360 Repoet of Farmers' Institutes 



other profits are accumulated in the reserve fund, which at the 

 present time, after paying the expenses of the various local associa- 

 tions, amounts to $3,240.76. The expenses of these associations 

 are very small, as usually the only official getting any compensa- 

 tion — and this is a nominal one — is the secretary ; there is in 

 addition a slight expense for stationery and postage. 



The credit unions are authorized to declare an annual dividend 

 upon the share capital, but a provision is made that 25 per cent 

 of the profit should remain as a reserve fund, until the reserve 

 fund should equal the total paid-in capital. 



Our cooperative credit unions are located in rural communities 

 and, practically speaking, all members are farmers and nearly all 

 of them are borrowers. If some credit unions could be formed in 

 small industrial centers, the cooperative credit unions could be 

 used for encouraging saving and thrift among the members ; at 

 the same time, this would increase the working capital of the credit 

 unions and enable the farmers, or other members who may need 

 the money for productive purposes, to borrow this money. 



The success of these credit unions in all European countries, 

 particularly in Germany, is due to the fact that they are federated 

 into unions. This enables them to see that the money is more 

 evenly distributed in those centers where it is needed. According 

 to the last statistics of the International Cooperative Alliance, the 

 Imperial Union of German Agricultural Societies — which in- 

 cludes all cooperative credit unions — was, in 1909, as follows: 



Total number of societies affiliated 12,614 



Members 1,163,186 



Turn-over of money $1,114,040,355 



Total assets $485,634,905 



Eeserve fund $1,274,765 



There is also a union of credit societies called " Wurtemberg 

 Societies," having 1,141 societies ; another at Baden, with 416 

 societies; and another, called the "Rhenish Prussian Auditing 

 Credit Union," wath 345 societies. Besides the above, there are 

 also 1,598 societies belonging to the Urban Industrial Credit 

 Unions. 



