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AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN GEKMANY. [Sept. 1895. 



appointment of agricultural attaches abroad, &;c., formed the 

 principal features of the Government programme for the relief 

 of the agricultural depression in Prussia, as stated by Baron v. 

 Hammerstein, on January 29,1895. 



The Council of State, while supporting all these proposals, 

 added the following, which may now also be considered as part 

 of the Government programme : — 



" To limit the use of transit warehouses in which customs 

 credit is granted (bonded warehouses for goods in transit) to 

 goods really intended for transit, and not to allow them to be 

 used for the storage of goods, especially grain, which will 

 eventually be sold in the interior ; 



" To grant State assistance for the establishment of co-opera- 

 tive grain depots (? elevators), in order to improve the conditions 

 under which the producers can dispose of their grain ; 



" To effect an alteration in the system under which the busi- 

 ness of flour mills is carried on, in the sense of removing the 

 advantages at present enjoyed by foreign grain in the mills, and 

 ensuring that home-grown grain shall not in future be placed at 

 a disadvantage in this respect ; 



" To encourage the formation of agricultural communities by 

 means of the existing laws relating to the purchase of small 

 holdings (Rentenguts-gesetze) by granting State assistance for 

 this purpose, especially with a view to increasing the number of 

 labourers' allotments ; 



" To take steps for the improvement of agricultural credit by 

 the conversion of existing private mortgages with a high rate of 

 interest and without sinking fund into cheaper mortgages, granted 

 by public institutions, which cannot be called in at will but have 

 compulsory amortisation ; for this purpose to alter the limit of 

 credit fixed by law for the Landschaften (co-operative land banks) 

 and similar public institutions, if necessary with the assistance 

 of State credit, and at the same time to make the credit given 

 by these institutions more generally accessible, especially to 

 small proprietors ; 



" To establish, for the extension of personal credit, a State 

 bank (Landeskreditinstitut) perhaps in connexion with the 

 Seebandlung (a Prussian State bank dating from the time of 

 Frederick the Great), by means of which rural co-operative and 

 other associations could obtain the capital they require under 

 conditions suitable to the nature of their organisation. This 

 institution could also grant credit to other co-operative organisa- 

 tions of small producers, especially to co-operative associations 

 of artisans (Handwerker) ; 



" To form a State fund for general land improvements 

 (drainage, reclaiming of waste lands, &c.), and to encourage such 

 improvements by the appointment of a greater number of 

 technical experts, and by the execution, at Government expense, 

 of preliminary surveys." 



