36 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



48,505 members ; and there were also 56 rabbit-improve- 

 ment societies, with 1,116 members. Poultry societies 

 totalled 148, with 6,820 members ; and of bee-keepers' 

 societies there were 197, with 5,032 members. 



The 1,142 voluntary cattle-insurance societies had 101,700 

 members on December 3ist, 1909, and the number of cattle 

 insured was 294,583. There are also horse, goat, and pig 

 insurance societies. 



Raiffeisen banks in Belgium numbered 614 in 1908. They 

 are grouped into regional federations, forming seven central 

 banks. These central banks are the intermediaries through 

 which the General Savings Bank can, in accordance with the 

 powers granted to it, distribute credit to the rural banks, 

 the central banks in turn guaranteeing the engagements 

 of the local banks with the General Savings Bank. They 

 also control the local banks and receive the surplus funds of 

 some in order to grant loans from this source also to 

 others. The loans to members of the rural banks amounted 

 in 1909 to 373,900. 



An especially important feature of the situation in Belgium 

 is afforded by the great federations with which the smaller 

 societies are almost invariably connected. 



To the federation known as the " Boerenbond," founded 

 in 1890 by the Abbe Mallaerts, " Father of the Peasants," 

 there are now affiliated 531 local associations, with 44,500 

 members. It claims to have undertaken the threefold 

 mission of (i) the defence of the religious, moral and material 

 interests of the peasants ; (2) the promotion of agricultural 

 legislation ; and (3) the advance of agricultural organisa- 

 tion ; and in the carrying out of this programme it seeks to 

 interest itself in everything that concerns agriculture and 

 the agricultural community. Among other things it pub- 

 lishes reviews, arranges lectures, holds conferences, conducts 

 departments for collective purchase and sale, has a labora- 

 tory for the analysis of agricultural commodities, equips 

 and inspects dairies, supplies agricultural machines, creates 

 credit societies, organises agricultural insurance, holds 

 holiday courses for managers and others connected with 



