64 FRANCE 



599,000. Included in this total were 6,238 

 women. 



In the same year that the Union Centrale was 

 formed there was also established a Syndicat 

 Central des Agriculteurs de France, which 

 opened an office in Paris (1) to facilitate the 

 sale of agricultural products ; and (2) to further 

 group the orders for agricultural necessaries 

 collected and combined by the different federa- 

 tions of syndicates from the individual associa- 

 tions, purely commercial purposes such as these 

 being considered beyond the scope of the Union 

 Centrale. No great degree of success has been 

 obtained by this Syndicat Central in regard to 

 the sale of agricultural products, but the pur- 

 chases it effects amount to about £2,000,000 

 a year. This, however, does not represent any- 

 thing like the sum total of the business done by 

 the associations as a whole, many of them pur- 

 chasing through their provincial unions, or group- 

 ing their orders locally. There are twenty-five 

 associations alone whose purchases represent a 

 grand total of £900,000 ; and it is calculated 

 that the money spent by the whole of the asso- 

 ciations would amount to £8,000,000 a year. 



Such, in fact, is the magnitude of the orders 

 given under the " grouping " system that in cer- 

 tain commodities the agricultural associations 



