GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



Prof. Auhagen was followed by Fraulein Gertrud Dyhrenfurth v:ho 

 spoke of the influence of economic and social conditions on the lives of 

 women in the country. She distinguished many forms of labour, the chief 

 of which are paid field-work, and the work of domestic ser\^ants {Batiern- 

 mdgde) in the houses of farmers. Such servants generally belong to the 

 families of labouring men, but the daughters of small proprietors also go 

 into service either for the sake of wages, or to be trained under strangers. 

 The standard of liAdng is generally satisfactory, but girls often long 

 for the city because of a dislike to certain kinds of agricultural labour, 

 and because life in a city offers more attractions, and more chances of 

 marrying. 



Fraulein Dyhrenfurth said that in general farm work was suitable for 

 women, offering them physical health as w^ell as wholesome moral surround- 

 ings, and at present a good prospect of earning money. To check emigration 

 from the fields she recommended a series of agricultural reforms through 

 which young women in the country might receive a better spiritual, moral 

 and technical education, more amusement and the possibility of rising 

 both socially and economically. The married woman should receive protec- 

 tion and help as a mother, with time and preparation for the care of a 

 family, and the possibility of working successfully some small business 

 of her own. With this end in view, the following conditions should 

 be realised: (i) Regular hours for the work of girls, and compulsory 

 attendance at a technical school: (2) Restriction of the paid work of married 

 women in the interest of their own farms : (3) Facilitation of the purchase 

 of property {Heimstdtten) and construction of small houses with land 

 for letting ; (4) Systematic organisation of benevolent institutions, care 

 and vigilance on the part of w^omen over their houses ; (5) Institution 

 of protection for mothers by means of sickness insurance societies, and 

 the organisation of a system of nursing at home ; (6) Constitution of 

 societies of housewives connected with societies of domestic servants (regis- 

 try offices and arbitration commissions, half the members to be employers 

 and half of them employees etc.) ; (7) The representation of women's 

 interests in all agricultural corporations. 



* 

 2. — Constitution of the society for the encouragement of 



THE CUIvTiVATlON AND UTII^ISATION OF POTATOES [Gesellschaft ZUr 



Forderung des Baues und der wirtschaftlich zi&eckmdssigefL Verwendung 

 der Kartoffeln). — Agreements for regulating production and sale, so 

 frequent in manufacturing enterprises, are seldom entered into by agricul- 

 turists, chiefly because the amount of agricultural produce is dependent 

 on natural causes and not alone on human will; also because the large 

 number of farms does not favour understandings among prodvicers. At- 

 tempts made in this direction are worthy therefore of careful consider- 

 ation, especially when their aim reaches beyond the particular advant- 



