THE RURAL PROBLEM 79 



1908 effected purchases to the extent of £2,000,000 a year. 

 In certain commodities the various agricultural associations 

 control the market and have brought about a decrease of 

 nearly 50 per cent, in the price of fertilisers, while enor- 

 mously increasing their use.* 



In Belgium there were at the end of 1910 1,237 purchase 

 societies, with a membership of 73,957 ; and, moreover, 

 they invest large sums in costly machinery and let it out 

 to their members. The total purchases in 1910 amounted 

 to over 18,000,000 francs. In Poland the same is the case, 

 the charge being from 2d. to 5d. for a plough, from 5d. to 

 2s. for winnowers, from 2s. to 2s. 6d. for drills. The societies 

 in Poland buy manures and seeds at moderate rates and 

 sell to members again on credit at only 5 per cent, advance 

 on store prices. In Italy the first syndicate was formed in 

 1887 on the French model and others followed quickly, 

 but their dealings are not nearly so extensive as in France. 

 In Holland (1,400 societies in 1913), Sweden, and Hungary 

 the purchase movement is on the increase; and even in 

 Switzerland, where it roused the opposition of traders 

 through dealing in domestic articles, the number of societies 

 was 643 in 1912, as against 521 five years before. In 

 Finland a Central Co-operative Commercial Bureau was 

 started in 1901, and the movement spread even to Lapland, 

 within the Arctic circle. In Servia the business of pur- 

 chasing is principally undertaken by the agricultural credit 

 banks, which not only receive deposits and make loans to 

 the formers, but act as supply associations as well. 



Even the briefest sketch of the operations of the co- 

 operative movement abroad makes it clear that there are 

 few civilised countries where so much remains to be done in 

 that direction as in England. But the following paragraph, 

 taken from the last published report of the Agricultural 

 Organisation Society, shows both the extent and the pro- 

 gress of the work of the trading societies here : 



' Among the larger trading societies the Eastern Counties 

 Farmers' Association, with a turnover of £258,378,t still 



* The information obtainable about co-operation in France is notice- 

 ably incomplete as compared with other countries. 



t £278,031 for 1912. 



