2i8 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



be distinctly borne in mind that Raiffeisen banks are not 

 established with any idea of making a profit. 



Economically, although there is much scope for the 

 agricultural credit system in England and Wales, the actual 

 need for it may not be so great as it is in, say, Germany, 

 India, or Ireland, owing, partly to the better financial 

 position here, class for class, of those concerned, and partly 

 to our own more highly developed joint stock banking 

 system. Experience shows that Raiffeisen banks are 

 generally developed according to the urgency of national 

 requirements, and this urgency may especially depend on, 

 among other factors, the extent to which those it is hoped to 

 benefit may already be in the clutches of usurers. 



Supplementing these social and economic considerations 

 comes that innate conservatism of the British agriculturist 

 which makes him reluctant to adopt new ideas of any kind, 

 and more especially so in regard to an innovation which 

 involves, not only the borrowing of money a procedure 

 which many of his class seem to regard as in itself a moral 

 iniquity but going before his neighbours, explaining to 

 them his needs, and putting himself under an obligation 

 to them for an advance they are to make to him at their 

 joint and individual risk. He has still to be convinced that 

 growing produce or raising stock for sale is a business, and 

 that, under present day conditions, all business enterprises 

 are run on credit. 



SOCIETIES FORMED. 



The number of agricultural credit societies affiliated to 

 the A. O. S. is forty-one, while the amount of business done 

 is not large. Returns in respect to thirty-one societies, 

 summarised in a leaflet (No. 260) issued by the Board of 

 Agriculture, show that at the end of 1910 they had 663 

 members, an average of twenty-one per society ; that during 

 the year they advanced 119 loans to their members, so that 

 less than one in five of the members took out a loan during 

 the year ; that the loans aggregated 1,390 and averaged 

 12 per loan, with a range of from 3 to 40 in individual 



