28 



while the potato spirits must be refined before it is fit to be 

 drunk. Among industrial distilleries are found two classes, 

 the very small ones and the largest plants in Germany produc- 

 ing up to 21,000 hectoliters, and representing the highest in- 

 dustrial development in the manufacture of alcohol. The 

 number of industrial stills of all kinds in 1899 was 1,226, of 

 which 41 used potatoes, 1,004 grain, 29 molasses and 192 

 other materials. 35 of the potato stills produced amounts not 

 above 100 hectoliters and 2 alone exceeded 1,000 hectoliters. 

 317 of those using grain did not exceed 100 hectoliters. Of 

 the remainder 14 exceeded 5.000 hectoliters and 56 were be- 

 tween 1,000 and 5,000 hectoliters. Xone of the molasses 

 (rum) distilleries were under 100 hectoliters, while 7 exceeded 

 5,000. Xone of the by-product stills have large capacities. 1 

 using brewers' grains reaching 2,000 hectoliters, but only 13 

 of the entire number exceeding 100 hectoliters. Prus-ia con- 

 tains most of the large distilleries or 38 per cent, of all pro- 

 ducing over 500 hectoliters. 



The apparatus used in the majority of the stills is of the 

 simplest kind, only 6.5 per cent, being able to finish the pro- 

 cess of distillation in one operation in 1899. Prussia is much 

 better equipped than any other State, and contains "89 per 

 cent, of all the continuous apparatus. Those in South Ger- 

 many are mostly very primitive. 1 



As might be inferred from the size of the distilleries, the 

 business organization is, with few exceptions, private in char- 

 acter, and the number of corporations and stock company dis- 

 tilleries is very small when compared with the brewing indus- 

 try, which had 425 2 stock companies with a capital invested 

 of over one billion marks in 1899. In 1898 there were only 

 25 distilleries organized as stock companies with a paid up 

 capital of 35 million marks. 



The idea of co-operation, largely borrowed from England, 

 has spread rapidly in Germany in recent years and co-opera- 

 tive societies of various kinds, many aided by the government, 



1. V. j. s. zur. Statistik, 1900 ; vol. 2, p. 134. 



2. Richard Wolf, Jahrbuch fuer die Deutschen Action Brauereien, 1'JOO. 



