VHQ RUElAL. NKW-YORKBB 
1271 
1912. 
AGRICULTURAL CREDITS IN EUROPE. 
No. 8. 
Last week we discussed briefly the 
organization of the Raiffeisen personal 
credit banks in Germany, the nature of 
their organization and the system of 
management and the source from which 
they derive their funds. It remains to 
speak of the general business of the 
banks. This consists in the making 
of loans to the members of the associa¬ 
tions. The loans are granted to mem¬ 
bers under two different rules. One of 
these rules is that the borrower gives 
a note payable at a given time—usually 
for three months or six months — but 
the understanding is that these loans 
will be renewed for a reasonable time. 
In the case of necessity the renewals are 
continued for a period of several years. 
The other form is loaning on what i9 
known as current account. Under this 
custom the bank virtually accepts an 
overdraft of the borrower and the bor¬ 
rower then has the convenience of 
making payments from time to time as 
he finds it convenient to do so. In the 
last report there was about $375,000,000 
loaned by these banks in Germany and 
about one-third of the amount was 
loaned on current account and two- 
thirds for definite time loans. The bor¬ 
rower secures the bank in very much 
the same way that a borrower with us 
would secure a similar loan through a 
bank or an individual; that is, he finds 
an endorser for his note, or deposits 
collateral of some kind, and on some 
occasions by giving a mortgage on real 
estate or chattels. In some cases where 
the standing of the borrower is justified, 
his personal note is accepted for a 
nominal loan without endorsement or 
collateral, but the endorser is the most 
popular form of security. 
The co-operative law of Germany 
attempts to safeguard the loans further 
by imposing the obligation on the general 
meeting of the society to specify a 
maximum limit for the amount of the 
loan to any one individual irrespective 
of the position or standing of the mem¬ 
ber. The best safeguard, however, is 
the fact that the membership of each 
bank is confined to definite narrow 
limits of territory, so that each mem¬ 
ber of the association is acquainted 
with the condition of the other and in 
position to know the operations of the 
borrower. Each member also has a 
personal interest in seeing that the 
money in each case is devoted to pro¬ 
ductive industry and that interests and 
payments are paid regularly. With 
each renewal a small payment is usually 
required. 
In Germany all of the co-operative 
associations are combined in general 
national^ federations. There are all told 
some 25,000 of these associations, in¬ 
cluding the co-operative credit societies. 
Aside from this general federation, in¬ 
cluding all of the co-operative societies, 
which are organized for educational 
purposes, and for development of co¬ 
operative work, the credit associations 
that we have been describing have gen¬ 
eral co-operative societies of their own 
known as central banks; that is to say, 
the local units organize a central bank 
for the purpose of adjusting their own 
business affairs. These central banks are 
co-operative societies limited in responsi¬ 
bility to the stock of the company. The 
stock in the central banks is held by 
the local banks; that is, each local 
bank is a stockholder in the central 
bank. When a local bank has more 
funds than it can use for the time being, 
the surplus is deposited in these central 
banks, and, on the other hand, when a 
bank is short of funds to meet its im¬ 
mediate requirements, a loan is secured 
from the central bank. In this way the 
surpluses of some banks are utilized to 
meet the necessities of other banks. 
When the central bank is in need of 
funds to meet the requirements of its 
members, the funds are secured from 
other sources, but in the last re¬ 
port these central banks reported 
about 8% of their funds from paid-up 
capital; about 2% from reserved funds; 
7% from deposits of members and only 
19% as loans from banks and other 
sources. It is seen from these reports 
that the principal funds, not only of the 
central banks, but also of the local 
banks, come from the deposit of its 
members. 
Besides these local banks and central 
provincial banks, of which there are 36 
in Germany, there are also two national 
banks for co-operative credits, which 
receive deposits from the central banks, 
and in some cases from the local banks. 
These national banks make loans to 
the central banks, and in some cases 
to the local associations as required. 
An important feature of this system 
of credit banks throughout all Europe, 
and particularly in Denmark, is their 
facilities for financing the co-operative 
productive societies. For example, in 
Denmark 90% of the butter for export 
is produced in co-operative creameries 
and there is also a large industry in 
the export of bacon, which is prepared 
by co-operative societies in their own 
slaughterhouses and marketed by their 
own organization. In some cases it 
would be something of a hardship for 
these farmers to put up capital enough 
in advance to build and equip these 
creameries and slaughterhouses, and 
organize a system of production and 
another for marketing, but with the 
facilities of the credit asociations the 
money is advanced for the building of 
the factories and the equipment of 
them at a low rate of. interest by the 
credit associations. These loans are ad¬ 
vanced for 24 years with the provision 
that the interest is paid annually, and 
there is also a small percentage on the 
loan paid yearly by the borrowing 
society to form a sinking fund and 
ultimately to liquidate the account. In 
the case of the loan of 24 years, the 
annuity amounts to about $6.50 on the 
one hundred dollars when the interest 
rate is 4V&%. This is one of the feat¬ 
ures of the utility of the credit asso¬ 
ciations which will appeal most strongly 
to the American farmer. It is a feature 
to strengthen and encourage the co¬ 
operative selling so much needed here to 
reduce the cost of living in the city 
and to increase the revenue of the 
farm. If the money to build and equip 
a packing station, and when necessary 
cold storage facilities, and the means of 
utilizing surplus products, were avail¬ 
able on a 25 year loan, it would not be 
a difficult matter to organize producers 
of any section into a co-operative asso¬ 
ciation, especially when the interest on 
the loan would be taken care of and the 
loan itself liquidated through a small 
annuity which would come, not out of 
the individual directly, but out of the 
profits of the association. 
JOHN J. DILLON. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Eastern Fruit Growers’ Association, Ho¬ 
tel Raleigh, Washington, D. C., December 
17. 
North Dakota Country Rife Conference, 
Fargo, N. D., December 17-20. 
Northern Nut Growers’ Association, Lan¬ 
caster, Fa., December 18-19. 
Adams County Fruit Growers’ annual 
meeting, Bcndersville, Pa., December 18-19. 
Farmers’ week, Pennsylvania State Col¬ 
lege, December 20, 1912, to January 2, 
1913. 
Virginia State Horticultural Society, 
Lynchburg, Va., January 8-10, 1913. 
Massachusetts Fruit Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion, Horticultural Hall, Boston, January 
10-11, 1913. 
Sixteenth exhibition Vermont State Poul¬ 
try Association, St. Albans, Vt., January 
14-17, 1913. 
Fourth Ohio State Apple Show, Zanes¬ 
ville, O., January 20-24, 1913. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, Am¬ 
herst, Mass., school of apple packing, Jan¬ 
uary 23-29, 1913. 
Cleveland, O., Fanciers’ Show, January 
20-25. 
American Breeders’ Association, Colum¬ 
bia, S. C., January 25-27, 1913. 
Fifth National Corn Exposition, State 
Exposition Grounds, Columbia, S. C., Janu¬ 
ary 27, to February 8, 1913. 
New York State Vegetable Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, College of Agriculture, Ithaca, Feb¬ 
ruary, 11-13. 
Farmers’ Week, N. Y. State College of 
Agriculture, Ithaca, February 10-15. 
New Y'ork State Fruit Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, Convention Hall, Rochester, N. Y., 
January 15-17, 1913. 
North Dakota Country Life Conference, 
Fargo, N. D., December 17-20. 
Farmers’ Week, New York State College 
of Agriculture, Ithaca, February 10-15. 
Open weather here; pastures good; West¬ 
ern horses .$150 to $200. New milch cows 
$50 to $75. Milk at railroad $1.80 ; butter 
40 cents; cheese 16; potatoes GO. Hay $10 
to $15; stove wood $2; cornmeal $1.50 at 
mill; beef $8; pork $12. Eggs 45 cents a 
dozen ; labor $1.75. a. l. b. 
Bennington Co., Vt. 
Butter 32; eggs 34; chickens, live, 10 
cents a pound ; turkeys, live, 17; calves 
7% to 8% cents a pound, as to quality. 
Potatoes 75 cents a bushel; turnips 50; 
corn 35; oats 40; rye 80; wheat $1 ; 
buckwheat 60; flour 2% cents a pound. 
Hogs, dressed, 10; cows $50 to $75; horses 
$150 to $250; hay $15; straw $10. Apples 
scarce, selling at $1 a bushel. These prices 
are -what we receive at our local stores and 
mills. By hauling to our market towns we 
can sell at a slight advance over these 
prices. p. b. s. 
Brick Church, Pa. 
Cattle, fat, from five cents to eight 
cents; stock cattle four to 4% cents, and 
scarce. Milch cows $40 to $60. and scarce. 
Dairy products low compared with the 
high price of other produce. Butter 25 
cents at our local market, and milk 30 
cents per gallon. Hogs 6% to seven cents 
per pound on foot; stock hogs in good de¬ 
mand at six to seven cents. Eggs 30 cents 
at stores. p. t. 
Stout. O. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC. — Two implement dealers 
testified December 5, at the St. Louis hear¬ 
ing of the government’s suit to dissolve 
the International Harvester Company, that 
they had been forced to return carlot 
shipments of independent companies’ ma¬ 
chinery in order to obtain more supplies 
from the International. William; II. Green, 
of Creighton, Neb., who testified that his 
supply of International machines had been 
taken from him because of his anti-trust 
views, on cross-examination was asked why 
he was inimical to so-called trusts. “I con¬ 
sidered I was only a frog in a tub,” he 
replied, “and had to jump when the Inter¬ 
national got after me to protect myself, or 
it would drive me into bankruptcy.” After 
the formation of the International company, 
Green said, he was visited by a stranger, 
who inquired his feeling toward trusts. 
His views were not favorable, he said, and 
the stranger then told him he was a secret 
agent of the International Harvester Com¬ 
pany and that unless Green stopped talk¬ 
ing against trusts the International lines 
would be taken from him. Green said that 
three weeks later his stock was checked up 
and the International removed all of its 
machines from his store. He then adver¬ 
tised he would sell only independent lines. 
He said he put in a stock of Acme and 
Keystone machines, which were advertised 
as independent. After handling these for 
the season of 1905 he heard that both had 
been subsidiaries of the International for 
two years. Witness said he had not han¬ 
dled farming implements since 1905, but 
had confined his business to vehicles and 
tillage implements, which the International 
recently had taken up. John A. Dabb, of 
Belleville, 111., testified that he had han¬ 
dled Deering and McCormick harvesters 
since 1907, but when ho ordered a carload 
of Acme machines the International had 
heard of the order after the car was in 
the Belleville yards and had insisted that 
he return the shipment to the Acme fac¬ 
tory, cancelling his order. A carload of 
Deering machines that he had also ordered, 
he said, was delayed until the Acme ship¬ 
ment had been sent back. John A. Falaska., 
of Weatherford, Okla., related that he had 
tried to put in an independent line, but 
had to cancel the order before he could 
get any more International machines. 
The common towel was ordered abol¬ 
ished from railroad cars, vessels, all other 
interstate vehicles and from stations by 
Secretary MacVeagh of the Treasury De¬ 
partment, December 9, in an amendment 
to the Interstate quarantine regulation. 
This action follows closely the abolition of 
the common drinking cup from use on 
interstate carriers. Towels may be used 
again only after having been sterilized in 
boiling water. 
Prosecution under the child labor laws 
was instituted December 9 by the State of 
Wisconsin against the Diamond Match 
Company. Violations to the number of 224 
are alleged, and lay the company liable to 
fines aggregating $22,400. This is the 
maximum possible under the statute. With 
the complaint in the State’s action a notice 
is served, demanding that the company 
produce at the trial all the books, records 
and time cards relating to the employment 
of children. According to the complaint, 
children between the ages of 14 and 16 
years were permitted to work more than 
the maximum limit of 48 hours a week, be¬ 
fore 7 o’clock in the morning or after 6 
o’clock in the evening. The complaint 
treats each day's violation as a separate 
offence. 
The New York State Factory Investigat¬ 
ing Commission in session at Buffalo, De¬ 
cember 10, received a report from one of 
its inspectors, Edward F. Brown, previous 
to adjourning to Rochester, where the ex¬ 
amination of witnesses in the investigation 
of child labor in the canneries of the State 
was continued. The report revealed shock¬ 
ing conditions in the canneries of Erie 
County and Western New York. According 
to the report 1,500 children employed in 
the canneries in this section in the season 
of 1912 were under 16 years of age, while 
nearly 1,000 were under 14, and 141 were 
under 10, one of these being as young as 
three. Long hours and work seven days a 
week are alleged. The little children are 
employed snipping beans. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—There has lately 
been established both by State and na¬ 
tional legislation a standard barrel for 
fruit and farm produce with permission to 
use barrels smaller than the standard pro¬ 
vided they are marked “short.” There is 
now a movement in some parts of New 
York to eliminate the requirement to mark 
the barrel “short.” The Pomological As¬ 
sociation of Kinderhook, N. Y., at its last 
regular meeting passed unanimously the 
following resolution: “Resolved, That we 
are opposed to the proposed change in the 
law to permit the marketing o fruit in 
short barrels without indicating that the 
package is short.” 
Setting of the prices of produce by the 
Chicago butter and egg board was aban¬ 
doned by a vote of its members December 
4 when announcement was made that all 
quotation committees have been dissolved 
until March 1, 1913, and fhat prices will 
be established by the old method of receiv¬ 
ing offers to buy and sell in the board 
rooms. Officers of the board contended 
that this action was not influenced by the 
suit of the government against the board 
on the charge of fixing prices arbitrarily, 
but because of the desire of the members 
to return to old conditions. 
The annual meeting of the Eastern New 
York Bee Keepers’ Association will be held 
in the Common Council Chamber, City Hall, 
Albany, N. Y„ December 18. W. D. Wright, 
president, Altamont, N. Y.; S. Davenport, 
secretary, Indian Fields, N. Y. 
A farm at Middletown Springs, Vt., has 
been offered the State for use as an agri-. 
cultural school, by Henry Copeland, of New 
York, a native of xMiddletown Springs, on 
condition that it be known as the Copeland 
School. The farm contains 300 acres, is 
well equipped with buildings, and is val¬ 
ued at $12,000. 
President Taft and Secretary Wilson, af¬ 
ter months of consideration, decided De¬ 
cember 7 upon the appointment of Dr. Carl 
Alsberg, a chemist in the Bureau of Drugs 
and Plants, as chief of the Bureau o f 
Chemistry of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture. 
Increases in the freight rates on potatoes, 
ranging from one-half cent to eight cents 
a hundred pounds, from points of production 
in Nebraska. South Dakota, Colorado and 
similar territory to all destinations east 
were held by the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission December 9 to be unreasonable. 
Suspension of proposed advances was made 
permanent and existing rates were ordered 
to be maintained for at least two years. 
OBITUARY.—Dr. William A. Buckhout, 
professor of botany and the senior pro¬ 
fessor at the Pennsylvania State College, 
died of heart disease December 3, 1912. Dr. 
Buckhout was born Decembex-, 1846, and 
graduated from the Pennsylvania State 
College in 1868. In 1871 he became pro¬ 
fessor of botany and horticultui - e in this 
college. In the changes brought about in 
agricultural sciences during recent years 
he became professor of botany. For many 
years he was botanist of the Pennsylvania 
State Forestry Commission and was si 
prime mover in the Slate in creating and 
taking an active interest in forestry. He 
was a Fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, and au¬ 
thor of papers, including “The Chestnut as 
a Fruit and Food,” "The Effect of Smoko and 
Gas On Vegetation,” “A Microscopic Exam¬ 
ination of State College Water Supply,” 
“Forest Fires,” and others, with aiiuual 
reports as State botanist. 
W. B. Tegetmeier, the distinguished Eng¬ 
lish naturalist, died November 19, aged 97. 
Mr. Tegetmeier was known chiefly by his 
observations and writings on pigeons' and 
poultry. Me held the post of poultry editor 
of the London Field for more than 40 
years. So long ago as 1854, be published a 
volume on “Profitable Poultry,” which was 
followed 13 years later by “The Poultry 
Book.” The late naturalist was interested 
especially in the breeding of animals, in 
which branch of science he carried out nu¬ 
merous experiments, not a few of which 
were cited by Darwin in “The Origin of 
Species” and in “Animals and riants under 
Domestication.” 
Charles Dingee, one of the founders of 
the firm of Dingee & Conard, died Novem¬ 
ber 29, at West Grove, Pa., at the advanced 
age of 88 years. Charles Dingee is widely 
known as a pioneer in the growing of rose 
plants for distribution through the mail 
and by express. He had retired from ac¬ 
tive business some yeai - s ago. 
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT CONFER¬ 
ENCE.—The Agricultural Credit Conference 
which assembled in the East Room of the 
White House December 7 upon invitation of 
President Taft, brought together 26 gov¬ 
ernors, several membei-s of the Cabinet, rep¬ 
resentatives from the two branches of Con¬ 
gress and Myron T. Herrick, Ambassador 
to France, who has been conducting an in¬ 
vestigation under the direction of the State 
Department into the agricultural credit sys¬ 
tems of the Old World. A genei'al credit 
system for the financing of farmers, as out¬ 
lined by President Taft, will be considered 
as a part of the general currency reform to 
be attempted by the sub-committee of the 
House Banking and Currency Committee. 
Mr. Herrick will be accorded a special 
hearing by the sub-committee seeking a 
substitute for the Aldrich currency plan, 
of which Representative Glass of Virginia 
is chairman. 
SECRETARY WILSON’S REPORT.—Af¬ 
ter 16 years of service, a record in the 
Cabinet, Secretary Wilson submitted De¬ 
cember 7 to President Taft the last annual 
report he will make as head of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. The report contains 
a summary of the advance of the country 
in agriculture during the Secretary's term 
of office. During this period the yearly 
farm production has advanced from $4,000,- 
000,000 to $9,532,000,000. During these 16 
years the total of farm wealth production 
is ihore than $105,000,000,000. From a de¬ 
partment with 2,444 employes in 1897, and 
an appropriation or $3,272,902, the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has increased to 
13,858 employes at the beginning of the 
present fiscal yeai’, with an appropriation 
this year of almost $25,000,000. Whereas, 
there are now 52,000 requests every week 
for department publications, there were but 
500 in 1897, and during this period 225,- 
000,000 copies have been distributed. In 
soil investigation an area of 623,000 square 
miles, equal to that of Germany, France. 
Great Britain, Ireland and Italy, has been 
covered. 
Over a billion dollars is for the fourth 
time the value of the exports of farm prod¬ 
ucts, with cotton leading. They are suffi¬ 
cient to pay the expenses of the national 
government. The billion-dollar mark was 
first reached in 1907, when the value of 
the agricultural exports amounted to 
$1,154,000,000. That amount has not since 
been equalled, but the exports of 1908 and 
1911 exceeded a billion dollars in value, and 
in 1912 the amount fell short of the rec¬ 
ord exports by only $4,000,000. 
The dairy cow is one of the principal 
producers of wealth on the farm, and De¬ 
value of her products in 1912 is estimated 
at about $830,000,000, an amount which 
exceeds the value of the cotton lint and 
is nearly equal to the combined value of 
lint and seed. The wheat crop is worth 
only three-fourths as much as the dairy 
products. 
The magnitude of the poultry industry 
is set forth. An egg may be worth only 
a cent and three-quarters, and vet 1,700,- 
000,000 dozen eggs are worth $350,000,000. 
and these are the estimates for 1912. If 
to the value mentioned is added the value 
of the fowls raised, the products of the 
poultry industry on farms amount to about 
$570,000,000. This is nearly equal to the 
value of the wheat crop and is more than 
three-fourths of the value of the cotton 
lint produced this year. 
The animals sold from the farm and 
the animals slaughtered on it together 
number about 111,000,000, and the farm 
value of these animals is estimated at 
$1,930,000,000. The total value of the 
animal products of the farm in 1912 is 
estimated to be about $3,395,000,000. This 
is a larger value than that of 1911, but is 
about $150,000,000 below the estimate for 
1910, which is the only year that exceeds 
1912 in value of animal products produced 
on farms. While animal products are about 
one-third of the wealth production on farms 
in 1912. the crops are about two-thirds. 
Their value is $6,137,000,000, an amount 
which is vastly above the highwater mark 
of total crop value in 1911. 
