NOTICES RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 

 IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



AUSTRIA. 



BERICHT tJBER DIE TATIGKEIT DER K. K. I^ANDWIRTSCHAFTSGESEI/I^CHAFT 

 IN WIEN wAHREND DER KRIEGSZEIT 1914, 1915 UND 1916 {Report on the Activity 

 of the Imperial and Royal Agricultural Society in Vienna during Wartime 1914, \gi^ and 

 1916). — Published by the Zentral-Ausschuss [Central Council) and edited by the General 

 Secretary', Professor J. Hausler. 43 pp. Vienna 1916. 



Owing to financial reasons and a diminished staff the Imperial and Roy- 

 al Society of'Agriculture of Vienna has suspended for the period of the war 

 the publication of its yearbook, and issued instead a brief report on the so- 

 ciety's activity from the outbreak of war until the end of July 1916. In the 

 first part of this report the activity of the Central Council and the sections 

 is examined, in the second that of the various offices. 



Since the beginning of the war the society has been occupied by ques 

 tions relative to the work necessary to saving the harvests which the lack 

 of labour has jeopardized, and to this end has become part of organisms 

 created by the government, and studied the problems concerned with the 

 production and distribution of cereals and forage. It has attempted to 

 support and represent the interests of agriculturists in face of the numerous 

 decrees and ordinances of an economic character which have so strongly 

 affected rural economy and the circulation of products. In this connec- 

 tion we should notice its efforts to ensure that in the several sowing seasons 

 there should be the necessary quantities of seeds, to assist the transport 

 of beetroot, to secure the supply of milk and other agricultural products, 

 and to fix the price of milk. The society further intervenes in the 

 Ministry of Justice when questions inheient in the rise of prices conse- 

 quent on speculation are at stake. A large sphere for very useful action 

 was provided by the important problem of the rural labour supply. The 

 society was able to act as intermediary between agriculture and the 

 prisoners of war and concentration camps for refugees, thus procuring la- 

 bour. 



The society has also been occupied by the problem of finding homes for 

 soldiers returned from the war {Kriegerheimstatten). The task reserved 

 for agriculture after the war has been lengthily studied from the points 

 of view of legislation, technique and finance. The society's propaganda in 

 favour of the essication of potatoes has also been most useful : here it has 

 been possible even to put schemes into practice, plans and devices for the 

 construction of essicating establishments having been actually executed. 



