— 44 — 



on the turning out of stallions, bulls, buck-goats and rams to graze upon 

 the common pastures, and an act of August 20th 1915 regarding lia- 

 bility for injury to cattle by dogs. 



Finally may be mentioned the Act of May 8th 1913 regarding the 

 marking and colouring of foreign seeds. 



Concerning the special forest laws see page 35. 



Co-operation, Credit System and Insurance System. 



Co-operation in its various forms has of late years made considerable 

 progress. A special and comparatively old form of c 0-0 p e r a t i o n 

 for selling purposes we have in the creameries and cheese- 

 faatories, of which there are about 500 in existence. These are formed 

 by combination of farmers on an entirely co-operative basis, and they 

 have been of very great importance as an economic factor in agricul- 

 ture. 



Of other co-operative undertakings for selling purposes may be 

 mentioned the joint slaughterhouses, the co-operative societies for the 

 sale of eggs and those for the sale of timber. 



For joint purchase of artifical manure, concentrated cattle- 

 food, machines and other articles for use in agriculture there are in 

 operation throughout the country districts 6 co-operative purchasing 

 societies with their subordinate branches. There are in existence 2250 

 of such subordinate purchasing societies with a total membership of 

 about 75,000. The total turn-over in 1920 was about 65 million kroner. 



Credit System. 



The arrangements for the granting of loans are, relativelv speaking, 

 well organised. It is comparatively easy for the farmers to raise the 

 loans necessary for their operations. Mor'tgage loans are granted by 

 »Kongeriget Norges Hypothekbank« (The Kingdom of Norwav's Mort- 

 gage Bank) and by »Den norske Stats smaabruk og boligbank« (The Nor- 

 wegian State Bank for Smallholders and Dwellings), both of which are 

 state institutions, as well as by the various public funds. There has, 

 besides, been lately established a co-operative bank with the same object, 

 namely : »Norges kreditforening for land og skogbruk« The Norwegian 

 Credit Association for Land and Forestry). 



A large proportion of the credit requirements of agriculture is 

 satisfied by the savings-banks, which in Norway have a wider sphere of 

 action than savings-bank and similar institutions abroad. Our sa- 

 vings-banks have most resemblance to the Swedish »folkbanker« (People's 

 Banks). Like the latter they provide for several kinds of activity. They 



