Miscellaneous. 



256 



moat is suitable for human consumption it must bi> purchased by members of 

 the society, each contributing to the price a sum proportionate to the number 

 of animals he has insured in the society. In some societies there is. however, 

 no common fund, and then the practice is to compensate the owner of a condemned 

 animal by levying a subscription on all the members to make up its value if 

 the meat has been seized ; or if the meat may be used for food then the society 

 purchases the carcase and distributes the meat amongst the members at an agreed 

 price. In this country so-called "Cow Clubs" are sometimes met with among 

 cottars and farm servants for the purpose of compensating the members in the 

 event of the death of their cows, but unfortunately the custom of keeping cows 

 by cottars is not so common now as formerly, and many cow clubs have been dissolved. 



All the forms of association to which reference has been made have been 

 adopted to a much greater extent by farmers abroad than by the agriculturists 

 of the United Kingdom, and are one important cause of the success of the 

 foreign competition in fresh agricultural' produce, such as butter and eggs, which 

 is now felt to so large an extent by the home producer. The co-operative 

 movement has, however, made much progress amongst Irish farmers since the 

 work of organisation Avas taken up by the Irish Agricultural Organisation 

 Society in 1894. At the end of 1902. there were in Ireland 712 farmers' co-operative 

 societies, with 71,023 members. These included 122 agricultural societies, 334 

 dairy societies and auxiliary creameries, 145 agricultural banks, 31 poultry societies, 

 49 home industries societies, IS bee-keepers' societies, and 13 societies with miscella- 

 neous objects, such as the promotion of the flax industry and fruit growing, 

 and including also three federations of societies. 



The chief function of the agricultural societies in Ireland is the joint 

 purchase of agricultural requisites, especially manures. Some of these societies 

 have also undertaken sales of live stock ; others have been useful in procuring 

 implements and spraying machines, which are hired out to the members at a 

 small charge ; and three have hired grazing lands and let them out at reduced 

 rents to their members. 



The Irish dairy societies or creameries, whose main business is the manufac- 

 ture of butter, are organised on the lines of similar associations in Denmark, 

 and their process of butter-making follows closely the Danish system. Few of 

 the Irish dairy societies were started with sufficient share capital to cover their 

 outlay in buildings and machinery. In many instances, credit was obtained 

 from the contractors, or the extra capital required was raised by means of a 

 loan from a local bank. The shares in the dairies are owned, for the most 

 part, by the members. In some cases, persons who do not keep cows hold shares 

 but they have become shareholders to help the associations as social institutions 

 rather than for the purpose of investment. Shares are usually taken up by 

 farmers in proportion to the number of cows they keep, at the rate of £1 for 

 each animal. This arrangement, however, is not uniform in all the societies. 

 It is the practice to pay for the shares by instalments, generally of five shillings 

 at a time. After the creamery has been started, these instalments are frequently 

 paid in milk : sometimes the member delivers a certain quantity free of charge 

 until the call on the share is paid up. The liability of the farmers is, in all cases, 

 limited to the amount of their shares. 



The accounts for 1900 of 195 of these dairy societies, with a membership 

 of 33,064 showed a paid-up capital of £77,282, and a loan capital of £46,204. The 

 value of their buildings and plant, after allowing for depreciation, was estimated 

 at £130,818. The quantity of milk handled by them in the year was 37,162,000 

 gallons, from which 15,394,5001b. of butter were produced. The average price paid 



