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



One of the most prosperous of these co-operative-purchase 

 societies is the Central Association for the purchase of agricul- 

 tural machines and implements at Halle -on-Saale, which was 

 formed for the benefit of all the members of the Central Union 

 of the Province of Saxony. Its annual business transactions 

 amount to about 35,000£. This society not only purchases and 

 consigns goods, but also tests them, and undertakes the repair 

 of broken machinery. 



Various efforts have been made in Germany to apply co- 

 operative principles to production in agriculture, but hitherto 

 little progress has been made in this direction except in the 

 case of dairying, in which industry co-operation has undoubtedly 

 been a great success. A full account of the development and 

 organisation of the co-operative dairies in various parts of 

 Germany was given in a report published by the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1892.* At that time the number of these esta- 

 blishments was 1,020, but this has since increased to 1,262. The 

 co-operative dairy societies may be divided into three classes, 

 viz., dairies which manufacture butter and skim-milk cheeses, 

 and thus utilise the skim milk : dairies in which only the cream 

 is used, the skim milk and buttermilk being returned to the 

 members ; and dairy stores, in which fresh milk is sold on 

 behalf of the members of the society, and only the surplus milk 

 is converted into butter and cheese. Dairies of the second class 

 are the most popular establishments, as the skim-milk and 

 buttermilk can generally be more profitably used for rearing 

 calves and fattening pigs than by its conversion into cheese. 

 The dairy stores are chiefly confined to the neighbourhood of 

 large centres of population, where there is a demand for milk. 



Taking the accounts for 1892 of 288 of these co-operative 

 dairy societies, it appears that the average number of members 

 in each society was 44, the smallest number being returned by 

 an association in the Palatinate with 10 members, and the 

 largest by a society in Wurtemburg with 90 members. The 

 average quantity of milk manipulated in the year at each esta- 

 blishment was 210,000 gallons. The average working capital of 

 each dairy was 2,550Z., and the average reserve fund was 189£. 

 The average net profits of 70 of the dairies on the year's 

 operations amounted to 1681., and 14 associations returned an 

 average loss of 60£. 



In Germany there are comparatively few co-operative societies 

 for the sale of agricultural produce, and the efforts hitherto 

 made to apply co-operation to the machinery of distribution have 

 not been altogether encouraging. For example, the associations 

 for the co-operative sale of live and dead meat have been involved 

 in difficulties in almost all cases, and many of them have been 

 compelled to liquidate, partly because they failed to obtain the 

 support of the public, and partly because of the difficulty of 



* Report on Dairy Farming in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. C. 7019. 



