EXAMPLES FROM OTHER LANDS 37 



agricultural concerns, gives legal assistance, watches over 

 the management of affiliated societies, affords expert guid- 

 ance in cattle-breeding, interests itself in farm-women's 

 clubs, seeks to check the exodus from the country districts, 

 and does good work in many other ways besides. 



Purchases made by the federation in 1910, on account of 

 its branches, included the following : Fertilisers, £69,334 ; 

 feeding stuffs, £352,328 ; seeds, £5,670 ; and agricultural 

 machinery, £3,016. 



Of Raiffeisen banks affiliated to the Boerenbond in 1909 

 there were 297, with 21,495 members. 



The Agricultural Federation of East Flanders, founded in 

 1891, comprises 275 societies, with over 30,000 members. 

 Constituting the head-quarters of all agricultural co-operative 

 work in the province, it occupies itself with every agricul- 

 tural interest, and carries on an active propaganda by means 

 of pamphlets and a publication of its own, but more 

 especially by frequent lectures. 



West Flanders has also an Agricultural Federation of 

 72 societies, with over 7,000 members. In addition to 

 collective purchase, the Federation organises about 100 

 lectures annually, publishes a weekly organ, issues to members 

 a weekly bulletin giving current prices of fertilisers and 

 feeding stuffs, conducts a students' club for dairy managers, 

 and organises credit, insurance, live-stock, dairy and other 

 co-operative societies. 



Farm-women's Clubs were started in Belgium in 1905 by 

 M. de Vuyst, Inspector-General of Agriculture, who, inspired 

 by what he had seen of Women's Institutes in Canada, 

 established at Leuze, on kindred lines, an organisation 

 which was the first of its kind on the Continent of Europe. 

 In 1910 there were 75 of these clubs in Belgium, with a 

 membership of 7,000. 



M. de Vuyst says, in a book he has published on " Le Role 

 de la Fermiere " (Brussels : Albert de Wit), that the main 

 object of the clubs is to keep fresh the knowledge acquired in 

 the agricultural schools, and to enable their members to 

 become acquainted with the new processes introduced by 



LG3 



