Miscellaneous. 394 [June 1907. 



Besides the associations formed to promote the interests of agriculturists in 

 general, there are many which apply to special industries, such as the syndicate 

 formed at Rennes by a group of cider-makers, with others organized by market 

 gardeners, nurserymen, the growers of vines, beet-root, tobacco, and medicinal 

 plants, bee-keepers, etc. Such organisations seek to promote the general interests 

 of the industries concerned by means alike of spreading technical information, 

 grouping purchase of necessaries, facilitating the sale of products, or making joint 

 representation in case ol need on the subject of market tolls, railway rates, etc. 



Germany. 



Turning to Germany, Mr Pratt observes that at the time of the general 

 depression, the agriculturists there had the advantage of a system of protective 

 tariffs which gave them a greater chance of preserving their own considerable home 

 markets for themselves, than was the case with agriculturists in free-trade England. 

 The German agriculturist also enjoyed exceptional advantages under the thorough- 

 going system of agricultural instruction which had been established in the country 

 for several years past, and from the discoveries of agricultural chemistry in regard 

 not only to the application of artificial manures, but to the use of agricultural 

 products in various industries, such as the use of beet-rooo for the manufacture of 

 sugar, of potatoes for the production of a spirit used for driving motors and engines, 

 for lighting, heating, cooking, etc. No fewer thaa 14,000,000 tons of beet-root, 

 representing a value of £12,000,000 are used in Germany in the course of a year in the 

 manufacture of sugar and the production of these supplies for an industry that is 

 the direct outcome of scientific research is a valuable set-off against possible dep- 

 ression in other branches of agriculture. Still more remarkable is the production of 

 potatoes which amounted to a total of 48,500,000 tons in 1901, of which about one- 

 half is used for other purposes than human consumption, viz., for distillation 

 purposes, manufacture of starch syrup, starch sugar, feeding of cattle, etc. Not- 

 withstanding these advantages, however, the agriculturists found themselves placed 

 in a difficult position in the time of their depression. Science could teJl the farmer 

 what it would pay him best to produce and how to secure big crops ; but it left him 

 to his own resources in the way of raisiug money and of selling his crops to the best 

 advantage. Falling prices and other adverse circumstances had so far decreased 

 the available funds of the farmer that it was difficult enough for many of them to 

 carry on their ordinary operations in their ordinary way, year by year, without 

 embarking on those wider undertakings or those more costly methods which agri- 

 cultural science was opening out to them. In these conditions, it often enough 

 became a matter of urgent importance to the farmer that he should raise a loan 

 which would enable him to carry on until he obtained a return from his crops. Such 

 a loan might make all the difference between comparative success and absolute 

 failure. But while the ordinary banks were ready enough to advance money to a 

 landowner who could give them a mortgage on his estates, they were reluctant to 

 make advances to individual farmers on nothing but their personal security, and 

 their reluctance increased in exact proportion to the growing needs of those who 

 wished to borrow. The way out of the difficulty was found by a resort to the co- 

 operative credit bank system under which the joint credit of the whole of the 

 members of an association is used for the purpose of borrowing money. Once the 

 possibilities of co-operation were fully recognised, these credit banks spread rapidly 

 and they were soon followed by special agricultural societies for the purchase of 

 artificial manures, feeding-stuffs, machinery, tools, coal, etc., which aggregated over 

 1,000. Of production and selling societies (representing, among other branches, 

 societies for the sale of seed, fruit, vegetables, and produce of all kinds ; silo societies ; 

 the German Spirit Syndicate ; and societies for the sale of cattle,) there were 669. 

 Of dairy produce societies there were 1,682. There are also co-operative societies 



