510 AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES IN FRANCE. 
established in 1854, and there are nine such associations now 
in existence. A more recent development has been in the 
direction of the co-operative sale of grain, for which purpose 
twenty societies, with 1,181 members, were formed in 1896, 
1897, and 1898. Of this number seventeen had received 
grants from the State amounting in all to £1,000, in 
sums varying from £400 to as little as £5; in the other 
three cases the grant was under consideration. Only 
two, however, of these societies were on any considerable 
scale. One at Weilderstadt had built a grain warehouse 
with a hop-drying apparatus attached; and one at Kup- 
ferzell had also erected a warehouse connected with the 
railway by a branch line. The remaining societies have 
limited themselves to procuring corn-cleaning machines, and 
supplying sacks, etc., and have made use of any available 
accommodation in the neighbourhood which they have used 
as a centre for the collection and cleaning of the grain. 
With regard to the co-operative purchase of farming 
requisites for distribution to meimbers at a cheap price, this 
is, as stated above, carried on by a number of the district 
agricultural societies ; 389 of the credit banks alse extended 
their sphere of usefulness in this direction, and their transac- 
tions in 1897 amounted to £49,486. Separate co-operative 
associations for this purpose have also been established to 
‘the number of 45, with 4,853 members. 
The number of co-operative dairies in 1898 was 306, with 
a total membersnip of 18,700, There were also 583 non- 
co-operative dairies, which purchased milk at a fixed price 
from the producers and manufactured it for their own profit. 
These 889 dairies received a daily average of 85,389 gallons 
of milk, and the annual production amounted to 76,140 ewts. 
of butter and 81,580 cwts. of cheese. 
AGRICULTURAL SYNDICATES IN FRANGE. 
In France the formation of professional syndicates for the 
development of industry, agriculture, and trade in general 
