THE SUPPLIES OF CAPITAL 149 



The former has been applied successfully in the meat-producing 

 and dairying industries of several countries, such as Denmark, 

 Germany and New Zealand. Agricultural co-operative societies, 

 by cheapening production and furnishing credit to their members, 

 tend to acquire the strength and stability of a large share-company. 

 Agricultural co-operation is encouraged by governments and other 

 agencies that are interested in the pi ogress of agricultural industries 

 in their respective countries. Unfortunately, however, " generally 

 speaking, farmers will not successfully co-operate until their position 

 becomes unbearable," 1 at any rate, in English-speaking countries. 

 Nevertheless, if the results achieved already in a few notable 

 instances may be taken as a guide, it may be concluded that great 

 advances will be made in the future in all the more intensive 

 branches of farming and especially in animal industries, under the 

 stimulus of co-operation. The most striking form of co-operative 

 enterprise consists in the supply of credit, equivalent in many 

 instances to advances for capital outlays. 2 The advances in this 

 direction are likely to be greatest in the more densely populated 

 countries of European population, where also the consumption of 

 animal foodstuffs is greatest. 



Government assistance, generally involving capital outlays, has 

 made rapid strides in the more advanced agricultural countries in 

 recent times, especially since the close of the 19th century. Apart 

 from tariff legislation, which shows a more or less general tendency 

 to withdraw protection from producers of animal foodstuffs, gov- 

 ernments have found various means of assisting agricultural pro- 

 duction, particularly on the side of animal rearing. 



Some of the more important of these are the establishment of 

 agricultural colleges, the introduction of pedigree "stock, the pro- 

 vision of staffs of veterinary surgeons and of expert advisers for 

 stock-breeders, dairymen and poultry farmers, subsidies to agri- 

 cultural co-operative and credit societies, systematic efforts in 

 eradicating animal diseases, the grading of produce for export, 

 and the construction of railways and other means of transporting 

 and handling produce, worked at specially reduced charges in 

 favour of agricultural producers. Some of the newer predominantly 

 agricultural countries are more advanced in these forms of state 

 subventions than the industrial countries of Western Europe. 



The growth of such forms of government activity, superseding 

 in some measure the protective tariff measures of the 1 9th century, 

 is to be regarded as leading to an increased general yield of food- 

 stuffs in proportion to the occupied area, and cannot fail to have 

 a favourable effect by encouraging the spread of the more inten- 



1 U.S. Yearbook of Agriculture, 1914, p. 191. 



8 Very complete information concerning the progress of agricultural credit 

 societies in many countries are given in the monthly Bulletins of Socidl and 

 Economic Intelligence, published by the International Agricultural Institute. 



Compare also the voluminous report of the American Commission in Europe, 

 Senate Documents, No. 214, Agric. Co-operation and Credit in Europe. 



