ELECTRIC POWER FOR COUNTRY DISTRICTS 



from place to place and the variet3^ of ptirposes which they serve. ,Xor 

 must we forget the importance of electricity for purposes of illumination: 

 if even the economic advantage as a means of saving were uncertain, the 

 Hghting of the farmer's house, yard, cattle stall, barn and cellar b}^ elec- 

 tricity certainly presents many advantages and many evident conveniences. 



The reasons we have briefly given have led in recent years to the 

 rapid spread of the employment of electric power in the country districts. 

 According to a statistical return published by the Federation of German 

 Electrical Engineers, on April ist., 1911, there were altogether 2,700 

 electric workshops supplying electric power for not less than 11,000 

 localities. There were at the same date 698 in course of construction or the 

 construction of which had been decided on. The above figures include, 

 besides workshops supplying electric current, also many installations of 

 plant for distribution of electric power, especially co-operative societies, 

 which have been formed in large number for the supply of villages ^\dth 

 current {Leitungsgenossenschaften) . 



Two years ago, the Xational Federation prepared a report on the supplj 

 of electricity to the country districts and the results were reproduced 

 in iSIo. 6 (March 30th., 1912) of the Deutsche landwirtschaftlichc Genossen- 

 schafispresse. From this report it was seen that there was a tendency 

 gradually prevailing in favour either of the construction of large central 

 works for the supply of electric power to very large districts or of the 

 conversion of the already existing minor installations into such central 

 works. Xor are there wanting workshops supplying a single commune 

 or a few conterminous communes, but, as a general rule, these, on 

 account of the comparatively high cost of their installation or working, 

 cannot stand out against the competition of the central societies, which 

 supply immense districts, generating electric power at a very low price, 

 in immense stations. There is no doubt that future progress will 

 especially tend, either by the transformation of installations already 

 existing or by the foundation of new ones, to the establishment of such 

 central works serving large areas. Naturally, they are most widely foimd 

 in regions where the population is densest and industrially most advanced, 

 in Lentral, Western and Southern Germany. The provinces of Saxony. 

 Westphalia and the Rhine especially, as also the Rhenish Palatinate, the 

 Kingdom of Saxony and Baden, have a large number of such central 

 electric works, and there also the largest number of proposals for new 

 installations or for the transformation of electric workshops already exist- 

 ing are put forward. It is, however, worthy of consideration that even 

 in purely agricultural districts, like Pomerania, very considerable progress 

 has been made in regard to the supply of electric power to the rural 

 districts. There are not only central societies of co-operative form at 

 Besswitz, Lottin and Schoschow, but a systematic transformation is in 

 course of being carried out by means of large central societies limited bu 

 shares for areas including several districts. 



The funds are obtained by the province, the district {Kreise) con- 

 cerned and the consumers, each undertaking a third of the cost of the 



