THE PEASANTS UNION AND PEASANTS SECRETARIAT IQ 



§ 5. The BU11.DING OFFICE. 



A new institution, which has certainly rendered notable service to 

 Swiss agriculture, was formed last j^ear, namely the Office of Rural 

 Building. 



This office, formed on the model of those existing in Germany, is 

 occupied not only with farm buildings but also with those necessary to the 

 cheesemaking industry. Its activity has the following forms : 

 i) It gives information by word of mouth. 



2) It answers requests for information addressed to the State. 



3) It communicates its observations and proposals, following on 

 investigations made on the spot, by writing or by word of month. 



4) It makes sketches and plans. 



5) It supplies addresses of contractors and those furnishing supplies. 



6) It makes specifications. 



7) It undertakes the superintendence of building. 



8) It verifies building accounts. 



The new office was opened on i January 1917 and necessary rules and 

 a scale of charges will be drawn up for it. 



B. — SECRETARIAT OF SWISS PEASANTS. 



§ I. Programme of work. 



The programme of work laid down by the union for the Secretariat 

 of Swiss Peasants comprised : 



i) Preparations for the revision of commercial treaties. 



2) The question of agricultural labour. 



3) Researches as to the income produced by agriculture. 



4) Researches by means of double-entry book-keeping. 



5) Reorganization of the archives and the library. 



The work concerned with preparations for the revision of the customs 

 tariff was carried on as far as time allowed. 



In the matter of rural labour the secretariat published a fourth part 

 of its work on this subject at the end of 1916. It forms the last chapter 

 of the proposals of the secretariat for the solution of the labour problem 

 and treats of " the reduction of the need for agricultural labour ". There 

 has also been a particularly careful exainination of the opportunities there 

 woidd be for replacing manual agricultural labour by mechanical motive 

 power and for using agricultural implements and machines which would 

 economise labour, the estimated expense of employing motors and machines, 

 as compared with that of human labour, being of course taken as basis. 



Researches as to agricultural yield were made by means of single- 

 entry and double-entry_agricultural book-keeping. The statistics collec- 



