592 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



carried out by harrowing. . . . The use of contact beds does not appear prom- 

 ising, whereas sand beds may be used to great advantage where sand is avail- 

 able in sufficient quantity and at sufficiently low cost." 



It is concluded that the problem of cannery waste disposal in this particular 

 instance has been adequately solved by the use of broad irrigation beds. " On 

 the other hand, such methods must be regarded as of special applicability, de- 

 pendent upon the availability of suitable soil, and it must be emphasized that 

 no specific problem of cannery waste can be properly solved without taking due 

 cognizance of local conditions." 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



Agricultural cooperation and rural credit in Europe (U. 8. Senate, 63. 

 Cong., 2. Scss., Doc. 261 (WW, pts. 1, pp. 29; 2, pp. i5).— Part 1 of this report 

 is a summary and digest of the information and evidence secured by the 

 American Commission (E. S. R., 28, p. 301), and describes the general agricul- 

 tural conditions in Europe, long, short-term, and cooperative credit, cooperation 

 in production and distribution, and the organization of agriculture and rural 

 life. Among the conclusions of the commission are the following : 



" One of the most pressing economic needs of American agriculture is the 

 opportunity to secure, on better terms than at present prevail, the necessary 

 capital, and, consequently, the necessary credit demanded by modern conditions 

 of farming. In order that there may be a uniform and nation-wide system of 

 long-term credit, it would seem wise to secure the enactment of a federal law 

 permitting the organization of farm-land banks, either on the joint-stock or the 

 cooperative plan, authorized to issue long-time bonds secured by farm mortgages, 

 required to do business on a narrow margin of profit, to allow payment of 

 principal on the amortization plan, and carefully and fully supervised by the 

 federal government. There is no objection whatever to the enactment of proper 

 legislation by the different States for this same purpose. 



" In case the existing system of banks — national, state, savings, and private — 

 is not able or not disposed to gi'ant farmers increased and more liberal facili- 

 ties for procuring short-time loans, there should be enacted state laws permit- 

 ting the organization of cooperative credit associations by means of which 

 the farmers of a given community may be enabled to meet their own needs for 

 short-term or personal credit. 



" Every encouragement should be given the movement for organizing other 

 forms of cooperative endeavor among farmers. This movement should proceed 

 cautiously but rapidly. The main reliance of the American farmers in meeting 

 economic disadvantages and handicaps jnust be their own intelligence and their 

 capacity for united action. . . . 



" In order to give national scope and direction to the campaign for rural com- 

 munity building, there should be organized a National Committee on Rural 

 Federation, whose task would be to hold national conferences on rural progress, 

 to seek to unify or correlate the many important and useful agencies already 

 at work for rural advancement, and to give direction to the ultimate welding 

 together, in one great forward-looking movement, of all the forces designed to 

 insure on American soil better farm practice, better farm business, and better 

 farm life." 



Part 2 is a report of the minority members of the American Commission, 

 pointing out that the difference in economic, social, and religious conditions 

 among farmers in European countries prevent the adoption of the European 

 system of agricultural credit in the United States, The minority members out- 

 line a system whereby it is proposed that the farmers cooperate with tie stock- 



