SMALL RURAL INDUSTRIES I43 



Let US finally mention, among the industries connected with livestock 

 improvement, the utilisation of milk products. All the peasants use the 

 milk they have over for making soft cheese or cream, but their income from 

 this source is never very high. 



§ 6. Tapestry making. 



Far more important is the manufacture of carpets, tapestry etc. These 

 manufactures, in virtue of their quahty and value for decorative purposes, 

 are becoming more and more widely known and sought after for carpets, table 

 covers, coverlets, cushions, hangings, curtains, etc. The Mohammedans 

 use them to decorate their mosques. On national or reUgious festivals, 

 balconies of houses, triumphal arches and even carriages are hung with them. 

 The principal centre of the manufacture is the very poor and very mountain- 

 ous district of Pirot, a town in the South East of Servia, near the Bulgarian 

 frontier. Since 1894, a commercial society has been buying the tapestry 

 at the peasants' houses in the most remote villages, and arranging the sale 

 of it. Its business amounts altogether to about 100,000 francs. Eight 

 ^j-ears later, the Pirot Tapestry Co-operative Society was founded with the 

 object of extending and regulating the production and improving the 

 quality. This society is organized on the basis of collective production 

 and profit sharing in proportion to production. Its share capital is 

 30,000 francs, but the State has granted it a loan of 50,000 frs., not to bear 

 interest for ten years and to be repaid at the convenience of the society. 

 The women who make the carpets become members by taking a 50 fr. 

 share, which is liberated by means of instalments of 25 centimes a week. 

 They must be accepted by the managing committee. The amount of work 

 ■^^ey have to furnish is not limited. The society, which has its own dyeworks, 

 n^ 'id.es the w^ool and advances the women what they require for the 

 pUi chase of the material for their work. 



The Pirot Society only sells wholesale. On the other hand, the Tapestry 

 Workshop School, founded in the same locaUty by the Belgrade Women's 

 Association, accepts private orders, which it has executed by its pupils, 

 about thirty in number. The two organizations mutually complete each 

 other. Our readers will not fail to observe the profound resemblances 

 with the attempt recently made in France by M. Maurice Eenaille 

 {see Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence,May,igi2. page i^g), in an 

 equally mountainous and poor region. In two countries, of very different 

 social conditions however, the same causes have produced the same effects. 



ALFREDO RUGGERI, gerente responsabile. 



