INFORMATION RPXATING TO CO-OtERATION AND ASSOCIATION 25 



such committee to meet at least once a month and to call a general meet- 

 ing of shareholders when they deemed it necessary. 



The amount realized on the allotment of shares was £7. All the 

 seed had been sown on 6 November 1915. The seed used was 126 stone 

 of "White Standup " and " Garton's Victor" — 18 stone to the statute 

 acre — and cost eight guineas. Lime for the land at is. ^d. a hundred- 

 weight cost £1. i8s. 8d. Basic slag at £3. i6s. 6d. a ton cost six guineas. 

 The labour, which might in other societies have been carried out by the 

 members themselves, was a heavy burden. Harrowing and sowing cost 

 £10. 7s. ^d ; the hire of a reaper and binder with extra men and horses 

 £4. i8s. 6d ; rolling the wheat 8s. 6d., stooking £1. 2s. lod. ; and thresh- 

 ing £8. 13s. 8^. The society's total expenditure was £58. 6s. 3 ^ W. 



The total jdeld of grain was 1,052 stone and the total yield of straw 

 8 ton. 17 cwt. 2 qurs. 16 lbs. The grain was divided among the members, 

 37 Yo stone to each. The straw was sold and realized about £ig.i2s ; 

 while some damaged wheat, sold at 6d. a stone, fetched i6s., and £2 was 

 realized b^^ letting the grazing. The society's total receipts were £64. 

 8s. gd. After all expenses had been met each member received 37 ^2 stone 

 of wheat, and there was a surplus of £6. 2S. 5 ^/g d. which it was intended 

 to reserve but which was divided among the members because the new 

 constitution was about to be adopted. 



The example of this society ought to stimulate labourers and artisans 

 in other parts of Ireland to imitation. It will not be easy to rent land at 

 £2 an acre, but even had the Foynes Society paid a higher rent they 

 would have made a profitable experiment. 



NORWAY. 



THE AGRICUI^TURAIv CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT. — International Co-operative Bul- 

 letin, No. 2, loth year, lyondon, February 1917. 



The Landusholdningsselskapernes Faelleskjoh, the central co-opera- 

 tive agricultural association of Norway for collective purchase, began work 

 only in 1896 ; although the joint purchase of artificial manure and fodder 

 was undertaken by individual farmers' societies in the country as early as 

 1890. The central association developed rapidly, its turnover increasing 

 from 411,980 crowns (i) in 1897-1898 to 14,292,077 crowns in 1915-1916. 

 At first it confined itself to supplying manure and fodder ; but before long 

 it also undertook the suppl3^ of seeds, machinery, agricultural implements, 

 iron wire, hedge-poles, petroleum and other articles. It set up a seed- 

 cleaning department, a mill at Kambo and a machinery department, and 

 in 1906 it built its first warehouse which was soon followed by several 

 others. 



(i) I crown of gold = 1.0112s at par. 



