1910.] Notes on Agriculture Abroad. 



945 



sumption, &c. ; (5) Credit banks and Societies for live-stock insurance 

 and other forms of thrift; (6) Demography and hygiene (including 

 housing); (7) Agricultural labour; (8) Means of transport; (9) Other 

 measures for the improvement of the condition of the agriculturist, 

 including public lighting and water supply, public amusements, diffusion 

 of small holdings, rural housing, market gardening for workmen, &c. ; 

 (10) Organisation of inquiries, shows, and exhibitions, distribution of 

 information by agricultural societies, &c. 



Societies or private persons can participate in the Congress, the 

 subscriptions for each person or representative being 15 francs. The 

 office of the Congress is located at 220 Chaussee d'Alsemberg, Brussels. 

 Copies of the programme in English can be obtained from the office 

 of the Board, 4 Whitehall Place, S.W. 



Production of Nitrates in Norway. — According to a note in the Board 

 of Trade Journal (December 23rd, 1909), the value of the output of 

 nitrates in Norway in 1908 was about ^111,000. 

 Notes OH There are now five companies producing or about 



Agriculture Abroad, to produce nitrates, and when the works now 

 being constructed are complete, it is estimated 

 that the production will have a value of 1,278,000. 



The Norwegian Workmen's Small Holdings and Dwellings Bank. — 

 H. M. Minister at Christiania, has forwarded to the Board of Trade an 

 account of this institution which was established in accordance with a 

 law dated June 9th, 1903. The Bank has for its objects the granting of 

 loans to Norwegian citizens of restricted means for the purpose of 

 acquiring small holdings, or to local rural councils for acquiring land 

 and building thereon, such land to be parcelled out into small holdings. 

 In neither case must the rate of interest charged exceed 3! per cent, 

 per annum. Loans may also be granted to citizens of small means for 

 the purpose of building, completing or acquiring their own dwellings. 



Loans are not granted to owners of property exceeding ^83 if 

 residing in the country, or if residing in a town, and all 



applications must be approved by a Committee of the Local Council 

 appointed for dealing with such matters. In the case of small holdings 

 the applicant must be certified by this Committee as being competent 

 "to own, manage and keep up" the holding as a farm, and he must 

 not own so much land that this, together with the land he wishes to 

 acquire, would exceed in area or value the maximum allowed. A 

 holding on which a loan may be granted must not contain less than an 

 acre and a quarter, or more than five acres of cultivated or cultivable 

 land, nor must its loan value exceed ^167, including a maximum of 

 i£7 1 1 1 for the land alone. 



The Bank holds mortgages on the properties as securities for the 

 loans, and any losses sustained by the Bank on account of breach of 

 contract on the part of the borrowers or guarantors are refunded to it 

 by the Exchequer. On March 31st, 1908, the loans granted for work- 

 men's holdings, &c, amounted in the aggregate to about ^625,000. 

 Applications for loans are principally made by labourers, factory workers, 

 artisans and fishermen. In 1907-1908 only 36 applications were rejected 

 out of a total of nearly 2,500 received. (Labour Gazette, Dec, 1909.) 



3 u 



