THE DISTRICT OF TRENT, A MODEL CO-OPERATIVE DISTRICT I9 



motion of agriculture at the request of the Government or the Provincial 

 Executive Councils in their several spheres, occupy itself with agricul- 

 tural statistics and keep in correspondence on agricultural matters with 

 the District Agricultural Consortiums and eventually with other societies. 

 The District Agricnltttral Consortiums have the following powers : 

 Of intervention in establishing the subventions to be granted in the 

 district by the State and the Province ; of initiating and promoting instit- 

 utions and measures for the reinforcement and better consolidation of 

 agricultural property in the district and especially promoting more and 

 more the progress of agricultural consortiums in so far as they tend to 

 attain certain objects, such as, for example, personal credit for the farmers, 

 insurance etc., and of co-operating with such institutions in their work; of 

 initiating or co-operating in the promotion of agricultural improvements 

 of public importance and agricultural education. 



In 1897 there were in the district of Trent 27 District Agricultural Con- 

 sortiums with 6,433 members ; in 1908 the Consortiums had increased to 

 30 with 10,611 members ; in 1910 we find 30 consortiums with 12,190 mem- 

 bers ; in 1913 there were 31 with 13,667 members (i). 



* 

 * * 



The merit of having first popularized the idea of co-operation and effect- 

 ively initiated the co-operative movement in the district is rightly to be 

 attributed to the Trent Division of the Provincial Council of Agriculture. 



Already in the first year of its foundation, in 1882, the Division 

 published in its first Agricultural Almanac for 1883 an article on " Land 

 Credit," in which, after describing the situation of the agrictdtural class 

 of the country, it showed the need for Land Credit and proposed its 

 provision on the Raiffeisen system. 



In the Agricultural Almanac for 1884 there appeared a second article 

 explaining, in the popular form of a dialogue, the principles underlying 

 the rules for' the "Social Loan Banks on the Raiffeisen System"; in 

 the Almanac for 1885, finally, the objects and the provisions of the rules of 

 the Central Bank of Agricultural Credit were explained on the same system. 

 The same Almanac contained the translation of the " Model Rules for 

 the Social Loan Banks of Raiffeisen System. " 



These articles aroused keen interest ; ample discussion ensued, in which, 

 however, the idea prevailed that the Raiffeisen system could indeed be 

 fittingly applied among a people like the Germans, but that it was not likely 

 to succeed with other nations or the I^atin race. 



The Trent Division of the Provincial Council of Agriculture, therefore, 

 left public opinion to express itself freely on the important question and foll- 

 owed attentively the proix)sals put forward, not, however, neglecting to 

 keep itself informed of what was happening elsewhere in connection with 



(i) See the Agricultural Almanacs of 1898 (page 456), 1908 (page 569), 1911 (page 599), 

 1914 (page 408). 



