CO-OPERATION FOR SALE OF FARM PRODUCE. 121 



The shares in the creameries are owned for the most 

 part by the members. In some cases persons who do 

 not keep cows hold shares, but they have become share- 

 holders to help the associations as local institutions 

 rather than for the purpose of investment. Shares are 

 usually taken up by farmers in proportion to the number 

 of cows they keep, at the rate of £1 for each animal. 

 This arrangement, however, is not uniform in all the 

 societies. It is the practice to pay for the shares by 

 instalments, generally of five shillings at a time. After 

 the creamery has been started these instalments are 

 frequently paid in milk, either by way of a reduced price 

 being allowed for the whole of the milk delivered or by 

 the member delivering a certain quantity free of charge 

 until the call on the share is paid up. The liability on 

 the farmers is, in all cases, limited to the amount of their 

 shares. 



The dairy societies are registered under the Industrial 

 and Provident Societies Act, and their operations are 

 conducted under rules drawn up in conformity with the 

 provisions of that Act. When they were first started 

 the claim to a share of the profits of non-members supply- 

 ing milk to the creameries was ignored. Most of the 

 societies have now adopted special rules, which provide, 

 after the payment of interest on the share capital of 5 per 

 cent, per annum, and after provision has been made for 

 certain charges and for the reduction in value of the 

 fixed stock and plant, that not less than 10 per cent, of 

 the profits shall be allotted to the employes of the creamery 

 in proportion to the wages earned by them respectively 

 during the period to which the division of the profits 

 relates. The remaining profits arc appropriated to the 

 individuals from whom the society has purchased milk, 

 in proportion to the value of the milk supplied by each 

 during the same period, but an individual who is not a 

 member receives a sum equal to only one-half the amount 

 to which he would have been entitled as a member. The 



