IvATIN AM^iKICA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



highest importance for the agricultural and commercial development of the 

 Republic ; the association proposes to give special attention to these prob- 

 lems, particularly with regard to the possible effect the approaching open- 

 ing of the Panama Canal may have on them, as Mexico has a coast Hue 

 of 3,883 miles on the I'acific and the Mexican States on the shores of that 

 Ocean have a population of 5,165,569 inhabitants. 



5. Encouragement of soUdarity and the destruction of provincial 

 prejudices. With this object the asssociation will hold its annual meetings 

 each year in a different region. At these meetings the questions of great- 

 est interest from the agricultural and commercial point of view will be 

 studied, account will be taken of the work accomplished by each Chamber 

 during the year, the programme for collective action during the coming 

 year will be drawn up and the adhering Chamber selected that is to 

 represent the association for the period. 



By means of these meetings the institution hopes to strengthen the 

 bonds uniting the various Chambers, and their members, and put in practice 

 suitable methods in order that good results may be obtained from all the 

 collective undertakings. 



URUGUAY. 



I. — Foundation of the First Rural Bank. — We have already 

 spoken in a previous number of this Bulletin (i) of the difficult situation in 

 which the small farmers and Hvestock improvers of Uruguay find them- 

 selves owing to want of capital. The Government, anxious about the 

 situation, and desiring to introduce agricultural credit on a co-operative 

 basis, has founded a rural credit department at the Bank of the Republic 

 with a capital of 500,000 pesos, to provide cheap credit to farmers asso- 

 ciated for the purpose. 



The first practical result of this was the foundation of the first Rural 

 Bank of Uruguay by a group of farmers of Ciudad de Melo. 



By the law of 19 12 for the foundation of rural banks in the country, 

 they may obtain special loans at 4 V2 % from the rural credit department 

 of the Bank. 



We think it well also to mention that these banks do not limit their oper- 

 rations to the grant of the credit required by their members, but facil- 

 itate the work of production, transformation, preservation and sale of pro- 

 duce derived exclusively from members' farms, as well as the carrying out 

 of agricultural works of collective character. 



The Rural Bank of Ciudad de Melo had at its foundation 30 members. 



It is to be hoped that all the small farmers of the RepubUc will imitate 

 this first group and benefit by all the advantages afforded by association. 



(i) Compare Bulletin of Economic and SociaHnteUigence, September, 191 3: " The I,and 

 Question and Agricultural Credit in Uruguay." 



