2 GERMAN CO-OPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. [June 1896. 



his native town, and this was soon followed by the establish- 

 ment of a similar society for shoemakers. In the course of the 

 next few years, the number of associations for the purchase in 

 common of raw materials rapidly increased, and after a time, these 

 bodies and the loan societies were, in many instances, federated. 



Up to 1870, this movement had made little progress in the 

 rural districts, but the necessity of economy in procuring manures 

 and implements was soon afterwards recognised by agriculturists, 

 and co-operative societies for the purchase of farming requisites 

 have since increased in number from year to year. 



As an example of this development in more recent years, it 

 may be observed that whereas in 1890 the number of registered 

 co-operative associations of various kinds in Germany was 3,006, 

 seven years later, in 1896, the number was 7,762, comprising 

 5,382 agricultural credit associations ; 894 societies for the 

 purchase in common of fertilisers, seeds, and implements ; 1,262 

 co-operative dairies ; and 224 other co-operative societies. 



The agricultural co-operative societies are generally united to 

 provincial and central unions upon a co-operative basis of common 

 work, The strongest central organisation was founded in 1884 

 under the title of " The General Union of German Agricultural 

 Co-operative Societies." Its meetings are held at OfFenbach- 

 on-Main, and it comprises 23 provincial unions, in which 

 are associated 27 central co-operative societies, and 2,989 

 individual local co-operative societies, dairies, and agricultural 

 banks.* Next to it in importance must be mentioned the Gene- 

 ral Raiffeisen Union, comprising in all about 2,000 societies, 

 nearly all of which are credit associations. There are also 11 

 unions of a smaller kind, which embrace in all 2,657 co-opera- 

 tive associations, of which 2,300 are credit societies. 



It may be of interest to review briefly the objects and opera- 

 tions of the different co-operative organisations to which reference 

 has been made in the foregoing paragraphs. 



The agricultural credit associations hold perhaps the first 

 place, on account of their popularity as well as numerically, 

 among the co-operative institutions in the rural districts of 

 Germany. Their functions are mainly to satisfy the needs of 

 agriculture as regards credit, and especially as regards personal 

 credit, though in many instances they have taken up other 

 branches of business on behalf of their members. These societies 

 are of two kinds, viz. : the Schultze-Delitzsch and the Raiffeisen 

 Credit Associations. As the differences in the organisation of 

 these institutions have been described in an earlier number of 

 this Journal, t it is sufficient here to state that the Schultze- 

 Delitzsch societies have gradually proved to be less and less 

 adapted to the interests of agriculture, and in point of fact they 



* The 2,989 societies embraced in the General Union on the 1st February 1896 

 included 1,539 agricultural credit banks, 657 dairy societies, and 793 other co- 

 operative associations. The total number of societies included in the General Union 

 in April last is stated to have risen to between 3,400 and 3,500. 



f Journal of the Board of Agriculture, Vol. II., No. 2, p. 125. 



