Co-operation in Bavaria. 



401 



in this district is considerable and also instructive. The inhabi- 

 tants number about 3,000, yet the value of their egg sales was 

 £3,200, and this despite the unfavourable climate of the place, 

 where no trees will grow, and the summers are so cold that fires 

 are said to be generally necessary. 



Of late there seems to have been a movement among British 

 importers to look to Norway for additional supplies of eggs, 

 and it seems quite possible that in the next few years a trade 

 may spring up in this direction. 



Agricultural Co-operation in Bavaria, 



At tke annual general meeting of the German Agricultural 1 

 Co-operative Societies, held at Munich last year, Baron von 

 Soden Frauenhofen, the President of the Bavarian Union of 

 Agricultural Co-operative Societies, presented a report on the 

 progress of agricultural co-operation in Bavaria. 



According to this report the first agricultural co-operative 

 institutions — Raiffeisen Banks — were started in Bavaria in 1877. 

 In 1SS1 there were forty-two such societies in the country. In 

 1901 there were 2,600, with 171,000 members. In the early 

 nineties the inconvenience of the want of a central organisation 

 for the multiplying societies began to be felt, some belonging to> 

 the Raiffeisen organisation at Neuwied, some to the Offenbach 

 organisation, and some standing alone or in smaller independent 

 unions. The Bavarian Government, about the same time, , 

 decided that the movement was one deserving of State help. At 

 the end of 1893, a Bavarian union of agricultural loan bank; 

 societies was formed, affiliated to the Offenbach — now General 1 

 (Darmstadt) — Union, and at the same time the Bavarian Central 

 Loan Bank was started with financial aid from the State. This 

 took the shape of a free grant of ,£5,000 and a deposit of a 

 further £5,000 in scrip. In 1898 a further free grant of £5,000 

 and an advance at 3 per cent, of £95,000 were made, and in T900 

 an additional sum of £100,000 at 3 per cent, was advanced. 



