians in the United States
under Federal supervision, occupying 174 reservations. Some of these
reserv^ations were granted by Act of Congress, pursuant to treaties or
agreements with the various tribes ; others were estabUshed by Executive
Order of the President of the United States ; and several were acquired by
still different methods, which will be explained hereafter. In the Pro-
clamation of George III, dated October 7, 1763, four principles of govern-
ment in Indian affairs, in force to the present day, were laid down :

(i) The recognition of the Indian's right of occupancy : * * * " And
whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our interest, and the
security of our Colonies, that the several nations or tribes of Indians,
with whom we are connected, and who live under our protection, should
not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such parts of our do-
minions and territories, as, not having been ceded to, or purchased by us,
are reserved to them, or any of them, as their hunting grounds.

(2) The right to expel ivhite intruders on Indian lands : * * * " All
the lands and territories not included within the limits of our said three
new Governments or within the limits of the territory granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company ; as also all the lands and territories lying to
the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the
West and Northwest as aforesaid ; and we do hereby strictly forbid * * * *
all * * * subjects from making * * * settlements * * * or taking posses-
sion of any of the lands above reserved * * *. And we do further strict-
ly enjoin and require all persons whatever, who have wilfully or inadver-
tently seated themselves upon any lands within the counties above de-
scribed, or upon any other lands, which have not been ceded to, or purchased

64 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY INT GENERAL

by US, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to
remove themselves from such settlements.

(3) The right to purchase Indian lands is vested solely in the govern-
ment : * * * "We do, with the advice of our Privy Council, strictly enjoin
and require that no private person do presume to make any purchase
from the said Indians of any lands reserved to the said Indians * * * jf
at any time any of the said Indians should be inclined to dispose of the
said lands, the same shall be purchased only for us, in our name.

(4) The right to regulate trade and license traders : * * * " Hvery
person who may incline to trade with the said Indians, do take out a li-
cense for carrying on such trade, from the Governor or Commander-in-
chief of any of our colonies respectively * * * and also give security to
observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit * * * to direct
and appoint for the benefit of the said trade ".

The civiHzed nations of Europe which had acquired territory
on this continent, asserted in themselves and recognized in others the
exclusive right of the discoverer to appropriate the lands occupied by
the Indians. By the Treat}'' of 1783, the United States acquired all the
rights to the soil which had previously been in Great Britain ; by the
Treaty of 1803, with France (the L,ouisiana purchase) it agreed to exe-
cute and respect all treaties made or agreed upon between Spain and the
several tribes of Indians residing within the territory ceded. The Su-
preme Court of the United States, in an early decision, held that the Gov-
ernment had a clear title to aU the lands within the areas referred to
above, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy ; that the Indians
had the unquestioned right to the lands they occupied until that right
was voluntarily transferred by them to the Government ; that they occu-
pied lands to which the United States held title, independent of their will
which must take effect in respect to possession when their right of occu-
pancy ceased ; and that the claim of the Governement extends to the
complete ultimate title, charged with the Indian right of occupancy and
possession, and to the exclusive power to acquire that right.
r' During the colonial period, charters and grants were made by the
Government, of land for the occupancy of Indians, known as their hunt-
ing grounds. Their rights to its exclusive enjo^^ment in their own way
and for their own purposes were always recognized by the colonists until
abandoned or ceded by them, their right of occupancy being respected by
the political power of the colony and upheld by the courts until extin-
guished.

Article 3, of the Act of July 13, 1787, entitled " An ordinance for the
governement of the territory of the United States northwest of the river
Ohio ", provides, in part, as follows :

" The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians ;
their land and property shall never be taken from them without their
consent ; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be
invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Con-
gress ; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time

LAND TENURE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE 6 5

be made for preventing wrongs being done to them and for preserving
peace and friendship with them ".

Originall}^ the relations of the Government with the Indians were
determined by treaties made with their tribal authorities. Although
the Government claimed complete sovereignty over the territory and
inhabitants within its limits, and while treaties, in the true legal sense of
the term, can only be entered into between independent sovereignties,
yet the colonies, and also the mother country, had treated with the In-
dians as " nations ", their chiefs, or " sachems ", often being designated
kings. This notion was retained by the founders of the Government
and thus became its established policy.

The early treaties generally defined the boundary line between the
Indian country and that of the United States, which at first extended
from the lake on the north to Florida on the south. The United States
claimed no control over its citizens who ventured to pass this line. Gradually
trading and military posts were established and the land about them se-
cured from the Indians ; then roadways between these stations were ob-
tained ; until finallj' the Indians were living upon defined tracts. The
continued pressure of immigration and the consequent demand for land
resulted in the Indians exchanging their more eastern tracts for reserva-
tions, set apart for them by the Government in the western part of the
countr>^ The establishment of such reservations was the natural result
of the cession of their lands by the Indians to the United States, and was
necessary in order to provide them with homes and with land for culti-
vation ; to avoid disputes in regard to boundaries ; and to bring the In-
dians more easily under the control of the Government by confining them
within given areas. This policy involved a very important and radical
change in the customs and habits of the Indians and was the first step
by them toward agricultural pursuits as their principal means of livelihood,
the organization and development of which form the subject of the second
part of this article.

The making of treaties with the Indians was terminated by the Act
of March 3, 1871, as follows :

" Hereafter no Indian tribe within the territory- of the States shall
be accepted or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power,
with whom the United States may contract by treaty. "

The effect of this Act was to bring under the immediate control of
Congress the relations of the Government with the Indians, and to reduce
to simple agreements, subject to ratification by Congress, what had pre-
viously been accomplished by formal and solemn treaties, as with a fo-
reign power. However, this procedure accomplishes practically the
same residts in a different manner more consonant with the real sover-
eignty of the United States and the progress of civilization.

After the passage of this law, reservations were created either by
Act of Congress (generally in ratification of an agreement with the Indians)
or by Executive Order of the President of the United States, either with
or withoiTt the specific authority of Congress, such reservations being

66 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

sometimes authorized by Act of Congress and their limits subsequently-
defined by Executive Order ; others were first established by Executive
Order and later confirmed b}^ Act of Congress. This, however, is not
necessary, as the President may, at his discretion, establish Indian reser-
vations, on public lands not otherwise occupied, without the specific
prior authority of Congress, or its subsequent ratification.

The right of the Indians to their reservation is ordinarily subject to
certain restrictions, as set forth by decision of the United States Supreme
Court, a portion of which is quoted below :

" The right of the Indians to the reservations ordinarily occupied by
them is that of occupancy alone. The fee is in the United States, sub-
ject only to this right of occupancy. The Indians have no power of alien-
ation except to the United States. But while the fee to the reservations
is in the United States, the right of the Indians to their use and occupancy'-
is as sacred as that of the Government to the fee. They have the right
to apply to their own use and benefit the entire products of the reserva-
tion, whether the result of their own labour or of natural growth, so they
do not commit waste. If the lands in a state of nature are not in a con-
dition for profitable use they may be made so ; if desired for the purpose
of agriculture the}^ may be cleared of their timber to such an extent as
ma3^ be reasonable under the circumstances, and the surplus timber taken
off by the Indians in such clearing, and not required for use on the pre-
mises, may be sold by them. The Indians may cut growing timber for
fuel and for necessary use upon the reservation ; they may open mines
and quarry stone for the sole purpose of obtaining fuel and building mate-
rial ; the^^ ma}^ cut hay for the use of their live stock, and may sell any
stuplus not needed for that purpose. In short, what a tenant for life may
do upon the lands of a remainder-man the Indians may do upon their
reservation, but no more. "

On the other hand, it is obligatory' upon the Government to prevent
any intrusion, trespass, or settlement on the lands of any Indian tribe,
unless such tribe has first given its consent thereto, either by treaty or
agreement. In a few cases reseni^ations have been patented to certain
tribes by the Government, such as the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Creeks.
The construction given to such patents by the courts is that they are not
titles in fee simple, for they convey no power of alienation except to the
United States ; neither are they the same as the ordinary- title of occupancy ;
thej^ are rather a " base, qualified, or determinable fee, with a possibility of
reversion to the United States only ", and the Indians may cut, sell, or
dispose of the timber, and permit mining and grazing witliin the limits
of their respective tracts by their own citizens.

In several cases the Indians have purchased the lands comprising
their reservations, the title thereto being held in trust for their benefit
by the Government tribal council, or other parties.

At first the land was held in common for the benefit of all the Indians,
each head of a family being allowed to cultivate and use a tract assigned
to or selected by him, a certificate of occupancy sometimes being issued

lyAND TENURE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICUIvTQRE 67

as evidence of his right thereto. This policy was continued until the pas-
sage by Congress of the General Allotment Act on February 8, 1887, sev-
eral sections of which are quoted below :

(i) (As amended by the Acts of February 28, 1891 and June 25,
1910). " That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been or
shall hereafter be located upon any reservation created for their use by
treaty stipulation, Act of Congress, or executive order, the President
shall be authorized to cause the same or any part thereof to be survej^ed
or resurveyed whenever in his opinion such reserv^ation or any part thereof
may be advantageously utilized for agricultural or grazing purposes by
such Indians, and to cause allotment to each Indian located thereon to
be made in such areas as in liis opinion may be for their best interest, not
to exceed eighty acres of agricultural or one hundred and sixty acres of
grazing land to any one Indian. And whenever it shall appear to the
President that lands on any Indian reser\^ation, subject to allotment by
authority of law, have been or may be brought within any irrigation pro-
ject, he may cause allotments of such irrigable lands to be made to the
Indians entitled thereto in such areas as may be for their best interest,
not to exceed, however, forty acres to any one Indian, and such irrigable
land shall be held to be equal in quantity to twice the number of acres
of non-irrigated agricultural land and four times the number of acres of
non-irrigable grazing land : Provided, That the remaining area to which any
Indian may be entitled under existing law, after he shall have received his
proportion of irrigable land on the basis of equalization herein estab-
lished, may be allotted to him from non-irrigable agricidtural or grazing
lands : Provided fttrther, .That where a treaty or Act of Congress setting
apart such reservation provides for allotments in severalty in quantity
greater or less than that herein authorized, the President shall cause allot-
ments on such reservations to be made in quantity as specified in such
treaty or Act, subject, however, to the basis of equalization between irri-
gable and non-irrigable lands established herein, but in such cases allot-
ments may be made in quantity as specified in this Act, with the consent
of the Indians expressed in such maimer as the President in his discretion
may require.

(5) " That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in
this Act by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause patents to issue
therefor in the name of the allottees, which patents shall be of the legal
effect, and declare that the United vStates does and will hold the land thus
allotted, for the period of twenty-five A^ears, in trust for the sole use and
benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, or,
in the case of his decease, of his heirs according to the laws of the State
or Tevritory where such land is located, and that at the expiration of said
period the United States will convey the same bj^ patent to said Indian,
or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge
or incumbrance whatsoever ; Provided, That the President of the United
States may in any case in his discretion extend the period. And if any
conveyance shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted as herein

68 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAI. ECONOMY IN GENERAL

provided, or any contract made touching the same, before the expiration
of the time above mentioned, such conveyance or contract shall be abso-
lutely null and void : Provided, That the law of descent and partition
in force in the .State or Tenitory where such lands are situate shall apply
thereto after patents therefor have been executed and deUvered, except
as herein otherwise provided ; and the laws of the State of Kansas regu-
lating the descent and partition of real estate shall, so far as practicable,
apply to all lands in the Indian Territory which may be allotted in severalty
under the provisions of this Act : And provided further, that at any
time after lands have been allotted to all the Indians of any tribe as herein
provided, or sooner if in the opinion of the President it shall be for
the best interests of said tribe, it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the
Interior to negotiate wdth such Indian tribe for the purchase and release
by said tribe, in conformity with the treaty or statute under which such
reservation is held, of such portions of its reservation not allotted as such
tribe shall, from time to time, consent to sell, on such terms and conditions
as shall be considered just and equitable between the United States and
said tribe of Indians, which purchase shall not be complete until ratified
by Congress, and the form and manner of executing such release shall
also be prescribed by Congress.

(6) (■ As amended by the Act of May 8, 1906). " That at the expi-
ration of the trust period and when the lands have been conveyed to the
Indians by patent in fee, as provided in section five of this Act, then each
and every -allottee shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws,
both civil and criminal, of the vState or Territory in which they may reside ;
and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law denying any such Indian
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. And evers^ Indian
born mthin the territorial limits of the United States to whom allot-
ments shall have been made and who has received a patent in fee simple
under the provi.sions of this Act, or under any law or treaty, and every
Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has
voluntarily taken up within said limits his residence, separate and apart
from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civihzed
life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled
to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, whether said
Indian has been or not, by birth or otherwise, a member of any tribe of
Indians within the territorial limits of the United States without in any
manner impairing or otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to
tribal or other property : Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior
may, in his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, whenever he shall
be satisfied that any Indian allottee is competent and capable of managing
his or her affairs, at any time to cause to be issued to such allottee a pa-
tent in fee simple, and thereafter all restrictions as to sale, incumbrance,
or taxation of said land shall be removed and said land shall not be liable
to the satisfaction of any debt contracted prior to the issuing of such pa-
tent : Provided further, That until the issuance of fee-simple patents all
allottees to whom trust patents shall hereafter be issued shall be

I,AND TENURE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE 69

subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States : And -pro-
vided further, That the provisions of this Act shall not extend to any
Indians in the Indian Territory.

" That hereafter when an allotment of land is made to any Indian,
and any such Indian dies before the expiration of the trust period, such
allotment shall be cancelled and the land shall revert to the United vStates,
and the Secretary of the Interior shall ascertain the legal heirs of
such Indian, and shall cause to be issued to said heirs and in their names,
a patent in fee simple for said land, or he may cause the land to be sold
as provided by law and issue a patent therefor to the purchaser or purcha-
sers, and pay the net proceeds to the heirs, or the legal representatives,
of such deceased Indian. The action of the Secretary of the Interior in
determining the legal heirs of any deceased Indian, as provided herein,
shall in all respects be conclusive and final ".

The terms of such patents transnritting title to the Indian allottee,
first in trust, and then in fee simple, as provided by the Act, are as follows.

Trust.

"Whereas, a schedule of allotments approved by the Secretary of the
Interior has been deposited in the General I^and Office, whereby it ap-
pears that John Smith, a Flathead Indian, has been allotted the following
described land : Northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section
twenty-seven, township six, north, range thirteen west, Montana princi-
pal meidian.

"Now Know Ye, that the United States of America, in Consideration of the
Premises, has allotted, and by these presents does allot, unto the said
Indian the land above described, and hereby declares that it does and
will hold the land thus allotted (subject to all statutory provisions and
restrictions) for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use
and benefit of the said Indian ; and at the expiration of said period, the
United States will convey the same by patent to said Indian in fee, discharged
of said trust and free from all charge and incumbrance whatsoever ;
but in the event said Indian dies before the expiration of said trust period
the vSecretary of the Interior shall ascertain the legal heirs of said Indian
and either issue to them in their names a patent in fee for said land or
cause said land to be sold for the benefit of said heirs as provided by law ;
and there is reserved from the lands hereb}^ allotted a right of way thereon
for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States.

Fee.

" Whereas, an order of the Secretary of the Interior has been deposit-
ed in the General Land Office directing that a fee simple patent issue to
the claimant, John Smith, a Flathead Indian, for the Northwest quarter
of the southeast quarter of section twenty-seven, township six, north,
range thirteen west, Montana principal meridian.

70 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMV IX GENERAL

"Now Know Ye, that the United States of America, in consideration of
the premises, has given and granted, and by these presents does give and
grant unto the said claimant and to the heirs of the said claimant, the
land above described, to have and to hold the same together with all the
rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatsoever nature
thereunto belonging, unto the said claimant and to the heirs and assignees
of the said claimant, forever ; and there is reserved from the lands hereby
granted a right of way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the
authority of the United States ".

Sections 4 and 5 of the Act of June 25, 1910, provide as follows :
" (4) That any Indian allotment of any Indian held under a trust
patent may be leased by the allottee for a period not to exceed five years,
subject to and in conformity with such rules and regulations as the Sec-
retary of the Interior may prescribe, and the proceeds of any such lease
shall be paid to the allottee or his heirs, or expended for his or their benefit,
in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.

" (5) That it shall be unlawftd for any person to induce any Indian
to execute any contract, deed, mortgage, or other instrument purport-
ing to convey any land or any interest therein held by the United
States in trust for such Indian, or to offer any such contract, deed, mortage
or other instrument for record in the office of any recorder of deeds. Any
person violating this provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour,
and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred
dollars for the first offence, and if convicted for a second offence may be
punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment,
not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the
discretion of the court : Provided, That this section shall not appty to
any lease or other contract authorized by laws to be made ".

In brief, this Act provides for the allotment of land in- severalty to
each individual Indian, in the quantitj^ specified, for the different classes;
for the issuance to said Indian of a trust patent, as evidence thereof, to
run twenty-five years ; that at the expiration of this period, unless exten-
ded (or sooner, within the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior), a fee
patent shall be issued to the allottee, removing said land from Govern-
ment control ; that any conveyance or hypothecation thereof during the
trust period is void ; and that, upon being given the fee patent, the In-
dian becomes a citizen of the State in which he lives, and subject to
all the laws thereof (previously thereto having been under the exclusive
jurisdiction of the United States).

Under Sections 4 and 5 of the Act of June 25, 1910, above quoted,
an Indian holding a trust patent may lease his land, with the approval of
the Secretary of the Interior, the proceeds thereof being paid to said In-
dian if competent or expended for his benefit if incompetent. It is also
made unlawful to induce any Indian holding a trust patent to execute any
contract, deed or mortgage with respect thereto. An Indian holding
a trust patent may sell his land or devise it b^^ will, with the approval of
the Secretary of the Interior.

LAND TENURE AND THE ORGANfZATlON OF AGRICULTURE 7I

According to the latest figures there are 312,654 Indians in the United
States under Federal supervision, who inhabit 174 reservations compris-
ing 70,891,091 acres of land. Under the general allotment Act, as amended,
211,172 allotments of land in severalty have been made to individual
Indians, aggregating 34,477,970 acres, and trust patents issued there-
for as above set forth. Of this number, 72,508 Indians now hold trust
patents and 112,357 l^^^d ^^^ patents. Since 1902, sales have been effected
of 11,752 individual tracts of allotted Indian land, comprising 1,405,463
acres, for a total of $22,015,907.

§ 2. The ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE.

Almost without exception the early explorers found the Indians in
what is now the United States, from the border of the Western plains to
the Atlantic Ocean, dwelling in settled villages and cultivating the soih
De Soto found all the tribes visited by him from the Florida peninsula
to the Western part of Arkansas cultivating maize and other food plants.
The esLtly voyagers found the same thing true along the Atlantic Coast
from Florida to Massachusetts. Captain John Smith and his James-
town colony, indeed aU the early colonies, depended at first very largety
for food supplies upon the products of Indian cultivation. Jacques Car-
tier, the first European to ascend the St. Lawrence River, found the In-
dians cultivating the soil. " They have ", he says, good and large fields
of corn. " Champlain and other early French explorers testify to the
great reliance of the Iroquois on the cultivation of the soil for food. La
vSalle observed the Indians cultivating and to a large extent subsisting
on maize. Besides maize, beans, squashes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes,
and tobacco were cultivated to a considerable extent, especially in what
are now the Southern States. Marquette, speaking of the Illinois Indians,
says that, in addition to maize, " they also sow beans and melons, which
are excellent, especialty those with the red seed ".

In regard to the tribes further West an early writer states, " From
the earliest information we have of the Pueblo Indians they are known to
have been tillers of the soil, and though the implements used and their
methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat
(after its introduction), beans and many varieties of fruit were grown in
abundance.

The Indians of Arizona and New Mexico had learnt the art of irri-
gating their fields before the appearance of the white man on the conti-
nent. This is shown not only by the statements of the early explorers
but also by the stiU existing remains of their ditches, estimated to have
been sufficient for the irrigation of at least 250,000 acres.

There is definite evidence that the Indians used fertilizers although
it has been stated that they did not. The Plymouth colonists were told by
Indians to add fish to the old grounds. It is also stated that the Iroquois
manured their land. Lescarbot says that the Virginia Indians and others

72 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

" enrich their fields with shells and fish ". The implements they used in
cultivating the ground are described by him as " wooden howes and spades
made of hard wood ". " The Florida Indians dig their ground with
an implement of wood fashioned like a broad mattox ; they use howes
made of the shoulder blades of animals fixed on staves ; and a piece of
wood three inches broad, bent at one end and fastened to a long
handle, suffices them to free the land from weeds and turn it up lightly "

Among the Indians the farm and field work was mostly done by the
women, the men being regarded as hunters and warriors. Hariot says
(1810) :

" The women, with short pickers or parers (because they use them
sitting) of a foot long and about five inches in breadth, do ovly break
the upper part of the ground to raise up the weeds, grass and old stubs or
corn stalks with their roots. "

It was a general custom to burn over the ground before planting in order
to free it from weeds and rubbish. In the forest region patches were
cleared by girdling the trees, thus causing them to die and afterwards
burning them down. While the women were thus occupied, the men en-
gaged in fishing, hunting, or trapping, when not busA^ on the war path.

The first treaty between the United States and any Indian tribe was
made with the Delawares on September 17, 1778, and was concerned
primarily with the establishment and preservation of peace between the
the whites and Indians and the recognition by the latter of the authority
of the United States. No grants of money or food supplies to Indians
were made therein, but this practice gradually developed in subsequent
treaties, manj^ of which also included an agreement on the part of the
Indians to remain within a certain restricted locaHty, this being the germ
of the present reserv^ation system. Apparently the first treaty in which
the United States specifically agreed to furnish farmers to instruct the
Indians in agricultural pursuits was that with the Menominee Indians on
February 8, 1831, as follows :

" The above reservation being made to the Menominee Indians,
for the purpose of weaning them from their wandering habits by attach-
ing them to comfortable homes, the President of the United States, as
a mark of affection for his children of the Menominee tribe, will cause to
be employed five farmers of established character for capacity, industry
and moral habits, for ten successive years, whose duty it shall be to in-
struct the Menominee Indians in the cultivation of their farms and to in-
struct their children in the business and occupation of farming. "

The first general appropriation for Indian education was made on
March, 3, 1819, when an Act was passed appropriating $10,000 as
follows :

" For the purpose of providing against the further decline and final
extinction of the Indian tribes adjoining the frontier settlements of the
United States, and for introducing among them the habits and arts of civ-
ilization, the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby, au-
thorized, in every case where he shall judge improvement in the habits

L-AND TENURE AND THE ORGANIZATION Ol' AGRICUI^TURE 73

and condition of such Indians practicable, and that the means of instruc-
ction can be introduced with their own consent, to employ capable per-
sons of good moral character to instruct them in the mode of agriculture
suited to their situation ; and for teaching their children in reading, writ-
ing and arithmetic, and performing such other duties as may be enjoined,
according to such instructions and rules as the President may give and
prescribe for the regulation of their conduct in the discharge of their
duties ".

At the present time the Office of Indian Affairs is a bureau of the
Department of the Interior, and is presided over by an official known as
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Each reservation is directly in
charge of a bonded superintendent, who is responsible to the Commis-
sioner for the proper and efficient conduct of the affairs of the Indians
on his particular reservation, including their agricultural operations.
Most of the reservations are divided into districts, each in charge of a
farmer who resides therein and is furnished with transportation equip-
ment in order that he may travel about and instruct the Indians in their
agricultural work. This farmer must be personally acquainted with every
Indian famih' in his district and thoroughly familiar with their industrial
condition, needs and resources, so as to assist them to get the best results
from their labours. The farmers are appointed from a register of eUgibles
who have passed the required Civil Service examination, in order to test
their fitness for the particular work devolving upon them. They make
frequent verbal and written reports to the Superintendent as to agricul-
tural conditions in their respective districts, and the Superintendents
submit regular annual reports to the Commissioner, besides such special
reports from time to time as conditions may warrant.

That portion of the United States in which Indian reservations are
located is divided into ten supervisory districts, each of which is assigned
to an inspecting official, who makes periodical trips to the various reser-
vations in his territory, for the purpose of determining and reporting upon
the agricultural progress of the Indians and aU other matters relating to
the administration of their affairs. By means of such reports, the Com-
missioner is kept informed as to actual conditions, the degree of efficiency
of the various Superintendents, farmers, and other employees, as a basis
for such administrative action as he may deem necessars\

The present appropriation for agricultural work among the Indians
reads as follows :

" For the employment of practical farmers and stockmen, in ad
dition to the agency and school farmers now employed ; for necessary
traveUing expenses of such farmers and stockmen, and for furnishing ne-
cessary equipment and supphes for them ; and for superintending and di-
recting farming and stock-raising among Indians. "

Two hundred and fifty eight farmers are now employed and paid from
this appropriation or other available funds.

The statement given below shows the number of Indians farnoing,
1 lie total cultivated acreage, the average acreage per Indian, and the value

74 UNITED STATES - AGRICUIyTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

of crops produced by the Indians each year since 191 1, when the present
statistical system was inaugurated :

No. Indians
Farming

Acreage Average

Cultivated per Indian

Value of Crops
Raised

1911
I912

I913
1914

1915
IQ16

24,489

383.025

15.6

28,051

558,503

19.9

29,216

595.331

20.4

2Q,8lI

594,268

19.9

31,956

664,539

20.8

35,823

678,527

19.0

$ 1,951,672
3,250,288
4,021,392
4,007,335

4,790,968

5,293,719

While it is preferred that the Indians purchase their own farming
implements, seed, etc., yet where they lack the necessary individual funds
for this purpose, liie Government furnishes them with such supplies, in
return for labour by the individual for the benefit of the tribe (on the reser-
vation roads, bridges, etc.) to be paid for in cash in easy instalments on
what is known as the reimbursable plan, explained below ; or, in the case
of seed, to be returned in kind at harvest. Ordinarily the Government
purchases articles of this kind in large quantities so as to get the benefit
of lower prices, and then distributes them to the individual Indians on
the conditions above set forth. Every Indian receiving property on the
reimbursable plan must sign an agreement substantially as follows :

" Agreement entered into this tenth day of July, 1915, between
John Smith of the Apache tribe of Indians, and F. W. Jones, superin-
tendent and special disbursing officer for and on behalf of the United States
of America, covering property, stock, or equipment purchased under
the provisions of the Act of Congress dated May 18, 1914 from ' Industry
Among Indians, 1915 '.

"It is hereby agreed that John Smith will pay to F. W. Jones, or his
successors in office, the sum of One Hundred Dollars ($100), in payments
to be made as hereinafter mentioned, which payments are to be in full
consideration for the property, stock or equipment, listed below, and
receipt for which is hereby acknowledged by John Smith.

I farm wagon $ 100.00

Total

$ 100.00

LAND TENURE AND TilE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE 75

" Payments to be made by said John Smith to the said F. W. Jones,
or his successors in office, as follows :

Date due

Jan. 10, 1916 ,• • • • $ 25.00

July 10, 1916 25.00

Jan. 10, 1917 25.00

Jtily 10, 1917 25.00

Total ... $ 100.00

" It is stipulated and agreed that the title to the above-described ar-
ticles shall remain in the United States of America until payment in full
has been made, and that in default of payment, or in case of failure to
properly care for or have cared for,' or use the same, the said superinten-
dent, or his successors in office, shall take possession of said property
as set forth in regulations approved by the Secretary of the Interior Octo-
ber 6, 1914.

"It is further stipulated and agreed that upon payment in full by
John Smith of the amount of consideration named, that the title, free and
unencumbered, of the articles mentioned shall pass to said John Smith-

(Signed) John Smith.

Many of the reservations are best adapted to the live stock industry
rather than farming. From the latest figures it appears that the Indians
of the United States under Federal supervision own individually $ 26,703,027
worth of Hve stock in addition to tribal stock held in common, valued at
approximately $2,121,412 ; Indians to the number of 43,309 being engag-
ed in the live stock industry. In addition to the farmers, there are also
employed fifty -three superintendents of live stock and stockmen who
are charged with the responsibility for the successful conduct of this in-
dustry on sound business principles.

While the Indian Bureau is not under the jurisdiction of the United States
Department of Agriculture, but maintains its own distinctive agricultural
oganization under the direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, yet
the officials and employees of that department have voluntarily placed their
facilities at the disposal of this office for the benefit of the Indians wher-
ever practicable. The Indians are further instructed in all the details
of successful modern farming by stereopticon lectures by experts from the
United States Department of Agriculture or the State agricidtural college
under a co-operative plan inaugurated two years ago ; and through the
medium of boys' and girls'agricultural clubs ; and their interest and enthu-
siasm are developed by holding agricultural fairs where they exihibit their
products in open competition with each other, suitable prizes being given,
or in competition at conveniently located county or State fairs. Most
of the reservation fairs are managed entirely by the Indians (under the
supervision of the superintendent), who have organized associations for

76

UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

this purpose. On many of the reservations the Indians also maintain
farmers' clubs organized with a view to promoting their agricultural
welfare.

The principal concern of the Ser\dce at the present stage of. Indian
progress is to make them producers instead of merely consumers, from
which it necessarily follows that the greatest strength of its agricultural
organization has been directed toward production rather than distribution.
Therefore, no particular organization is maintained for the specific purpose
of marketing Indian agricultural products, each Indian being permitted
to dispose of his surplus crops wherever he pleases. The Superintendent,
however, may advise them with respect to the best markets and must
see that they obtain fair prices for their products.

Schoolroom instruction is given the Indian boys in the theory and
principles of modern agriculture, which they must then apply in actual
practice on individual tracts of land assigned to them on a farm maintained
for this purpose, the crops produced being utilized for the partial support
of the school.

The related subject of honae economics among the Indian women is
given much attention, involving, as it does, the preparation of food from
the products of the soil, a force of sixty-eight field matrons being employed
to instruct the Indian women in all that pertains to successful home-
making and healthful living, particularly the preparation and ser^dng of
food. Theoretical and practical instruction on such topics is also given
the Indian girls while at school.

Quantity and Value of Crops Produced by Indians. Fiscal Year 1916.

Produce

Average Value

Total

Alfalfa hay, etc
Barley and rye

Com

Oats

Wheat . . . .
Vegetables . . .

237,605
231,498

1,117,797
1,471,020
1,430,830

Tons

S 8.05

Bushels

.80

Bushels

•45

Bushels

.32

Bushels

■95

—

—

$ 2,032,641

185,108

503,010
470,726

1,359,288
742.856

Total

S 5,293,719

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

AGRICITLTURAL LABOUR IN IRELAND AND THE MIGRATION
OF IRISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

OFFICIAIy SOURCE :

Report and Tables relating to Irish Agricultural 1,aboui?ers, presented to the I<ord
lyieutenant of Ireland by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction
for Ireland on 14 October 191 6.

§ I. The supply of Agricultural Labour.

For many years there has been a marked scarcity of agricultural la-
bourers in Ireland, and this has been intensified because numbers of them
have joined the army since the outbreak of war. No statistics are available
as to 1915 ; but for the pre-war period we have the census returns. The
reports of the Irish Census Commissioners state however that a large pro-
portion of the persons returned as general labourers may be assumed to be
agricultural labourers ; and therefore the following table gives not only the
number of agricultural labourers returned at each census from 1871 to 191 1,
btit also the number of general labourers except those in the six county bo-
roughs.

Year

Agricultural I<abourers

General I<abourers

Men ] Women

Total

Men

Women

Total

187I

446,682 62,662

5%344

194,826

19,859

214,685

1881

300,091 j 36,036

336,127

104,647

9,396

114.043

189I

258,042 j 22,044

280,086

82,854

4.592

87,446

190I

217,652 1 14,219

231,871

76,870

2,165

79,035

I911

195,864 4,036

199,900

100,960

1.139

102,099

These figures show a very serious decline in the supply of agricultural
labour, but they do not show the further and equally serious decline in effi-
ciency. It is the best labour which has left the country, and farmers com-
plain of the inefficiency of their labourers as much as of the difficulty of
getting them.

6*

78 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

§ 2. Tpie Wages op Agricultural Labourers.

Returns furnished by the District Inspectors of the Royal Irish Con-
stabulary and by a number of representative farmers p^ove considerable
bariation in the rates of wages paid in 191 5, even within each count5^ It is
telieved however that the following table shows the general rate for that
year in the case of male agricultural labourers who did not live in free cot-
ages or receiv^e any allowances in kind.

Ploughmen

CatOemen

General

Labourers

Boys

From

To

From

To

From

To

From

To

I,einster . . .

14s

15s grf

I2S 6d

14s 3^

IIS gd

13s 6d

8s 6d

los 3d

Munster . . .

Z/^sgd

17s

13s Gd

15s 6d

13s

145 gd

8s gd

ios6d

Ulster ....

i^sgd

17s

13s

15s 3^^

I2S

14s 3rf

8s 6d

ios6d

Connaught . .

13s 6d

1 6s 6d

13s 3^

15s 6d

Iis6d

13s

7s gd

I OS

Average for all
Ireland . . .

14s 3^

16s 6d

13s

15s 3d

I2S

13s gd

8s 6d

1053^

The value and number of allowances, where these are given in addition
to a money wage, vary considerably, largely in accordance with the charac-
ter of the farming, whether it be grazing, tillage or mixed farming. The
allowances may include a free house and garden, a potato ground, milk,
fuel or grazing, or some or all of these ; and their estimated value is from
about 4s 6d to 5s 6d or 6s a week. When full board and lodging are given
they are held to be worth from about 8s 6d to los 3^ a week.

Owing partly to the scarcity of labour, but largely to the further in-
crease in the cost of living, the general rates of weekly wages in 1915 were
higher by from is to is 6d., and the values of the weekly allowances by
about IS 6d, than the corresponding values in 1914.

The wages of temporary labourers also advanced in 1915 as compared
with 1914. For men the usual daily wages in 1915 were from 2S gd to 3s
6d at sowing time, from 3s ^d to 3s Cjd during the haymaking, from 3s 6d
to 4s during the corn harvest, a ad from 2s gd to 3s 3^ during potato dig-
ging. For women they were from 2s to 2S 6d for sowing, from 2s to 2s gd
for haymaking, from 2s 6d to 3s during the corn harvest and from 2s to 2S
3d for potato digging. The daily rates for casual winter work were from is
6d to 2s 6d.

§ 3. The Migration of Agricultural Labourers.

a) The Number of Migrants.

In spite of the scarcity of agricultural labourers a number of them mi-
grate each year for a season only, generally to Great Britain but in some

I^ABOUR AND THE MIGRATION OF IRISH AGRICUI.TURAI, I,ABOURERS 79

instances to parts of Ireland distant from their homes. Estimates of the
number of such migrants, which are believed to be approximately accurate,
have been based on (i) returns compiled by the enumerators of agricultural
statistics, being the results of enquiries made in June of each year at the
homes of the migrants ; (2) returns furnished by the Registrar General as to
the temporary' emigrants from each Irish port except Dublin ; and (3) re-
turns furnished by the railway companies, for 1911 and previous j'ears, as
to the harvestmen who took tickets for journeys via Dublin! The follow-
ing table shows these estimates :

Year

Number

Year

Number

'Year

Number

Year

Number

1896

27,000

1901

28,000

1906

25,000

1911

15,500

1897

27,000

1902

27,000

1907

24,000

1912

16,000

1898

30,000

1903

25,000

1908

22,500

1913

15,000

1899

31,000

1904

25,000

1909

20,500

1914

13,000

1900

32,000

1905

25,000

1910

18,500

1915

13,000

The decrease which is here shown from 32,000 in 1900 to 13,000 in 1915
is ver>- considerable,

b) The Places from which there is Migration.

More details are obtained from the returns by the police enumerators
of agricultural districts made in June of each year, as to the persons who
had then migrated or who intended to migrate.

These returns. include only about 60 per cent, of those who actually
migrated, yet the}'- may be taken as typical ; and the following figures, ab-
stracted from these returns, as to the number of persons emigrating from
each province, may therefore be considered as giving the proportion in
which the migrants were distributed over the provinces.

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

From Connaught

» Ulster

6,848

1,824

168

38

6.867

2,097

230

23

6,547

1,988

136

16

5,438

1,735

145

23

5,258
1,845

» Munster

204

» I/Cinster

47

Total . . .

8,878

9,217

8,687

7,341

7,354

80 GREAT BRITAIN AVTD IRELAND - AGRICULTTJRAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL

As regards only nien over twenty years of age, it is calculated that the
migration rate in 1915 for all Ireland was 5.3 per 1,000 ; for Connaught it
was 27.2, for Ulster 3.8, for Munster 0.5 and for Leinster o.i. The coun-
ties having the highest migration rates were Mayo 74.1 pen, 000, Donegal
30.5 per 1,000, Roscommon 13.7 per 1,000, and vSligo and Galway 7.0
per 1,000. In one Connaught county, Leitrim, the migrants numbered
only I.I per 1,000.

From the Poor law Union returns, which concern women and men of
all ages, the facts as to migration can be further localized. The highest
migration rate in Ireland in 1915 was in Swinford union in County Mayo
where 42 out of ever}^ 1000 inhabitants migrated. The next highest rates
were 31.9 per 1,000 in Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal ; 29.8 per 1,000 in Westport,
Co. Mayo ; 28.2 in Glenties, Co. Donegal ; 25.0 in Belmullet, Co. Mayo ;
19.1 in Castlebar, Co. Mayo ; 16.7 in Claremorris, Co. Mayo ; 12.4 in Castle-
reagh, Co. Roscommon ; and 10.6 in Glennamadd3^ Co. Galway.

The following figures, taken from the returns of the police enumerators,
show the proportion of women who migrated each year to be unimportant.

1911
1912

19 1 3
1914

1915

8,545
8,789

8,394
7,112
6,927

Women

333
428

293
229

427

Total

9,217
8,687
7.341
7.354

c) The Classes of the Migrants.

As regards the classes from which migrants are d,ra'wn 6,338 or 86 per
cent, of those included in the returns of the jiolice enumerators for 1915
belonged to the class of landholders — 1,578 being themselves landhold-
ers, ^,372 landholders' sons and 388 landholders' daughters. Of the land-
holders 227 had holdings whichdid not exceed 5 acres, 587 held from 5 to
10 acres; 425 from 10 to 15 acres ; 166 from 15 to 20 acres ; 78 from 20 to
25 acres ; 35 from 25 to 30 acres ; 23 from 30 to ^o acres ; and 37 more than 40
acres. The larger holdings were chiefly rough grazing land and mountain
land of low value.

d) The Places to which there is Migration.

The following table shows the percentages of the total number of mi-
grant labourers from 1911 to 1915 who went, respectively, to England and
Wales, Scotland, and Irish districts other than those in which they had their
permanent home.

i,abot;r and the migration' of irish agricultural labourers 8 1

England

and

Wales

1911 73-2

ICJI2 , 65.8

1913 70-9

19I4 69.4

1915 I 64.9

Scotland

22.0
27-3
237
27.0
30.0

Irish countries

4-8
6.9
5-4
3-6
51

Total

loo.o

lOO.O
lOU.O

loo.o

lOO.O

4,776 migrants were enumerated as going to England in 1915 and 4,584
of them came from Conuaiight — 3,706 or 78 per cent, from County Mayo
alone. After haymaking in Lancashire and Yorkshire they usually find
further employment in these counties at turnip hoeing etc. The}' then move
to Lincolnshire and North Cambridgeshire for the corn harvest, and thence
to Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire for potato digging. In 1915
their usual wage was about 25s a week, in addition to free lodging and fuel
and an allowance of potatoes and milk or beer. At piece work they earned
as much as 35s or even 40s a week.

The migrants enumerated as going to Scotland in 1915 numbered 2,205 >
and of these 1,579 were from Ulster, and 622 from Connaught — including
1,538 or 70 per cent, of the whole number from County Donegal and 565
or 26 per cent, from County Mayo. The}' were chiefly engaged on potato
lifting, on which some of them spent twenty weeks. As a rule they start
work in Ayrshire early in June and scatter over the country later in the sea-
son, and they return to Ireland in November. In 1915 they usually earned
from aliout 25s to 306' a week, together with free lodging and fuel and some-
times an allowance of potatoes. On piece work they made as much as 35s
a week.

English and Scottish employers bear testimony to the trustworthi-
ness, skill and thrift of the migrants. They generally save from half to three
quarters of their earnings and sometimes take as much as £20 home with
them. The amount of their earnings and the rates of agricultural wages in
Ireland, as these have been set out, go far to explain the continued migra-
tion in spite of the scarcity of labour in Ireland.

SWEDEN.

CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS
OF VARMLAND, DALECARLIA and NORRIvAND.

OFFICIAIv SOURCE:

Skogsarbeiarnas levnads och arbetsforhAllanden : Varmland, Dalarna och
NORRLANTJ. (Conditions of Life and Work among the Foresters in Vdrmland, Dalecarlia,
and Sorrland, Stockholm, 1916.

Introduction.

On the occasion of a proposal made during the session of 1912, the
Riksdag asked the government to have a report drawn up, as soon as pos-
sible, on the position of foresters and the conditions of their life in Norrland
and in districts similarly circumstanced from the point of view of forestry.
The government was further requested to take such subsequent measures
as the report rendered advisable, laying the necessary proposals before
the Riksdag if appeal to this body should be necessar5^

The government commissioned the Administration of Commerce to
make this report and bring forward the necessar)^ proposals.

To discharge such a task it was requisite first to make a profound and
impartial enquiry into the social and econoirdc conditions in which this
numerous class of workmen live and work. This enquiry was prepared and
begun b}' the Administration of Commerce after consultation with compe-
tent persons, specially summoned ; and was completed by the Ro5^al Ad-
ministration of Labour and Social Thrift, on which body the earher duties
of the Labour Office, a department of the Administration of Com-
merce, were incumbent after 1913.

The report embraces not only Norrland but also the northern districts
of Dalecarlia and Varmland, in which the conditions of the foresters' lives
are analogous to those in Norrland ; and it concerns not only the foresters
proper but also the men employed on floating timber, charcoal burning
and such tasks. Its material has been collected by means of several diffe-
rent statistical enquiries. In order to obtain an inclusive \4ew and to dis-
cover the general conditions of life and work among the men employed in
the forests within the whole sphere of the enquiry, a system was organized
of consulting a large number of official doctors, inspectors of forests, asso-
ciations of employers and of labourers in the forest industry, and delegates
of the comnumes nominated by the societies of rural economy. From this
combination of official authorities, associations and competent persons 615
answers were received to a special form of questions. On the basis of the

CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 83

general data thus collected detailed descriptions of certain more limited
parts of the zone of enquiry were established. Thus 173 forest holdings and
ten charcoalburners' yards, which employed respectively, 8,360 and 151 work-
men, were selected on the proposal of the departmental and forest admini-
strations and the chief inspectors of forests, as offering types of the different
natural and local conditions and the different methods of forestry; and in
these in February' and March 1913 an enquiry' was made by some fifty spe-
cial agents who collected on the spot, following a detailed questionnaire,
data as to the conditions of work, housing and feeding. As regarded certain
forest domains taken to be typical, additional individual data, on the subject
of the working hours, the wages and the personal confiition of all the employ-
ees, were furnished by the respective employers according to a special form.
The report, which is mainly based on material thus obtained, first treats
of the conditions, the development and the present position of the forest
industry in North Sweden. In this connection emphasis is laid on the abrupt
and the profound transformation of the whole economic and social life of
the population, and similarly of methods of cultvation, owing to the rapid
development of the timber industry within a short space of time, that is
within two or three generations. It is remarked that in this cirumstance
must be sought the origin of the ver}^ complicated social problems, which
under the name of the " questions of Norrland " have latterly attracted
much attention from the public and from the government. Among these
problems is that of the forest workpeople, and it is connected with the
problem of improving conditions of life among this most important class of
society to which belong, more or less, the whole male rural population of
Northern Sweden, some 150,000 persons.

§ I. The Exploitation of the forests.

The legal person, whether individual or corporation, who is the true ulti-
mate employer of labour on forest holdings is the landowner. Often, how-
ever, the landowner sells the standing timber, which is then exploited not on
his behalf but on that of the purchaser, who thus becomes the employer,
properly so-called. The difference is very important to conditions of work,
for it is in the nature of things that a limited liability company, for example,
should have more desire and ability to ensure good conditions to its forest
labourers, when there is question of a long projected tree-felling within its
forests, than when the question is one of making the quickest possible use
of a purchased right of exploitation. In 48 per cent, of the hokUngs covered
by the enquiry' the owner of the timber was also the landowner ; in 52 per
cent, he was not. Of the forest workmen 62 per cent, were employed by land-
owners exploiting their own forests and 38 per cent, by purchasers of timber.
As regards the different categories of owners of woods the enquiry shows
that the State and the communes have never practised tree-felling except
on their own lands, and that rural landowners have done so on land not
their own only exceptionally. Companies have however cut down purchased

84

SWEDEN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

woods as often, and timber merchants three times as often, as their own
woods.

On forest holdings the landowning employer is generally represented by
keepers or other employees ; but such supervisors are too few to be able to
exercise over workmen scattered over large forest areas the effective con-
trol possible in manufacturing industries. This is the defective side of
the organization of work in the forest industry, and gives it quite another
aspect than manufacturing industries ; but on the other hand the rural po-
pulation of Northern Sweden enjoy the advantage of a strong business
sense and show a much developed spirit of initiative.

The carters form the most important category of forest labourers, each
of them being responsible for one or more of the lots forming sections. The
woodcutters and other labourers — the loaders, the roadmakers, etc. —
should properly be considered as carters' assistants for they are most fre-
quently engaged and paid by the carters.

As regards the proportionate size of the different groups of labourers, the
enquiry shows that of a total number of 8,360 the carters form one third, the
woodcutters rather more than a half, and labourers of other kinds about
a sixth. But the proportion in the different departments deviates consi-
derably from this average, partly owing to differences in the method of work.

The facts which have been collected give some information as to the
age and civil status of the workmen. Ninety -two per cent, were found to
be over eighteen years old ; the large majority of the 8 per cent., who were
under that age, being employed as woodcutters. Of the total number of
adult workmen 52.7 percent, were bachelors, and 47.3 percent, married men,
widowers or divorced men ; these percentages being 32.1 and 67.9 in the
case of the carters, 65.6 and 34.4 in that of the woodcutters, and 55.4 and
44.6 in that of the other workmen.. The differences in these percentages
are closely connected with the unequal distribution of men of the same age
in the several categories of workmen, but are also due to the fact that the
workmen are derived in very varying proportions from the different clas-
ses of society.

If the extent to which the three chief classes of the population — the
landowning cultivators, the leaseholders and the labourers — are represent-
ed on forest holdings in the various districts be examined, the following
results are obtained :

Depart- Dcnart Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Total

meut Zone

of of

Norr- Enquiry
botten

( Landowners
(Hit 1)1 100 V

Wdrkinen Ltaseholders

there were V

' Liibourers

nient meut ment meut ment

of of of of of
Varm- Koppar- Oiivle- Vaster- Jam-
land berg < bor^ nofrlaud tlaud

47-7
16.3
36.0

63.1
17.0
19.9

18.3
20.6
61. 1

38.2
158
46.0

35-5
10.5

54-0

ment

of

Vastcr-

botten

52.6

21.9

25-5

55-6 412
13-3 170
31. 1 41.8

It is seen that the deviations from the general averages in the several
departments were considerable ; and as — at least in forest districts — the

CONDITIONS OF IJFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 85

rural population regularly seek winter employment in the forests, the de-
partmental averages reflect to some extent the different composition of
the population in the several districts.

If all the departments be considered together it is found that the land-
owning cultivators who take part in exploiting the forests together with their
families belong as to 69 per cent, to the local population while 31 per cent,
are strangers. The leaseholders and their sons are domiciled as to
67.9 per cent, on lands belonging to the owners of the wood, as to 32.1
per cent, on lands in other ownership. In the general group of
labourers three subdivisions can be distinguished: 41.4 per cent, who work-
ed in the forests all the j^ear round, 44.5 per cent, who in certain seasons
were employed on agriculture, and 14.1 per cent, who were employed on the
forest industrj' for periods of time (craftsmen etc) .

If the proportion in which special occupations are peculiar to certain
social groups be examined, it is found that of the landowners and lease-
holders, respectively, 43.0 per cent, and 48.9 per cent were carters, 42.4 per
cent, and 36.9 per cent, woodcutters, while 14.6 per cent, and 14.2 per cent,
followed other special trades. In the group of labourers the corresponding
percentages were 12.8, 66.9 and 20.3. A carter, as has been said, is usually
responsible for the exploitation of a forest lot; and may therefore be assum-
ed to have a certain authority and economic independence ; very rare in
the class of simple labourers, and found rather among the landowners and
leaseholders, and especially among such of them as have reached a cer-
tain age and position. Generally the carters manage farms large enough
to support horses. They employ as woodcutters and for other labour their
own sons and their sons-in law and farm-servants iii the first place, then their
relatives, friends and neighbours. Usually they avoid engaging unknown
journeymen workmen, for these are considered to be untrustworthy and
likely to trouble the friendly and confidential relations between a carter
and his assistants which are an indispensable condition of good and profit-
able work. The amount of the revenue now derived from forestry in North
Sweden, in spite of the inadequate number of the supervisors, is largely due
to the fact that this industry is served by numerous bodies of workmen
among whom there is this good understanding between chiefs and subordi-
nates.

The prevalent conditions have not failed to affect the labour contracts
customary on forest holdings. These are usualh^ in writing : they were
so in the case of 157 (90.8 per cent.) of the holdings covered by the enquiry
and 88.4 per cent, of all the workmen. In 1.7 per cent, of the places inves-
tigated contracts were made with outside employers, in 19.7 per cent, with
one or more carters commissoned by the others, in 68.2 per cent, with all
the carters, and in 1.2 per cent, with the carters and woodcutters together.
The report gives a detailed account of the terms of contracts, reproducing
a certain number of them as being typical. It treats of complaints made as
to some of their provisions, as for example those concerned with the system
of fines, the form of engaging woodcutters,tlie liability of carters for accidents

86 SWEDEN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

attendant on labour, the effect of the system of contracts on the price of
labour, etc.

Tree felling takes place principally in winter and the duration of the
forestry season depends consequently in the first place on the very variable
duration of the snow in different places. It is influenced also by many other
circumstances, as by the greater or less amount of local forest enterprise,
local customs, etc. In the whole zone of enquiry it may be said that there
is a normal forest exploitation season of seventeen weeks or four months,
a little less in the more southern and the coast regions and a little more in
the north and in the forest regions of the interior.

It must however be possible only quite exceptionally to carry on the
work on all the working da5'^s of this period, which should rather be looked
upon as the season in the gross. Farmwork, hoHdays on feastdays, journeys
to get provisions and for other reasons, all take time which must be deducted
from the actual working days of a forest exploiting season, which actually
is far from attaining to its maximum length but covers from fifty to a hun-
dred days.

As regards the average number of working hours in a day these are usually
seven or eight in the first part of the season, hours of rest being deducted.
When in February the days become lighter the net hours of work are
lengthened to an average of nine or ten.

These data chiefly concern woodcutters. A carter's day is usually
longer, carters having to give much time to the care of their horses and means
of transport. Special circumstances often make the length of their working
days irregular. It appears that they work on Sundays only exceptionally,
usually on the execution of repairs or on other tasks enabling the normal
course of the weeks' activity.

Work on forest holdings is almost invariably piece-work and is paid for
according to its quantity, irrespectively of the time spent on it. It follows
that to establish statistics as to the worknen's wages and earnings is espe-
cially difficult and is possible only in a limited degree. To obtain the most
certain data possible a certain number of enquiries were however organized,
the results obtained being used to check each other, mutually. Thus on
the one hand information as to the normal daily wages of carters, woocutters
and other workmen were collected from the authorities and from competent
persons in the various districts, and on the other hand the local investigators
calculated the average amount earned by a day's work in the places they
visited. Finally with respect to a certain number of these places the real
gross and net earnings of the workmen were established from wages-lists
supplied by the employers. From the chief results of the enquiries the fol-
lowing averages can be deduced. They do not however show the notable
variations in wages according to districts and to individual holdings, or their
variations among the different workmen in one place.

8-31 7-51

6.84

8.78

6.32

6.78 7.26

9.33 IO-63

7-21

8.16

6.86

7.27 8.40

(7.73) 10.58

7.o6

9.78

6.56

7.50 8.64

CONDITIONS OP IvIFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 87

Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Gene-

ment ment ment ment ment ment ment ral

of of of of of of of Ave-

Varm- Koppar- Gavle- Vaster- Jamt- Vaster- Norr- rage

land berg borg norrland land botteu botten

Carters (horse and mau)

Average daily wage accor-
ding to:

Data ftirnished by comiuiuie 06.94

» » » local enquiry 7.56

» » » wages-list (8.69)

Woodcutters

Average daily wage accor-
ing to :

Data furnished by commune 3.05 3.99 3.60 3.38 4.23 3.06 3.32 3.51

» ^ » » localenquiry 3.23 3.91 4.51 3.22 3.62 3.17 3.49 3.68

)) » » wages-list (4.16") (4.06) 4.89 3.15 3.96 3.00 3.62 3.97

(i) All these figures express numbers of crowns, i crown of gold = about is lY^ d at par.

From these data it must not be concluded that the earnings discovered
by local enquiries and from w^ages-lists for the season 1912-1913, which was
as regarded snow a bad season, were generally superior in amount to those
which seem from the data stipplied by the communes to be normal. The diffe-
rence arises chiefly from the fact that the latter data are of fairly comprehen-
sive derivation and thus represent general conditions in the respective de-
partments, while the enterprises which have been the object of special en-
quiry are chiefly situated in forest areas in which conditions of lodging and
provisioning are difficidt, and the price of work therefore reaches a higher
level than in agrictiltural areas.

Where the forest to be exploited is at a distance, in the interior of the
forest areas, workmen can neither live nor eat at home. They must live
on the provisions they bring with them or buy on the spot, and these are
naturally limited to a small range of articles of diet, easily cooked and kept —
chiefl}' bacon, bread, butter, flour, coffee and sugar. With these they pre-
pare their own meals. The idea of engaging special assistants, generally
women, to cook and do housework has lately arisen, especially in the south-
ern parts of the zone of enquiry. The truck system, which obliges work-
men in one way or another to buy their provisions from their employer, the
foreman or a special dealer, may not now be followed in any of the woods
under exploitation. The lack however of a common organization for the
procuring of stores and the cooking of food, the waste of foodstuffs, the
defective cooking, the increased consumption and the increased prices due
to the distance over which transport is necessar}^ — all tliis causes the cost
of living to be fairly high while works of forestrj^ are being condcted. The
average daity cost is placed at 1.50 crowns for a man and 2.50 crowns for

SWEDEN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

a horse, that is 4 crowns for a man and horse. These figures must be remem-
bered when the data we have reproduced as to the earnings of forest la-
bourers in the various districts and enterprises are estimated.

Special attention has been given to housing accomodation because the
enquiry was provoked by complaints as to the manner in which the forest
labourers were lodged and the frequent defectiveness and inadequacy of
the temporary forest huts.

The labourers of course endeavour to live at home as much as they can.
Failing this possibilit5^ they use any space available in the farms and houses
of tenants and in shepherds' cottages, and if these do not suffice more or
less temporary huts have to be built for them. Of all the labourers employed
on the forest holdings investigated, 37.1 percent, were lodged on farms, 5.6
per cent, in cottages and 57.3 per cent in forest huts. They were most fre-
quently lodged in the houses of inhabitants in the departments of Varm-
land, Gavleborg and Vasternorrland ; in the other four departments they
were mainly accomodated in forest huts. They were lodged in cottages in
any large proportion only in the departments of Kopparberg and Jamtland.
Labourers lodged in farms and cottages lived far further from their work
than those inhabiting the huts, which in a third of the cases were situated
at the place of work.

Detailed information was obtained as to the accommodation of 1,512
of the 3,103 forest labourers lodged on farms. They shared with 773 per-
sons belonging to the farms 447 rooms of which 390 were dwelUng-rooms
and kitchens and 57 wash-houses and similar offices. The rooms varied
in size but the average floor area was 22.1 square metres (i) and the average
cubic area 52.2 cubic metres (2). All the lodgings were provided with windows
and fireplaces, generally an open fireplace or a kitchen stove. As regarded
sleeping accommodation there were generally beds or recesses taking the
place of beds, but in ten cases there were not enough beds and the workmen
had to sleep on the floor. As regarded the quality of the lodgings 13.3 per
cent, of the rooms in dwelling houses were characterized as draughty, 10
per cent, as cold, 1.3 per cent, as damp and 1.5 per cent, as smoky. Of the
lodgings in outhouses the following far larger percentages had the same re-
spective defects: 36.8, 42.1, 1.8 and 3.5. On an average five persons were
lodged in one room which meant much crowding. The average floor
area for each person was 5.6 square metres, the average cubic area
13.5 cubic metres.' In the case of only 5.9 per cent of the workmen thus
lodged the cubic area enjoyed b}' each was more than 20 cubic metres ;
in the case of 32.5 per cent, it was between 10 and 20 cubic metres ; and 61.6
per cent, mtist therefore be considered to have been lodged in extremely
overcrowded rooms.

The shepherds' cottages are of the same type as the other cottages
in their respective districts ; but they are older and have smaller rooms and
more primitive arrangements, and above all they are built not for the win-

(i) I square metre = 1.196 square yards.
(2) I cubic metre = r.308 cubic yards.

CONDITIONS OF WFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 89

ter but for summer. In these huts 471 forest labourers were lodged in
eight}^ rooms, of seventy five of which we have descriptions. All the huts
had windows and generally the}' were heated by open fireplaces. As sleep-
ing accomodation there were usually recesses or beds, but in twenty-one
rooms there was only a common camping place. Draughts were a subject
of complaint in 53.3 per cent, of the rooms, cold in 46.7 per cent., damp in
5.3 per cent and smoke in 2.7 per cent. The percentages are much higher
than in the case of the farms. On an average six persons slept in one
room which meant that they were ver>' closely packed. Each person en-
joyed on an average 3.3 square metres of floor space and 6.9 cubic metres
of air .Onh' 0.2 per cent, of all the workmen so lodged enjoyed 20 cubic
metres or more of air and 7.5 per cent, from 10 to 20 cubic metres. For the
others, that is 92.3 per cent., the allowance of air was less than 10 cubic me-
tres a head, and therefore there was incontestable overcrowding.

As regards the temporarj^ forest huts they are of many types determined
by the various needs of forest labour and local custom. Beliind these lo-
cal variations several principal types can be discerned. The eldpall or fire
hut is a wooden hut with a roof sloping to a central pitch wliich has in the
middle of its room an open hearth {eldf>all), a sort of rectangular box made
of tree-trunks and furnished with sand and earth, on either side of which
are common camping places. The chimney-hut is a charcoalburner's
hut for from two to four men and has long, sloping walls, covered with earth
or other substance, a stone or brick chimney at one end, and one or two camp-
ing places beside the walls ; or in some cases it has straight walls, and a big
fireplace against one wall or in a corner, which therefore draws better than
the fireplaces of fire huts. Of the 521 forest huts inhabited when the local
enquiries were made 52.2 per cent, were fire-huts and 47.8 per cent, chim-
ney-huts. Of the 4,821 labourers lodged in huts 67.8 per cent, and 32.2
per cent., respectivel}^ dwelt, in huts of the two types, the greater percen-
tage inhabiting the fire huts because each of these housed on an average
twelve persons, while the average chimne^'-hut, which was onlj^ half as large,
housed only half as many.

Such temporary dwellings as the forest huts, intended to be used
only for a short time, were usuall}' more or less good or bad according
to the period at which they were built. Three hundred and three or 58.2
per cent, of them were old, dating from the time of earlier tree-fellings,
and had hardly been brought into a habitable state, while 218 or 41.8 per
cent, had been built for the tree-felling of the current year.

It is noteworthy that only 26.1 per cent, of these new huts had been
built in summer — 73.9 per cent, in winter — , although if building be begun
after the soil is frozen it is almost impossible to make warm dwelhngs wliich
are not draughty. The building of forest huts in winter is generally, espe-
cially in the northern departments, not undertaken by an owner on his own
soil ; but follows on the annual sales of standing timber by the State at the
end of the autumn. Complaints on this subject have not been barren of
results ; and steps have recently been taken to time the sales so that they al-

go SWEDEN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

low the preliminaty work necessary to the exploitation of forests to be un-
dertaken in the propitious season.

Half the new huts had been built bj^ the owners of the forests or the
trees; half by the workmen themselves, vidth or without compensation. Huts
built b}^ emplo3'ers are generally very superior to those which the labourers
have been able to make for themselves. A mistaken economy has caused
the latter to be constructed as cheaply and quickly as possible, regardless
of considerations of hygiene. A fire-hut is said usually to cost lOO crowns
in addition to the wood used for it, and the Httle chimney-huts of the
charcoalburners' type only half as much. The cost of the larger and
better equipped huts is sometimes two or three hundred crowns or even
more.

Most of the huts examined were built of dead and dry pinewood, but
green wood had been used to build quite a third of them, either wholly
or partially. The roofs were made of split trunks or boards , a layer of
mud or other substance being inserted to conser^-e the heat, and the whole
being in most cases crowned bj^ a sloping roof, off which the water ran,
made of split trunks, boards, shingles, tarred cardboard, birch bark or si-
milar material. The floor was generall}^ of beaten mud, only about a fifth
of the huts, and those generalty chimney-huts, having wood floors. A third
of the huts had no window, the others a sort of skyhght a few inches square.
We have alread mentioned the fireplaces. As sleeping accommodation
three fourths of the huts had common camping places while in the others
there were beds or box-beds.

As regards the general conclusions made by the local investigators
as to the huts they examined, the fire-huts, with their central fireplaces, their
large outlets for smoke and other openings, were found to be more defective
than the more compact chimney- huts. Of huts of the former type 62.1
per cent, were called draughty, 47.1 percent, cold, 39.7 per cent, damp and
54.8 per cent, smoky ; while among huts of the latter tj^pe these percentages
were, respectively, 37.8, 25.7, 25.3 and 28.9.

The ground area of one of these forest huts is on an average that of
one inhabited room — 22.9 square metres ; but since the roof is lower the
cubic area is proportionatelv small, averaging 42.9 cubic metres. vSince
most of the forest huts were built and equipped exactly to meet determined
needs the numberof their inhabitants is less variable but also much larger
than that of the farm lodgings. If all the huts be taken together the ave-
rage ground area for one person is found to be 2.8 square metres, the
cubic area 5.4 cubic metres. The average ground area for one person is 2.8
square metres in the fire-huts, considered separately, 3.1 square metres in
the chimney-huts, while the average cubic area is 5 cubic metres in the
fire-hvits and 5.8 cubic metres in the chimney-huts, overcrowding being
thus most acute in the fire-huts. In huts of both kinds the space allotted
to one person is ver>' inferior to the minimum generally considered hy-
gienically necessary. However exigencies in the matter of cubic area can
and shotdd be different and considerably less when there is question not
of closed rooms but of temporaiy and scattered dwellings, having many di-

CONDITIONS OF I,IFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 9I

rect outlets to the open air. Yet even if the huts be judged as temporary
lodgings and with due regard to the special conditions of forest life, a large
number of those at present existing must be held to be decidedly inadequate
and a larger number to be extremely overcrowded.

§ 2. Timber floating.

When in spring the workmen employed on the winter tree-felling are
distributed over different branches of labour, about a tenth of their number
seize the opportunity for work offered by timber-floating, which industry
is generally managed in this country, technically and economically, not by
the private owners of woods but by timber floating societies formed accord-
ing to certain rules. The work is one which needs much strength and endu-
rance, and it is therefore the young foresters who become floaters. Conse-
quently a relatively large number of the floaters belong to the class of la-
bourers ; while in the class of forester landowners and leaseholders not the
heads of families but their sons and other relatives, who are not absolutely
needed for agriculture in the floating season, engage on the work.

The conditions of timber-floating are characterized, like those of forest
exploitation, by the independence and respousibiht}^ of the labourers, or
rather of the working gangs, as a consequence of the small number of work-
men and the scattered and changing places of work. These circumstances
determine the character of the labour contracts customary in the case of
timber floating. They are usually contracts for piece-work concluded with a
land-owning cultivator or a leaseholder living near the stream of water, or
with some other person accustomed to the local timber-floating. The con-
tractor undertakes to ensure the floating of the wood in a certain district,
he employs his servants and neighbours or engages additional labour for the
purpose. These contracts are also concluded with gangs of a greater or
less number of workmen who assume collective responsibihty for the work
which they do under the direction of a foreman chosen by themselves.

On the streams and the affluents the work generally lasts about four
weeks, from the middle or end of May to St. John's day. On the large rivers
the season is longer, but it is by no means the same along the whole course
of a river : in the lower reaches the larger quantity of floated timber leng-
thens it, so that near the mouth, especially near the barriers where sorting
takes places, it often lasts throughout the summer. An average working
day lasts 12.4 hours on the smaller streams, 11. 7 hours on the large rivers ;
but these averages are highly abstract for the work is most irregular. Some-
times the floaters merely supervise; sometimes even, for days together,
they are quite idle; but at other times their working capacity is taxed to
its utmost physical limits, on occasion for several days and nights on end.

Although timber-floating is mainly piece-work the wages and earnings
of those engaged on it are far less easy to discover than the earnings of the
other forest labourers. The regular average daily wages of timber-floaters
in the different departments appear from the following table :

92

SWEDEN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Timber Floating on

Tributaries •. . .

Chief rivers

Average Daily Wages in Croipm;.

Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart- Depart-
ment ment ment ment ment meat merit General
of of of of of of of

Varm- Koppar- Giivle- Vaster- Jamt- Vaster- Norr- Average

land berg borg norrland land botteu botten

2.99 3-83 371 4-54 402 4.37 4.63 4.14
3.16 4.00 3.78 4.00 4.30 3.72 4.17 3.94

Food is provided and prepared during the timber-floating season as dur-
ing the winter forestry season, certain modifications arising naturall}' out
of the difference of conditions, place and time of year.

The question of lodgings during the spring timber-floating on the streams
and their affluents presents the greatest difficulties. Especially in the northern
part of the zone of enquiry atmospheric conditions are still severe, the tem-
perature is near zero (Fahrenheit) and there are even falls of snow, and dwell-
ing houses are rare in these districts. Often the men are obliged to pass their
hours of rest in the open air beside a fire, beneath a temporary roof or a boat
turned upside down or with nothing to shelter them against the rain except
a reindeerskin, a bed of pine branches or something else of the sort. When
timber-floating reaches the chief rivers there is a notable improvement in
the conditions in which labourers are lodged. As we have already said a
large umber of them live at home, but even the others find good lodgings,
the custom being to travel with the floated timber until some farm is
found. Where the floating routes pass through sparsely populated forest
regions the timber floating societies have, especially of late years, spent
much trouble and money in establishing the lodging accommodation which
is as necessary to the profit of the enterprise as the workmen themselves.
Generally the different types of forest huts have been taken as models ;
but as the floaters' huts are intended for more permanent annual use than
the foresters' huts they are general^ built more solidly, with higher roofs
and larger windows.

§ 3. Charcoal Burning.

As well as the exploitation of forests and timber-floating, charcoal-
burning is from the economic and social point of view one of the most im-
portant forest industries. The report deals however only in passing with
that production of charcoal which has for long been one of the most import-
ant elements in intensive forest exploitation in the factory regions. It
is more closely concerned with the charcoal-burning in forests which large-
ly conforms to the system of extensive forest economy still followed in
the north of vSweden. This forest industry aims at utilizing the tree-tops
and other remains after the trunks have been cut up, and above all the large

CONDITIONS OF T^IFE AND WORK AMONG THE FORESTS 93

quantity of dead trees, standing or fallen, which cover large areas in the fo-
rests of Norrland.

The employer in the case of charcoal-burning of this type in the forests
is generally a firm owning a sawmill, a charcoal company or some indivi-
dual — a cultivator landowner, a leaseholder or a rural tradesman who trades
in charcoal to a greater or less extent. In certain districts, especially in
Upper Norrland, charcoal production is undertaken as a domestic industry
by labourers and small cultivators who buy dead wood and other waste
in the State forests, cut it up, burn it, and sell the charcoal to traders or
to ironworks directly.

Small cultivators as well as landless workmen take part in the char-
coal-burning in the forests. The proportion in which the different social
groups are represented in the industr3' appears from the following figures :
of 151 workmen employed in ten charcoal-burning yards which were the
object of an especial enquiry, sixty-seven belonged to the landowners'
class, eight to that of the leaseholders, seventy-six to that of the labourers.
The chief group of labourers employed on charcoal-burning is that of the
charcoal-burners , each of whom usually contracts to manufacture a fixed
quantity of charcoal for a fixed payment. Where charcoal is manufactured
in the forests by a more or less primitive method the charcoal-burners cut
the wood for themselves and with their own or with hired horses transport
it to the stacks, whence they also transport the charcoal, when it is ready,
to the loading places. Where the technique of charcoal-burning is more ad-
vanced the charcoal burners generally engage special carters, woodcutters
and other workmen whom they pay themselves and who should be consid-
ered as being in some degree their assistants.

The charcoal-burning season ordinarily lasts about six months in the
forests of Norrland. It was sufficiently difficult to obtain precise informa-
tion as to the length of the working day, but as far as cutting and transport-
ing the wood, setting up the stacks and transporting the charcoal are con-
cerned, the work generally coincides with that of exploiting the forests
as we have described it. When however charcoal burning is in progress
the work is more irregular, for at certain times it is necessary to watch the
stacks night and day. On these occasions Sunday work is inevitable, but
it is always exceptional.

As regards pay, the workmen employed on charcoal-burning generally
earn from three to four crowns a day, approximately, and the carters about
twice as much for the work of a man and his horse. On the whole charcoal-
burning in the forests seems to be a little less profitable to the workmen than
tree-felling, especially where natural conditions are not very favourable,
and where the industry' is relatively new and the population not very fa-
miliar with the process of making charcoal.- The work is however sufficient-
ly sought after ; a circumstance explained by the fact that for reasons of
transport it is limited to the neighbourhood of means of communication,
namely the district within one or two Swedish miles of a railway station,
and the workmen usually live at home or in the vicinity and are employed
on agricultural labour at certain times of the year.

(c) Publications of the Bureau of Agricultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases.

1, i,K Service de Protection contre le3 maladies des plantes ex les
INSECTES nuisibles daxs les Diver3 PAYS (The Present Organization of the
Services for the Control of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests in the Different
Countries). (1914, 350 page=;, 4to) Frs. 4.00

a. PRODncnoN et consomm-^tion des Engrais Chimiqctes da.vs le mo:4db
(Production and Consumption of Chemical Manures in the World). (Second
Edii-ion, 1914, 162 pages, 5 diagrams, 2 maps, i6mo) » 3.50

3. I,A lotte contre les sadterelles DAN3 LES DIVERS p.\YS(The Campaign

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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE
Bureau of Economic and Sociai, Inteli.igence

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

(MONTHLY BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE)

VOLUME LXXVIII.

8th. YEAR: NUMBER 6

JUNE, 1917.

ROME
printing office of the institute

19x7

CONTENTS

PART I : CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Spain.

The First Co-operative Cheese Factory Page

§ I. Antecedents, page i. — § 2. The working of the Co-operative Society, page 2.
— §3. Results obtained, page 4.

Italy.

The Development of the Co-operative Movement in Italy according to Recent
Statistical D.ata as to the " L,eg.\ Nazion.ale delle Cooper.\tive " . . Pa^e
'§ I . The Number of Co-operative Societies in the Kingdom and their Geographical
Distribution, page 7. — § 2. The Number of Members, page 9. — § 3. The Finan-
cial Biisis and the Business of the Societies, page 10. — § 4. Profits and I<osses,
page II.

Switzerland.

The Peasant's U^^ON A.N'D Peasant's Secretariat IN 1 91 6 Page 13

A. Swiss Peasant's Union : § i. Social Position and Activity of the Union in 1916,
page 13. — § 2. Office of Information as to Prices, page 15. • — § 3. Offica of Valua-
tion, page 18. — § 4. Office of Information as to Insurance against Accidents
and Sickness, page 18. — § 3. Building Office, page 19. — B. Secretariat of Swiss
Peasants : § i . Programme of Work, page 19. ■ — § 2. Other Work : The Wa; Tax.
Relations with the International Institute of Agriculture, page 20.

IV CONTENTS

MiscEi,i,ANEous Information reIvATing to Co-operation and Asso-
ciation IN Various Countrie Page

British India : The Progress of Agricultural Co-operation in India, in 191 5-1 91 6, page 21 .
Germany : The Federation of Polish Co-operative Sodeties in the Provinces of Posnania

and West Prussia, in 1014, page 24.
United States : The American Society of Equity, page 28.

Notices rei,ating to Co-operation and Association in Various
Countries Page 30

Greece : Kalitsunakis (Dr. Jur. D. E).) : Die genossenschaftliehe Bewegung in Griechen-

land, page 30.
United States: i) Bexell (J. A.) and Kerr (W. H.) : Business Practice and Accounts

for Co-opera ti\'e Stores, page 31.

2) Humphry (J. R.) and Kerr (W. H.) : A System of Accoimts for I^ive Stock
Shipping Associations, page 32.

3) Bexell (J. 'A.), Macpherson (H.) and Kerr (W. H.) : A Survey of Tj^jical Co-
operative Stores in the United States, page 32.

4) Galpin (C. J.) and Sawtelle (D. W.) : Rural Clubs in Wisconsin, page 33.

PART II : INSURANCE AND THRIFT.

United States.

The General Conditions of Insiirance against Fike and the Development of Mu-
tual Insurance Page 34

§ I . Some Aspects of Insurance against P'ire in the United States , page 34 . —
§ 2. Farmer's Mutual Fire Insurance, page 39. — Farmer's Mutual Insurance
against Fire in Illinois, page 43.

PART III : CREDIT.

Russia.

The Activity OF THE State I<AND Bank FOR THE Nobility IN 191 5 Page 48

§ I. Mortgage Business, page 48. — § 2. Sale of Properties, page 54. — § 3. The
Bank's Funds, page 58.

CONTENTS

Notices rei^ating to Credit in Various Countries Page 60

Germany : Altrock (Walther V.) : Kur- und Neumarkisches Ritterschaftliches Kredit-

institut und neues Brandeburgisches Kreditinstitut, page 60.
United States : Thompson (C. W.) : Factors affecting Interest Rates and other Charges

on Short-Time Farm lyoans, page 63.

PART IV : AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL.

Great Britain.

The Scottish I,AND Court IN 1915 , . . . . Page 64

§ I. Scottish Systems of I^and Tenure, page 64. — § 2. Causes of Agrarian Reform,
page 65. — § 3. lycgislative Reforms, page 66. — § 1. The Scottish I<and Court
in 1915, page 67.

Japan.

Interior Colonization .\nd the Progress of Agriculture in Korea Page 75

§ I. Agricultural Credit, page 75. — § 2. Growth of Agricultural Production,
page 78.

Notices relating to AgricuIvTurat^ Economy in Generai, in Various
Countries -. Page So

Austria and Hungary : Feifalik (Dr. F.) Ein ncuer aktueller Weg der I,6sung der bos-

nischen Agrarfrage, page 80.
Austria : Agrar-Compass Jahr- und Adressbuch der osterreichischen lyandwirtschaft,

page 86.

Part 1 : Co-operation and Association

SPAIN.

THE FIRvST CO-OPERATIVE CHEESE FACTORY.

SOURCES :

IvA i}UESKKiA Manchixia, I,a iuduslria peaiaria (The Making of Manckego Cheese. The Live
Stock Industry). Organ of the General Association of Ganaderos (General Association of
Stock Breeders), i8th year, no. 544, Madrid, 20 February loi/.

§ I. Antecedknts.

We have already mentioned (i), in speaking of co-operation in Spanish
agriculture, the first attempt in Spain to treat milk co-operatively, made
by the society called Qneseria Manchega, which was founded at Infantes in
the province of Ciudad Real. This society is concerned with the manufac-
ture of the cheese perhaps most characteristically Spanish, the manchego
made from sheep's milk.

The Qneseria Manchega is the first co-operative society for the manu-
facture of cheese in Spain. It owes its foundation to the campaign in fa-
vour of dairy industries undertaken by the Asociacion general de Ganaderos.
A technical teacher of this association happened to be in the district of
Infantes, undertook studies and experiments in the manufacture of the lo-
cal cheese, and pointed out to the sheep farmers the advantages they would
derive from the formation of a co-operative society which would improve
their processes, make their product more uniform and lessen their costs of
manufacture. The idea had no sooner been started than they received
it favourably, and after a time of indecision, devoted to the study of the
question, they decided to put the plan into practice. They then undertook
the work necessary to the installation of the factory and the formation of
its staff, relying above all on the support of the Asociacion de Ganaderos.

The founders of this co-operative society had to conquer initial diffi-
culties of every descri]:)tion, a fact which is comprehensible if it be re-
membered that the establishment of a business of a kind entirely novel in

(i) International KcvilW of A^ricultund Economics, March and May 11J15,

SPAIN - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Spain was in question, and that it was impossible merely to imitate similar
enterprises in other countries from which the Spanish districts were
distinguished by their particular conditions. Infantes lies moreover in La
Mancha, without doubt the most individualized and the least social region
in Spain. The obstacles encountered were not only technical but also social.

Among such social difficulties, side by side with those of them which
were purely psychological, were some based on economic interests. In
fact the greatest resistance to the innovation emanated from the master
shepherds of the sheep farmer members of the society. This was due to the
fact that previously each master shepherd had made the cheese derived from
his flock, receiving certain indemnities at the period of manufacture, that
he was the middleman for the sale of the skim milk, and finally that he
enjoyed the enormous advantage of being able to instal all his family on
the farm, on the pretext that they helped in the manufacture, and they thus
were able to dispose of abundant cheese, milk, cream etc. The co-operative
society eventually solved these problems without prejudice to the interests
of shepherds or employers, either by employing the shepherds, as we shall
see, on the processes of manufacture, or by suffering them to sell and derive
profit from the skim milk, to provide wood and water for the factory, to
transport the cheese to the railways or to pack it.

It was also no easy matter to accustom the cheesemakers to the new
processes of manufacture, to cause them to observe standards of clean-
liness and order previouls^^ unknown, and, above all, to teach them to treat
large quantities of milk at one time. Finally however all these diflficulties
were met by the enthusiasm and conviction of the sheep farmers, whose
rnmbers have continually increased as a consequence of the results obtained
by the society.

§ 2. The working of the co-operative society.

We have no data as to the organization of this societ}', and therefore,
before we give an account of its activity, we will merely indicate how it has
worked.

Two problems had to be solved before it could become active, that
of the staff and that of the distribution of expenses and profits. The first
of these was undoubtedly the more complicated, for owing to the system of
sheep farming locally prevalent, as we shall see, cheesemaking lasts only
for from eight-five to eighty-eight days ; and it is therefore naturally impos-
sible to employ workpeople exclusively on this industr>^ since they would
thus be idle for nine months of the year. The problem is solved by appoint-
ing as master cheesemaker one of the shepherds in the employ of the mem-
bers and others as assistant cheesemakers, the chosen men always having
special skill in the trade. The factory pa^-s these employees during the
cheesemaking season, providing substitutes to do their ordinary work as.
shepherds.

THE FIRST CO-OPERATIVE CHEESE FACTORY

The costs of installation are distributed in equal shares among the mem-
bers. Ten per cent, of their amount is annually deducted from the societj- 's
profits and distributed among the members as interest and redemption
quota on the capital of installation. The remaining profits are distributed
among them in proportion to the quantity of milk each of them has supplied
during the cheesemaking season.

The following are the only figures we have as to the quantities of milk
supplied by the members, and refer to 1914.

No. of days

during

which they

supplied milk

Quantity of milk in kilogrammes (i)

Members

Total

Daily average

Daily
maximum

Daily
minimum

No. I

No. 2

67
60

88
87
76

23,709
12,846
15,003

7,338
6,168

334
214
170

8.4
81

526
262
259
114
105

204

lOI

No. 3

. No. 4

No. 5

49
32
31

Total . . .

88

65,064 739

1,190

49

(i) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs.

The members are obliged to deliver perfectly strained milk and to bring
it to the factory in vessels of tinned iron, quite full and hermetically sealed.
In order to prevent the adulteration of the milk by the addition of water
or other substances it is analysed on its arrival at the factory. For its
transport the members have adopted a system of special carts furnished
with awTiings and so made that the vessels are exposed neither to the sun
nor to rain.

For the installation of the factory the premises formerly used for cheese-
making by a member were chosen and were suitably transformed and en-
larged. The factory now occupies a fine two-storied building covering an
area of 300 square metres (2). On the ground floor are the reception room,
the depot, two large rooms used as warehouses, two others used as factories,
one for the boiler and stove, and the dwellings of the cheesemakers. On
the upper stor^^ there are warehouses in which as many as 5,000 cheeses
can be stored and which have all the conditions taught b}^ science and expe-
rience to be necessary to the preservation of manchego cheese.

The disposition of the cheeses, the accommodation, the ventilation and
the economy'' realized make these premises a true model for establishments
of their kind.

{2) I square metre -= 1.196 siiuure yards.

SPAIN - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

§ 3. Results obtained.

The following are some data which resume the activity of the co-opera-
tive society during the three years which have elapsed since its foundation.

No. of days Quantity

Year for which of milk treated Profits realized

the season lasjed — —
— kilogrammes pesetas (i)

1914 88 65,064 22,585,

1915 87 67,132 24,751

T916 81 51.262 23,300

These figures need some explanation. If the cheesemaking industry
be always highly subject to variation it is so especially when the animals
furnishing the milk which is its material are not stalled, for milk production
is then intimately connected with the extent and quality of the pastures on
which they graze. The difference in the quantity of milk treated from one
to another of the three years considered should not cause surprise.

Cheese is made in Infantes in the spring, and it should be remembered
that in 1915 there was an early and productive spring, whereas that of
1916 was late and little productive.

The difference in the prices realized is similarly explained, being partly
due to the varying price of the cheese from one year to another. The
co-operative society declares that the fact that the business had entered
into a regular course of working contributed to the increase in individual
returns obta^ined in 1916.

A fact which must at first sight cause surprise is that the manufactur-
ing season of the Queseria Manchega should last only from eighty-one to
eighty-eight days. This is due to local conditions of vegetation and to
the difficulty of changing local customs in the matter of sheep farming.
In order to lengthen the season and make a larger quantity of cheese it
would be necessary to sacrifice the lambs soon after their birth and give
fresh and abundant food to the ewes in order that they might yield milk
for as long as possible. This is at present impossible in this district where
the winter is long and unproductive and the spring very productive, so
that the farmers keep the lambs in order to use the abundant pasturage.
It is therefore only when the lambs can live without their mothers, that is
in spring, that the ewes are milked for the purpose of cheesemaking, the
practice being continued until the great heat of July begins to burn the
fields. The position could certainly be modified by the intensive culti-
vation of forage plants and the stalling of the sheep, but this presupposes
a complete change in the local system of sheep farming, which could be
accomplished only after long study on the part of the farmers.

(1)1 peseta = i> ^/^ d. at par.

THE FIRST CO-OPERATIVE CHEESE FACTORY

It is calculated that the flocks belonging to members of the Queseria
Manchega comprise 6,000 ewes. As regards their yield it should be noted
that, as is seen by the table referring to the season of 1914, the members
do not all contribute milk on even,'' day for which the factory works.

It may be said, to sum up, that the Queseria Manchego has attained
to extremely satisfactor}' results. Since a first attempt at co-operative
manufacture is in question, and since there is an increasing demand for
its products owing to their superiority over others of the same kind, we
may hope that farmers in other parts of Spain will follow the example which
has been set them, to their own advantage, that of the industry and that
of stock farming.

Already we can cite two other co-operative societies, founded under
the auspices of the Asociacion general de Ganadoros for the exploitation of
dairy industries. They are the Cooperativa Lacianiega for buttermaking
at Villabliuo in Leon, and the Lecheria cooperativa established at Saragossa
for the sale of milk bv the local Casa de Ganaderos.

ITALY.

THE DEVElvOPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN
ITALY ACCORDING TO RECENT STATISTICAL DATA AS TO
THE " LEGA NAZIONALE DELLE COOPERATIVE ".

SOURCE :

Annuakio statistico 1 91 6 DEi.LE societA cooperative esistenti in Italia, escluse quelle
CHE HANNO PER scopo PRiNCiPALE l'esercizio DEL CREDiTO (Statistical Yearbook 191 6
of Co-operative Societies in Italy, exclusive of such as have the affording of Credit as their
C^j'e/ .4 tw). lyCga Naziouale delle Cooperative Italiane (A^ahonfli League of Italian Co-op-
erative Socielies) (Milan). Como, Tipografia Cooperati\'a Comense « A. Barin, 191 7.

The Milanese National League of Co-operative Societies had already
in 1903 published the first collection to appear in Italy of general statistics
as to these societies. It had the support of the Ministry of Agriculture,
Industry and Commerce and the assistance of another Milanese society, the
Societa Umanitaria ; and the resultant collection was the Statistica delle
Societa cooperative italiane esistenti nel 1902 (i). Recently the league
has published a Statistical Yearbook of Co-operative Societies for 1916,
excluding credit societies. The object of this publication is to " place in
relief the importance of the Italian co-operative movement, paying spe-
cial attention to those forms of co-operation which are recruited from the
humblest classes ". The book has 1500 pages and is the result of long
and intensified labour in collecting and elaborating data. It is indubi-
tably the most complete work of its kind which has yet appeared in Italy (2).
It comprises : a) a list of all the existing co-operative societies ; h) a

(i) This collection contained three statistical tables and an appendix. Table I. comprised
2199 societies and gave data regarding them having reference to 31 December 1901 and distri-
buted in four groups (consumption, production and labour, credit, various) and according to
the district in which they were situated. Of these societies 1714 comprised 367,450 members
and owned a total capital of 74,121,046 liras. In Table II 2199 of the same societies reap-
peared, distributed in twelve classes according to their nature and the object of their social
enterprise. Table III. gave 322 co-operative societies of Italians outside Italy. In an appen-
dix there was a list of 335 co-operative societies existing in 1902, the data as to which arrived
only after the two first talile had been drawn up and printed. There followed the enumeration
of eighteen institutions of propaganda and aid, such as the Lega nazionale and the district,
provincial and local federations, and numerous tables.

(2) Other publications of the same kind have been printed bj' the offices of the Direzione
generate del Credito e delta Prevtdenza at the Ministry of Agriculture , Industry and Commerce.
One of these, which appeared in 1908, is a mere list, showmg the date at which the co-operative
societies were formed and giving information as to their paid-up capital. Another which was
more complete appeared in 1910, and the j^earbook under review refers to this m making the
comparisons by which it places in relief the progress of the movement from igiotoigi.?.

THE DEVEI.OPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT

collection of tables giving information as to the development of most of
the co-operative societies in the sixty-nine provinces of the kingdom, as
regards each form of co-operation ; c) a collection of tables resuming the
situation for each province and district and thus giving a complete pic-
ture of the development to which this organization has attained in Italy ;
d) as an appendix a list of alj co-operative societies entered in the registers
of the existing prefectorates, fererations and consortia. We will here
reproduce the principal data contained in this yearbook.

§ I. The number of co-operative societies in the kingdom

AND THEIR GEOGRAPHICAI, DISTRIBUTION.

It should first be stated that the league's researches concerned the
following forms of co-operation : a) consumers' societies ; b) producers' and
labour societies ; c) societies for the construction of popular dwellings ;
d) agricultural societies ; e) insurance societies. In the case of the first
four of these the aim was the discovery of the following data : i) date of
formation ; 2) number of members ; 3) capital shares, subscribed or paid-up ;
4) amount of the various funds, reserve and other ; 5) amount of business ;

6) profits ; 7) losses. Research of this kind was omitted in the case of the
insurance societies owing to the great variety of their working.

There were, in 1915, 7,429 co-operative societies, as against 5,064 in
1910. They were distributed as follows :

1915 19 10 Difference

Co-operative consumption

production and labour

building

" agriculture

insurance.

Total . . . 7429 5064 + 2365

The co-operative societies of production and labour occur in the year-
book in sixteen sections, according to their objects, namely : i) bakehouses,
mills and slaughterhouses ; 2) miners, stoneworkers and cementers ; 3) wood
and leather ; 4) ceramics and glass ; 5) fishermen ; 6) copyists and printers ;

7) mechanics and metallurgists ; 8) chemical industries, 9) electrical in-
dustries ; 10) clothing and textile industries ; 11) painters and decorators ;
12) journeymen, wheelwrights and navvies; 13) carters, waggoners;
14) porters' work ; 15) variotis ; 16) mixed.

The agricultural societies are divided into three section : i) agricul-
ture and culture of special crops ; 2) viticulture and the vintners' industry ;
3) dairy farming and cheesemaking.

The figures given show that the number of co-operative societies in-
creased by 2365 between 1910 and 1915. If insurance societies, which di-

2408

1756

+ 652

3022

1879

+ 1143

752

379

+ 373

II42

925

+ 217

105

125

— 20

ITALY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

minished by twenty (i6 per cent.), be excluded, those of every other form
are seen to have increased largely — the building societies by 98.4 per cent ;
those of production and labour by 60.8 per cent. ; those of consumption
by 37-1 per cent. ; and the agricultural societies by 23.4 per cent.

If the co-operative societies be distributed geographically the following
comparison between 1915 and 1910 is obtained.

Table I. — Local Distribution of co-operative societies.

Co-operative societies

Consump-
tion

Aaricultural

Production
and labour

Building

Piedmont

I^igtiria

Lombardy

Venetia

Emilia and Romagna ,

Tuscany

Marches

Umbria

Latium

Abruzzi and Molise. .

Campania

Apulia

Basilicata

Calabria

Sicily

Sardinia

277

105
704
191
338

358
III

56
28

30
47
40

6
42
63
12

484
143
157
267

105
38
16
32
35
30
2
28

53
6

95

27

224

95
216

42
26
10

65
21

53
64
10

27

145
22

84
22

140
84

214
38
22
6
61
II
55
43
II
20

105
9

151
183
394
322
886

239
78

31
226

12
III

146

14
46

159

24

109
103
298
174
555
131
46

15

184

6

63

85

8

10

82

10

33

70
144

59
133
127

10

7
122

3

18

13

6
2

3
2

75

4

16

3
3
3

We should also note the development of agricultural co-operative so-
cieties in Sicily, those of production and labour and of building in Emilia
and Romagna, those of consumption in lyombardy, etc. Generally speaking
societies are most numerously formed in the districts in which agriculture
and industry are most cteveloped.

In order to show more clearly the intensity of the co-operative move-
ment in the various districts, we reproduce the following table in which the
number of societies is considered in relation to the density of population
in each district and the number of its communes.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT

Table II. — Number of co-operative societies as compared to the population
and the comniunes in each district

Population

in

1915

No. of
Com-
munes
in
1915

Co-operative Societies

Classification

Districts

No. of
CO ope-
rative
societies

No. of
inhabi-
tants
for
each
society

No. of
Com-
munes
for
each
society

according

to
population

according

to
number

of
communes

Piedmont. . .

3,472,958

1,489

620

5,601

2.40

Emilia

Emilia

I/i^ria . .

1,244,015

305

389

3.189

0.78

Latium

Tuscany

Lombardy

4.931.485

1,907

1,477

3.338

1.28

Liguria

Latium

Venetia. .

3.665.536

798

669

5.479

1. 19

Lombardy

Liguria

Emilia . .

2,764,133

328

1,575

1,755

0.20

Tuscany

Apulia

Tuscany .

2,756,654

287

77c.

3,580

0.37

Marches

Sicily

Marches .

1,115,969

254

225

4.964

1. 17

Venetia

Marches

Umbria. .

703,802

152

104

6,767

1.46

Piedmont

Venetia

Latium . .

1.361,337

228

447

3.045

0.51

Umbria

lyombardy

Abruzzi . .

1,459,580

463

68

21,464

6.80

Apulia

Umbria

Campania.

3,377,824

623

231

14,622

2.70

Sicily

Piedmont

Apulia . .

2,201,241

241

263

8,369

0.91

Calabria

Campania

Basilica ta.

481,953

126

36

13.387

3-5°

Basilica ta

BasUicata

Calabria .

1,446,773

415

117

12.365

3-54

Sardinia

Calabria

Sicily. . .

3.743,447

362

374

10,009

0.96

Campania

Sardinia

Sardina .

870,077

363

64

13.594

5-67

Abruzzi

Abruzzi

All Italy .

35.597,784

8,341

7,429

4.791

(I) 1.12

(i) In these calculations the total number of co-operative societies, as given in the list in
the yearbook, is taken into account.

§ 2. The number of members.

Of 7,317 co-operative societies of consumption, production and labour,
building and agriculture, to which the league addressed itself, only 5,036
or about 70 per cent, supplied the desired data. Moreover the forms were
not completely filled up, the number of members being omitted on some, and
the amount of business, the capital, the reserve fund, etc. on others.

As regards the members we compare in the following table the number
of them in the various kinds of co-operative societies in 191 5 a.nd in 1910 :

10

ITAI,Y - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

Table III. — Number of members oj co-operative societies.

Statistics

Classification

1915

1910

of the

No. of societies

No. of
membets

No. of societies

co-operative societies

in existence

to which

information

refers

in existence

to which

information

refers

members

Consumption ....
Production and labour

Building

Agricultural

2408

3015

751

1 143

1970
1884

471
711

411.358

257.149

91,812

195,766

1764
1871

379
926

1623

1357

315

827

346,474

212,387

49,466

161,115

7317

5036

956,085

4940

4122

769,442

Thus the membership of these co-operative societies increased altogether
between 1910 and 1915 by 186,643. ^^ it be remembered that 2,278 societies
furnished no data in 1915 and 718 in 1910, and if it be calculated that each
society has about 190 members, it is no exaggeration to place the total
membership at 1,300,000, giving an increase of 400,000 since 1910. But
the increase arises also from an increase in the number of societies, and there-
fore we must conclude that there has been no true progress in this sphere.

If finally each kind of co-operative society examined be considered
separately, it is seen that while the average membership of a consumers'
society fell between 1910 and 1915 from 213 to 208, and that of a produc-
tion and labour society from 156 to 136, that of a building society rose
from 157 to 195 and that of an agricultural society from 195 to 275.

§ 3. The financial basis and the business OF THE SOCIETIES.

The financial basis of the societies appears from the following compa
rative figures for 1910 and 191 5 :

Paid-up Capital

. Reserve
& various Funds.

191 5

Co-operative consumers' societies . Iv.
production and labour

societies .... "
" building (i) societies.

agricultural societies "

31,617,205.72 ly. 23,868,709

3,255.547-3i
32,257,311.45
21,687,867.42

31,481,004
43,109,237
15,687,199

Total

L. 118,817,841.90 Iv. 114,146,149

(i) The apparent diminution in the assets and reserves of the building societies should
be ascribed to the fact that i!i the yearbook under review the special autonomous institutions
for popular dwellings, of which many were formed after 1908, were by an error omitted.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT II

Taken together the co-operative societies of various kinds possess
property, paid-up capital and reserves of the average value of 23,593.69
liras and individual members are interested to the extent of 124.28 liras
each. The average property of a consumers' co-operative society amounts
to 16,049.49 liras, that is 76.86 liras a member; that of a production and
labour society to 17,651.12 liras or 129.32 liras a member. The economic
resources of other forms of co-operation are more important, as regards
the average both for a member and for a society. This is easily explain-
ed. We have but to remember that by the law of 1908 as to popular
dwellings the building societies were exempted from the provisions of the
commercial code as to series of shares, which cannot be of more than 100
liras. In the case of agricultural societies it should be borne in mind that
they include the large organizations for the distribution of fertilizers and
seeds and those which, like the cheese factories and the collective cellars,
treat products.

The turnover of more than 5,000 co-operative societies in 1915 was
648,248,972.82 liras, distributed as follows :

co-operative agricultural societies . . " liras 211,514,782.82

production and labour societies ... " 163,732,001.14

consumers'societies " 156,841,214.87

building societies " 116,160,973.99

These figures would give for every consumers' co-operative society
an average turnover of 79,614.82 liras. If the fact be recollected that only
1,970 out of 2,408 co-operative societies of this kind supplied information
on this point it may be calculated, even if an average turnover of no more
than 50,000 liras a year be ascribed to societies which did not respond, that
the total annual value of the sales made by consumers' co-operative socie-
ties was 180,000,000 liras.

A comparison with the average turnover of each consumers' co-op-
erative society, as shown by the statistics of 1902, reveals an increase of
11,170.58 liras, namely, one from 68,444.34 liras to 79,614.82 liras.

In the case of the production and labour societies this increase is much
more marked, being one of 51,495.29 liras which raised the amount from
35,192.21 liras in 1902 to 86,588.10 liras in 1915. This is explained 63- the
fact that all Italian laws facilitating the participation of societies of this
kind in public auctions are posterior to 1902, as appears in an article on
this subject which we published in our issue for November 1914.

§ 4. Profits and losses.

We will end our short examination of the figures given in the yearbook
by showing the profits and losses resulting from these co-operative busi-
nesses. The total profits amounted to 11,236,722.18 liras and the total
losses to 1,237,985.38 liras : and the net profits were therefore 9,998,736.80

12 ITAI,Y - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

liras. Profits and losses were distributed as follows among the various
groups of societies:

Co-operative agricultural societies :

Profits I^iras 1,919,178.22

Losses " 208,640.14

Net profits . . . Iviras 1.680.538.08

Co-operative production and labour societies :

Profits Iviras 4,625,237.83

Ivosses " 484,105.42

Net profits . . . Liras 4,141,132.41

Co-operative consumers' societies :

Profits Iviras 3,471,956.51

Losses. . - '' 368,854.30

Net profits . . . Liras 3,103,102.21

Co-operative huilding societies '.

Profits Liras 1,220,349.62

Losses " 146,385.52

Net profits . . . Liras 1,073,964.10

These figures are the best assurance of the soundness of Italian co-
operative enterprise.

SWITZERLAND.

THE PEASANTS' UNION AND PEASANTS' SECRETARIAT IN 1916.

SOURCE :

DiX-NEUVIEME RARFORT ANNUEL DU COMITE DIRECTEUR DE ly' UNION SUISSE DES PAYSANS

ET DU Secretariat des Paysans Suisses, 1916 (Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Managing Committee of the Swiss Union of Peasants and the Secretariat of Swiss
Peasants, 1916). Brougg, Secretariat of Swiss Peasants, 1917, 95 pages.

The nineteenth annual report of the managing committee of the Swiss
Union of Peasants and the Secretariat of Swiss Peasants treats of the ac-
tivity of these two institutions in 1916, shows its results, adducing evidence,
and publishes data relative to the finances of the institutions.

We will examine this important report and resume its chief parts, as
we have done in the case of reports of earlier years.

A. — SWISS PEASANTS' UNION.

§ I. Social position and activity of the union in 1916.

In the beginning of 1916 the Swiss Peasants' Union had twenty-eight
sections which comprised 197,761 members. During the year one new
society adhered to the union and was admitted as forming a new section.
This was the Federation des societes de mise en valeiir du lait de la Suisse
Centrale (Federation of the Societies for Realizing the Value of the Milk
of Central Switzerland). The union thus acquired 6,451 new members.

a) Economic Measures for Meeting the Effects of the War.

In 1916 the union took economic measures with a view to meeting the
effects of the war. They were rendered necessary by the circumstances
to which the war gave rise in Switzerland and they greatly preoccupied
the managing committee, and more especially the Peasants' Secretariat,
as well as the Office of Information as to Prices.

As regards the potato supply, the defective potato harvest was a
pretext for reproaching the farmers for hoarding seed potatoes for motives
of speculation. But the Peasants' Secretariat took its stand on the result of
enquiries made by the Office of Information as to Prices, and was able to show
that this reproach was unfounded and thus to contribute to calming public
opinion. The union undertook to take an inventory of the stocks of pota-

14 SWITZERLAND - CO-DPERATION AXD ASSOCIATION

toes, rather however out of consideration for the public than in the hope of
securing new supplies for consumption. The union opposed a proposal to
requisition potatoes because it was already the agriculturist's interest to
sell his whole available supply and requisition might have influenced the
potato crops unfavourably. The principal task of the State is to provide
as ample a supply of seeds as possible and to persuade those interested to
grow potatoes as extensively as possible. The importance of taking in-
ventories of the available supply is that it prepares the way for the discharge
of this task.

The union has been occupied with the reduction of the rate for the ex-
traction of meal, the provision of home-grown cereals as fodder, the guaran-
teeing of a minimum price for cereals, the utilization of rye for the brewing
industry, the prohibition which burdens trade in forage, the price of straw
and the supply of straw to the army, the delivery of live stock for butchery
to the army, the export of income producing stock and of young pigs, and
questions relative to milk and dairy products. The union's action in endeav-
ouring to obtain leave for soldiers belonging to the cheesemaking industry
has not been unattended with difficulty but has been crowned with success.
The union has also been occupied with the question of obtaining payments
for hire for requisitioned horses, and that of suppressing such requisition and
causing a return to the method of supplying horses voluntarily. Swiss
agriculture is represented at the general meeting of the Socieie Suisse de
Surveillance Economique (Swiss Society of Economic Superintendence), or
S. S. S., by the national counsellor, M. Chuard and by Dr. Laur. These have
taken advantage of opportunities for discussing the needs of agriculture,
especially where the acquisition of forage is concerned. Most of the fe-
derations of agricultural syndicates have adhered to the S. S. S. This affi-
liation has given the agricultural syndicates of Romanic Switzerland an
opportunity to group themselves unitedly, thus satisfying a long felt want.
M. Chuard, member of the union's managing committee, and M. Laur, di-
rector of the Swiss Peasants' Secretariat, were the delegates of the Federal
Council at the negotiations in Paris with the allied countries as to the vic-
tualling of Switzerland.

b) Law as to epizooty policies, application of the law as to insurance against
sickness and accidents, the customs tariff and other enterprise.

In 1 91 5 the proposed revision of the federal law as to the campaign
against epizooty, published by the federal council in the message of 15
March 1915, was carefully examined by the union and the secretar5^ Their
conclusions on the subject were resumed by the committee and then trans-
mitted to the commission of the federal Chambers. These began in 1916
to discuss the proposal, and the desires of the union were partially taken
into consideration and in a measure respected.

The administrative council of the Caisse nationale Suisse d' assurance
en cas d'accidents (Swiss National Fund for Insurance against Accidents)
is concerned with the institution of compulsory insurance and prepara-

THE PEASANT S UNION AND PEASANTS SECRETARIAT 15

tions for voluntary insurance have not yet been begun. During the discuss-
ion as to insurance against accidents the union brought forward proposals
as to agriculture which were accepted. It proposed finally that the fores-
ters of communes should in particular all be insured.

As regards the revision of commercial treaties, of which one with Italy
was denounced innnediately before the end of the year, the Peasants' Se-
cretariat continued to prepare for the new agreements to be made. The
union also undertook much other business as to the export and import of
certain merchandise and relative custom duties, the inspection of wines at
the frontier, post office savings banks, the agricultural press, aliens, the
federal grant for research as to the productiveness of agriculture, and the
federal grants to the federation of the agricultural societies of Romanic
Switzerland and in aid of vegetable gardening.

§ 2. Office of information as to prices.

From the report which this office presented to the Swiss Peasants'
Union it appears that its activity had the following forms :

a) The collection of reports from which extracts were made ;

b) The publication of a review of the markets ; and the supply of
information as to the course of production, the position of the markets and
the price of agricvdtural products ;

c) The supply of information as to the international market for milk
and dairy produce ;

d) The collection of material for drawing up reports to be sent to
the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome.

This office has recently assumed a growing importance which is reflected
in all its branches. In 1916 it sent out 11,239 circulars and communica-
tions of which 8,725 were in German, 1,823 ^^ French, 309 in Italian and 301
in English. The number of its correspondents has not been diminished in
spite of the special circumstances due to the war and the fact that a certain
number of them have been called to serve in the army. Correspondents
who were obliged definitely to resign have been replaced. 7,183 were in this
case.

The especial circumstances due to the war obliged the office to devote
particular attention to the statistics as to Swiss crops. The office un-
dertook the following enquiries :

i) An enquiry as to modifications in the area on which cereals and po-
tatoes are grown (about 900 correspondents). 2) An enquiry as to the
average yield per hectare (i). 3) An enquiry as to the Swiss potato harvest
in 1916 (600 correspondents). An enquiry, pursued in 1,643 communes,
as to the quantity of fruit which could be sold during the autumn of 1916.

' (i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

l6 SWITZERIAND - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The average edition of each number of the Revue des marches (Review
of the Markets) is of 85,471 copies of which 74,406 are in German and 11,065
in French. In 1915 the average edition was of 79,060 copies. The review
has been inserted in ten German and two French agricultural journals.

In 1916 the oihce had to confine itself to following the course of prices
in the interior. The movement of foreign markets has been paralysed by
the impositon of maxinuim prices, the prohibition against export, and in
general by circumstances due to the war ; and therefore their importance
has compared with that of Swiss markets is quite secondary. Nevertheless
the abundance of material obliged the editor of the Revue des marches
to publish three double numbers in the German edition.

The Office of Information as to Prices also sent the following notices
to the journals subscribing to the Revue des marches :

A communication explaining the provisions as to the price of milk and
cheese ;

Two comnumications as to the price of milk for consumption ;

Two communications as to dairy production ;

Eight reports on the market for fruit ;

One publication as to the Swiss cereal and potato harvest ;

One communication as to the placing of agricultural labour by the Swiss
labour offices ;

Two reports on the world's cereal harvest in 1916.

As in former years the chief conclusions derived from the statistics
as to prices, which were drawn up by the office, were placed at the disposal
of the Federal Statistical Office which published them in the Swiss Statistical
Yearbook.

In the beginning of the year a complementary report was drawn up as
to the valuation of live stock in view of the war tax, and this report was
sent by the Peasants' Secretariat to the Federal Department of Finances.

The Office of Information has been occupied by preparations and
deliberations with reference to the price of milk and cheese, and has
forwarded a large number of pertinent requests.

During the autumn of 1915 an enquiry was undertaken in order to
discover the increase in the area planted with cereals and potatoes as com-
pared with 1914. A new enquiry in June 1916 aimed at discovering the
modification of such area since 1915. The office received relevant reports
from 850 correspondents in all parts of the country. As compared with
1915 the increase in the cultivated area was one of 9.7 per cent for cereals
and 13.5 per cent, for potatoes. As compared with 1914 it was 20.8 per
cent, for cereals and 32.2 per cent, for potatoes.

An enquiry was also begun as to the average harvest yields per hec-
tare, to provide a basis for the annual estimates of the cereal and potato
harvests made by the office. For this enquiry' the office made use of for-
mer pupils of the schools of agriculture, most of whose societies have pro-
mised their co-operation.

For the first time this office made the attempt of conducting an en-
quiry among producers in order to discover the harvest yield calculated

THE PEASANTS UNION AND PEASANTS SECRETARIAT 1 7

on the percentage of the average and on the yield per hectare of the potato
harvest in 1916. According to the data as to the percentage of the ave-
rage yield the probable total yield was estimated at 5.9 million quintals (i).
If however the data as to the yield per hectare be taken as basis the
resultant estimate is 6.1 million quintals. The yield has therefore been
estimated in round figures at 6 million quintals.

The activity of the office also included an enquiry- made in autumn as
to the amount of fruit available for sale. The enquiry- was made by com-
nmnes and the questions w^ere sent to 1,643 communes in the fruit-growing
districts of German and Romanic Switzerland. The answers received
numbered, 1,494. The quantities available for sale were as follows :

Table apples . 200,000 quintals

Cider apples 230,000

Early cider pears ,44,000

Late cider pears 40,000

Prunes 2,700

Nuts 1,100

In the matter of information as to the international market for milk
and dairy produce, the quarterly statements were drawn up as previously
in spite of difiiculties caused by the war. The following organizations lent
their aid :

i) Austria : General Union of Agricultural Co-operative vSocieties
of Austria seconded by the Imperial and Royal Society of Agriculture.

2) Belgium : International Dairy Federation.

3) Canada and the United States : Various communications.

4) Denmark : Royal Society of Agriculture of Denmark.

5) France : Various local and provincial organizations, individuals.

6) Germany : Various local and provincial organizations, individuals.

7) Great Britain : The Board of Agriculture (by sending publica-
tions), various organizations.

8) Holland : General Dairy Union of the Netherlands.

9) Hnmary : Division for the Dairy Industry and Alpine Economy
of the Royal Ministry of Agriculture (by sending question-forms and re-
ports), seconded by the National Society of Agriculture of Hungary.

16) Italy : National Union of Co-operative Dairies, local associa-
tions, individuals.

11) Norway : National Committee of the International Dairy Fe-
deration.

12) Sxi'edcn : Secretariat of the Royal Academy of Agriculture.
Quarterly reports were sent as usual to correspondents at home and

abroad. The average quarterly edition was of 2,525 German and 1,255
French copies, and 120 extracts in German, 50 in French, 220 in ItaHan
and 150 in English.

(i) I quintal = 220 lbs.

SWITZERLAND - CO-OPERATIOX AND ASSOCIATION

The ofl&ce sent month by month to the International Institute of
Agriculture at Rome its customary reports on the condition of the prin-
cipal crops, of silkworm rearing, of foreign trade in cereals, and of beetroot
growing and sugar production, and on the provisional and final estimates
of the cereal and j)otato harvests, wine production, the tobacco harvest, etc.

§ 3. Office of valuation.

The amount of business entrusted during igi6 to the Office of Valua-
tion was so large that it was necessary to engage new experts.
Its activity, as determined by its rules, comprised :

a) The drawing up of reports on investigations and valuations made
at the request of individuals in the case of the repurchase of inheritances,
successions, acquisitions of real estate, requests for credit and applications
for compensation for damage to crops. As in the previous year the largest
number of applications for valuations were made by individuals.

b) Investigations and valuations for institutions of credit and the
State.

c) Investigations and valuations in cases of expropriation.

d) Co-operation in legal or official valuations.

e) Contributions to scientific research in the matter of agricultural
taxation.

The value of the real estate valued in 1916 was as follows :

Real estate valued according to the income it pro-
duced .... 3,266,000 francs
» )) » » » its selling value. 1,762,000 »
)^ )' )) B )' its value for the
maintenance of a family 632,000 «

Recourse was also had to the Office of Valuation for information of
ever}^ description. Besides its simple communications the office made
real studies of the most diverse questions, among them those inherent in
the law of succession among peasants, the purchase and sale of real estate,
the letting of real estate, due services and the land tax.

§ 4. The office of information as to insurance against accidents

and sickness.

This office has had to suppl}^ information as to the foundation of sick-
ness funds and in one case to pronounce on projected by-laws which had
already been drawn up. The office has been asked for other information,
especially on the subject of insurance against risks of civil liability.

THE PEASANTS UNION AND PEASANTS SECRETARIAT IQ

§ 5. The BU11.DING OFFICE.

A new institution, which has certainly rendered notable service to
Swiss agriculture, was formed last j^ear, namely the Office of Rural
Building.

This office, formed on the model of those existing in Germany, is
occupied not only with farm buildings but also with those necessary to the
cheesemaking industry. Its activity has the following forms :
i) It gives information by word of mouth.

2) It answers requests for information addressed to the State.

3) It communicates its observations and proposals, following on
investigations made on the spot, by writing or by word of month.

4) It makes sketches and plans.

5) It supplies addresses of contractors and those furnishing supplies.

6) It makes specifications.

7) It undertakes the superintendence of building.

8) It verifies building accounts.

The new office was opened on i January 1917 and necessary rules and
a scale of charges will be drawn up for it.

B. — SECRETARIAT OF SWISS PEASANTS.

§ I. Programme of work.

The programme of work laid down by the union for the Secretariat
of Swiss Peasants comprised :

i) Preparations for the revision of commercial treaties.

2) The question of agricultural labour.

3) Researches as to the income produced by agriculture.

4) Researches by means of double-entry book-keeping.

5) Reorganization of the archives and the library.

The work concerned with preparations for the revision of the customs
tariff was carried on as far as time allowed.

In the matter of rural labour the secretariat published a fourth part
of its work on this subject at the end of 1916. It forms the last chapter
of the proposals of the secretariat for the solution of the labour problem
and treats of " the reduction of the need for agricultural labour ". There
has also been a particularly careful exainination of the opportunities there
woidd be for replacing manual agricultural labour by mechanical motive
power and for using agricultural implements and machines which would
economise labour, the estimated expense of employing motors and machines,
as compared with that of human labour, being of course taken as basis.

Researches as to agricultural yield were made by means of single-
entry and double-entry_agricultural book-keeping. The statistics collec-

20 SWITZERI^ANU - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

ted as a result of book-keeping increase every year in volume and value.
By this means it has been possible to undertake new researches, as into
modifications of wealth, the influence of grouping lands on the results of
agriculture, the relations between the capital invested in real estate and the
profit derived from land, etc. The secretariat presented in a very concise
form its customary report on the revenue derived from Swiss agriculture
in 1915. Care was taken to emphasize the effect of two years of war. In
1916 the secretariat was commissioned by the Swiss Society of the Friends
of Apiculture to check and examine the book-keeping of apiciilturists. The
Office of Valuation of the Swiss Peasant's Union continued to draw on the
results of the secretariat's researches in valuing farms. The secretariat
also placed the results of its researches at the disposal of the newly founded
Office of Rural Buildings. Finally the secretariat furnished much infor-
mation especially on the subject of taxation for the war tax. On the occa-
sion of the preparations for a revision of the customs tariff it undertook
a special enquiry into the revenue derived from Swiss vineyards. The ex-
amination of the facts thus collected gave verj' interesting results, and it
was therefore decided to continue these researches

§ 2. Other work: The war tax. relations with

THE international INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE.

We have already explained in this Review the results of the researches
and proposals of the secretariat as regarded the war tax (i). In igi6 the
union continued its effort in the direction of judiciously interpreting the
problem of valuing live stock with a view to the war tax.

The secretariat also undertook this year to act as intermediary be-
tween the International Institute of Agriculture and Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

(i) Iniernational Review of Agricultural Economics, June 1916, page 40.

MISCElvIvANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION
AND ASSOCIATION IX VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

BRITISH INDIA.

THE PROGRESS OF AGRICUI,TURAI, CO-OPERATION IN INDIA IN 1915-1916. —
Report on the Working of the Co-operative Societies' Act in Burma for the year ended ^oth June
1916 Rangoon, Government Printing, 1917 ; Annual Report on the Working of Co-operative
Societies in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh for the year 1915-1916, Allahabad, Govern-
ment Press, 1916 ; Report on the Working of the Co-operative Societies Act in the Madras
Presidency i» .1915-1916, Madras, Government Press, 1916 ; Report on the Working of the
Co-operative Societies in Coorg for the year ending 30tli June igi6, Mercara, The Coorg
District Press, 1916.

In our issue for April we published .an article on the progress of agri-
cultural co-operation in India in 1914-1915. We will here give some data
as to the development of co-operation in certain provinces in 1915-1916.

I. Burma.

During this year co-operation has made marked progress in Burma.
After two years during which a certain repression was exercised expansion
has been allowed. In the twelve months the total number of co-operative
societies has increased by 50 per cent., passing from 1,490 to 2,251 ; while
the total number of members has risen from 39,134 to 51,356, the working
capital from Rs. 84.77 lakhs to 106.82 and the management and working
expenses from Rs. 1.05 lakhs to Rs. 1.48. The subdivision of over-large
itnions has raised their number from 112 to 189 and the increase in effi-
ciency has been proportionate.

The number of AgncuUiiral Credit Societies passed from 1,252 to 1,685
and that of their membrs from 30,130 to 36,494. Their working capital,
exclusive of advances by the State, rose from Rs. 36,47,302 to Rs. 47,04,933
and their total reserve funds from Rs. 4,39,924 to Rs. 6,34,985. The for-
mation of the Central Reinsurance Society at Mandalay led to an increase
in the number of Cattle Insurance Societies from 63 to 305 and a propor-
tionate increase in their membership.

There were 46 non-agricultural societies on 30 June 1916 as against
43 on 30 June 1915. The ordinary rate of interest charged on loans by
the Central Banks was 9 per cent.

22

INFORMATION REI.ATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The number of agricultural societies per 10,000 of the population was
on 30 June igi6 just under three for Burma proper, but 25,15 and 8, respec-
tively, for the Kyaukse, Shwebo and Pakokku districts (i). These three
districts, in which co-operation was strongest, had, respectively, one agri-
cultural society for every 800, 1520 and 1570 occupied acres, excluding
fallows ; and Burma proper had one for each 7,100 acres (2).

Since outside money was tight as an effect of the war, members depend-
ed more than usual on their societies for credit. Crop prices were more-
over generally lower than before the war. As a result the average loan
to members of agrictdtural societies increased from Rs. 132 to Rs. 142.
Tliis considerable rise was however less than the average increase per mem-
ber of owned capital in such societies during the year.

2. UnHTED PROVINCES OF AGRA AND OUDH.

The following table shows the general progress of the co-operative
movement in the United Provinces in 1915-1916.

Number of Societies

Number of Members

Working Capital

I July

30 June
1916

I July
1915

30 June
1916

I July
1915

30 June
1916

Central

58

2,716

188

58

2,949

182

!

8,';o2 i^^i^

Rs.

61,54.725

49,77,430

4.58,773

Rs.
64,39,838
51,32,044
4,62,969

Agricultural, primary. . ,
Non-agricultiiral, primary

101,511
6.270

106,333
6,918

Total . . .

2,962

3,189 116,283

118,864

1.15.90,928

1,20,34,851

The following table gives the sources of the assets of the primarj'
societies and shows their progress. The figures refer to thousands of rupees.

I,oans from central societies ....

11 t> non -members

« « government

Shares and deposits of members . .
Profits and reserve fimds.

Total

1910-11 1911-12 1912-13 1913-14 1914-15 1^15-16

1,97

39

3,20

1,78

21,60

14,28 21,821 31,31

2,41

24

4.35

2,07

30.89

4.44

17

5,29

2,90

44,11

40.58

4,45

13

7,30

3.96

56.42

38.06

3,10

10

9,26

5.44

55.96

37,84

1.95

6

11,00
7.06

57.91

(i) In 1912 this proportion was 26 for Germany, 23 for Denmark, 55 for Belgium, 9 for Italy
and 8 for France.

(2) Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark and Italy had, respectively, one ag^cultural
society for every 943, 8,226, 3,058, 5,287 and 3,96.) cultivated acres.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

23

This table shows that the accutnidated savings of peasant members
are beginning to assume respectable proportions.

The continuation of the war naturally had a profound effect on co-
operation in these provinces. Generally speaking it took the form of
vague uneasiness and a half-conscious disinclination to part with money
or its equivalent, but in the latter part of the year there was a recovery in
this respect and much of the equilibrium disturbed by the war was restor-
ed. The cotton crop was small owing to the low prices of the previous year
and the rain and floods of September. The other crops did not enable
the cultivator to recover am^ of th ground lost in the two previous years.
When the year closed the indebtedness of members to primary societies had
increased bj^ Rs. 95,000 ; and the sum overdue had reached 17.70 lakhs,
having increased by Rs. 70,000.

3. Madras.

There were 1600 co-operative societies in the Presidencj^ on 30 June 1915
and 1800 on 30 June 1916. The number of new societies formed during
the year was 263 but 63 earlier societies were cancelled.

The societies were chiefly' active in the matter of affording credit.
Generally speaking the work of the year was the further consolidation of the
credit movement by investing societies with the right of shareholding and the
function of supervision. . On 30 June igi6 there were 29 administrative
unions of societies — without counting Banking Unions, the Madras Provin-
cial Co-operative Union and the South Arcot District Supervising Union —
having 604 societies as their members ; while 608 societies were shareholders
in Central Banks.

The following table makes clear the position at this date:

Kind of Society

Number of Societies

Number of Members

Working Capital

I July
1915

30 June
1916

I July 20 June
1915 1916

I July
191 5

30 Jime
1916

Central societies

Agricultural societies . .
Nod -agricultural societies

30

1,446

124

(I) II
1,601

157

1,770
90,088
27,603

1.568

100,761

34,565

Rs.

58,73,402
64,52,631
17.^3,389

Rs.

70,70,062
74.95,149
23,23,622

Total . . .

1,600

1,769

119,461

136,894

1,40,89,422 1,68,88,833

(i) Plus 31 unions, the 604 'societies affiliated to which have a total capital of Rs. 34,34,593.

At the end of 1915-1916 the indebtedness of members to agricultural
societies was Rs. 56,79,837 as against Rs. 50,85,356 at the close of the pre-

24 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

vious 3^ear. At the former date the sum overdue was Rs. 10,44,010, at the
latter Rs. 9,45,369. Proportionately therefore there was a sUght improve-
ment.

The amount of loans granted for productive purposes was again higher
than in the previous year, being 19.08 lakhs of rupees while the total loans
amounted to 33.81 lakhs. The percentage of such total lent for productive
purposes was thus 56.43 as aginst 56,88 in 1914-1915. The number of
loans for terms of less than a year had diminushed and that of those for
terms of more than two 3'ears had increased. This is a sign that the so-
cieties begin better to understand the distinction between short and long-
term loans. The earlier tendency was to look upon all credit operations as
made for a year only but renewable in case of need.

4. COORG.

The number of co-operative credit societies in Coorg remained the
same as in 1914-1915 ; but 51 new members were enrolled, the capital
rose from Rs. 1,15,500 to Rs. 1,22,168 and the reserv^e fund from Rs. 23,514
to Rs. 28,554. Nc> loans were taken from outsiders or government, and de-
bentures amounting to Rs. 1,490 were redeemed.

Although the Cattle Insurance Societies are now in the fourth year of
their existence the public still view them with some distrust. Briefly the
position is as follows : 391 head of cattle are insured ; 27 pohcies have been re-
deemed to the value of Rs. 278 ; the reserve fund has risen from Rs. 590 to
Rs. 1,030 ; and the total capital is Rs. 4,590 and is invested in the co-oper-
ative credit societies at 8 per cent, interest. vSonie of the co-operative
crecht societies have recognized that the payment of dividends to their
shareholders does not encourage thrift and that it would be better to use
this money to pay premiums for cattle insurance. It is hoped that the
new ruling to this effect will add new members to the cattle insurance so-
cieties.

GERMANY.

TIIK FEDERATION OF POEISTI CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN THE PROVINCEsS
OF POSN.\NIA AND WEST PRUSSIA IN 191^. — Statistische Korrespondenz, 24 De-
ceuibcr 191 5, Kerlin. Publication of the Royal Statistical Land Office (Kogl. Siatistisches
J^andesamt) (i).

This federation represents all the Polish co-operative societies in Pos-
nania and West Prussia. The German co-operative societies in these
provinces have their own federations, while the sixteen Polish co-oper-

(i) Siatistisches iiber den Vcrhaud der Ermerbs- und WirtscJiaftsgenosscnschaften der Pro-
vin-.en Posen und Wcstbreusscn.

infor:matiox relating to co-operation and association 25

ative societies of Silesia belong to no federation. This Polish federation
was formed in 1871, and was registered and granted the right of revision
on 14 July 1892.

At the end of 1914 it had 301 members as follows :

208 co-operative societies of credit

61
22

4
3
3

for purchase and sale

subdivision

consumption

the construction of dwellings
of trades.

i) of these 208 credit societies 199 had unlimited and only nine li-
mited liability. The latter were formed after the law of i88g, allowing the
creation of co-operative societies of such type, was in force.

The co-operative credit societies had in all 129,448 members or an
average of 622 for each society. The minimum membership of a society
was fifty-one, the maximum 6,554. I'he trades of members were as
follows (i) ;

85,848 (68.63 P^r cent.) were agriculturists ;
24,858 (19.87 per cent.) " artisans ;

14,391 (11.50 per cent.) " traders and members of va-
rious trades.

In the agriculturists' group small landowners predominated being re-
presented by 76,776 members. Of that of the artisans more than half —
14,147 — were also landowners.

It is interesting to note that almost all the societies comprised members
of different trades, those which were composed of members of only one trade
being ver}' rare. This is due to the fact that most of them were situated
in towns and included a town and the surrounding villages in their sphere
of action.

Their working capital amounted to 320,275,969 marks, being made up
as follows :

Share capital 26,280,839 marks

reserve fund 15.155-934

individual deposits 271,013,287

current accounts in banks 7,825,909

320,275,969 marks

(i) The data for two co-operative societies are laddng.

47,664,250

marks

than

5,000,000

2

to

5,000,000

I

"

2,000,000

500,000

1,000,000

100,000

"

500,000

less

than

100,000

26 INFORMATION REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

The working capital of individual societies varied enormously, as
appears from the following figures :

I co-operative society had a working capital of
12 " " " " " " " more

26 " " " " " " " from

51
50
59

The working capital of the limited liability was much larger than that
of the unlimited liability societies.

The number of depositors was 234,351, most of them peasants. Accord-
ing to their form the deposits represented short-term liabilities, but in
fact most of them were for long terms for the peasants do not withdraw
their deposits except to buy land.

The total assets of the 208 co-operative credit
societies amounted to 320,275,969 marks

made up as follows :

bills of exchange 280,126,736

deposits in banks 15,317,472

in hand 3,465,170

various assets 21,366,591

The Polish co-operative societies usually grant credit, even in the case
of mortgage loans and even although the loans are for long terms — three
to ten years — in the form of bills of exchange. The co-operative society
reserves the right to exact repayment before the term expires, if the
debtor do not pay his redemption quotas regularly or if his solvency
diminish.

The profits realized amounted to 16,901,249 marks, 16,510,459 marks
being interest exacted from debtors. The total expenditure amounted to
14,174,888 marks, 11,829,068 marks being interest paid to depositors and
banks and 1,874,324 marks costs of administration. The net profits rea-
lized by 202 co-operative societies amounted to 2,988,198 marks of which
the share of six societies was 261,836 marks. Of all the net profits, 1,390,149
marks were distributed among the members and the rest paid into the re-
sers'e fund.

2) The so-called " Rolnik " (agriculturists') co-operative societies
for purchase and sale were first formed in 1894, but began to develop on a
solid basis only in 1900.

At the end of 191 4 there were in Posnania and West Prussia seventy
Polish co-operative societies for purchase and sale of which sixty-one, hav-
ing 9,733 members, belong to the Polish federation. All have limited lia-
bility. The shares are from 20 to 50 marks, and each of them involves lia-

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 27

bility for five times its amount so that the extent of liability incurred by a
share varies from 100 to 250 marks. No member may have more than ten
shares. Most of the members are agriculturists.

Data as to their working capital were furnished by only fifty-seven of
these societies.

The capital held by these societies amounted to 2,025,012 marks
including 934,748 marks of paid-up share capital and 1,090,264 marks of
reserve fund. The liability of the members extended to 9,926,000 marks.
The societies also disposed of capital belonging to outsiders formed by de-
posits of individuals and credit obtained from co-perative credit societies.
Until 1908 private deposits provided the larger part of the working capital.
In that year the general meeting passed a resolution that in future the so-
cieties should accept fewer deposits from individuals and increase the sum
of the credit afforded to them by co-operative credit societies. In conse-
quence the societies for purchase and sale, in order to obtain larger credit
from the credit societies, formed with them a species of personal union,
admitting to their administrative councils two or three members of the
administrative council of a credit society. At the end of 1914 the socie-
ties' debt was 12,532,526 marks, one third being deposits of individuals
and two thirds on current account with credit societies.

These societies for purchase and sale undertake two kinds of business :
they buy for their members goods necessary to agriculture (seeds, manures,
forage) ; and they sell agricultural produce on commission. Their business
of the latter kind is the more important, the selling being also practised by
the co-operative credit societies and the agricultural circles.

Their total turnover amounted to 46,000,000 marks, 28,000,000 marks
standing for sales and 18,000,000 marks for purchases.

3) The co-operative societies for subdivision were first formed in
1890. Today there are altogether thirty-one of them and twenty-two be-
long to the Polish federation.

All the societies for subdivision have limited liability.

Shares are from 100 to 500 marks and each involves liability for from
two to five times its amount. The total membership of the societies belong-
ing to the federation was 5,070. The members are mostly agriculturists,
large or small proprietors ; but the so-called burgher societies include as
members a certain number of traders and artisans and even some profes-
sional men.

Their capital amounted to 11,422,092 marks, made up of a share capi-
tal of 7,533,970 marks and a reserve fund of 3,888,152 marks. They also
receive very large credit from the co-operative credit societies and from the
Federal Bank and other Polish and German banks. The deposits of out-
siders form a mininumi of their working capital. lyike the societies for
purchase and sale they often enter into a personal union with the co-op-
erative societies in their respective districts.

Their business is of two kinds :

i) They regulate the mortgage debts of landowners ;

28 INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION

2) They buy large properties, divide them into small lots, and resell
them to Polish settlers.

The data as to their business in 1914 have not been published.

4) The statistics for 1914 supply figures only as to the membership of
the consumers', the trades' and the building societies. The ten co-oper-
tive societies of these three kinds comprised 5,811 members.

UNITED STATES.

ra'E A'Mh'.RlCA'S SOCmTY OF EQVITY. — The Grain Growers' Guide, Winnipeg, ii April
1917.

Founded in 1902 at Indianopolis, Indiana, the American Society of
Equity is one of a number of kindred bodies working in the central and north-
western States for better organization among farmers. From 1902 to 191 1
it had tremendous ups and downs — a series of successes and failures.

Its growth has been ver\^ rapid in the last four years. The membership
is now 100,000. It has 7,146 local unions and is operating in fourteen
vStates — Kentucky, Indiana, Ilhnois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Da-
kota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Washington
and Idaho — and has scattered members in other places.

Under the riiles of this society a count}^ union comprises five local unions
and a State union a minimum of five county unions and 500 members.
In Nebraska and Wyoming there are branches of the National Office which
is situated at Wausaw in Wisconsin. The subscription for a new member
is now §4 a year, of which 50 cents go to the local union, 15 cents to the
county union, 35 cents to the State, 50 cents to the National Office, 50 cents
either to the State or to National Equity papers and §2 to the State for
organizing purposes.

So far the work of the American Society of Equity has been mainly
educative and has been carried on through meetings of local unions, fiter-
ature, organizers or otherwise, much as is the educative work of the Grain
Growers' Associations in Western Canada. This side of the enterprise seems
indeed to have overshadowed its business side, for until the last two years
little was done to develop the business organization.

A little more than a j-ear ago the central organization estabHshed the
American Co-operative Association which is the business organization of
the American Society of Equity. It is organized under the Wisconsin State
laws. It has already estabUshed several branches and transacted a large
amount of business. Its first enterprise was to pubHsh The Organized
Farmer of which the first issue appared on 14 January 1915.

The large business that has developed has secured for the association
the very lowest possible prices and enabled it to sell to its members approx-
imately at the prices charged by wholesalers to retailers. The quality
of the goods is guaranteed, the customer being under no obligation to accept
them if the quality be not good.

INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 29

A large quantity of wool is marketed through the association and it
goes to the manufacturers directly. This year co-operative canneries and
co-operative driers are being established in the Pacific coast States for can-
ning and drj'ing fruit. The stockholders of these co-operative societies are
the organized farmers and 90 per cent, of them are members of the Ameri-
can Society of Equity. The total capitalization is $250,000 of which
$3,000 has been paid up.

The Wisconsin vState Union of the American Society of Equity has
about 400 local unions and carries on varied work. It buys supplies,
and was able last year to secure a profit in spite of the narrow margin on
which business is conducted. Coal, flour, fodder, twine, machinery and all
kinds of groceries are handled in fiftj'-pound orders. The price of gluten
fodder has thus been reduced to members of the union by nearly S9 a ton.
The Wisconsin State Union publishes its own paper, Tlie Equity News.

At present the association is organizing the Industrial Co-operative
Union which will, as far as possible, deliver goods directly from the producer
to the consumer. A company with a capitalization of half a million is
being started, half the stock to be sold to producers and half to consumers
in Milwaukee. One or two central receiving plants are being established
and a number of distributing centres with rigs are being placed in different
parts of the city. A consequent reduction in the cost of living is anti-
cipated.

The activities of the society of Equity vary in different States. In Min-
nesota and Wisconsin the live stock shipping associations have had a great
development, at least 200 of them being organized by this society alone.
At Farmington in Minnesota a wool warehouse has been established ; and
not only is a better price being secured for wool, but many excellent garments
are being manufactured very cheaply and returned to the wool consigners at
far lower prices than those for which they could bviy them elsewhere. In
North Dakota the chief business has been in grain, and a fight steadily
waged for some time with the Minneapolis Chamber of commerce has fi-
nally residted in the establishment of a .separate exchange in St. Paul.
Other States have dealt with special phases of the marketing and buj'ing
problem.

NOTICES REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

GREECE.

KAIylTSINAKIS (Dr. Jur. D. E.) : Die genossenschaftliche Beuegung in Griechenland (The
Co-operative Movement in Greece). Balkan-Revue, No. 4-5, Year III, 1916.

In 1 91 1 a new department, called the Ministry of National Economy,
was created in Greece, and the State has since interv^ened more importantly
than before in the country's economic life. In 1914 this department pro-
posed a law as to co-operative societies which has had force since 24 Jan-
uary 1915 and on which the article here cited bears.

In drawing up the law the Greek legislature was influenced by the cha-
racter of the co-operative movement in Germany, and therefore the measure
presents a combination of Raiffeisen and Schulzte-Delitsch principles and
reproduces almost literally many provisions of the German law of 1889 on
co-operative purchase and labour {Erwerbs- und Wirtschajts genossenschajten) .
But to some extent the Greek legislature took into account the special cir-
cumstances of the country, and thus there are in the law certain devia-
tions from the line traced by German principles.

The following are the characteristic features of the Greek law :
i) In the case of co-operative societies of everj^ kind, whether credit,
agrictdtural, industrial or other, the law allows their formation on the prin-
ciple of either limited or unlimited liability. The form selected has merely
to be noted in the by-laws (article 22). As is known the rural co-operative
societies, especially those which are credit societies, almost all have unli-
mited liability.

2) In the matter of the territorial sphere of an association the Greek
law adopts the principles of Raiflteisen, in that of the admission of members
those of Schultze-Delitsch : thus the sphere of co-operative action is li-
mited to a village or a commune, and the admission of members depends on
the obligatory purchase of shares. The members of an unlimited liability
society are obliged to pay the amount of one share, but the by-laws of a
limited liability society may prescribe the subscription of two or even more
shares (article 20).

3) Articles 14 to 67 and 68 of the law prescribe the obligatory for-
mation of a reserve fund in accordance with Raiffeisen principles. Ten per
cent, of the net profits are paid into the reserve fund annually, and such pay-
ments cannot be interrupted until this fund becomes equal to the share
capital. The reserve fund serves to cover eventual losses and may not be
used as working capital. It is invested in State securities. It is considered

XOTICES RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 3 1

to belong to the co-operative society in its capacity as a legal person and
not to be the collective property of the members ; and therefore in case of
liquidation it is not distributed to the members but is deposited in the Cen-
tral Fund which remits it to any new co-operative society formed in the
same place and with the same objects.

Besides this regular reserve fund the law allows the creation of extraor-
dinary reserve funds, which have however a quite different character being
employable as working capital. They may be distributed among the mem-
bers if the general meeting so decide.

4) The organs of a co-operative society are the council of administra-
tion, the council of vigilance and the general meeting. The functions of
the two former are honorary, only their technical officials being paid. In
the general meeting of an unlimited liability society all the members have
equal rights ; in that of a limited liability society the members are divided
into two classes, those having one and those having two votes.

5) Articles 55 and 56 provide for the liquidation of societies. Iviqui-
dation takes place :

a) in response to a resolution passed by the general meeting;

b) when a judgement on a legal point has to be executed ;

c) in case of failure.

When a liquidation is necessary liquidators are elected who are respon-
sible for the conduct of the society's business until the liquidation has been
effected.

The law provides finally that wherever a case is not covered by its
dispositions those of the codes of commerce and civil procedure shall be
followed.

Up to 31 December 1915 eighty-seven co-operative societies were
created under the provisions of this law, namely sixty-one rural credit so-
cieties, eighteen rural producers' societies which included eleven for the pro-
duction of dried currants, and eight rural and urban labour societies.

Of these eighty-seven societies only six had unlimited while eighty-one
had limited liability.

UNITED STATES.

I . BI5XEI*Iy (J. A. ) and KERR (W. H.; : Business practice and accounts for cooperative
STORES. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 381 (1916), pp. 56, pi. i).

The authors have outhned a simple and adequate system of records
for co-operative retail stores and pointed out fundamental business methods
that must be observ^ed to insiure success. They have discussed this subject
under the headings of corporate records, statements and reports, operat-
ing records, auditing, and office equipment. The bulletin outlines in de-
tail the necessary records and statements essential to the proper conduct-
ing of stores under a co-operative scheme and gives a large number of
model forms.

NOTICES RELATIXG TO CO-OPEIi^VTION AND ASSOCIATION

2. HUMPHRY (J. R.) and KERR (W. H.) : A system of accounts for live-stock shipping
ASSOCIATIONS. (U. S. Dcpt. Agr. Bull. 403 (1916), pp. 14).

In this bulletin types of shipping agencies and methods of financing
shipping associations are described, together with methods of keeping
the accoimts of such associations. The authors have outhned a system
in which the only books of record required are a cash journal, consisting of a
multi-column cash book and a journal combined, with provision for a de-
tailed account of sales of supplies, and an ordinar\^ form of loose-leaf
ledger. The}' also describe other forms that may be used, such as the
shipping record envelopes, members' receipts, members' account sales,
manifests, sales tickets, and cash receipts. Sample forms are included in
the bulletin.

3. BEXEI/Iy (J. A.), MACPHERSON (H.) and KERR (W. H.) : A survey of typical co-op-

ER.\TIVE STORES IN THE UNITED STATES. {U . S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 394 (l9l6),pp. 32, pls. 2).

Data collected from sixty stores in ten States by the Office of Markets
and Rural Organization in co-operation with the Oregon Agricultural Col-
lege are reported and discussed.

" The figures collected in this survey bring out the conclusion that
the majority of the co-operative stores established are unsuccessful in
achieving their main object — saving on purchases to members and a re-
duction of the high cost of living. This conclusion is borne out by the
supplementary notes collected from managers who could not apply statis-
tics, and by notes on interviews with leaders who are acquainted with the
store movement in whole sections which could not be covered in detail.
But that there is one real service which the co-operative stores have per-
formed seems to have been demonstrated again and again. Even in cases
where stores have failed absolutely and gone into bankruptc}'' they have
frequently been responsible for the introduction of improved business me-
thods in the towns where they were established. They have had the effect
of stimulating com])etition. In cases where the merchants have com-
peted keenly against the co-operative store they have been compelled to
adopt more efficient business methods. This has resulted in lower prices to
every consumer in the locality and frequently in better prices to farmers
on produce ".

The authors believe that the conditions necessar\' for success are good
leadership, capable management, favourable environment, and adequate
legal safeguards, and that a lack of these is generally the cause of failure.
A number of statistical tables, setting forth the various facts concerning
the stores from which this survey was made, are included in the bulletin.

NOTICES RELATING TO CO-OPER.\TION AND ASSOCIATION ^^

4. GAIyPIN (C. J.) and SAWTELIvE (D. W.) : Rural clubs in Wisconsin [Wisconsin Sta
Bill. 271 (1916) pp. 5S, figs. 22).

The authors believe that to hve on good terms with others is a part
of modern farming, as truly as to know how to farm, and that the higher
level of efficiency is reached in the science and art of local agriculture when
families know one another well and meet frequently. A strong circula-
tion of ideas and impulses is deemed necessary to counteract discontent
and the temptation to sell farms and move awa}^ from rural districts.

The authors state that about one fifth of the farmers in Wisconsin
are members of various rural clubs or attend their meetings. They have
divided the rural clubs into four typical groups each of which they illus-
trate by typical examples. The four groups are those of the farmers'
family club, the farm men's club, the farm women's club, and the young
folks' club.

Part II: Insurance and Thrift

UNITED STATES

THK GENERAI, CONDITIONvS

OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE AND THE DE\'EI,OPMENT

OF MUTUAL INSURANCE.

OPFICIAI, SOURCES:

Valgren (V. N.), Investigator in Agricultural Insurance Office of Markets and Rural Orga-
nization : — Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance. Washington, Government Printing
Office, 191 7.

Potts (Rxifus M.) : Forty-Seventh Annual Insurance Report of the Insurance Superintendent
of the State of Illinois. Farm Mutual Insurance Companies.

OTHER SOURCES :

Wentworth (Franklin H.), Secretary-Treasurer National Fire Protection Association: Ameri-
can Fire Waste and its Prevention, in The Annals of th e American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Vol. I<XX, No. 159, March 1917, Concord, New Hampshire.

RiEGEL (Robert), Instructor in Insurance, \^^arton School of Finance and Commerce, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania : Rate-making Organizations in Fire Insurance. Ibid :

RiEGEL (Robert) : Problems of Fire Insurance Rate-maldng. Ibid :

Blanchard (Ralph H.), Instructor in Insurance, ^V^larton School of Finance and Commerce,
University of Pennsylvania : Insurance of the Catastrophe Hazard. Ibid :

§ I. Some aspects of insurance

AGAINST FIRE IN THE UNITED STATES.

vStatistics show that in the United States and Canada the fire waste
is roughly ten times as much per person as in Europe. This contrast is partly
explained by the facts that there are more people in Europe upon whom
to calculate this percentage and that m.ore buildings in America are made of
wood. The annual American fire waste averages S3 a dollar a head of the
population, and the United States government in its reports adds to this
the cost of maintaining fire departments which is as much more. The total
loss by fire in the United States and Canada for the last ten years has ave-
raged §230,000,000 a year.

THE GENERAL CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE ACxAINST FIRE 35

a) Fire Insurance and State Control.

The problem of the organ which shall fix insurance rates has found in
the United States two opposite and irreconciliable solutions : one presup-
poses that competition secures the most equitable tariff, the other that
it is reached by an agreement among companies.

In New York city a rate agreement was made in 1821, but by 1825
new companies had so increased competition that it was abandoned. In
1826 an association was formed for similar purposes but it had ceased to exist
in 1843. In 1866 an effort of far greater scope brought about the formation
of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, composed of seventy-five com-
panies whose common purpose was to " establish and maintain as far as
practicable a system of uniform rates of premium ". A rating bureau was
organized b}' the National Board, and the United States divided it into six
territorial departments for the purpose of rate-making. In 1868 thirty-
seven leading companies entered into the " Chicago Compact ", pledging
themselves to remove any local agent upon his second conviction for violat-
ing National Board rates. But it was officially although reluctantly ac-
knowledged that there was no general adherence to rates and they were sus-
pended. In 1877 the rate-making function of the board was abandoned in
favour of local and sectional boards of fire underwriters, which have conti-
nued to be important factors until the present time. Practically the whole
country is now organized by a group of associations and bureaus. The
objects of these associations are : i) to provide a common organization
which efficiently performs for all companies work each of them once per-
formed individually, and thus economizes labour and expense; 2) to estab-
lish uniform rates of commission to brokers and agents ; 3) to form a pro-
tective alliance against sudden changes in the insurance law of States ; 4)
to standardize rates and rating systems, preventing discrimination between
localities, classes of risks, kinds of policies and persons.

There was a certain public suspicion of these underwriters' associa-
tions on the ground that they constituted trusts detrimental to the general
interest. Hence arose, the anti-trust statutes and anti-compact laws in many
States wldch are inspired by the principle that insurance rates should be
fixed by competition.

The universal effect of periods of open competition, wherever and when-
ever they have occurred, has been a cutting of rates to a point below the
actual cost of the indemnity. Unrestrained competition leads ultimately
to monopoly through the elimination of the weak or unfortunate and the
survival of a few large and strong companies. Since it allows two different
companies to quote different rates on the same risk laws have been passed
requiring corporations doing business in a State to file a schedule of rates
with a State authority and requiring that there be uniform premiums for
all risks writen under the same schedule. Such a law was passed in Arkan-
sas in 1913. A second type of law required the filing of rates with the su-
perintendent of insurance and invested him with power to order excessive,
unreasonable or inadequate rates to be changed. Such a law was passed in

36 UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

Kansas in 1909. Legislation of a more radical type, exemplified bj' the law
passed in Texas in 1910, created State commissions having power actually
to fix in the first instance the rates to be charged by companies. A similar
Act passed in Kentucky in 1912 caused considerable difRcult3^ fort^'^-seven
companies having actually left the State in consequence of it in March 1914.
The following benefits are claimed to be derived from a State rating

law :

1. The elimination of discrimination favouring the large insurer and
favouring certain localities and classes of risks.

2. A reduction of insurance rates :

a) by improvements in cities causing reductions in their key rates ;

b) by improvements in individual risks ;

c) by the removal of unnecessan.- and the reduction of necessary ha-
zards,

d) by the elimination of faults of management ;

e) by preventing insurance companies from advancing rates when tem-
porary conditions and bad losses in certain localities make them wish to
do so.

3. Stability of rates and schedules and accessibility of information re-
garding the process of ratemaking.

The principal advantages of the State rating Acts were that they fully
admitted the necessity of having but one rate for each risk, thereby endeav-
ouring to secure the same result as the associations of underwriters.

In 1911 the State of New York passed a law vinder which the compa-
nies were allowed still to fix rates by agreement, under the regulation of
the State. In 1913 North Carolina and West Virginia passed similar laws.
Finally a committee of the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners
in April 191 5 submitted for adoption throughout the United States four
model Acts, as follows :

1. An Act like the New York law already- described, providing for
the supervision and examination of rating bureaus ;

2. An Act prohibiting discrimination in rates and any stipulation
that the whole or part of a risk be placed with certain companies ;

3. An Act requiring companies to maintain and co-operate with a
oublic rating bureau, sharing its expenses equitabh' and having an equal
voice as to its actions.

4. An Act requiring a written sur^^ey of each risk specificall}' rated
by schedule.

A report to the National Convention in April 1915 indicated that the
first of these laws was in existence before 1915 in six States and was enacted
in three additional States by April 1915. Laws forbidding discrimination
were in force before 1915 in ten States and three additional Acts of this
nature were pa.^sed by April 1915. Act 3 had been passed in two States by
April 1915. Massachusetts and North Carolina laws provide for a general
review of all rates bat onl}' give power to make recommendations. Kansas,
Kentucky and Minne.sota have laws authorizing the insurance companies to
review rates made by companies and order the proper rates to be substi-

THE GENERA!, CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE 37

tuted for them. Missouri authorizes the insurance superintendent to order
rate reductions which will insure only a reasonable profit to the companies.
Oklahoma delegates similar power to an insurance board. New Hampshire
has long had a law enabling the insurance commissioner to review and fix
rates. The following States and territories have no legislation of the types
considered : Alaska, California, Canal Zone, Colorado, Connecticut, Dela-
ware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine,
Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Philippines, Porto
Rico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming.

The tendency during the past two years has been unmistakably towards
a type of legislation which recognizes the difticulties of State rate-making
and, on the other hand, appreciates the right of the public to be protected
from arbitrary action and unnecessary inequity. The advantages of a
statute combining the principles of private co-operation and public regula-
tion may be shown by the results of the law passed in New York in iqii,
after a very thorough investigation of fire insurance conditions, whereby
this State became the leader in this kind of fire insurance legislation. Four
rate-making associations now operate in New York State and have done so
for some time. One of the results of delegating the power of supervision
to the superintendent of insurance was to bring about co-operation and
harmony of action among these associations. The first initiative came from
the State but the associations brought about many reforms on their own in-
itiative. Uniform rules, practices and forms were adopted and promulgated.
Non-uniformity of rates disappeared with diversity of rules. A science of
fire rating was developed, one of its most important phases being the super-
.session of " judgement rating " by " schedule rating ". Dwelling and farm
schedules have been devised with the resultant advantages of schedule rating,
especially the possibilit}^ of detecting and avoiding discrimination. To some
degree also the law has satisfied the nearly universal desire for lower rates.
During the first few years the orders to remove unfair discriminations resulted
in a saving in ]>remiums estimated at $1,000,000 a year.

b) Methods ol Determininii Rates.

Risks to be covered by fire insurance were first rated bj'' means of a
classification of buildings — for some time the only property insured — into
groups, each risk included in a group taking its rate. With an increased
appreciation of the multitude of differences in the construction, use and si-
tuation of buildings and the nature and quality of substances, the classi-
fications necessarily nmltiplied. It became impossible to obtain enough like
risks to form a valid class ; there was the difficulty of classifying a building
having diverse occupancies and congregated risks ; an ever-growing " miscel-
laneous " group of heterogeneous and unrelated risks developed. The only
groups which coiild be successfully rated were churches and dwelling-houses
as to which there is a sufficient collection of data.

From t868 onwards the schedule system was substituted in the United
States for that of classification. This system atempts an analysis of fire

UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

hazard into its component parts. The schedtale gives a Hst of the conditions
for which an inspector should look, diminishing the probability that he
will overlook defects or good points. A combination of judgements was
obtained in determining the charges to be made for the particular risks dis-
tinguished b}'^ the analysis. It might at least be expected that a smaller
percentage of error would be present under such conditions than in the un-
aided estimate of any individual inspector.

The modern era of schedule rating may be said to begin with the pub-
lication in 1893 of the Universal Mercantile Schedule, an attempt to devise
a system of rating universally applicable and to render special schedules
unnecessary. This schedule starts from a basis rate for a " standard "
building in a " standard " city, such rate being 25 cents for every $100 of
insurance. To decide what the rate shoidd be on a standard building in a
given city this city is compared with the standard city. In order to find the
rate for a given building its construction, occupancy and exposure must
also be considered. The second important universal schedule, the Ana-
lytic, presented a better formulated analysis of hazard. But both these
schedules made practically no attempt to justify their results by statistics.
An insistent demand at the Annual Convention of Insurance Commissioners
that such neglect should be remedied resulted in the establishment b}^ the
National Board of Fire Underwriters of an actuarial bureau to ascertain
fire loss costs. Subsequently two new schedules were devised, one combin-
ing some features of the Universal and the Analytic, the other designed to
make use of the data collected by the foresaid actuarial bureau. The for-
mer, the L. S- L. Schedule, or I^arter and I^emmon Rating System, has in
particular two new features : it lays stress on the " burning degree " or
degree of inflammability and on the influence of floor resistance. The
E. G. R. Schedule, or Experience Grading and Rating Schedule, is an attempt
to devise a method of ascertaining the total cost of insuring risks of varying
character by an analysis of statistics of past experience. The method of
procedure is : i) to ascertaiti the ratio of losses, expenses and a fair profit, to
the insurance written on all risks in the United States ; 2) to obtain a similar
ratio for the average risk in each particular State ; 3) to ascertain the ave-
rage United States' rate on a risk of a specific class. The danger of inade-
quate data as a basis for premiums is thus immensely reduced, while the
risks in every State are rated in accordance with its particular experience.
The E. G. R. schedule is plainly an endeavour, however successful or un-
successful its results may be, to meet fairly the objections of critics to
existing methods of measuring hazard.

A few words may be said as to the collection of the data necessary to
its application. On i January 1915 a standard classification was adopted
and the actuarial bureau of the National Board of Fire Underwriters began
a collection of experience from almost 190 companies, nearly one third of
which were nmtual societies and not members of the National Board.
The board's work has been much furthered by the co-operation of the insu-
rance departments of a number of States. In May 1916, 236 companies
were co-operating in the work, including 125 National Board companies,

THE GENERAL CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE 39

52 muttial companies, and 59 other companies. In 1915 about 650,000 loss
reports were received and at the present rate there will be on file at the end
of 1916 over a million reports of losses sustained and paid by members of
the bureau.

§ 2. Farmers' mutual fire insurance.

One of the most successful forms of rural co-operation in the United
States is that of farmers' mutual fire insurance. Up to the present time
however it has received but little general publicity. Few men, even among
the farmers themselves, are aware of its importance. Many will be surprised
therefore to learn that there are at present nearly 2,000 farmers' mutual
fire insurance companies in the United States. These companies carry
a total amount of insurance exceeding $ 5,250,000,000. The property on
which this insurance is written is valued at more than $6,700,000,000 which
is more than two fifths of the value of the insurable property in the forty-
eight States.

While mutual fire insurance in the United States dates from 1752,
the first farmers' mutual fire insurance company came into existence about
1825. New England and the Middle Atlantic States saw the first attempts
at this form of co-operation by farmers. It was soon shown that a consider-
able saving in the cost of fire insurance could be effected by its means and
the movement spread fairly rapidly from one community to another.
By the middle of the century- a considerable number of farmers' companies
of this kind were in existence, and more than half those now existing were
organized before 1850.

Most of these companies were incorporated under special charters and
left to do business practically without guidance or supervision. Unfort-
unately these co-called " farmers' mutuals " in some instances failed to
limit themselves to the segregated risks of moderate value to which their vo-
lume of business and their methods adapted them. Hence their record in
this period is by no means one of uniform success. In spite -^^f this handicap
the movement continued to extend westwards and southwards from the
place of its origin. By 1875 there were about 400 farmers' mutuals and by
1900 there were at least 1700 of them. Their present number exceeds 1950.

a) Legislation.

The rapid extension of insurance on this plan after 1850 was due in no
small measure to favourable legislation. The first farmers' mutual insu-
rance law was passed by the State of New York in 1857. This law provided
that twenty-five or more persons residing in any township of the State and
owning a total of $ 50,000 worth of property which they desired to insure
might form themselves into a mutual insurance company. They were al-
lowed to insure only buildings and the goods contained therein. They could
insure no city or village property and could not accept risks outside the

T'\'rn:i) statics - ixsruwri', \\'i> 'niRii'T

borders of tlie home township. The>' could write insurance against loss or
damage by fire only. This hiw, thf)uglu evidently too restrictive in its
provisions regarding business territor}- and the risks that might be assumed,
ai)pears to have become the model for similar laws in the north central
States generally, and for some twelve other vStates situated further south or
west.

The early New York law was repealed in 1862 ond it was not until
1879 that a second law, somewhat more lil)eral in its provisions, was enacted.
In the meantime Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and
Indiana had enacted farmers' nmtual fire insurance laws. These laws and
also the second New York law generally permitted that a number of con-
tiguous townshi]is or an entire county should form a ])usiness territory.
All kinds of farm ])ro])erty might be insured and the lightning hazard as
well as that of tire might be assumed. h",.\ce])t the Indiaiia law the}- dif-
fered from the New York law of 1879 in that they placed the companies thus
organized under the supervision of the res])ective State insurance depart-
ment". This stejj was not taken by Ntw York until igog. By i8go practi-
cally ev-.-ry State in the Middle West and several of those in the South had
a farmers' mutual fire insurance law.

The present laws upon this subject, while similar in nuiny respects, are
by no means equally complete or practical in all their provisions. It may
hv said that at ])resent twenty-five States have fairly satisfactory farmers'
mutual fire insurance laws. vSeveral other States have scattered provi.sions
in their laws as to fire insurance in general which ai)ply ])articularly to
farmers' mutual com])anies. In a few States, having laws which make no
special reference to farmers' insurance organizations, the companies ope-
rate either under special charters or under laws api)lying to all classes of
mutual fire insurance com])anies. In .six States, all in the South or South-
West, no record of companies of this kind has been found.

The older farmers' mutual insurance laws have in practically ever}'
instance been variously amended. The trend of these amendments has
been to enlarge the business territory permitted and give more scope
to the activities of the companies. In several instances they are allowed
to ojjcrate in an entire State. As a rule however the laws prescribe for them
territories varying from one to five counties. While many of the companies
have availed themselves of the provisions allowing such enlargement, the
great majority still operate in a single country while a few still confine them-
selves to a single township.

There has been a growing tendency, especially in the Southern States, to
allow the farmers' nuitual societies to include windstorm among the hazards
they assume. Mr. \'. N. Valgren states in the i)aper cited at the beginning
of this article that the ])ractice is not to be reconnuended. " Each group
of farm buildings, and to a considerable extent each building within the
group, is a distinct and sei)arate risk with respect to the fire and lightning
hazards, but this is not true with respect to the windstorm hazard... The
practice which is rapidly gaining favour in the Middle West of o])crating a
State-wide windstorm insurance company through the co-operative efforts

THIC r,i:xi:RAI. C<1\1>1TI()XS OV IXSrUAXCK A(;ainst itrk

41

of the local lire iusuraucc coiiipauies would udil much to the stabihty aud
safety of the fanners' mutual organizations in any State where combined
protection is now offeroil by the local mutuals ".

b) 1 1)1 port ancc

The total amount of insurance carried by the 1,947 farmers' nuitual
fire insurance companies in existence on i January iQis.the latest date for
which relatively complete statistics arc at hand, was ap]iroximately
$5,264,119,000. The total amount paid for losses during 1914 was
Sio,70(),()5i and the exj)enses of operation were .'53,i38,()49, making the
total cost of this insurance $13,905,300. From these figures it may be
seen that the average cost ])er c; 100 of insurance in all these companies
was about 26 cents.

The farmers' nuitual companies almost without exception limit the
amount of the insurance written to either three fourths or two thirds of the
actual value of the jiroperty. A reasonable allowance for this fact shows the
total value of the farm property insured by these companies to be approxi-
mately $(), 730,000,000. The total value of all insurable farm pro])erty
in the forty-eight States on i January 1915 was, as nearly as can be estimated,
815,880,000,000. This would indicate that nearly 42 ^/., per cent, of all
insurable farm ])ro]ierty in the forty-eight vStates of the Union was insured in
the farmers' mutual fire insurance companies.

The following table shows the geographical distribution of these eomi)a-
nies, the total amount of their insurance in force on 1 January 1915, and the
average cost of $100 of insurance during 1914 :

Geographical Division

New Kngland

Middle Atlantic

East North Central

West North Central

South Atlantic

East South Central . .

West S<nith Central ...

Mountain

Pacific

Total

Number

of Mutual

Companies on

I January 1915

Insured \".ilue

on

I January 19:5

Average

cost of S 100

of insurance

ill 1914

«

cents.

309

1,085,240,088

3.^

86

149,861,450

.^8

746

i.993,9(^»5.38y

24

571

1,604,003,112

■22

94

226,750,703

35

_,S

50,732,189

44

^7

29,564.039

39

23

13-469.764

28

33

110.532,259

33

I.9I7

5,264,118,993

(average) 26

Thus the average cost of insurance \'aries from 22 to 44 cents for 8 100
in the different divisions. I'or each vState in which the total insurance
amounted to 8 1,000,000 or more the average cost per 8 100 of the insurance

^.2 UXITKl) STATICS - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

iu 1914 varied from 70 cents (Georgia) to 12 cents (Utah). The fact that,
especially in the Southern States, some of these average costs are for insurance
against windstorms as well as against fire and lightning should be remembered.
About 15 per cent, of all the farmers' mutual companies in the country write
policies giving the combined protection. This fact makes the average of
26 cents per $100 for the country as a whole aU the more remarkable when
compared with the rates which farmers without mutual organizations are
obliged to pay.

c) The Advantages and the Scope of Farmers Mutital Fire Insurance.

The total annual saving to farmers by reason of the relatively low insu-
rance cost in their mutual companies amounts to a very considerable sum.
No close estimate of this saving has been attempted, since no special effort
has been made to collect lists of commercial rates f orf arm risks in the diffe-
rent States and in the various sections of these States.

It ma}' be safely said however that in a number of the States where
farmers' mutual insurance is most highly developed, the average cost of
insurance for aU these companies in the State has fallen well below one half
of the rates quoted by commercial businesses or the so-called bureau rates.

The saving of the farmers' mutual companies in insurance cost may be
credited mainly to two sources. First the necessary working expenses of
large commercial companies for commissions, salaries, dividends, taxes,
rents, rating charges, legal assistance, etc. have been either greatly reduced
or entirely eliminated. Secondly the losses experienced have been fewer
because the moral hazard has been practically removed bj' precautions
against over-insurance on the part of the farmers' companies, and the diffe-
rent attitude of the insured towards a company consisting of friends and
neighbours than towards a large business company having, perhaps, its
premises in a distant town.

The full possibilities of direct and conscious co-operation in farmers'
mutual fire insurance have not yet been realized. At least one group of
mutual companies in the United States has far outstripped the farmers in
effectively co-operating for the prevention of losses. This group is known
as the factory mutuals and consists of nineteen companies, mainly in New
England. They insure only large factories and have so far limited themselves
to the district east of the Mississipi River. Not only have they secured
severally the effective co-operation of their members for the prevention
of losses but they have freely and generously co-operated with each other.
They have for years maintained a joint bureau in Boston for the advance-
ment of the science of safe construction and the frequent and thorough
inspection of their risks. The oldest of these companies was organized in
1835. During the first ten years of its existence its average cost for
§100 of insurance was 84 cents. This average for the last ten years has
fallen below 6 cents, which means that the cost of insurance in this company'
has been reduced to approximate!}' 7 per cent, of what it was three quarters of
a century ago.

It is believed that what has been done by the factory mutuals can be

THE GENERAI, CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE 43

accomplished, at least in some measure, b}- other classes of mutual companies.
The possibilities of further reducing the cost of insurance by the application
to losses by fire of what is called " the principle of stoppage at the
source " are believed to be great.

A group of New England companies have reduced their losses on country
risks materiall}^ in the last few years by means of a system of inspection.
Companies and groups of companies elsewhere have recently begun enter-
prises of this kind. All risks should be thorouglily inspected at least every se-
cond or third year by a well qualified representative of the insuring company,
and its members duly warned against any dangerous conditions or practices
discovered. If necessary continuance in the compau}^ should be made condi-
tional on the removal of needless sources of danger of fire.

The safe construction of farm buildings and their maintenance in a
safe condition should be encouraged by a reasonable classification of risks,
worked out with special reference to particular localities. It is hardly fair
to charge a man who builds carefully and guards his property against dan-
gerous conditions the rate paid by one who builds carelessly and gives little
heed to the subsequent safety of his property. Moreover unless the better
risks are thus recognized there is danger that in spite of the lower average
cost the best risks within the sphere of a local mutual company may be
picked up by larger insurance businesses which do not classify.

Reasonable efforts should be made by every farmers' mutual company
to spread information among its members not only as to safe building and
the upkeep of property but also as to devices for checking any fire which
may occur. The causes of fires should be more thoroughly studied and more
carefully tabulated, and the reports on losses, which every member of a
company should see, should group them in accordance with their causes.
By such concrete examples members are best warned against such dangers
as those inherent in defective flues, dilapidated and weather-beaten shingle
roofs, the want of protection against lightning for buildings and fences,
accumulated soot in chimnej^s, the careless disposal of ashes, accumulated
rubbish in garrets or elsewhere, the use of the so-called parlour match and
the careless use of kerosene, gasoline and other inflammable substances.

All that has been said is borne out by the reports presented at Spring-
field on 26 and 27 January 1915 to the eighteenth biennial meeting of the
Illinois Association of Mutual Fire and Windstorm Insurance Companies,
and the discussions at this meeting. The data taken from these reports
show at the same time the progress made by the movement for mutual
insurance among the farmers of Illinois, and the weak points of the organiza-
tion of insurance in this State and to some extent in the whole of the United
States.

§ 3. Farmers' mutual insurance against fire in ielinois.

The Insurance Superintendent of the State of Illinois reported on i May
1 915 that there were 232 mutual fire and windstorm insurance companies

44

UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

in Illinois on 31 December 1914, having a total membership of about 175,000
and distributed as follows :

District Mutual Fire Insurance Companies ..... 12

County " " " " 66

Township " " " " 142

District " Windstorm " " 8

County " " " " 4

Total ... 232

It is seen that the companies are divided into the three classes of dis-
trict, county and township companies. District companies are those
whose territories are not limited by their charters to a certain count}^ or a
number of political or congressional townships. County companies were
formerly those whose territory was limited to a single county but by an Act
which came into force on I July iQog they were allowed to include conti-
guous territory. The territory of township companies is limited by their
charters to a certain number of political or congressional townships not
exceeding twentj'-five.

The following table summarizes the activity of the mutual fire insu-
rance companies in 1913 and 1914 :

Number of companies

Risks written during the year

Assessments collected during the year . .

Total income from all sources

lyOsses paid

All other expenditure

Total expenditure

Cash assets

lyiabilities

Risks in force at eqd of year

Assessment rate on each $100 at risk . .
lyosses paid on each $100 at risk ....

Number of risks written

Number of risks in force on 31 December

220

72,382.676
678,171

775,857
560,598
197,826
758,424
454,409
86,730
301,068,365

0.22
0.18

37,633
164,606

69,224,486.

507,347
723,700
544,184
189,802
735.046
428,682
113,903
315,549,673

0.19
0.22
35,267
163,248

THE GENERAIv CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE 45

The following figures show the progress made between 1904 and 1914.

Date

I January 1904

I January 1914

211

129,968

$ 175,000,589

1,354
253,165

Number of risks in force

Amount of insurance

164,606

$ 301,068,365

1,829

560,598

lyosses paid

The total amount paid in indemnities in these ten years was $ 3,878,154,
giving a total yearly average of § 387,115 and a yearly average for $ 100
of insurance of $ 0.162.

The following table throws some light on the average rate of insurance
in the same decade :

Millions

I,osses

of dollars

in thousands of

at risk

dollars

185

284

198

337

197

301

223

322

239

367

251

375

266

452

271

538

281

423

301

560

l/5sses &

expenses

in thousands of

dollars

Cost
per

Cast

per
. , „ thousand dollars
thousand dollars; for losses
for losses & expenses

1904,

1905

1906.

1907.

1908.

1909.

1910.

1911 .

1912.

1913-

418
490
430
445
505
543
632
728
596
775

Dollars

2.20
2.47
2.17
2.00
2.1 1
2.16
2.40
2.80
2.12
2.58

Aveiage Cost

Cost for first five years, per year
'> » second » » » »

2.27
2.19
2.41

These figures show an irregular but gradual increase in the loss per thou-
sand column, the cost for the second being greater than that for the first
five years. The circumstance seems to be due to the considerable propor-
tion of so-called " mysterious fires ", many of which could be avoided by

46 UNITED STATES - INSURANCE AND THRIFT

precautions and inspection. One mutual fire insurance company in Illinois
classified the causes of the fires for which it paid indemnities as follows :

Railway engine .... i Bonfires 3

Furnace i Children playing with matches 5

Spontaneous combustion i vSparks on roof 12

Deliberate incendiarism . 2 Kerosene and gasoline ... 12

Farm engine 2 Defective flues 23

Smoking 2 Unknown 24

Tramps 2 lyightning 100

Parlour match .... 3

Thus in this particular case 16 per cent, of the fires had unknown causes.
The necessity of ascertaining the causes of fires in order to take the needed
preventive measures is evident.

The government of Illinois has not neglected fire prevention but
formed in igii the Fire Marshal's Department which is divided into three
sections. The section of publicity and education conducts public meetings
at which the question of fire prevention is discussed and the people instruc-
ted as to their personal responsibilit3^ The section of investigation inves-
tigates the causes of fires which appear suspicious in order that prosecutions
for fraud and arson may be conducted. The section of inspection educates
the people to protect their property. In June 1914 more fires caused by
lightning were reported to the department than ever before in one month,
namely 120 fires which caused a total loss of § 202,637. -^^ the same month
the total number of fires reported was 975 and they caused a total loss of
$ 957,014. Thus lightning was responsible for 12 per cent, of the fires and
21 per cent, of the loss. The great majority of the fires occurred in rural
districts and the bulk of the losses was borne bj^ the farmers.

The co-operation of the mutual companies would be most valuable,
and since the interests of farmers are directly at stake it may be hoped that
the campaign undertaken in its favour will meet with good results.

The experience of commercial companies has convinced the farmers'
mutual fire insurance companies of the need for a standard fire insurance
policy. Mr. E. W. Monnier spoke at the meeting on this subject as follows :
" We have in the State of Illinois 220 mutual fire insurance companies and
12 mutual windstorm companies and perhaps as many forms of policy and
different by-laws. That such conditions exist and that mutual insurance
companies are successful iinder such conditions can onh^ be accounted for
from the fact that mutual insurance conducted under most an^^ condition
cannot fail to save money when we compare the actual rate of loss in the
State with the rate charged by old line companies, the actual rate charged by
old line companies being almost or quite double the actual cost of insurance.
Conservatively speaking 40 per cent, is saved by the members of mutual
companies as compared with the cost of purchasing old line insurance.
Can we not do even better than this ? To me it seems an easy matter to
increase the saving from 40 per cent, to at least 60 per cent, but I do not

THE GENERAI. CONDITIONS OF INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE 47

believe the result will be attained unless it be by co-operation and to attain
this a standard policy should be adopted by all mutual fire and windstorm
insurance companies...* Comparatively few mutual companies classify risks...
I have encouraged for several years a lower rate of premium — but without
success as 3'et — in the company that I represent on property that is pro-
perly protected by hghtning rods...

The diversity which obtains in policies was illustrated during a discus-
sion on the insurance of town property by farmers' companies. The old
prejudice against insuring town and village property on the same plane
as farm pro])erty is fast disappearing. In towns there are better and more
quickly attainable facilities for fighting fires. Detached town dwellings
are liable to be less heavily insured than improved and completely stocked
farms. Such a farm is so valuable that insurance on it is easily written
above the legal limit. That town property is not so readily destroyed as
farm property is proved by the fact that some old line companies charge
the higher rate for farm property.

The mutual companies follow individual principles in the matter.
One insures town buildings which are separated from others by as much as
eighty feet. In the five years ending 31 December 1914 its losses on town
property were almost negligible, being only $75. The representative of
another compan^^ stated at the meeting that his experience of twenty years
had taught him that small villages gave better risks than farms, but he
objected to insurance in large towns. Another company insures village pro-
perty separated by 100 feet from other buildings, and yet another village
property so separated by 25 feet. One company at first insured only houses
situated 100 feet from other buildings but has reduced this interval suc-
cessively to 50, 30 and finally 15 feet. Similarly some companies insure
motor-cars and farm machinery while others refuse to do so. One company
insures motor-cars as farm machinery for two thirds of their value in the
first year, one fourth less in the second year, one fourth less in the third
year, and one fourth of the original insurance in the fourth and fifth years.
Another company insures them at a value of not more than $ 400 and pays
two thirds of the appraised value if the machine is destroyed. Yet another
insures them for two thirds of their value in the first year and 20 per cent,
less in the second.

The necessity of providing a standard insurance policy, to replace the
present diverse collection, is therefore evident and will gradually be re-
cognized by the rural population.

Facilities for insurance are defective, and this fact together with the
tendency of mutual companies to assume too great risks . may have formid-
able consequences. There is therefore a demand for such a modification
of the law as will allow the farmers' mutual fire insurance companies to
share their surplus of risks.

This tendency to unification and co-operation among the mutual com-
panies cannot fail to be to them a new and powerful factor of progress.

Part III: Credit

RUSSIA.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY

IN 1915.

OFFICIAIv SOURCES :

OxieTH rocy;a,apcTBCHHaro 3eMeJii>Haro BaHKa (Report of the State Land Bank for

//ze A''o6j7t7y), Pctrograd, 1906 to 1915, the last issue.
MaTepbHJibi no CTaTiiCTiiK'lfi aBHJKema SeM.neBJiaTi.'feHia [Material for Statistics as

to the Transmission cf Lands) Petrograd, 1906-1910.
A^HTejiBHOcrb rocyj;apcTBeHHaro SBMejibnaro Jl^BopHHCKaro BanKa {Activity of

the State Land Bank for the Nobility) Public annual leports resumed in the official weekly

review of the Ministry of Finances, 1910-1916, B-fccTHMKi. OnHaHCOBt, I^poJiBim-

JieHHOCTH H ToproBJiii.
V. MoRATCHEVSKY : CejibCKO-xosaticTBeHiibiH KpeAnxTj Bt. Poccin (Agricultural

Credit in Russia) Petrograd, 191 o.

OTHKR SOURCES :

iMiGULiN : Arpapiibiii BOnpoct (The Agrarian Question) Petrograd, 1906.

RiCHTER : 3a;50.7yKeHH0CTb HacTHaro seMJieBJiajii'feHia (The Indebtedness of Landed
Property) Petrograd, 1897.

SviATLovsKY : Mo6iiJi3aii;iH aeMeJibHoii co6TTBeHHOCTii B-b Poccin (The Transmis-
sion of Landed Property) Vetro^rsid, 1911.

Drosdov : CyJibSbi flBopHHCKaro aeMJieBJiaji.'feHiH (The Future of the Landed Property
of the Nobility) in CoBpeMeHHbiH Miprb. (The Modern World) Nos. 10 and 11, 1916.

Zak : KpecTbHHCKiM IloBeMejibiibiii BanK-b (The Bank of the Agriculturists) Mos-
cow, 1911.

The State Land Bank of the Nobihty has recently published a report
for 1915. From this it appears that the 3^ear was characterized by a dimi-
nution of the bank's mortgage business. This business had gained a
really notable ascendancy in the beginning of the twentieth century but
diminished under the reaction from the influence of the war.

§ I. Mortgage Business.

The number of loans made on mortgages by the Bank of the Nobility
in 1 913, the time when the rise of which we have spoken reached its highest
point, was 1425.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE EAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY 49

If this figure be compared with the number of mortgage loans made by
the bank in 1915, namely 470, a serious retrogression in mortgage business
will be observed. This was, as the report states, a result of the war, which
influenced the whole of this year. It also depended to some extent on
the ordinance of the Committee of Finances of '23 July 1914 which Hmits
mortgage business.

The following table may give a more precise idea of the general de-
velopment in recent years of this bank's mortgage business :

Table I. •- Mortgage Business of the Bank of the Nobility
from iqiT to 1915 (in roubles).

Estimated value of

Niunber Area mortgaged properties Sums lent

of mortgaged ' - — — " " ~^ "" ' ^ — '^ — - ' ^

Year loans — total by deciatine total by deciatine

deciatines(i) roubles (2) roubles roubles roubles

1911 1355 1,101,685 152,166,685 138 88,842,600 81

1912 i486 1,195,873 190,358,777 159 109,3x4,100 92

1913 1425 1.536,873 253,726,195 165 146,082,000 95

1914 1292 1,123,808 197,590,208 176 114,420,400 T02

1915 470 40>9O- 71.553.744 144 4^,827,300 84

This table shows that far fewer loans were made in 1915 than in 1914,
and fewer by still more than during the years before the war. That which
however chiefly characterizes 1915 is the sudden interruption in the con-
stant rise of the average estimated value of the deciatine. The fall of its
average value is seen to be more remarkable if it be compared t6 the special
estimated average value which continued to rise even in 1915. Thus in
1911 this was 105 roubles a deciatine, in 1912 it was 125 roubles, 159 rou-
bles in 1913 and 160 roubles in 1915. As the normal estimate is based on
the average cost of land in a locality, and the special estimate on a spe-
cial and detailed survey of the properties concerned, the different courses
of the normal and the special estimates are an index to the different influence
which the economic crisis caused by the war has had on farms in general,
which in their large majority belong to the peasants, and on the property
of the hereditary nobility. The war has deprived the peasants of a large
number of labourers whom it has been impossible to replace. Hence has
arisen the diminution in the average estimated value of lands, an important
percentage of which it has been impossible to cultivate or to cultivate
adequately. The needed labour on the lands of the nobility was however
partly supplied bj^ prisoners of war and in some provinces by the forced
labour of peasants.

During 1915 the increase in the special estimated value was however
slight in comparison with its increase in preceding years, and this fact and

(i) I deciatine = 2.698 acres.
(2) I rouble = 2.1333s. at par.

50

RUSSIA - CREDIT

the diminution in the normal average estimated va.\ue are explained by a
very considerably lessened bn34ng and selling of lands as a consequence
of the war. The figure representing the purchase of land b}^ peasants,
who are the great m.ajority of the purchasers, was less than a third of such
figure for the preceding year. The development of the mortgage credit
easily obtained from the Agriculturists' Bank much stimulated the pur-
chase and sale of lands. The peasants, seeking to satisf}' their " land
hunger ", caused prices to rise to unprecedented heights, yet further raised
artificiall}' — conditions which have been experienced in other European
countries. The war caused these purchases and sales to diminish and thus
caused also a fall in the price of land.

Of the 470 loans made by the Bank of the Nobility in 1915, 131 of the
total sum of 3,864,200 roubles were secured b}^ first mortgages on a total
area of 71,502 deciatines of land previously unburdened in relation to the
bank. The remainder, namely 339 loans of a total sum of 37,963,000 rou-
bles were granted on renewed or complementary mortgages ou 425,399 de-
ciatines of land already mortgaged to the bank.

The following table gives a more exact idea of the indebtedness of the
lands mortgaged to the bank :

Table II. — Indebtedness of the Lands mortgaged to the Bank
from 1906 to 1 91 5.

In relation to the total

In relation

to the total

number of mortgaged properties

mortgaged area

Years

Properties

Properties

Unmortgaged

Area already

mimortgaged

already mortgaged

area

mortgaged

—

%

%

%

%

1906 . .

32

68

39

61

1907 . .

22

78

8

02

1908 . .

25

75

12

88

1909 . .

20

80

12

88

I9IO . .

24

76

13

82

I9II . .

21

79

12

88

I9I2 . .

24

76

17

83

I9I3 .

22

78

18

82

I9I4 . .

23

77

27

73

1915 . .

21

79

10

90

Since the Bank of Nobility first began business it has granted loans
secured by mortgages on lands already largely mortgaged, so that it has
reduced the terms on which the nobility can obtain land credit from batiks
and individuals. During the years of crisis the activity of the bank was
limited to support of the properties economically weakest, that is to soy
already burdened with mortgages. This phenomenon is to be observed
in 1907 when the percentage of the area already mortgaged was 92 and in
advance of all precedents. The year 1915 conies very near to 1907, its

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE .NOBILITY 5 1

corresponding percentage being go and indicative of the seriousness of the
crisis of 1915 for the landed property of the nobiUty.

The number of loans granted on the security of normal mortgages was
only 114 or 24 per cent., while the other moitgages, 75 per cent, of the total
number, were made after a special estimate. The total percentage of loans
thus made during the year was 90.

The total sum for which the 470 persons, whose applications were
accepted, apphed as loans was 46,951,000 roubles. The bank could grant
41,827,000 roubles or 89 per cent, of the sum demanded. During the last
six years the relation between the demand and the supply of loans was
as follows :

Table III. — Relation between the Demand and Supply of Loans.

Number of cases

in which the whole

sum demanded

was lent

Sum lent

per 100 roubles

demanded

roubles

86

52

92

51

92

40

84

46

93

49

89

57

I9I0

I9II

I9I2

I9I3

I9I4

I9I5

It is apparent from this table that during these six years the whole
sum demanded was lent in the largest percentage of cases. The bank
sought to concentrate its aid on the neediest properties and was, in view
of the crisis, obliged in many cases to lend the whole sum demanded.

The average area of the properties mortgaged to the bank on i January
1915 was 498 deciatines ; that of those mortgaged afresh in 1915 was 546
deciatines. The greater part, namely 61.9 percent., of the latter belonged
to the class ot medium-sized farms (from 100 to 1000 deciatines of culti-
vable land) ; 23.6 per cent, were small farms of less than 100 deciatines ;
and the remainder, namely 14.5 per cent., were large properties of more
than 1,000 deciatines. Of the total area of the properties mortgaged in
1915, 60.8 per cent, belonged to the class of large properties (more than
1,000 deciatines of cultivable land) ; 36.8 per cent, to that of mediimi-sized
properties and 2.4 per cent, to that of small properties. These data, if
compared wdth those for the years from 1905 to 1915, confirm the statement
that medium-sized properties have least |^X)wer of economic resistance.
Table IV shows that it is exactly in periods of crisis, as in the j-ears from
1908 to 1910, or even more so in the period in which the consequences of
a crisis are more felt, that the percentage of mortgaged properties of medium
size rises ; for these properties are those which need most care and support
in order that they may surmount a crisis.

D-i

RUSSIA - CREDIT

Table IV. — Mortgaged Properties according to Size.

Year

Rdatively to number of mortgaged
properties

I,arge Medium-sized Small

properties properties properties

% % %

Relatively to total area

Large Medium-sized Small

properties properties properties

% % %

1906 . .

27.2

55-8

17.0

84-3

15.G

0.7

1907 . .

28.2

51-3

20.5

77-9

21. 1

I.O

1908 . .

16.2

62.0

21.8

59-7

38.1

2.0

1909 .

18.4

63.6

18.0

65.8

32.7

1-5

I9IO . .

13.2

60.4

26.4

68.1

29.8

2.1

I9II . .

I6.I

56.0

27.4

71.6

26.4

2.0

I9I2 .

15-5

56.8

27-3

71.7

26.6

^•7

I9I3 •

18.9

58.1

23.0

77-9

20.9

1.2

I9I4 .

16.7

57-1

26.2

77.0

21.7

1-3

I9I5 ■

14-5

61.9

23.6

60.8

36.8

2.4

An examination of transactions in each district shows that large dis-
tricts in which the capitaHst sj^stem of cultivating land is followed give most
resistance to a crisis, and that resistance is comparatively weak where the
large properties are still in the stage of primitive cultivation.

In 1915 loans were secured by renewed inortgages on 399 properties
having a total area of 425,339 deciatines and a value of 63,9x9,857 roubles.
The total sum thus lent was 37,963,100 roubles, of which 23,825,600 rou-
bles was the sum granted when the loan originated and was renewed, while
the remaining 14,137,500 roubles or 60 per cnt of the total sum lent was
the sum of the complement an," loans made at the time of renewal. Through-
out the year onlj- one privileged loan was granted to the Russian nobles
to enable the purchase of properties in the provinces of West and South-
West Poland. This loan was of 150,000 roubles and the land bougbt had
an area of 2,000 deciatines. The following table will give a more exact
idea of the development of renewals of mortgages from 1901 to 1915.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY 53

Table V. — Renewals of Mortgages from igoi to i

915.

Percentage

Number

Number

Percentage

Sums lent

of sums lent

of

of loans

of renewed

on renewed

Year

loans

on renewed

loans

roubles

mortgages

mortgages

%

%

igoi . .

1950

894

46

26,549.500

62

1902 . .

184I

975

53

64,512,400

67

1903 . .

1549

858

55

66,523,700

73

1904 . .

1259

722

57

52,950,100

75

1905 . .

846

545

64

39,782,200

81

1906 . .

625

378

60

32,788,200

73

1907 . .

280

202

72

26,164,000

92

1908 . .

518

326

63

26,549.500

84

1909 . .

784

525

67

49,701,600

82

I9I0 . .

1248

802

64

87,125,400

72

I9II

1355

894

66

88,842,600

78

I9I2 . .

i486

940

63

109,314,100

73

J9I3 . .

1425

948

66

146,082,000

71

I9I4 . .

1292

849

66

114,290,400

71

1915 . .

407

339

72

418,273,000

91

As is seen from this table the percentage of the renewed mortgages
is very high and the . number of the loans made by the bank in the course
of the last fifteen 3^ears is very low ; and the agrarian disorders brought
grave loss to the property of the nobility only in 1907, the last year in
which they occurred. In other words this table is proof of the crisis active
in Russia in 1915, to get the better of which the bank had co help land al-
ready burdened with mortgages.

As for the definite results of the privileged mortgage business, repre-
sented by a sum equal to 75 per cent, of the value of the mortgaged lands,
which aimed at enabling the nobles to buy lands in Poland, it did not reach
too liigh a figure. From 1894, the date of the first transactions of this
kind, the bank has thus facilitated the passage Lo the ownership of Rus-
sian nobles of 228 farms wliich pre\'iously belonged to Poles. Their total
area was 533,024 deciatines and their total estimated value 32,316,921
roubles.

Table VI. — Privileged Mortgage Transactions to enable the Purchase
, of Land in Poland.

Area bought with the bank's aid
from 1894 to 1915

In the hands of the purchasers
after the transaction

Number
of farms

Area of land Estimated

bought value
Deciatines j Roubles

Amount
of loan
Roubles

Number
of farms

Area of land

bought
Deciatines

Estimated

value
Roubles

Amount
of loan
Roubles

28

560,887 36,150,031

26,971,500 92

205,255

[4,708,746

11,010,400

54

RUSSIA - CREDIT

§ 2. vSaLE of properties.

Of the 41,827,300 roubles, which are the total sum of the loans granted
by the Bank of the Nobility in 1915, a sum of 13,772,400 roubles was paid
to the borrowers in the form of bank bonds. And as bank bonds of 1915
could be reaHzed at 77.7 per cent, on an average, the sum really received
by the owners of the mortgaged lands was about 10,700,000 roubles or
approximately 25 per cent of the total sum granted by the bank. This
fall in the current race of bank bonds caused the proportion of the sum
granted to that actually paid to borrowers to be less than it had been for
six years. In the years from 1910 to 1915 the percentages formed by the
sums paid were respectively, 38, 36, 37, 40, 39 and 26, and the percentages
formed by the sums retained were therefore 62, 64, 63, 60, 61 and 74.

The remainder was represented by the renewed debt to the bank of
22,489,000 roubles, and the sums retained for the extinction of foreign
mortgages or other purposes, which amounted to 5,565,900 roubles.

In the whole course of the bank's existence mortgages to various mort-
gage credit banks have been redeemed up to the amount of 1,095,700 rou-
bles.

The following talkie gives a more exact idea of the bank's business
fiom 1886 to 1915.

Table VII. - - Redemption and Mortgage Renewal Business
from 1886 to 1915.

Bank

Redemptions & renewals in terms of thoasands of roubles

Total

1886-
1890

1891- 1896-
1895 1 1900

1900-
1905

1906-
1910

1911-
1915

1915

Bank of the Nobility ....
Special office of tliat bank .
Other mortgage credit banks

4,100

13,900

110,600

73,800
15,800
52,400

150,300
51,300
80,500

156,800

2,400

31,300

109,800

400

9,400

240,400

1,200

30,100

22,500
100
200

698,600

86,809

310,300

Total . . .

130,600

142,000

282,100

190,500

119,600

271,700

22,800

1,095.700

The sums intended for amortization, paid voluntarily and in advance
to the bank by borrowers in 1915, reached the sum of 3,521,855 roubles.
These payments emancipated from all burden of mortgage 629 properties
having a total area of 106,045 deciatines, of which 62,917 remained the
property of persons belonging to the hereditary nobility, while .[6,128 de-
ciatines v.'ere ceded to persons otitside the nobility for the whole time for
which they should remain mortgaged to the Bank of the Nobilit3\

The total sum paid in 1915 comprised 1,822,439 roubles paid by the
nobles and 1,599,416 roubles paid by persons not belonging to the nobility.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY

55

A comparison of data for previous years with those of 191 5 gives the
following table, which makes clear the large diminution of redemptions
in 1915.

Table VIII. — Voluntary Redemptions from 1910 to 1915.'

Redanption

I9IO.
I9II.
I9I2.

1913-
I9I4.

1915-

Percentage of debts
redeemed

Area freed

from
mortgages

deciatines

239.144
401,529
232,917
247.334
148.334
97.043

Smns

intended

for

redemption

roubles

7,228,170
11,386,067
6,716,872
7.236,954
5,179.433
1,616,066

Sums

paid

by the

nobility

/o

0.7

O.I

0.8
0.9
0.7

Sums

paid

by others

than nobles

%

6.1
8.6
5-4
5-3

3-8
T.3

Percentage of mortgaged
land emancipated

Lands

belongins

to

nobles

%

I.I

1.2
0.9
1.2
0.8

0-5

Lands

belonging

to others

than nobles

%

5-6
12.9
6.7
7-3
1-7
1-7

This table shows one fact which is not without interest, namely that
the most important redemptions are made by persons who do not belong
to the nobility.

The total number of properties mortgaged to the bank which changed
ownership during 1915 was 1544. Their total area was 691,983 deciatines
and they were burdened wdth a total mortgage debt of 29,443,300 roubles
which changed ownership with them.

These properties were distributed as follows among the classes of so-
ciety :

Table IX. — Sale in 1915 of Properties mortgaged to the Bank of the Nobility.

Purchasers

1. Hereditary nobility . . .

2. Institutions (largely the
Bank of Agriculturists) . .

3. Peasants

4. Middle class

5. Traders

6. Various others . . . , .

Total ....

Mortgage debt

burdening alienated

Number

Area

properties

of alienated

—

—

properties

deciatines

roubles

373

227,620

15,062,800

31

7,802

719,200

951

88,455

6,116,100

35

■ 4,288

270,800

39

291,970

4,156,600

115

71.848

3,117,800

^.544

691,983

29.443.300

The data as to the alienation of properties mortgaged to the bank
during the fifteen last years are also of notable interest. The alienations
were as follow s : .

56.

RUSSIA - CREDIT

Table X. — Sale from 1901 to 1915 of Lands mortgaged to the Bank.

Area of lands sold'

Purchasers

Institutions (the
Bank of the Agri-
culturists) . . .

Peasants

IVIiddle class ....

Traders

Various others . .

Total. . . .

1901-1905

deciatines

16,735
477,096

89.585
434,329
471,728

1906-1910
deciatines

2,045,197

1,866,164

72,861

159,474
336,657

1911-1915
deciatines

117,058

1,168,402

78,902

162,894

472,782

Total
deciatines

2,178,990
3,511,662

241,348

756,697

1,281,167

1.489,483 4,480,353 2,000,028 7,969,864

The large extent of land which in these fifteen years became the pro-
perty of persons outside the nobihty, namely 7,969,864 deciatines, confirms
the statements in " Material for Statistics as to the Transmission of I^ands
in Russia. " The fact is therefore that nobles lose land and peasants come
to possess it. Most of the land bought bj^ the credit institution is resold
on privileged terms to small landless cultivators ; and if the 2,178,999 de-
ciatines bought by these institutions be added to the 3,511,622 sold directly
to the peasants, the enormous total is reached of 5,691,621 deciatines which
have passed from the hereditary nobihty to small cultivators in the space
of only fifteen years. 71,6 per cent, of these lands were sold to persons
outside the nobihty. If we examine the sale of mortgaged lands during
the same fifteen j^ears we find that the nobility constitute a large percentage
of the purchasers, which is to sa^^ that a large although a diminishing per-
centage of the lands sold remain in the possession of the nobility. In the
first quinquennial period, that lasting from 1901 to 1905, 63.2 per cent,
of the total number of purchasers of lands m.ortgaged to the bank belonged
to the nobihty and only 14.8 per cent, to the peasantry. In the second
quinquennial period, 1906 to 1910, the nobles constituted 29.6 per cent,
and the peasants 61.2 per cent of the purchasers. From 1911 to 1915 the
nobles constituted 46.1 per cent and the peasants 31.2 per cent, of the pur-
chasers, which is to say that the nobles had regained a predominance. But
if the figures for this last period be examined from year to year a marked
rise in the percentage of peasant purchasers is discovered in the first year
and a fall of 32.3 per cent, in 1915. Not oidj- does a large extent of mort-
gaged lands pass to persons outside the nobility and especially to the pea-
sants, but this extent tends to increase while the purchasing power of the
hereditary nobility diminishes. At the same time a certain extent of land
passes to traders, that is to say the capitalist middle class. Tliis merely
confirms the perspicuous remarks of Leroy-Beauheu in his work on Russia:
" The Russian nobility, no longer protected against others and themselves
by the impossibility of selling to persons of a class not sheltered by the
system of succession, are exposed to slow expropriation in favour of the

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE IvAND BANK FOR THE NOBIUTY

57

middle class and the peasants, who everj' year become possessed at their
expense of a larger share of the soil. "

On I January 1915 the total sum of arrears due to the bank by borrow-
ers was 26,024,192 roubles. During 1915 the bank should have received
as current mortgage revenue 43,167,391 roubles, plus 729,218 roubles in
special revenues, or a total sum of 43,896,610 roubles. It recovered how-
ever only 39,131,810 roubles. At the end of 1915 the total sum of ar-
rears was 31,082,105 roubles. This very large sum is the best index to the
crisis of which we have already spoken.

Besides the sum of debts contracted on mortgages, which was
853,973,206 roubles, and that of arrears which was 31,082,155 roubles, bor-
rowers were also indebted to the bank on 31 December 1915 for 133,193
roubles not bearing interest, 1,167,525 roubles which constituted special
debts, and 1,563,627 roubles of deferred interest. Moreover by the law of
26 April 1906 the Bank of the Agriculturists was the debtor of the Bank
of the Nobility to the extent of 166,437,668 roubles.

The total number of mortgaged properties, the sale of which by public
auction was decreed in 1915 because legal charges had not been paid for
more than a year, was 7,364 or 26 per cent.

The following table gives a more exact idea of the number of proper-
ties of which the sale by public auction was decreed :

Table XI. — Properties of which the Sale by Public Auction was decreed

from 1901 to 1915.

Payment not made
May On i November

1 901 ,

1902 ,

1903 .

1904 .

1905 .

1906 .

1907 .

1908 .

1909 .

1910 .

1911 .

1912 .

1913 •

1914 .

1915 •

Number

of properties

of which

the sale

by auction

was decreed

2,284
2,401
2,680
2,632

2.975
3,815

4.359

4.359
4,072

3.486
2,611

2,576
2,625
3,080
2,521

Number

of properties

to be sold

by auction

in relation

to total

number

of mortgaged

properties

/o

II

II

12

II

12

15

17

17
16

14
10
10
10

II

12

Number

of properties

of which

the sale

by auction

was decreed

2.598

2,533

2,515
2.983

2.999
4,226

4.309
4.141
3.739
3.057
2,516
2,710
2,827
2,736
3,843

Number

of properties

to be sold

by auction

in relation

to total

number

of mortgaged

properties

%

13
12
II

13
12

17
17
16

15
12
10
10
10
10
14

In whole
year

Properties

of which

tlie sale

by auction

was decreed

0/
/o

24
23
23

24
24
32

34
33
31
26
20
20
20
21
26

58 RUSSIA - CREDIT

Tliis table shows once more that 1915 was a year of crisis ; but it is
interesting to note that, in spite of what can be deduced from the number
of properties of which the sale by auction was decreed, the economic de-
pression of this year did not reach the gravity of the crisis of 1906- 1908.

This table also shows that the position of the mortgaged properties
is far from brilliant. In 7,320 out of the 7,364 cases of which we have
spoken the auction could be revoked, either because the charges were paid
at the last moment (4,055 cases), or because the term for payment was pro-
rogued, or because the bank gave other facilities to the tardy (3,265 cases).
In other words the auction could be revoked in 3,265 cases, thanks to va-
rious facilities "which had a beneficient character". Only 44 properties
were actually put up for auction, and of these 37 were sold while five re-
mained the bank's propert}'. It is interesting here to note that, according
to one of the bank's reports, " the credit of the sold properties had been
exploited by the proprietors up to its final limit ; their sale was not due to
influences of the moment but was the inevitable consequence of the absolute
impotence of these properties to continue to enjoy credit. "

The total number of properties which have thus passed to the bank
became 120, of which 102 are situated in the Caucasus.

§ 3. The bank's funds.

In the beginning of 191 5 the funds of the Bank of the Nobility were as
follows :

i) A capital formed by various issues of bonds of the total value of
948,700,700 roubles.

2) A capital of 74,942,097 roubles constituted by bonds issued in
1889 and not repaid.

3) A reserve capital of 12,583,618 roubles.

During the year bonds for 19,337,700 roubles were issued. In all
8,807,300 roubles were repaid. At the end of the year the bank's bonds
reached the total amount of 960,231,100 roubles, distributed as follows :

Bonds 3.5 % 389,445,000 roubles

4 % 145,202,100

4-5 % 239,948,700

5 % 149,705,300

5 % in lots 35.930.000

Total . . . 960.231.100

During 1915 the capital formed by 1889 bonds in lots did not change
(74,942,097 roubles).

In 1915 the reserve capital was increased by 3,452,635 roiibles and thus
the bank's reserve fund reached on 31 December the sum of 15,986,253
roubles.

THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY 59

Besides this capital the Bank of the Nobility disposed at the end ot
1915 of real estate of the total value of 1,311,800 roubles, plus other and va-
rious assets amounting to 17,318,586 roubles, and also of a special com-
memorative capital of ten million roubles.

To sum up : during 1915 the Bank of the Nobilitj^ notably reduced
those of its transactions on which the crisis due to the war had an unfa-
vourable influence.

There was an important diminution in the bank's loans, a notable
diminution in its emission of bonds (89,948,800 roubles in 1913, 70,138,500
roubles in 1914 and 19,337,700 roubles in 1915) ; a fall in the current value
of bonds (90.5 per cent, of their nominal value in 1913, 81 to 90 per cent,
in 1914, and 75.2 to 81.625 P^'' cent, in 1915) ; an important decrease in
amortization (12,490,703 roubles in 1913, 10,156,811 roubles in 1914 and
3.552,577 roubles in 1915) ; and a decrease in the extent of land mortgaged
(this increased by 163,546 deciatines in 1914 and decreased by 78,330 decia-
tines in 1915). On the other hand there was a very notable increase in the
amount of unpaid interest.

It follows on the preceding data that the bank's mortgage business
tends to diminish, and that 1915 was marked by too sudden a movement
in accordance wdth this general tendenc3^

It also follows that the percentage of renewed mortgages tends con-
stantly to increase, and this is important. In the mass uf the business it is
these renewals and the complementary mortgages which prevail. This is
because in the large majority of cases loans to the nobility served not to
improve their farms but to meet expenses of another kind. Thus with all
the facilities granted mortgages have on the whole aggravated the condi-
tion of properties. They marked very often the first stage towards liquida-
tion, towards the passage of a property to the ownership of persons outside
the hereditary nobility.

:sOTlCEvS RELATING TO CREDIT IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

GER^IANY.

AI<TROCK (Walther V). Kur und Neumavkisches Ritterschaftliches Kreditinstitut und neues
Braudeburgisches Kieditinstitut. Veroffentlichungen des Konigl. Preussischen Ivands-Oe-
konomie-Collegium {The Institutions of Land Credit for the Fiefs of Kurmark and Neutnark
and the New Credit Institute of Brandenburg. Publications of the Royal Prussian College of
Agrarian Economy) Pamphlet 17. Berlin 1915.

In this book are set forth the origin and development of two special mort-
gage institutions of Brandenburg and the results obtained by the action
of each.

Of them that known as the Kur- unci Neumarkishces Ritterschaftliches
Kreditinstiiiit was formed on 15 June 1777. As its name indicates it is
one of the special financial institutions the operations of w-liich affect feu-
dal landed propert}', such property securing the mortgage deeds they issue,
which are insured by the collective guarantee of all those who compose these
institutes.

This particular establishment is distinguished among the numerous
German financial institutions because its mortage deeds are guaranteed
only by the group of proprietors who are its members and own the mortgaged
properties in question, and not by all the local nobilit}', as in Silesia and
Pomerania, nor by all the proprietors of fiefs, as in Prussia.

According to the by-laws of 1777-1784 the following may belong to this
institution :

a) All nobles whose property in land is worth more than 6,000 tha-
lers (i) ;

b) All landowning commoners whose rural property is worth more
than 20,000 thalers.

The activity of the institution is limited to the territory of Brandenburg
as this was defined in 1777 ; that is to say to the districts of Stendal, Salz-
wedel, Gardelegen and Osterburg in Saxony, Schevelbein, Dram burg, Pyritz,
Saatzig, Regenwald and Randord in Pomerania, and to the single district
of Griinberg in Silesia. The districts annexed to Brandenburg after 1777
are excluded, those namely of Sternberg, Niederlawitz and Fiiterbog-Lucken-
wald.

The annual statistics for 1890 supply, as shown by the following table,
the number of landed propeilies authorized to belong to the mortgage in-
stitute :

(i) I thaler = 2s. 11 ^/^d. at par.

NOTICES RELATING TO CREDIT

6l

Provinces

Number of Fiefs Other Properties

Brandenburg 1.213

Saxony, Pomerania and Silesia 252

Total

1.465

^73
27

200

Number of
Properties

1,386
279

1,665

It will be useful to give here some statistical data as to the business
of the institute from 1875 to 1913, taking every period of five years :

1875
1880

1885
1890

1895

Number of
Mortgaged
Properties

Year

651

1900

777

1905

940
1,008

1910
I913

1,029

Number of
Mortgaged
Properties

1,000

955
900
881

This table shows that the number of mortgaged properties increased
steadily from 1875 to 1895 but decreased steadily from 1895 to 1913.

As to the total debt secured by mortgages the statistics show that this
grew steadily from 1875 to 1900, and then diminished saving for some oscil-
lations. The fact appears from the following figures :

Total Debt secured

Total Debt secured

Year

by Mortgages

Year

by Mortgages.

Marks (i)

Marks.

1875 .

89,097,732

1900 . .

194,928,550

1880 .

120,703,410

1905 . .

192,291.160

1885 .

152,551.580

I9IO . .

182,361,730

1890

180,618,200

I913 . .

188,725,920

1895 .

192,303,100

The average amount of a debt secured by a mortgage is shown by
the following table to have increased continuall}' from 1875 to 1913 :

Year

1875
1880

1885

i8qo
1895

Average Amomit of
a Debt secured

by a Mortgage
Marks.

Year

136,835

1900

155,347

1905

162,289

I9IO

I79.T85

I9I3

185,912

The mortgage deeds bear interest at various rates
cent. The rates in 1913 were as follows :

Average Amount of

a Debt secured

by a Mortgage

Marks.

194,929
201.352
202,624 ^
2T-l,2l8

3, 3 V2 and 4 per

I mark = about 11 ^j^d at par.

62 NOTICES REI.ATING TO CREDIT

Mortgage Deeds.

Marks. Rate of interest.

66,951,200 3 per cent.

108,859,030 3 14 per cent.

12,915,690 4 per cent.

188,725,920

Mortgage deeds at 4 ^ per cent, were in circulation until 1880 when
they were converted into deeds at 4 per cent.

An autonomous department of this institute, which was formed in 1873
and is known as the Kur und N eumdrkische RiiterschaftUch Darlehensk,Jisse,
acts — as its name indicates — as the establishment's lending fund and
transacts all relevant business.

*

* *

The second institution of which we here have to speak, the Neues Bran-
dehurgisches Kreditinstitut, was formed on 30 August 1869. Its promoters
aimed at securing the advantages of credit for commoner landowners, as
much as or even more than for the nobility, thus suppljdng the gap left
by the fiist institution we have noticed.

According to the rules of 1911 the institution admits all landed pro-
prietors not members of the Kur-und Neumarhisches RitterschaHliches Kre-
ditinstitut who own more than five hectares (i) of land.

Its activity extends over all the present territory of Brandenburg and
also over the districts which belonged to Brandenburg imtil 1869 and were
then separated from it (Osterburg, Stendal and Gardelegen in Saxony,
Schevelbein, Dranburg, Saatzig and Regenwald in Pomerania, and Griinberg
in Silesia).

The number of commoner landowners belonging to this institute is,
according to the statistical data of 1911, 83,125 — that is 69,476 in the whole
territory of Brandenburg, and 13,649 in Saxony, Pomerania and Silesia.

The following table gives some other noteworthy statistical data —
as to the number of properties mortgaged and as to the total debt secured
by mortgages from 1875 to 1912.

1875

1880

1885

1890

1895

1900

1905

1910

1912

(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres.

Number of Mortgaged

Debt secured by Mortgages.

Properties.

Marks.

22

739.950

93

3,694,600

1.377

30,144,800

4.195

74,274,300

6,649

105,672,900

9,007

130,972,350

9-931

141,729,150

TO,375

142,972,800

10.444

146,202,400

NOTICES RElvATING TO CREDIT

63

The figures of this table show that both the number of mortgaged
properties and the sum of the mortgage debt increased continuously from
1875 to 1912.

On the other hand the average amount of a debt secured by a mortgage
diminished continuously in the same period, in contrast to the phenomenon
noticed in the case of the first institution with which we dealt. The fact is
clearly shown by the following table :

1875
1880

1885
1890

1895

Average Amount

of a Debt secured by

a Mortgage.

Marks.

33.634
39.727
21,892

17.705
1.5.893

Average Amount

of a Debt secured by

a Mortgage.

Marks.

1900

1905
I9IO
I912

14.541
14,272
13,820

13.999

The rate of interest on mortgage titles is 3, 3 ^/^ or 4 per cent., as is
shown by the following figures which refer to 1912 :

Mortgage TiUes.
Marks.

26,090,,300.

116,008,850

4,103,250.

Rate of interest.

1 per cent.
1 ^/2 per cent.
L per cent.

Until 1875 mortgage titles at 4, 4 ^/^ and 5 per cent, were current. Those
at 5 per cent, were converted in 1880, those at 4 ^/g per cent, in 1885, and
finally those at 4 per cent, in 1895. From 1895 to 1911 only titles at 3 and
3 ^/2 per cent, were in circulation, but in 1912 titles at 4 per cent, were again
issued.

UNITED STATES.

Thompson (C. W.) : FACTORS AFFECTING INTEREST RATES AND OTHER CHARGES
ON SHORT TIME FARM I^OANS, pp. 12, pis. 2. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 409 (1916).

Among the factors discussed are the natural conditions affecting agri-
culture, the distance of farms from financial centres, the character of the
borrowers, the methods and character of the farming, and the character-
istics of loans and the relation of the farmer to the lending agency.

Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General

GREAT BRITAIN.

THE SCOITISH I,AXD COURT IN 1915. (i)

OFFICIAI, SOURCE:

Report by the Scottish I^and Court as to their Proceedings under the Small landholders
(Scotland) Acts 1886 to 191 1, i and 2 Geo. v. Cap. 49, for the year from ist January
to 31st Decetnbre 1915.

§ I. Scottish Systems of Land Tenure.

The systems of land tenure in Scotland may be classified under four
main headings :

a) The crofter tenure. — A typical crofter's holding consists of a small
extent of arable land on which are a cottage and other buildings. pro\dded
by the crofter himself or one of his predecessors, and of a right of
common in mountain and heath grazing lands. Crofter holdings are
found in the Northern and Western Highlands and Islands, and mainly in
the so-called " crofting counties " which are Argyll, Caithness, Inverness,
Orknc}', Ross and Cromarty, Shetland and Sutherland. These counties
extend over 14,000 square miles or nearly half the total area of Scotland,
but they included in 191 2 only 15 per cent, of the cultivated land of the
country. Their larger part is untilled moorland.

In 191 2 the average area of land attached to a holding in the crofting
counties was 24 acres. But in some districts, especially in the island of
Lewis, tliis average was not nearly reached.

Before the Crofters' Holdings Act of 1886 and succeecUng legislation
a crofter held his land only from year to year. The landlord had unre-
stricted power at each year's end either to e\dct him or to raise his rent. The
crofter who improved his holding was therefore first in doubt as to whether
he would be able enjoy the effect of his improvements, and secondly in fear
that their most immediate effect would be the increase of his rent.

(i) Cf. in our issue for February 1914, p. 103, « Small Holdings in Scotland and the
Effects of Recent I^egislation regarding them », and in our issue for September 1915, p. 85
u Proposals for I^and Reform in Scotland ».

THE SCOTTISH LAND COURT 65

The nineteenth century saw wholesale evictions of crofters by landlords,
to provide land for large sheepfarms and to provide deer-forests. A re-
sultant agrarian crisis caused the Crofters' Holdings Act of 1886 and the
whole question of agrarian conditions in Scotland has since been raised.

b) The small tenant's tenure. — The holders of land classified by the
Small Ivandholders' Act of 1911 as " statutory tenants " are distinguished from
the crofters in that their landlords have paid for the whole or the greater
part of their buildings and in that they do not enjo}- rights of common. By
far the greater number of Scottish small holdings outside the crofting counties
are under this form of tenure. I/ike the crofts they were at one time tending
to disappear ; for from the eighteenth century onwards they were merged by
their landlords into large farms, both arable and pastoral, or sacrificed in
order to make grouse moors and deer forests.

Tenants of small holdings of both types in Scotland usually practice
some industry other than farming. In the north they are fishermen ;
they or rather their womenfolk make tweed from their wool, and — especially
in Shetland — knit it. In the Orkneys and the Hebrides they burn kelp. In
the south the}' often follow a trade and those of them who are near large towns
are sometimes market-gardeners.

c) The large tenant's tenure. — Tliis form of tenure, found chiefly in
South and East Scotland, approximates to that general in England. The
landlord's estate is divided into large farms which he lets to farmers on lease.
The peculiarities which distinguish these farms from the analogous English
farms are outside the scope of this article.

d) The tenure of freehold large farmers. — The " bonnet lairds " of Scot-
tland , who owned and farmed the hundred or couple of hundred acres on
which stood their house, were still numerous in the eighteenth century ;
but the fortunes built up after the Union, and the ambition of fortunate Scots-
men to become landholders on the English scale, were against them. Very
many of their holdings are now leasehold farms on the estates of large pro-
prietors.

§ 2. Causes of agrarian reform.

The agrarian reforms which have been attempted in Scotland during
the last thirty 3''ears have had various causes. There were first the griev-
ances of the crofters and other smallholders — their insecurit}' of tenure and
the disproportionate rents they sometimes had to paj^ — wliich eventually
produced a public scandal and had the Act of 1886 as their immediate out-
come. Secondly there was the fact that Scotland suffered from underfarm-
ing. This was diie in part to the general circumstance that tenants at one
and the same time were entitled to no compensation for their improvements
and had no security of tenure. What large farmer or smallholder would
sink capital in land from which he might he evicted at the expir}'^ of his lease
or the end of the 5^ear, unless he at least knew that he could then claim some
compensation for his unexhaasted capital ? Other causes for underfarming

66 GREAT BRITAIN - AGRICULTURAL IvCONOMY IN GENERAL

were the lack of capital from which both tenants and landlords suffered ;
and the lowered price of grain after the repeal of the corn laws which made
arable land less profitable than pastureland. This is to leave out of account
the almost ridiculously large rents which tenants have for many j^-ears been
more and more willing to pay for shootings in Scotland during the autumn,
and which have placed a premium on under-cultivation.

A third circumstance which has made Scotland a field for agrarian exper-
iments is political. The rate of emigration has increased alarmingly since
the middle of last centiir>'-, and the increase has been accentuated during
the last decade, in which the contrary phenomenon has been produced in
England and Ireland. Emigrants are drawn from no particular district
and from no particular class of the agricultural population but from all
alike. Between 1871 and 1911 the agricultural population declined by 22
per cent. ; and between 1909 and 1911 the number of emigrants rose from
33,368 to 61,328. It is true that Scotsmen have always been attracted to
remote parts of the world and successful in them ; but it is probable that
something might be done to arrest the tide of their emigration if further
improvements were wrought in the agrarian conditions they enjoy at home.

§ 3. Eegislative Reforms.

a) Reforms general in scope.

The conditions of Scottish farming leases in general have been mainly
modified by the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act of 1883, amended and
completed in 1908. It was provided at the latter date that tenants, and
in particular market gardeners, should have compensation for their improve-
ments, and compensation for damage done by game and for " unreason-
able disturbance*' due to a landlord's refusal to renew their occupancy. They
received moreover the right to bequeathe the remainder of a lease and
greater freedom as to their system of crops.

b) Reforms having particular reference to small holdings.

The grievances of crofters and small tenants were much alleviated by
the Crofters' Holdings Act and the Small Eandholders Act. The former,
which was passed in 1886, applied only to crofts within the crofting counties
rented at no more than £30 a year. It pro^dded that a crofter might not
be removed from his holding except for the breach of certain statutory re-
gulations. It gave him the right to have his rent fixed fairly by a public
authority ; and the right, if he gave up his holding or were removed from it,
to receive compensation for his improvements and those effected b^' mem-
bers of his family who had held it before him. The execution of the Act
and the fixing of fair rents were entrusted to a specially constituted body,
the Crofters' Commission.

Experience showed that there was a demand for more small holdings
and that some of those in existence were too small for the needs of their
tenants. In 1897 the Congested Districts' Board was established in Scotland

THE SCOTTISH LAND COURT 67

and its powers included that of forming new small holdings, either in co-
operation with landlords or by bu^dng land.

The Small Landholders Act was passed in 1911. This extended the
provisions of the Crofters' Holdings Act so that they apply not only to the
crofting counties but to all Scotland, and not only to crofters but also to
all tenants of no more than 50 acres of land who pa}'- a rent of no more than
£50 a year.

In the matter of executive the Crofters' Commission and the Congested
Districts' Board were both superseded, their powers in relation to small
holdings passing to the Board of Agriculture for Scotlan'd and the Scottish
Land Court.

The Board of Agriculture has multifarious duties which include the pre-
paration of schemes for the consistution of new holdings and the enlarge-
ment of existing holdings. The action involved is taken i) by the landlord
voluntarih', 2) by agreement between the landlord and the board, 3) under a
compulsory order from the Scottish Land Court.

The duties of the Scottish Land Court are to accept or reject :
i) AppHcations from the board for such compulsory orders ;

2) Applications for the determining of the status of existing holdings
and the fixing of fair rents ;

3) Apphcations relating to their other powers over existing holdings.
The court consists of five members appointed by the Crown on the recom-
mendation of the Secretary for Scotland. One member must be able to speak
Gaelic.

§ 4. The Scottish Land Court in 1915.

a) The Formation of New Small Holdings and the Enlargement of those
already existing by order of the Court.

In connection with this, a principal function of the Land Court, some
sentences may be quoted from its report for 1915. " Under the Small Land-
holders Act the initiation of all schemes for the constitution of new small
holdings and the enlargement of existing holdings devolves upon the Board
of Agriculture for Scotland. All the preliminary negotiation is carried on
between the board and the proprietor concerned. The Land Court have
nothing whate\'er to do with these matters. The}^ have no power to in-
terfere with the selection of the land proposed to be taken, or to suggest that
other land would be more suitable for the establishment of new holdings or
for enlargements. Nor can they deal -with the financial or economic aspects of
any of the schemes submitted for their consideration. It is competent for the
board and the proprietors to agree on land schemes without calling in the
assistance of the Land Court at all. It is only when parties have failed
to come to an agreement that the board makes application to the Land
Court ".

The court issues its order if it decide, after due inquiry, to accept the
board's apphcation. Such order declares :

68 GREAT BRITAIN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

" i) In respect of what land, if any, specified in the scheme, one or more
holdings for new holders ma}- respectively be constiti^ted, and up to what
date the power to constitute them otherwise than by agreement may be
exercised ;

" 2) What is the fair rent for each new holding;

" 3) What land, if any, specified in the scheme is to be excluded there-
from ; and

" 4) Whatever else may be necessary for the purpose of making the
scheme effective, and of adjusting the rights of all parties interested in or
affected by the scheme.

From the time the Act of 1911 come into force tmtil the end of 1915 the
court authorized altogether the constitution of 693 new holdings, including
22,946 acres of arable and 4,620 acres of pasture land, and 49,577 acres of
common pasture. The total rents fixed for these holdings amount to £12,430
a year, or an average of nearly £18 each.

In 1915 schemes were authorized for the constitution of 197 new hold-
ings ; but at the same time schemes for 32 new holdings, authorized both in
this and in previous 3^ears, were abandoned, mainly in consequence of the
serious liabilities incurred in connection with arbitrations. The new hold-
ings in which tenants were actually registered in 1915, as the outcome
of schemes authorized in this and other years, numbered 176. They were
distributed as follows :

No. of
Holdings

Area

County

Arable Outrun

Common Pasture

Total Rent

ArgyU

Caithness

Dumfries

Haddington

Inverness

Kirkcudbright ....

Lanark

Perth

Ross and Cromarty .

Roxburgh

Sutherland

22

3

9

29

79

4

2

14
2

7
5

2 1 S

Q 0 0

< a ru
2,831 I II

92 3 15
300 3 23
582 2 31
2,342 3 8
152 2 32
256 — 33
654 2 35
123 3 6
2yo I 18

99—3

< « f^

843 3 24
50 — II
60 2 2

g 1 1
256 2 —

£ s d

495 9 0

5419 0

315 0 0

1,098 10 0

589 8 0

159 0 0

80 0 0
580 10 0

40 0 0
233 5 0

57 4 0

67 I 23
92 — 20

18,266 I 16

— _ —

4,571

Total . . .

176

7,727 I 15

1,114 — —

23.093 3 16

3,703 5 I

It will be seen that the largest number of new holdings were in the
crofting counties. Of those in Argyll seven were on the island of Mull, and all
the 256 acres of common pasture mentioned in the table were appurtenant

THE SCOTTISH LAND COURT

69

to these and therefore also on the island. To the largest Mull holding 12
acres of arable land pertained, to the others 5, 4, 3 or less. The fifteen new
holdings on the Argyllshire mainland were more important, their arable
land var^nng from 34 to 680 acres in extent.

Of the Invernesshire new holdings 75, their arable land varying in area
from 16 to 100 acres, were formed on the island of South Uist. Each of the
remaining four new holdinges in this county, those namely which were on the
mainland, had from 14 to 88 acres of arable land. A share of common pas-
ture was assigned to eah Invernessshire holding, none of them having other
pasture land.

The far more valuable Perthshire land lay on the estates of Bread-
albane and Inchmartine and was distributed in new holdings of approximately
uniform size, the arable land of each being from 39 to 55 acres in area.

We should notice finally the 29 holdings formed on the estate of Eli-
bank in the lowland countj^ of Haddington, probably the most fertile dis-
trict in Scotland. These fall roughly into three classes, those consisting
approximately of 5, 10 and 20 to 30 acres of arable land. One exceptional
holding has 49 acres. Neither common nor other pasture attaches to any
of them. Their proximity to Edinburgh and some less towns renders them
suitable places for intensive agriculture. It will be noticed that they are
.far more highly rented than any of the other new holdings.

As regards the enlargement of existing holdings the lyand Court effected
this between 1911 and 1916 in the case of 348 holdings, to which were added
altogether 2,838 acres of arable land, 536 acres of pasture land and 27,172
acres of common pasture.

Schemes were authorized in 1915 for the enlargement of 61 holdings, all
of which lay in the crofting counties where the evil of holdings economically
too small exists as it does not elsewhere in Scotland. The following table
gives details as to the enlargements thus authorized :

Number

of
Enlarge-
ments

Extent

County

Arable or Old
Arable

Pasture

Common Pasture

Total Rent

Argyll

Caithness

Inverness

Orkney

Ross and Cromarty .

I

6
21
II
22

S 1 J

y 0 0

<i « ^
3 2 27

91 3 9
311 2 12
109 3 9

92 I 9

2 1 S
y 0 0

123 2 37

1 Acres

1 Roods
1 Poles

£ s d
10 0 0

17 32 —

7,621

793

2,474

39 13 <->
65 5 0

40 9 6
53 2 0

Total . . .

61

609 — 26

140 3 37

10,888

208 9 6

Twenty-one schemes for the enlargement of holdings in Argyll, Inver-
ness and Ross and Cromarty, authorized in 1915 and previous years, were

70

GREAT BRITAIN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

withdrawn in 1915 ; and land was actually assigned to enlarge only 12
holdings, one in Caithness and the others in Argyll.

The activity of the Land Court in enlarging existing holdings may fairly
be summed up as modifying the too great subdivision of land in the croft-
ing counties.

b) Registration of New Holdings and of Enlargements of Holdings
formed by Agreement.

It is a function of the Land Court to register the tenants selected by a
landlord for the new holdings he forms, on land which has previously been
otherwise occupied. Six such new holdings were registered in 1915, one in
Argyllshire, the others in the south west and outside the crofting counties :

Countv

Number

of
Holdings

Arable

Outrun

ArgyU .
Ayr . .
Wigtown

Acres Roods Poles

38 3 4

31 — 29

126 3 2

196

35

Acres Roods Poles
49 — 16

49 — —

The Act of 1911 prohibits a landlord from reletting a small holding
otherwise than as such, except with the consent of the Board of Agricul-
ture. If the landlord be unwilling to pay the compensation for improve-
ments due to an outgoing tenant it is usual for liim to find a new tenant
who will pay the outgoing tenant the value of such improvements and who is
registered by the Land Court as a landholder. Twenty-seven new tenants
were so registered in 1915.

In thirteen cases the Land Court registered enlargements of existing
holdings effected by landlords by agreement. These were as follows.

THE SCOTTISH LAND COURT

7^

Number

of Existing

Holdings

Extent of Enlargement

County

Arable

Outrun

Township
Pasture

Aberdeen

Argyll

Caithness

Dumbarton

Inverness

Ross and Cromarty . . .

I
I

4

I
2

4

Acres Roods Poles

12

82 —

27 2 16

I 3 —

Arces Roods Poles

12 2 38

6 I 37
3 I 4

Acres
3,000

13

49 3 16

22 I 39

3,000

c) Modification of Rents.

The work of the I^and Court in coniiection with rents falls under two
heads, that concerned with the crofters, called landholders by the Act
-of 1911, and that concerned with the statutory small tenants.

The rents of the former had within the crofting counties been dealt
with before 1911 by the Crofters' Commission, but rents fixed by the
commission are liable to revision at the end of everj^ seven years. The
following table summarizes the Land Court's revision of rents in 1915, such
revision being, as will be seen, favourable to the crofter rather than the
landlord :

County

Nxunber

of
Holdings

Old Rent

First Fair Rent

Reduction
by Second
Fair Rent

Fair Rent
in
1915

Perceotage

of
Reduction

Argyll

Caithness ....
Inverness ....
Ross and Cromarty

Shetland

Sutherland. . . .

38
170

193
136

49
8

£ s d

398 8 0
1,794 0 5
1.571 3 6
1,018 15 10

305 8 0
27 17 11

£ s d

252 2 0
1,274 2 0

1,09-1 17 5

835 I 7

222 6 8

32 16 0

& s d

201 13 0
2190

£ X d

214 9 0
1,003 8 0
871 12 8
695 8 8
186 12 0
26 6 0

14-934
21.246
20.389
16.722
16.071
19.817

594

5.115 13 8

3.7" 5 8

223 2 0

2,997 16 4

19.224

72

GREAT BRITAIN - AGRICULTURAIv ECONOMY IN GENERAL

In 430 cases the Land Court fixed the fair rent to be paid for crofts with
which the Crofters' Commission had not dealt, and in a considerable number
of these cases arrears of rent were cancelled.

County

cc

fl

n

P

0

s

K

%

0

Old Rent

Total
Amount

Amount \ Z^
ordered to be ^^

Aberdeen ....

Arg>-ll

Bute

Caithness ....
Dumbarton . . .

Elgin

Forfar

Inverness ....
Kincardine. . . .

Orkney

Perth

Ross and Cromarty
Shetland

Total . . .

13

5

152

I
6

2

14
I

8

2

123

82

£ s d

339 2 8
59 16 6

135 12 4

1,385 13 7

10 o o

41 o o

34 o o

94 19 3
29 12 o

57 4 o

34 13 7

1.050 2 5

423 5 8V2

430 3,695 2 oVa

209 I

38 15

81 3

1,096 15

6 o

27 5

16 5

79 I

12 10

46 18

24 10
794 18 o
314 19

38.357
35-227
40.162
20.850
40.000
33-53'3
52.205
16.756

57-77°
18.006

29-352

24-303
24.609

2,748

25-630

22 7 o
685 18 o

51 8 6

80 7 3
22 16 3

20 o o

1,370 I 7
110 10 8

2,363 9 3

347 10 6

33 19 o

20 o o

574 10 8

45 9 o

1,041 9 2

100
49.392

61.108

57-753
100

58.065
58.886

55-935

Thus total rents were reduced by more than a quarter, and more than
half the aggregate sum of arrears was cancelled. The reductions of rent
effected in the case of statutory small tenants were somewhat less drastic,
existing conditions under this form of tenure being on the whole more equi-
table. The following table gives details as to the 243 holdings of statutory
small tenants for which the Land Court fixed rents in 1915 :

THE SCOTTISH I,AND COURT

1?>

County

Number
of Holdings

Old Rent

New Rent

Percentage
of Deduction

Aberdeen.

Argyll

Caithness

Dumbarton

Dumfries

Elgin.

Fife

95

3
58

I
2
8
2

4

8

3
4
I

3

I

27
23

£ s d

2,706 9 I
26 0 0

598 2 2
35 0 0
43 0 0

134 I 0
61 00
76 17 0

237 10 7
54 5 0

280 10 0

330

66 0 0

no 00

643 12 II

173 8 0

£ s d

2,127 16 0
19 18 0

514 8 0
30 0-0
33 10 0
96 0 0
52 8 0
62 I 0

178 15 0
43 15 0

234 0 0

I 13 0

50 10 0

85 0 0

530 13 8

134 3 0

21.362
23.461

13-995
14.285
22.093
28.384
14.098
19.258
24.746
19-354
16.577
47.619
23.484
22.727
17-550
22.635

Inverness

Klincardine

Kirkcudbright

lyanark

Orkney

Perth

Renfrew

Ross and Cromariy . . .
Shetland

Total . . .

243

5,248 18 9

4,194 10 0

20.087

It should be noted that the L,and Court has no power to cancel any
arrears of rent in the case of statutory small tenants as it has in that of crof-
ters. Kven as regards the latter it may not deal with any arrears of a rent
fixed as a fair rent either by itself or by the Crofters' Commission.

d) Fixing Amount of Compensation due to outgoing tenants.

In this connection there is another limitation of the competency of
the lyand Court. It can fix the amount of compensation due by a landlord
for permanent improvements to the crofter who renounces his tenancy, but
the sum thus due to a statutory small tenant in the same circumstances is
fixed by an arbiter. In 1915 the court made 28 awards as to compensation
to landholders :

74

GREAT BRITAIN" - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL

County

Number

of Landholders

for

whom Compensation

was fixed

Amount claimed

by

Landholders

Amount awarded

by

Land Court

3

13

3

(I) 8

I

& s d

498 5 0

1,952 2 II

343 16 9

802 9 10(1)

65 0 0

£ s d
124 10 0
955 10 0
123 0 0
490 0 0

27 0 0

Ross or Cromarty

Sutherland

Total . . .

28

3,661 14 6

1,720 0 0

(i) In two cases the amounts clained were not stated.

e) Grants of Leave to assign Holdings.

The Crofters' Act of 1886 forbade that a crofter should "execute any
deed purporting to assign his tenancy' ". This created a hardship for crof-
ters disabled by age or infirmity ; and the Act of 1911 therefore ruled that a
landholder whom illness, old age or infirmity had rendered unfit for work
might apply to the I,and Court for leave to assign his holding to a member 01
his family, or any person who would, failing nearer heirs, succeed him if
he died intestate.

In 1914 the court granted leave to assign their holdings to sixt}' appli-
cants in the crofting counties and none outside them.

/) Effects of the War.

The War affected the work of the Land Court in several ways. In the
first place the numbers of its staft' were considerably reduced.

In the second place the extraordinary response made by Scotland to
the call for recruits for the army and the naw caused the absence of the
large majority of the younger crofters and statutory small tenants. The
case may be instanced of 224 acres of the farm of Aignish on the Lewis,
on which are thirty-two holdings : from these 53 men went to join the
colours. The natural result of volunteering on this scale was a great reduc-
tion in the number of applications which came before the Land Court. The
numbers of the landlords and factors and of the law agents they employ
— of all those \\dth whom the Land Court usually does business — were pro-
portionately reduced.

Another cause for a lessening of the court's business was the deflection
of pubUc money from agrarian objects to others more directly connected
with the war. The reduction of parliamentary grants tended to reduce the
activities of the Board of Agriculture in the matter of promoting schemes
for the formation of new holdings and enlargement of existing hokUngs, and
thus to reduce the number of these schemes which came before the Land
Court.

JAPAN.

INTERIOR COLONIZATION
AND THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE IN KOREA.

OFFICIAIv SOURCE :

Annual report on reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea) 1914-1915, compiled by the
Goveniment-General of Chosen, Keijo (Seoul), July igi6.

The question of interior colonization in Korea has already been studied
in this Review (i), and we wiU therefore here merel}^ complete, with the
help of the most recent official data, the information already given.

§ I. Agricultural Credit,

Agriculture is the principal occupation of Korea and employs 80 per
cent, of the population. Agricultural products have a total value of nearly
300,000,000 yen (2) and account for more than 80 per cent, of the total
export, trade.

The problem of agricultural credit is therefore urgent. Such credit is
afforded a) by the Agricultural and Industrial Banks, b) by the People's
Bank Associations, and c) by the Oriental Development Company.

The two former are organized under regulations dating, respectively,
from 1906 and 1907. Owing to changes in the general position these regu-
lations were modified in 1914.

a) AgricuUural and Industrial Banks. — The new regulations recognize
that the'^" banks can discharge, as previously, the functions of ordinary
banks, in addition to their main functions ; but require them gradually to
confine their activity to the latter, by extending banking facilities more and
more to agricultural and industrial enterprises in that they furnish funds to
these on easier terms. The banks are especially authorized to deal with tem-
porary loans, exchange bills, documentary bills and warrants for products
obtained in the peninsida. In order to acquire funds for these operations
the banks are however authorized to make temporary loans and receive ordin-
ary deposits, apart from the funds provided for long-term loans for agricul-
tural and industrial undertakings. They are also authorized to enter into
close connection with the banking department of the Oriental Development
Company, so that the latter may furnish larger working funds to them. To
a certain extent they can act as the company's agents, much as People's
Bank Associations act as agents to themselves. The Agricultural and

(i) See Nos. 7,8 and y, year 1914, Interior Colonization in Japan.
(2) I yen = 2. 0664 .s at par.

76

JAPAN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Industrial Banks were formerlj' authorized to issue debentures to the
amount of five times their paid-up capital ; but the new regulations seek
to safeguard their stability by imposisng greater restrictions on the issue of
debentures, and the maximum amount of these ma}^ not now exceed the
amount of long-term loans repayable in annual instalments, and they must
be concelled as the loans are repaid.

Thanks to the new regulations and the gradual progress of industry and
agriculture the Agricultural and Industrial Banks have been able to furnish
much larger funds to the enterprises they can support. Their business in
1914 was however less good than in 1913 owing to the financial lull caused
by the European war and the depression in the prices for rice. The number
of branch offices of the six banks passed from 36 in 1913 to 37 in 1914, the
amount of the paid-up capital from 1,467,945 yen to 1,469,890 yen, the
amount of debentures issued from 2,990,000 yen to 2,910,000 yen, the re-
serve fund from 479,339 yen to 486,682 yen, the balance of the deposits from
4,599,926 3^en to 4,718,821 yen, the balance of the loans from 6,280,105
yen to 8,028,558 yen, the balance of discounted bills from 5,303,517 yen
to 3,526,090 yen and the profits from 215,649 yen to 125,409 yen.

The agricultural methods of the Korean people are rather elementary
and loans for agricultural or industrial objects did not at first reach any con-
siderable amount. Of late however, and especially since the annexation
of Korea by Japan, an increasing demand has arisen for funds for irriga-
tion, works of civil engineering and other agricultural enterprises ; and loans
made for these purposes have therefore reached a considerable sum, as is
shown by the following table :

Year

I<oans to be repaid

by
Annual Instalments

Loans to be repaid
at Fixed Periods

Ordinary

Bills
Discounted

Balance
over-
drawn

in
Current
Deposit

for
Commer-
cial
Purposes

Agricultural
Purposes

Indus-
trial
Purposes

Agricultural
Purposes

Indus-
trial
[Purposes

Loans

1908
I910
1913
1914

yen

86,262

392,728

1,073,396

1,660,508

yen

1 7,060

556,495
888,025
636,788

yen

43,464

92.137

221,714

1,192,955

yen

7,765

46,882

578.836

392,932

yen

1,394,639
1,740,839
3,165,704
3,627,149

yen

1,102,251

3,457,870

5,303,517
3.526,090

yen

30,134

57,773

352,430

518,226

yen

2,681,575

6,344,724
11,583,622
11,554.648

The enormous increase in 1914 of agricultural loans, especially of those
repayable at fixed periods, is remarkable.

b) People's Bank Associations. — These associations were first estab-
lished in 1907 as auxiUary organs to the Agricultural and Industrial Bank,
They numbered 227 at the end of 1914 as against 208 at the end of 1913, but
their total membership was 60,322 at the former and '80,193 at the latter

INTERIOR COI.ONIZATIOX IN KOREA 77

date. The reductiou followed on the elimination of undesirable members.
At the end of 1914 the capital advanced by the government was 2,265,000
yen ; that contributed b}- members 694,300 yen ; the reserve funds amounted
to 491,289 yen (396,331 yen at the end of 1913) ; the balance of deposits to
108,521 yen ; the balance of loans to 2,148,278 yen ; the profits to 43,433
yen (91,684 yen in 1913) ; the amount of joint purchases to 96,967 yen
(89,917 5'en in 1913) ; that of consignment sales to 563,532 yen (889,402
3^en in 1913); and the number of warehouses lent to the government to 195.

A Japanese manager of each association is appointed and paid by the
government.

The new regulations recognized the limited libility of the associations
and imposed upon each member the obligation of strengthening the capital
fund to the extent of ten yen a share ; and, in order to encourage thrift in
members, they authorized the associations to receive their deposits. The
membership, hitherto limited to Korean farmers, was opened to Japanese
farmers.

c) The Activity of the Oriental Dei elopment Company. — This company
engages under government protection in agricultural and industrial un-
dertakings. It invites skilled farmers, selected by itself, to immigrate
and supplies them. with necessary funds; and thus it participates in the de-
velopment of the natural resources of the peninsula. The company's ca-
pital being 10,000,000 yen. State lands — which measured 10,037.8 cho (i)
— were transferred to it in payment for 60,000 shares valued at 3,000,000 yen
taken up by the government. These lands, added to those bought, reclaim-
ed or otherwise acquired by the company, made its total landed property
at the end of 1914 measure 70,143 cho — 46,642 cho of paddy land, 18,753
cho of upland, 2,264 cho of forests and 2,482 cho of other land. The rents
of this property amounted to more than 1,600,000 yen in 1914.

Up to the end of 1914 the company brought 2,659 immigrant famiUes
into Korea and rented to them altogether 4,733 cho of cultivated land. The
government granted 300,000 yen annually to the company for its engage-
ment of Japanese immigrants.

A main branch of its activity is the supply of the funds needed for ex-
ploitation by settlers, farmers and others. In the fiscal year 1914 (i April
1914 to 31 March 1915) the total amount lent to farmers and others was
7,570,000 yen, which was more by 1,360,000 yen than that lent in the pre-
vious year. Of the total loans 3,220,000 yen were lent for agricultural
purposes, 1,540,000 yen for pubhc enterprises, 2,300,000 yen for debentures
issued by several Agricultural and Industrial Banks, and 500,000 yen for
other purposes.

The following table shows the position of the company in 1913 and 1914 :

(i) I cho = 2.44959.

78

JAPAN - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAI,

Year

Reserve Fund

Debentures
Issued

Profits

Amount
of Dividends

Percentage
of Dividends

1913
1914

yen
428,400
511 ,000

yen
19,350,000
19,350,000

yen

1,391,400
1,047,841

yen

690,000
650,000

7.0
6.5

§ 2. Growth of Agricultural production.

The organizing energy of Japan has given a strong impulse to the acti-
vity of Korea. The fact is proved by the figures having regard to foreign
trade, which increased in amount from 39,207,031 yen (8,902,509 yen for
exports and 30,304,522 yen foi imports) in 1906 to 108,691,682 yen (exports
49,492,325 yen and imports 59,199,357 yen). If it be remembered that
— as we have said — more than 80 per cent, of the foreign trade is in agri-
cultural products, the increase in agricultural production is seen to have
been considerable.

The activity of the Oriental Development Company, the wise organiza-
tion of small credit, technical education, the formation of small farms, ex-
perimental stations and nurseries for mulberry and other trees, the forma-
tion of Water Utilization Associations (i), the holding of agricultural exhi-
bitions — all these elements have contributed to the progress made. Much
however remains to be done for at the end of 1914 only about 13 per cent,
of the land of the peninsula was cultivated. Measures have therefore been
taken to extend the cultivated area. Between 1907 and the end of 1914,
29, 198 cho of State waste land were granted to individuals or corporate bodies.

The following table shows the progress made between 1910 and 1914 :

Product

19 10

1914

Rice (1)

7,917,622 koku (2)

12,159,167 koku

Wheat and barlej'

3,548,441 »

6,001,839 1)

Beans

2,473,679 »
2,646,890 »

3,229,170 »
3,212,464 »

MUlel

Cotton

11,473,170 kin (j)

36,123,530 kin

Cocoons

13,931 koku

46,194 koku

Cattle

703,844 head

1,338,401 head

(i) In order to improve the quality of the exported rice, regulations issued in February
191 3 provided for its in.spection and subsequent classiiication .

(2) I koku = 0.6205 quarter.

(3) I kin = 1.32 lbs.

(i) There were at the end of 191 4 nine of these associations, of which seven had up to that
date spent more than 1,189,000 yen, while the area having a water supply had been increased
by 10,407 cho.

INTERIOR COI.OXIZATIOX IN KOREA

79

The government has devoted particular attention to the protection of
forests. Jurisdictory districts for forest protection have existed since 1912
and there were forty-five of them in the different Korean provinces at the
end of 1914.

No less an effort has been made in the direction of afforestation. The
nurseries formed by the central or provisional governments provided
3,573,837 seedlings of qneycus serrata, pseudo acacia, red pine, poplar
{pyramidilis) chestnut and other trees ; and 14,570,000 of them, as well as
137 koku of seeds, in 1914.

Afforestation is also undertaken by private corporations or individuals.
Thus the Oriental Development Company planted 2,860,000 trees in the
spring of 1914.

Finally an annual Arbour Day has been instituted and is duly cele-
brated, especially in the schools.

The following table shows the progress of aft'orestation :

1910

19 15

Area afforested

Number
of Trees planted

Area afforested

Number
of Trees planted

By Central Goveiumeut . .

By lyocal Governments . . .

By Public Schools

On Arbour Day

By Private Individuals and
Corporations

531 cho
404 »

876,000
1,947,000

.183 cho
251 »

938 »

18,686 »

1,460,000

1,329,000

3,810,000

15,384,000

39.399.000

Thus in 1910 an area of 1,035 cho was afforested with 2,823,000 trees
and in 1915 an area of 20,058 cho with 61,382,000 trees. In the whole pe-
riod 1910-1915 the afforested area was 69,761 cho and the number of trees
planted 235,351,000.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL liCONOMY IN GENERAL
IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

FEIFAJyIK (Dr. F.) [Regieiiingsrath der bosn. herz. I^udersverwaltung] Ein neuer aktueller
Weg der I/isung der bosnischen Agrarfrage {A New Way to solve the Agrarian Question in
Bosnia) Wiener Staatwiss, Studien II Band; 3 uf. Vienna and I^eipzig, 1916.

In this book the author has aimed at contributing to the solution of
an agrarian and economic problem in Bosnia, the problem namely of the
kmeti which is important because it is connected with the development and
future of agriculture in this province but which is thorny because multiple
difficulties are in the way of its solution.

The name kmeti is given to the cultivators of the lands possessed by
the agas who are the great proprietors of the country. These lands are bur •
dened by a right of customary service, recognized by the law, in virtue of
which a kmet can never be deprived of the land he renders fruitful bj^ his
labour, and is connected by certain obligations with the aga to whom the
land belongs. There are thus in Bosnia and Herzegovina special jurisdictory
relations between proprietors and cultivators of the land, and they date from
a very ancient period. The regulation of these relations is no veiy^ eas}'
task and has always preoccupied the Austrian and Hungarian administra-
tion. The realization of pertinent reforms which would solve the agrarian
problem, with which the problem of the kmeti is intimatel}^ connected, has
figured importantly ever since the early period of occupation in the general
economic and agrarian programme which Austria and Hungary have
proposed to carry out in the new territories.

Dr. Feifalik has understood the importance of the matter at stake and
has wished not only to facilitate its investigation, by the opportune and
practical observations which make his book useful and valuable, but also
to render a practical service in that he advances a new solution of the agra-
rian problem, especially as it concerns Bosnia. In his three first chapters
he attempts to show :

a) That the feudal relations which have long existed in Bosnia and
Herzegovina between the agas and the kmeti represent an insurmountable
obstacle to all improvement in agriculture, which has for this reason made
no progress since the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation until
to-day, in spite of all the ameliorative measures evolved and applied by the
new government.

b) That all the essays of Austria and Hungary to improve agricul-
ture in the two annexed provinces, including the last law of 1911 on the
repurchase of lands, have had no restdts or hardly any, because they did

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

not in the first place provide for the regulation of the jurisdictory relations
between the agas and the kmeti, that is between those who own the land and
those who make it fructify by the labour of their hands.

This assertion of an undeniable fact gives the author a basis for his
statement that the complex and difficult problem of the improvement of
agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be solved in one way only,
namely by seeking to reconcile the interests of the agas and the kmeti,
by having recourse to more opportune and more practical reforms.

Dr. Feifalik observes that the rights which the agas and the kmeti res-
pectively claim on the same holding constitute a species of condominium,
which is injurious not only to these two classes of citizens, whose interests
are in consequence continually opposed, but also to the future of agri-
culture in the country.

The author thinks however that in order to untie these feudal bonds
and dissolve the jurisdictory relations, which now unite the cultivators and
owners of the soil in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the idea should be abandoned
of granting to one or other of them the right to redemption from this servi-
tude, which both, from the point of view of their opposing interests, consider
particularly prejudicial to themselves. For this idea Dr. FeifaHk proposes
to substitute another and more practical plan which promises better results,
that is the division of every holding between the owning aga and the culti-
vating kmeti. This division could not however be arbitrary : it would have
to be effected under the protection of the law and in accordance with cri-
teria for safeguarding, as equitably and exactly as possible, the interests
of either party with due regard to their respective rights.

The term cifiic designates, when applied to land, holdings of which the
agas are jurisdictorily recognized to be owners and the kmeti to be cultiva-
tors, that is holdings over which the two classes exercise their respective
rights, a condition which is tantamount to the existence of a species of
condominium.

By the law of 1911 the Austrian and Hungarian government proposed
to solve the agrarian problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina by a definite rup-
ture of the jurisdictory^ and feudal relations which had existed from time
immemorial between the kmeti and the agas. But Dr. Feifalik thinks this
measure inadequate to a really useful and practical solution of this impor-
tant problem, and he proposes that the government should instead support
a division of the landed property between the two classes of persons
interested in it, the agas and the kmeti.

The author points out that the one difficulty which must be overcome
before this proposal is applied if conflicts of interests are not to be provoked,
that is if the respective rights of the agas and the kmeti are in no way to
be injured, is the difficulty of finding what he calls the key to a just division
of the land on the lines indicated, in other words a principle which will
give a sure basis for determining, as exactly as possible, what part of a
given area of ciflic land, taken as a unit, should be assigned to the owning
aga and what part to the cultivating kmet.

The author states that if we admit for the moment that such a key

82 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

can effectively be found the logical consequence is that the aga and the kmeti
would willingly accept the proposed reform and immediately come to an
agreement for the sharing of the lands in wliich they claim rights.

Basing his argument on this consideration, Dr. Feifalik goes on to ex-
plain the procedure to be adopted for the establishment of the key-princi-
ple of which we have spoken and which is of capital importance to the so-
lution of the problem in question.

The better to define his ideas he supposes the particular case of a ciflic
holding having an area of 60 dunum (i). He states that the various crops
grown on land of this area can bring in a gross revenue of 600 crowns (2),
from which however the tax of the tithe has to be deducted. The remaining
revenue is divided, one third going to the aga and two thirds to the kmet.
The gross value of the products are thus shared as follows :

Ciflic Holding of 60 dunum.

The tax of the tithe 60 crowns

To the flgfl (1/3) 180 »

To the kmet (2/3) 360 »

Total . . . 600 «

It should next be imagined that this holding of 60 dunum is not ciflic
as was presumed when the preceding figures were established. Let the
holding be supposed to be freely and absolutely owned b}^ the aga who
grants it to a metayer. The author believes that the revenue to be
derived from it in such conditions, ever>i:hing relevant to a contract of
the sort being taken into consideration, is indicated by the following for-
mula :

, , 600-60

(I) = 270 crowns.

Take another hN'pothesis. Suppose that the holding in question,
while the form of its tenure is still that of free proprietorship, has an area of
only 40 dunum (3). The revenue to be derived by the aga is then repre-
sented as follows :

400-40

(2) = 180 crowns.

2

These formulae show that the revenue derived by the aga from ciflic
land having an area of 60 dunum is equal to that of a holding of only
40 dunum which he holds in free ownership. The ratio which should
obtain between an aga'a share and the whole area of any ciflic holding
subjected to the proposed division, is therefore expressed as follows:

40 : 60 = 2 : 3.

(i) 60 dunum = 136.90005 acres.

{2) I crown of gold = 10.08096 d. at par.

(3) 40 dunum = 91. 2667 acres.

XOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 83

That is to say two thirds. It is therefore permissible to claim that
the aga ought to be satisfied even if after the proposed division of his ciflic
land not the whole two thirds of its area, to which he would have a right
according to the preceding calculation, but a slightly less extent were as-
signed to him, say three fiths of the total area. The author states that the
aga would be inclined to relinquish this small part of his rights in conside-
ration of the special advantage he would derive from the division of his ciflic
land. He would indeed be enabled by the division, which would make him
a free proprietor, to emanicipate himself from the numerous annoj'ances
and difficulties which are often enough caused by the kmeti of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

To give an idea of them it is enough to say that a kmet who is ill dis-
posed to his aga can wrong him in a very simple way, b^^ neglecting, for
instance, the ordinary tilth of a larger or smaller part of the ciflic holding and
employing it as pastureland for the raising of live stock. The cause of the loss
which the aga thereby incurs is the fact that the latter has the right to take
one sixth of the crops of the land entrusted to his kmet but has no part what-
ever in the profits of land left as pasturage or in the profits of keeping live
stock. And this is not the only method by which the kmet can cause annoy-
ance. In such cases the law certainly gives the right to take out a penal ac-
tion against the kmet but in practice this expedient is too little efficacious
for the aga to count upon its success. It is clear therefore that the author
is logically justified in prophesying that the agas will receive the new agra-
rian reform he proposes with favour.

Another of his statements is justified also, the statement that every aga
ought to be inclined to agree to the assignment to himself in free proprietor-
ship of only three fifths of the total area of his ciflic land, instead of the two
thirds to which he would actually have a right when the aforesaid division
of the holding was made.

We must add that an identical double prophecy can be made in the case
of the kmeti. To prove this statement the author employs an argument
like that used in the case of the agas.

We have already had occasion to note that the kmet has a right to two
thirds of the value of the products of a ciflic holding, after the amount of
the tithe has been subtracted from such value. The profits accruing to
the kmet from a holding of 60 dunum are therefore expressed by the
following formula :

(3) (600-60) 2/3 = 360 crowns.

Let us now suppose that a holding of only 40 dunum is ceded to the
kmet in full ownersliip The profits he will derive from it are expressed by
the following formula :

(4) (400-40) X 360 crowns.

In other words, it may be deduced from formulae (3) and (4) that when
a given holding is divided two thirds of its total area will accrue to the kmet.

84 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL,

Therefore an aga will have, equally with his kmet, a right to two thirds of
the ciflic holding on which both have claims. Having estabhshed this cir-
cumstance the author points out that the kmet might very well also, like
the aga, content himself with three fifths of the holding instead of the two
thirds which would fall to him in the manner described. The small loss
he would thus suffer would be outweighed by a special advantage. For
before the exemplified division of the ciflic holding of 60 dunum he would be
obliged to bear the expense of cultivating land of that extent ; whereas
after such division he would, as has already been explained, have a free
property of an area of only 40 dunum and the costs of his fanning would
be proportionately diminished.

After all that h?s been said it is easy to understand that the author has
been able to establish, on the basis of an exact principle, the following for-
mula which gives the desired key to a just division of ciflic lands between the
aga and the kmeti

'U -+- 'U = I V5 (!)•

This formula signifies, translated into ordinary language : i) that the
area which either an aga or a kmet would have the right to hold in free
proprietorship is represented by three fifths of the total area of a ciflic
holding ; 2) that this holding should therefore receive an addition equal to
one fifth of its area.

The question therefore arises — Who should furnish at the time of the
division of a ciflic holding this missing fifth which is necessary to equity ?
The author answers unhesitatingly that it is the part of the State to in-
tervene and provide the needed territorj^ He affirms that such interven-
tion is possible because the State posseses in Bosnia and Herzegovina
large extents of land which now yield hardly any profit. Such are indeed
the 571,635 hectares (2) which are used only for the pasturage of live stoci:
and the other 212,700 hectares which are overgrown with woods and bush-
es. The State is therefore fully able to provide the 94,346 hectares which
would, according to the author, allow the proposed agrarian reform to be
applied without injury to any private interests.

The author adds that the reform should include the preservation of
the emanicipated properties from too great subdivision, especially those of
them which would fall to agas. The better to attain this end the agas and
the kmeti should be encouraged to accept this second part of the projected
reform by the grant of an amount of land somewhat in excess of that to
which they really would have right. Therefore the author proposes that

(i) It should be noted that the author in establishing this formula has not taken intoaccotmt:

a) that the value of the products belonging to the aga is a net value while that accruing
to the kmet is a gross value ;

b) that in speaking of the division of the products between the aga and the kmet the re-
ference is to the principal products of the soil whereas the secondary products (of the vegetable
garden, orchard etc), and the profits derived from stock raising accrue to the kmet only.

(2) 1 hectare = 2.47 acres.

NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 8$
•

the State should cede not only the 94,346 hectares already mentioned but
double that area, nameh 188,692 hectares, the value of which may be
computed, according to the prices usually paid to the State by settlers
acquiring land, as 2,075,612 crowns.

The author then proposes that the appHcation of the projected reform
should not be obligatory but that the agas and the kmeti should have full
liberty to accept or reject it. It is however his opinion that both will re-
ceive it favourably, for the simple reason that the proposed division of lands
will be useful to both. This result would, he says, be reached f ai more easily if
the State declared itself ready to cede a part of its property to the agas and
the kmeti on condition these were in their turn ready to accept the applica-
tion of the agrarian reform in question at a given moment, that is to say be-
fore the special laws called Baltalik and Mezzas, which have reference to
the cession of State lands to the communes, were applied.

This impulse given by the State would. Dr. Feifalik afhrnis, contribute to
an unhesitating acceptance on the part of the agas and the kmeti of a reform
which would be of general service. It would, as has already been said,
be optional. But while Dr. Feifalik maintains the usefulness of leaving to
the agas and the kmeti full liberty to accept or reject the proposed reform,
he is of opinion that there are exceptional cases in wliich the State would
have to compel the division of the lands on the lines indicated, even hav-
ing recourse sometimes to measures of force.

These cases are the following :

i) When a minority among the kmeti depending on a single aga op-
posed their majority who wished to accept the aforesaid proposed agrarian
reform. The author maintains that in this case the State should impose the
aforesaid reform on all the dissenting kmeti, especially if the lands culti-
vated by the latter were so situated in relation to those cultivated by the
kmeti favouring the reform that they would be an obstacle to its application.
It is the author's opinion that in the case of an obstinate opposition on the
part of these dissenting kmeti the State should compel them to migrate to
other localities.

2) The second exceptional case would occur in the districts of Bos-
nia and Herzegovina within the war zone. The author advises that the
State should reserve the right within the war zone to render the applica-
tion of the agrarian reform obligatory where there seemed to be a^need
for it and also to have recourse to coercive measures where, for example,
there was question of expropriation or other such action.

Proceeding to consider the territorial distribution of the State's landed
property the author remarks that the State domain, although in general
rich in land, is insufficient in the eight districts which border the Save.
Where these districts are concerned he proposes to compel the agas to cede
the lands thej^ possess in exchange for others lying in regions where the
landed property of the domain is more considerable or even excessive.
Should the agas in question oppose this plan the author proposes simply
that the law relative to the repurchase of lands should be apphed to these
districts.

86 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Before concluding we must state that Dr. Feif alik's ideas and the reform
he proposes, as resumed by us, refer especially to Bosnia. Since in Her-
zegovina the jurisdictor}^ relations between agas and kmeti are slightly
different from what they are in Bosnia, the author has wished to make the
former province the subject of a special study in which he hopes to present
his conclusions regarding it.

AUSTRIA.

AGRAR-COMPASS. JAHR- UND ADRESSBUCH DER OSTERREICHISCHEN LAND-
WIRTSCHAFT (Agrar-Compass. Year-book and Directory of Austrian Agriculture) Pub-
lished by Rudolf Hanel, Vienna, 1916, pp. 1788.

There were already books like this one in Austria concerned with industry
and commerce. The present volume fills a gap and supplies a need much felt
not only by agriculturists but also by all interested in business, and is a po-
tent aid to the general economy of the country. For in spite of the great pro-
gress made by co-operation and the existence of other noteworthy insti-
tutions, Austria has lacked the means by which a complete idea of the mar-
ket in a broad sense can be formed, and the connection between consumers
and producers has had a casual rather than a systematic character. This has
been largely due to the fact that agriculture has lacked the expedient which
had long and successfully served industry. The editors of Agrar Compass
have made it their aim to understand and explain agricultural production in
all its branches from the point of view of its capacity to enter into the move-
ment of commerce. The new directory deals especially with those agri-
culturists who bring onto the market a quantity of products considerable
from the commercial point of view. The war prevented this collection
of addresses from comprising those of the agriculturists of Galicia and
Bukovina, in which countries ownership has undergone many and im-
portant changes and modifications.

The book gives the names and addresses of the owners of farms and
forest holdings, and of their secondary establishments when these surpass
an area fixed in accordance with the crops grown ; of the dairy farms —
those producing milk and cheese and collective dairies — ; of agricultural
unions for purchase, sale and stock-breeding and other co-operative societies
and corporations ; of distilleries, mills, industries for working with wood,
sugar refineries, factories for making preserves and substitutes for coffee,
and tobacco industries.

Pages 1221 to 1268 are occupied by general statistics giving the data
as to the agricultural, economic and forestal position in each State, that
is with regard to agriculture, forestal economy, stock-breeding, the indus-
tries for alcoholic drinks, mills, and the treatment and preparation of wood,
sugar, preserves, coffee substitiites, and tobacco.

RUGGERI ALFREDO, gerente responsabile

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(5) In case of change of address, the subscriber is requestedto notify the Publishing
Bureau of ths Institute, forwarding address label.

New York Botanical Garden Librar

3 5185 00260 9772