STEAM-THRESHERS FOR SMALL FARMERS 53 



Co-operative Societies for that year to have 

 been £3,500,000. 



Co-operation, again, has been extensively 

 resorted to in Germany in the formation of 

 societies for drainage and irrigation, and es- 

 pecially for the purpose of reclaiming bogs and 

 moorlands. The amount of land so reclaimed 

 in Germany between 1878 and 1893 is estimated 

 at over 700,000 acres, and much of this land, 

 on which nothing but heath had grown before, 

 now ranks as among the most productive soil 

 in the Empire. Still another resort to agri- 

 cultural co-operation in Germany has been in 

 regard to the use of machinery. Recent statis- 

 tics show that steam threshing machines are 

 used there on no fewer than 35,000 farms of 

 less than five acres each. Without co-operation 

 such a thing would be altogether impossible. 

 In some instances the farmers of a particular 

 district will organize a society for the purchase 

 of a steam-plough, letting it out on hire to their 

 neighbours when they are not using it them- 

 selves. Then in the wine districts of Wiirtem- 

 berg the smaller growers — mostly peasants — 

 will have co-operative societies for establishing 

 cellars where the wine juice can be kept until 

 it ferments, better prices being thus obtained 

 when it is sold. 



