COLLECTIVE DAIRIES 



good. These dairies tend therefore to be transformed and to be organized 

 industrial!}'. The transformation is usually spontaneous for these soci- 

 eties already possess the elements from which a modern co-operative dairy, 

 the third form of collective dairy, can be born. This third form has the 

 following characteristics : milk is treated in common with implements and 

 means owned in common by a single cheesemaker to whom the handling 

 of the products is entrusted ; and the products, instead of being shared 

 in kind, are — since turns have been eliminated — preserved on the soci- 

 ety's premises and sold on the societ3^'s behalf to members or others. The 

 members share the products of sales proportionately to the milk they have 

 supplied and similarly bear the costs of the enterprise. They have a di- 

 rect interest in the realization of profits and are therefore bound to watch 

 the conduct of the enterprise. 



It should be noted further that a collective dair^^ sometimes arises 

 from a union of small inilk producers to whom association is a technical 

 necessity, and sometimes from a union of medium or large producers for 

 whom it is merely a means of obtaining larger profits. In both cases some 

 societies apph' co-operative principles in their integrity, so that there are 

 no members who do not furnish milk, while in others co-operative princi- 

 ples are attenuated so that members who are only capitalists are admitted. 



As regards their form, collective dairies in Italy are for the most part 

 still free. If they are legally constituted their form is generally that of 

 limited liabiUty co-operative societies and they have a share-capital subscrib- 

 ed by the producers of milk themselves. They also undertake the sale 

 of products. The installation of premises for the treatment of milk is 

 accomplished, and necessary material obtained, by borrowing from finan- 

 cial societies or capitalists. The members furnish the milk, as to the 

 amount of which they agree, settlement for any balance furnished being made 

 at the end of the year. Profits are distributed in proportion to the amount 

 of milk supplied, after a part has been deducted to form the share-capital 

 and the reserve and to amortize the costs of installation. The society is 

 directed by an administrative council constituted by a group of members 

 whose task it is to superintend the technical and economic progress of the 

 business. 



§ 2. Data akd information as to collective dairiics in italy. 



In the first place how many collective dairies are there in Italy ? What 

 is the number of their members and how nmch milk do they treat 

 altogether ? We are not in a position to answer these questions exactly 

 for there are no reliable statistics as to these organizations. 



According to the data of the Unione nazionale delle lattene sociali, there 

 are 1,123 of these dairies, distributed as follows: Venetia455, Piedmont 358, 

 lyombardy 219, EmiUa 73, Liguria 6, Central and Southern Italy and the 



