AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN SOUTH RUSSIA. 511 

was authorised by a law passed in 1884. The Government, 
moreover, took measures to foster the system of co-opera- 
ration, which has increased with remarkable rapidity. 
The latest “ Annuaire des Syndicats Professionels,’ pub- 
lished by the French Labour Depattinent, shows that the 
total number of these syndicates in 1884 was 175, of which 
five only were agricultural; whereas, the figures of the 
year 1898 enumerate 1,824 agricultural syndicates out of a 
grand total of 6,326. The others comprised 1,965 employers’ 
and 2,361 employees’ industrial and trade syndicates; while 
there were 176 joint associations of employers and employed. 
The total number of members of the syndicates in 1898 
Was 1,097,000. Over two-thirds belonged to the agricultural 
section, of which the membership rose from 234,000, in 1890, 
to 792,000 in 1808. 
It was found advantageous, from the first, to consolidate 
individual syndicates into “ Unions,’ which numbered 56 in 
1890 and 170 in 1898. The number of agricultural syndicates 
thus united was 1,192 in 1898, forming 34 central bodies, and 
representing nearly half-a-million agriculturists. 

AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN SOUTH RUSSIA. 
A report on the trade in agricultural machinery in South 
Russia, by the German Agricultural Attaché at St. Peters- 
burg, has recently been published in the “ Mitteilungen” 
of the German Agricultural Society. This report gives. 
some information as to the position occupied by foreign 
countries in the supply of agricultural implements in the 
South of Russia. 
The supply of ploughs is said to be almost entirely in the 
hands of German firms, though reference is made to a manu- 
factory at Odessa. which sells 24,000 pioughs annually ; while 
with regard to drilis, broadcast distributors, and various 
grain-cleaning machines, German wares may generally be 
