250 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



find neighbours to vouch for his honesty and good conduct. 

 Unhmited liability enabled him to do that. A £200 

 liability would have left his labour barren. And unhmited 

 liability, the knowledge that every member is liable up to 

 the hilt for any default which may occur in the account of 

 any other member, makes every one careful to scrutinise 

 newcomers searchingly, to elect only trustworthy persons, 

 to select Committee men with discrimination, to limit credit 

 to the right sort of purposes and to insist upon proper 

 repayment. And that is really the main object for which 

 such liability has been resorted to. 



One cannot see how in any other way the object aimed 

 at could have been attained. 



A curious hybrid institution in Germany has attracted 

 the favourable attention of one writer on the subject in 

 this country. In Pomerania and in the Prussian province 

 of Saxony there are a limited number of agricultural credit 

 societies, nominally of the Raiffeisen type, which after a 

 fashion limit liability. That was done to propitiate the 

 junker squires who — wrongly — desired to appear to be 

 favouring the societies without being put to any trouble 

 or risk. Ordinarily men of some wealth, of status, and of 

 business experience are most welcome in such societies, 

 although they are not indispensable. But that is not so 

 much on account of their better command of credit as on 

 account of the useful counsel and vigilance which, with their 

 larger experience, they may contribute. If they really 

 desire to help the society, they ought to give their service 

 (which is not exacting) as well as their credit. If that is 

 too much for them they had best content themselves with 

 making a deposit. It is quite true, as is urged in praise of 

 these " limited " societies, that they have managed to 

 attract a satisfactory amount of deposits. But that is not 

 the sole test of the value of a credit society. In other respects 

 the result of their labours exposes the faultiness of their 

 system. Above all things they are not " co-operative "in 

 character. The " co-operative spirit," as Raiffeisen com- 

 plained, is wanting in them. Herr Haas himself, the chief of 

 the Union to which these societies are attached, has expressed 



