‘190 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Szrr., 1898. 
The banks conducted on this principle enable farmers to obtain loans on 
personal security only, the collective guarantee of all the members or depositors 
being considered sufficient. ‘“ Wealthy banking firms and rich capitalists 
were all willing enough to lend money on real estate if sufficient security was 
forthcoming ; but personal credit is what German farmers wanted. It is 
indispensable to buy stock, mineral manures, cake, meal, seeds, tools, machinery, 
and to pay wages—in short, to run the business. All the union requires is the 
co-operative guarantee of the members of the co-operative society, a body of 
men of recognised standing.” As all the members are personally acquainted 
with one another, the risk is next to nothing. That the system is a sound one 
seems to be proved by the results of the audit. In February, 1897, the 
auditors reported that of 649 banks in Wurtemburg, 450 were thoroughly 
satisfactory, 192 were satisfactory with room for improvement, and only seven 
were unsound. In Germany, the Government, by having the management 
of the railways in their hands, are able to arrange an equitable system of 
freightage, while, thanks to the co-operative principle, the farmer “ can ayail 
himself of the lowest freights on all the materials he requires, and on all pro- 
ducts sent to market, by loading in quantities of at least one ton.” Under 
this system preferential rates are in Germany “an immense advantage to the 
farmer, whereas in England they are dead against him, the advantages there 
being reaped by his foreign competitor.” Mr. Koenig is surprised that this 
state of things should continue to exist in England, and also that English 
farmers do not form co-operative banks. 
How much longer this ancient industry will retain its position, even in 
Germany, seems a little uncertain. It is already beginning to yield to time 
and fate and the competition ot the New World. A large proportion of the 
soil is in the hands of peasant proprietors; some of it is let as in England, and 
a considerable extent, the property of the nobility, is farmed by the owners. 
The proprietor cultivates his estate with the labour of the peasantry, who are 
practically aseripti glebe, receiving only a small modicum of wages in cash 
and the rest in kind, being boarded and lodged at the landlord’s expense. It 
seems to us that if the proprietors in Great Britain chose to do the same 
thing, and to work as hard as the Germans, they might not only improve their 
financial position but regain much of their former influence. In Germany, 
though the fall in rents would indicate a decline in the returns from agricul- 
ture, this class of proprietors make their own rents, and “appear to thrive.” 
They live the life of an English country gentleman. ‘They shoot partridges, 
roe deer, and hares, and the sugar beet crops afford such excellent cover 
that the birds will lie till they are trodden on. But the exodus of the farm 
labourers has commenced in Germany, where more profitable industries are 
beginning to draw them from their native fields. The supply of labour is 
growing daily more scanty. Men are imported from Russia and Poland; and 
*the increase in the number of women and old men employed in field labour 
shows that the pick of the peasantry are turning their thoughts elsewhere. It 
is important to observe that this tendency on the part of the rural population 
to gravitate towards the towns is not in Germany, at all events, owing to any 
difficulty experienced by the agricultural labourers in obtaining land. ‘“ The 
farmers are only too ready to let small holdings at a nominal rent, or to sell out a 
few acres to their men to induce them to remain in the country.” But even this 
temptation fails to retain them. In Bavaria rather a curious custom prevails 
with regard to small holdings. ‘‘ Land is not subdivided among the children of 
thefamily. As a’rule, one of the children inherits the whole farm at a fair price 
during the life of the parents, when the latter reach their ‘sixties.’ The 
remaining children get ‘ paid out,’ but retain the right of living in the house if 
ill-luck meet them in life.’’ Elsewhere, to prevent the evils of subdivision, the 
' State has intervened, every parish being now empowered to take measures for 
reclaiming very small patches and bringing them back into one plot. ‘* Hvery 
workman,” says Mr. Koenig, “has the option of acquiring land and building 
his own cottage, and this very fact forms, socially and politically, the mainstay 
of the country.” Yet, as we see, it will not keep the peasantry in the land. - 
