MISCEI.I.ANEOUS INF0R]VL\TI0N REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION 

 AND ASSOCIAITON IN VARIOUS COUNTRIJiS. 



FRANCE. 



THE CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES FOR THE CUI^TIVATION OF ABANDONED 

 I,ANDS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF DESTROYED VI1,I.AGES. — Comptes 

 rendus des seances de I'Academie d'Agriciilture de France {Reports of the Meetings of the 

 Academy of Agriculture of France). Vol. Ill, No. 21, Paris, 6 Jvuie 1917. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Agriculture of France, held on the 

 6th of last June, M. Ivouis Tardy gave precise data as to the activity exer- 

 cised by co-operative societies for the cultivation of abandoned lands, par- 

 ticularly in the department of Haute-Garonne. 



These co-operative societies are formed among all agriculturists who 

 cede to a society the lands they can tio longer cultivate owing to difficulties 

 caused by the war. The object of the societies is the cultivation in com- 

 mon of the properties and lands, their best utilization and the sale of their 

 products under the direction of the departmental Committee for the Cul- 

 tivation of Abandoned lands. 



The co-operative societies which have commissioned this committee 

 to cultivate lands on their behalf now number seven in Haute Garonne. 

 They group 155 members who contribute from 15 to 200 hectares (i) each, 

 and 2,061 hectares in all. Their constitution is civil in form ; their dura- 

 tion is limited to that of the war ; each is administered by an administra- 

 tive council having at least three members elected by the general meeting 

 and renewable every year. This council nominates its president who 

 represents the society in all its civil and jurisdictory relations. 



Every year in December a general meeting is held to which is submit- 

 ted all the society's business in the past year, that is to say in the agricul- 

 tural year which begins on i November and ends on 31 October. 



The balance-sheet is inspected by the departmental committee, and 

 when it has been adopted profits and losses are divided as follows. In the 

 case of profits one half is distributed among all the members in. the order 

 of the priority of their admission while the other half constitutes a fund held 

 in common by the society in question and others like it within the depart- 

 ment. This fund covers losses on their business which certain of these so- 

 cieties, showing a deficit, may have suffered ; and its balance is distributed 

 among similar societies in the department, in the order of their importance, 

 and within each one of them among the members in the order of the prio- 

 rity of their admission. If the reserve funds are insufficient to cover the losses 



(i) I hectare = 2.47 acres. 



