Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 148 



[August, 1911. 



employed in the United States for the 

 economical improvement of roads in 

 agricultural districts. In any case, to 

 whatever extent the improvement of a 

 road may have been effected, attention 

 to its proper drainage is a matter of the 

 first importance, if its best condition is 

 to be maintained. 



While mention is being made of 

 roads in connexion with agricultural 

 economics, it may be opportune to 

 attend to the fact that much more use 

 may well be made of means for over- 

 head transport and portable railways. 

 The latter are of particular application 

 on estates already possessing permanent 

 track for purposes like that of cane 

 haulage, and where wide cultivation is 

 practised. They can be made to connect 

 with the permanent lines and form a 

 means of effecting the carriage of estate 

 products from the fields, and of manures 

 to the cultivated areas, with no necessity 

 for transfer, and with the greatest 

 economy in the provision of energy for 

 traction. 



Another matter to which a large 

 amount of attention may well be given 

 is the practice of economy in the con- 

 struction of buildings on estates. There 

 is often a great waste of material when 

 these are being erected on account of a 

 lack of knowledge as to the relation 

 between the size of the stuff used and 

 the stresses that it can support, so that 



useless expenditure occurs in the pro- 

 vision of unnecessary material. In the 

 same connexion useful consideration 

 might well be given to the greater 

 employment of round buildings in the 

 place of those which are square or 

 oblong. These are the most economical 

 in construction, as they enclose the 

 greatest area with the smallest pro- 

 vision of material, and where it is 

 necessary continually to remove produce 

 from one part of the building to another, 

 as in places where stock is fed, economy 

 is effected in the shorter distance which 

 such produce has to be conveyed. In 

 the West Indies, round buildings have a 

 particular advantage in that they most 

 readily resisthigh winds and hurricanes. 



The subject may be extended almost 

 indefinitely among other matters that 

 have a more obvious connexion with it 

 being economical methods- of keeping 

 manures ; the constant provision of good 

 drainage, especially for increasing the 

 available moisture in the soil ; the pro- 

 vision of wind-breaks for making plants 

 grow better, preventing the falling of 

 fruit and conserving the soil moisture ; 

 and the utilization of waste products 

 from the estate. Though these and 

 others equally important cannot be dealt 

 with here, it is hoped that what has 

 been said may suggest useful lines of 

 thought in connexion with the practice 

 of economy on estates. 



AGRICULTURAL FINANCE AND CO-OPERATION. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN ITALY. 



(From the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture, Vol. XVII., No. 12, 

 March, 1911.) 



The first number of the Bulletin o/ 

 the Bureau of Economic and Social 

 Intelligence, published by the Inter- 

 national Agricultural Institute, which 

 was referred to in the December (1910) 

 issue of this Journal (p. 760), deals, 

 among other subjects, with that of the 

 present state of agricultural co-operation 

 and credit in Italy. The first, and for 

 many years almost the only, form of 

 co-operative enterprise in that country 

 was co-operative credit. Societies known 

 as Popular Banks were formed in the 

 towns on the Schulze-Delitzsch principle 

 adapted to the special conditions of 

 Italy. Later, Rural Banks, formed on 

 the Raiffeisen system, began to be 

 established, and the number of these 

 has grown rapidly year by year. The 

 "rural banks" especially serve the 



small farmer, while the " popular banks" 

 by preference deal with the proprietors 

 of estates of large or moderate size and 

 with tenant farmers. 



Popular Banks. — These banks are 

 essentially organs of credit for the 

 great industrial and agricultural middle 

 classes, and they have their headquarters 

 generally in urban centres. They have 

 the form of limited liability companies, 

 and the nominal value of their shares 

 varies from a minimum of 5 francs 

 (4 shillings) to a maximum of 100 francs 

 (£4). The popular banks assist agricul- 

 ture in several ways : they discount the 

 bills and acceptances of rural banks, 

 and, in addition to the ordinary forms 

 of credit, a large number of these banks 

 grant loans to farmers upon mortgage, 

 credits on current account, and loans 

 upon guarantee. 



The popular banks have no federal 

 organisation, but there are several 

 regional groups. In addition, there is 



