KURAL ECONOMICS. 895 



warehouses, gins, grain elevators, (.leariug bouses, banks, creameries, mluea. 

 stores, and miscellaneous. 



The advantage of consolidating smaller concerns is illustrated by the Missis- 

 sippi plan, vi-bere the parent company owns and operates GO branches in different 

 sections of the State. During the season 1909-10 the company handled 50,000 

 bales of cotton, most of which was sold direct to the consumer, both in America 

 and Europe. The trade in fertilizers alone, which are sold to the membership 

 upon contract direct with the manufacturers, amounted to over $300,000. 



[Cooperative stores in the Northwest] (Co-operation [2IinneapoUs\, .', 

 {1912), No, 4, pp. i42-i55).— Financial statements of 28 cooperative stores in 

 the northwest section of the United States are here submitted, showing the dis- 

 tribution of assets and liabilities of each, the total capital, surplus, rate of gain, 

 dividends, etc. 



Splendid record of cooperation, W. H. Ingling (Amer. Agr., SO (1912), No. 

 12, pp. 437, 449). — An address before the New York State Agricultural Society 

 iu which are pointed out the causes of the formation of the Monmouth County 

 Farmers' Exchange of New Jersey, what methods the association has followed, 

 and what results have been attained. The exchange was organized in 1908, 

 with a capital of $7,000 and a membership of 350. The first year's business 

 amounted to $454,414, and the records for 1909 show a capital stock of $74,245; 

 a surplus of $16,831, with undivided profits of $7,612, after a dividend of 5 per 

 cent had been paid ; and a membership of 1,045. 



Agricultural societies and cooperative credit banking, D. T. Jones (Co- 

 operation [Minneapolis], 4 (1912), No. 3, pp. 89-91). — The material progress of 

 the cooperative movement iu Great Britain is here noted. The sales of the 

 wholesale societies, as reported by the central board of the cooperative con- 

 gress, increased from about $70,000,000 in 1895 to over $171,000,000 in 1910 ; the 

 sales from the retail societies from $170,000,000 to $359,000,000, the profits being 

 854.691,655. The sales of the agricultural society amounted to $20,196,790 

 during 1909, an increase of 214 per cent o^-er sales for 1899. 



It is significantly stated that the movement has enabled one-half of the 

 country's population to succeed, through cooperation in production and distri- 

 bution, in reducing the cost of living at least 15 per cent. 



Statistics of agricultural cooperative credit societies in England and Wales 

 (Bd. Agr. and Fisheries [London], Leaflet 260, pp. S). — This leaflet presents 

 notes and statistics of agricultural cooperative societies in England and Wales, 

 but deals only with societies which confine their operations to the granting of 

 loans to small farmers. At the end of 1910 there were in England and Wales 

 40 such societies, 31 of which, according to the annual returns, had a member- 

 ship of 663 and had made 119 loans aggregating £1,390 during the year. The 

 rate of interest charged ranged from 4 to 6 per cent. 



An outline of the European cooperative credit system (Intcrnat. Inst., Agr. 

 [Rome], Pamphlet, 1912, Feh. 28, pp. 62).— This pamphlet presents information 

 concerning the organization and work of the KaifCeisen and Schultze-Delitzsch 

 banks and other systems of cooperative credit for agricultural purposes In 

 various countries. 



The total business done by one of the above named banks In Germany alone 

 in 1909 was 6,537.075,959 marks ($1,557,293,580), while the total business done 

 by the other in 1910 was 13,566.182,463 marks. 



Observations on European agriculture, G. S. Fraps (Texas Sta. Bui. U^, 

 pp. 5-35, figs. ;6).— This bulletin presents a description of Fonie observations 

 on European agriculture made by the author on a trip through Scotland, Eng- 

 land, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, HoUaud, and Belgium in 1911. 



