International Agricultural Institute. 



i7 



The Branch has also been able to send replies to all the official 

 and private inquiries which have been received. 



Economic and Social Questions Relating to Agriculture. 

 (Work of the Third Division.) 



I must still rely on your patience to explain, although the 

 subject is not very interesting, the work of the Third Division, 

 which consists of a Branch, already in existence, for the study 

 of economic and social institutions relating to agriculture, 

 e.g. agricultural credit and insurance, rural co-operative asso- 

 ciations; and of another Branch, which is in process of forma- 

 tion, for the investigation of the wages and conditions of 

 rural labour. 



The first duty of each of these Branches was obviously to 

 obtain information regarding existing conditions. A pre- 

 liminary inquiry was necessary for this Branch of the Institute 

 as well as for the others. In practice, two opinions were 

 expressed within the Permanent Committee on the subject of 

 economic and social institutions. Some delegates desired 

 for each country a series of monographs relating to all insti- 

 tutions dealing with agricultural credit, to the insurance of 

 the materiel and personnel connected with agriculture, and 

 to any form of co-operative associations, which exist in the 

 interests of agriculture or of agriculturists. Other delegates, 

 on the other hand, considered that the better way, which would 

 also facilitate the completion of the work, would be to limit 

 the inquiry at present to the consideration of co-operative 

 associations . This view was accepted on account of the 

 general desire to obtain, before the meeting of the General 

 Assembly, information regarding official and non-official 

 statistics, as well as on the nature and importance of co-opera- 

 tive societies in the different countries. The difficulty, more- 

 over, of collecting bibliographical information regarding 

 certain social and economic factors which have marvellously 

 developed in certain countries, and remained stagnant in 

 others, where, indeed, they have scarcely received official 

 notice from the statistical point of view; and the delay in the 

 supply of the material asked for from the Governments and 

 the principal Associations, explain why we are unable to 

 present a complete Report to the General Assembly. The 



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