MISCELLANEOUS NEWS 33 



communal, intercommunal and provincial consortiums among the owners 

 of farms on which plants are diseased. 



The formation of these consortiums must be initiated by the executive 

 committee of the commune or the province, according as the consortiums are 

 commimal, intercommunal or provincial, if request is made by enough pro- 

 prietors to represent at least one half of the cultivated area to which the 

 protective action is to extend. Such formation may even be made com- 

 pulsory by the prefect, with the advice of the executive committee, or 

 the executive committees of the communes, or again by that of the province 

 " when the want of a consortium constitutes a danger for the agricultural 

 interests and for the territory. " 



These consortiums will have power to collect an annual contribution, of 

 at most 5 frs. per ha., from the proprietors concerned within their districts. 

 In making out the list of contributions and collections of members' contrib- 

 utions, application shall be made of the provisions of the laws in force 

 relating to the collection of direct taxes, including those concerned with fiscal 

 privileges. 



(Summarised from the Gazzetta del Regno d'ltalia, Rome, no. 195, August 21st,, 1913). 



* * 



3. — The number of the agricultural co-operative and mutual 

 SOCIETIES IN Italy. — The General Confederation of Italian Agricultural 

 and Mutual Societies recently published a list of these societies. We see 

 from it that there are in Italy 5,249 Agricultural Co-operative and 1,055 

 Agricultural Mutual Societies, distributed as follows : 



Agricultural Co-operative Societies. 



Agricultural Consortiums and Purchase Societies . . 1,162 



Rural Co-operative Banks 2,094 



Wine Making and Viticultural Co-operative Societies 218 



Co-operative Dairies ^^.097 



Consortiums for Stallions 27 



Collective Farms 187 



Co-operative Superphosphate Factories 14 



Miscellaneous Co-operative Societies 450 



Total . . . 5,249 



Agricultural Mutual Societies. 



Mutual Fire Insurance Societies 250 



Mutual Livestock " " 799 



Mutual Accident " " 4 



Miscellaneous Mutual Societies 2 



1.055 



