36 



Farmers' Co-operative Societies. 



farmers on the Continent, perhaps the most important are the 

 associations for the improvement and insurance of live stock, 

 which are more numerous in France and Belgium than else- 

 where. As a rule cattle are the animals with which these 

 associations are concerned ; only in a few instances are 

 horses, sheep and swine included. In the case of the Belgian 

 cattle insurance societies, which may be taken as a type of 

 these institutions, the usual compensation allowed to members 

 for the loss of an animal is two-thirds of its value, and this 

 is paid out of the funds of the society, to which all the members 

 make periodical contributions. Another method adopted by 

 some societies is to pay the compensation out of the common 

 fund only when the animal is declared unfit for food ; 

 but if the meat is suitable for human consump- 

 tion it must be purchased by members of the society, 

 each contributing to the price a sum proportionate to the 

 number of animals he has insured in the society. In some 

 societies there is, however, no common fund, and then the 

 practice is to compensate the owner of a condemned animal 

 by levying a subscription on all the members to make up its 

 value if the meat has been seized; or if the meat may be used 

 for food then the society purchases the carcase and distri- 

 butes the meat amongst the members at an agreed price. The 

 system of cattle insurance most popular in Bavaria and certain 

 other parts of Germany and Austria is described on p. 60. 



All the forms of association to which reference has been 

 made have been adopted to a much greater extent by 

 farmers abroad than by the agriculturists of the United 

 Kingdom, and are one important cause of the success 

 of the foreign competition in fresh agricultural produce, 

 such as butter and eggs, which is now felt to so 

 large an extent by the home producer. The co-oper- 

 ative movement has, however, made much progress 

 amongst Irish farmers sinc^ the work of organisation was 

 taken up by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society in 

 1894. At the end of 1900, there were in Ireland 499 

 farmers' co-operative societies, with 46,206 members. These 

 included 106 agricultural societies, 263 dairy societies and 

 auxiliary creameries, 76 agricultural banks, 21 poultry 



