a 
20° BULLETIN 182, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
small agricultural distilleries which actually produce alcohol as such.) 
This should teach the lesson that false hopes should not be engen-} 
dered in our farmers. Yet even these distilleries are not operated} 
ephemerally, nor are they fed with what might properly be called) 
waste material. They demand a constant supply of crude material | 
and the constant attention of an operator, whose work often begins 
at 4 o’clock in the morning. | 
COOPERATIVE DISTILLERIES. 
As already stated, the smaller distilleries engaged in the produc- 
tion of alcohol, not alcoholic beverages, are being replaced rapidly 
by cooperative distilleries. It is instructive to note at the outset one’ 
characteristic feature of the plan, namely, that the unit of coopera- | 
tion is not expressed in shares having a certain money value nor in | 
hundredweights of potatoes to be supphed, but in the amount of spent 
mash which the shareholder is privileged to call for daily. It is this 
feature of the cooperative enterprises which, possibly more than any 
other, clearly indicates where the value of the agricultural distillery 
lies, viz, in the maintenance of more cattle, which are so essential 
to the hght, gravelly soils. This condition is found at Perlach, in the 
valley of the Isar, where one of the largest of the cooperative enter-| 
prises is located. A somewhat detailed account of this cooperative 
distillery is given elsewhere. Suffice it here to say that the contrast 
between a rational enterprise conducted on a-scientific and economic | 
basis and an irrational operation conducted by rule-of-thumb | 
methods could not be greater than the contrast between this cooper- | 
ative plant and the small still in one of the outhouses of a near-by | 
farm. It should also be pointed out that cooperation in such a place | 
as Perlach is made easy by the proximity of the farm buildings to | 
each other, for the farmers of Perlach are for the most part village | 
neighbors, who, while they work their outlying farms individually, 
follow their social instincts by living very close together. 
REPORT OF VISITS TO AGRICULTURAL DISTILLERIES.. 
It was deemed wise in connection with this investigation to visit 
personally a number of agricultural distilleries representing the 
different types of conditions under which the problem of the produc- 
tion of alcohol has been worked out. Several estates were visited 
and such points of significance were noted as would be permitted by 
a single visit. It was clearly impossible to make exhaustive studies 
of these estates, but it is believed that the data obtained will prove 
of value. 
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DAHLEM. 
The royal estate of Dahlem lies northwest of Berlin, between 
Steglitz and the Grunewald, a royal forest of more than 18,750 acres 
