igo6.] Agricultural Credit in Germany. 725 



These items of cost doubtless seem very low to many 

 planters, but on ground similar to that at Novar there is no 

 reason why they should be exceeded. The soil is a light loam 

 which grows rather rank heather and grass, and if the spring is 

 at all favourable the surface herbage is carefully burned off 

 before the larches are planted. This enables small plants 

 to be used, and permits of their insertion by dibbling or 

 notching. There being no rabbits or hares there is no expense 

 for netting, while the cost of fences against stock is relatively a 

 small item, the woodlands being in large enclosures. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN GERMANY* 



The spread of co-operative ideas in Germany during recent 

 years has been very marked, and nowhere, perhaps, have 

 they been received with more favour than in the agricultural 

 world. In 1888 there were 4,821 co-operative societies of all 

 kinds, ten years later this number had increased to 16,069, while, 

 according to the Statistisclies Jahrbuch, they numbered 23,221 

 on 1st January, 1905, with a membership of 3,409,871. These 

 included 14,272 co-operative credit societies with a membership 

 of 1,901,000, 1,595 societies for the purchase of agricultural 

 requisites, 3,062 societies for the manufacture of dairy and other 

 products, 682 other agricultural societies, while the remainder 

 were industrial and other societies not distinctively agricultural. 



Credit societies, it will be seen, represent the most popular 

 form of co-operation, and account for 61 per cent, of the societies 

 and 56 per cent, of the total membership. 



Some part of the success which has attended their formation 

 in Germany may be attributed to the financial support obtained 

 by the formation of central banks, devoting themselves more or 

 less exclusively to co-operative business. 



The development in this direction, which has not previously 

 been dealt with in this Journal^ possesses many features of 

 interest. 



There are two classes into which the credit banks may 



* See also articles on "Agricultural Credit Banks," May, 1905, p. 96 ; '^Agricul- 

 tural Credit in France," June, 1905, p. 149, "Village Banks in England," June, 

 1905, p. 154 ; "Agricultural Credit in Hungary," July, 1905, p. 210 ; " Agricultural 

 Credit in Belgium," August, 1905, p. 279. 



