222 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  7,  1899. 
apostle  of  a  great  financial  movement,  a  movement  that  is  very  much 
and  deservedly  on  the  increase. 
As  far  back  as  1849  Herr  Raiffeisen  became  awake  to  the 
difficulties  the  small  cultivator  experienced  in  the  matter  of  raising 
on  loan  small  sums  of  money.  Money  he  could  certainly  get ;  but 
the  terms  were  outrageous,  and  once  in  the  clutches  of  the  money 
lender  the  care  became  hopeless.  (There  have  been  enough  revelations 
of  late  to  make  comment  on  this  subject  needless.) 
«  The  scheme  of  which  he  was  the  founder  took  the  form  of  a 
co-operative  association.  The  members  could  get  small  loans  of 
money  cheap,  and  the  loans  were  to  be  applied  for  the  furtherance 
of  agricultural  or  commercial  enterprise.  None  of  the  office-bearers 
receives  any  payment  for  his  work;  all  the  members  are  responsible 
for  the  liabilities  of  the  association. 
Every  would-be  borrower  has  to  undergo  the  closest  scrutiny  as  to 
his  character  and  the  nature  of  the  security  offered.  In  a  village 
community  everyone  knows  his  neighbour’s  affairs  most  thoroughly, 
and  this  knowledge  constitutes  one  of  the  greatest  safeguards.  A 
drunkard,  a  shifty,  unprincipled  man,  would  never  be  allowed  to 
become  a  borrower,  nor  even  a  man  whom  his  neighbours  considered 
deficient  in  proper  energy. 
This  system  has  been  worked  on  the  Continent  with  marked 
success.  S  gnor  Vollembrig  in  Italy  has  worked  heart  and  soul  to 
establish  these  banks,  and  the  peasants  themselves  are  the  first  to 
acknowledge  their  utility.  Repayments  are  most  punctual,  and  the 
people  are  becoming  business-like  and  prompt  in  their  undertakings, 
quite  losing  their  happy-go-lucky  style. 
The  Italian  peasant  has  always  had  a  hard  struggle  for  existence. 
The  country  is  poor,  and  the  taxation  very  heavy.  By  these  timely 
loans  men  have  been  raised  from  depths  of  poverty,  and  are  now  in 
comparative  affluence.  A  man  living  from  hand  to  mouth  is  a  sorry 
sight.  A  man  with  a  little  to  the  fore  is  a  very  different  spectacle. 
In  Germany  we  find  the  same  pleasant  state  of  things.  Here  the 
areas  are  limited,  so  that  the  individual  members  may  be  all  person¬ 
ally  known  to  each  other.  In  this  way,  there  is  so  much  less  r.sk  of 
admitting  unsuitable  members.  The  Society  protects  itself.  Its 
business  is  controlled  by  a  committee  elected  by  the  members  them¬ 
selves,  and  this  committee  is  supervised  by  an  administrative  council ; 
both  these  bodies  are  elected  at  the  annual  general  meeting.  So  that 
all  may  be  sound  and  above  board,  the  books  are  audited  at  stated 
periods  by  disinterested  persons.  All  the  woik  done  in  connection 
with  the  system  is  gratis. 
Well,  we  turn  to  our  own  favoured  land,  and  we  are  not  very  proud 
of  what  we  see.  Here  are  these  “  parlezvousing”  foreigners  far  in 
advance  of  us,  and  we  thought  we  had  the  pull  of  them  in  everything, 
especially  in  those  things  relating  to  our  material  wellare.  In  Ireland 
— poor  down-trodden  Ireland — we  find  the  good  work  has  begun. 
The  apostle  there  is  Horace  Plunkett,  and  he  has  nothing  but  good 
to  tell  of  the  wot  king  of  the  system.  Would  that  it  had  been  set 
a-going  in  years  past!  He  says,  “There  is  no  fear  of  rash  invest¬ 
ment  of  capital  in  enterprises  believed  to  be,  but  not  in  reality, 
productive — the  committee  take  good  care  of  that.  Tne  whole  com¬ 
munity  is  taunht  the  difference  between  borrowing  to  spend  and 
borrowing  to  make.  You  have  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  best 
men  in  the  a-sociation  helping  the  borrower  to  decide  whether  he 
ought  to  borrow  or  not,  and  then  assisting  him,  if  only  from  motives 
of  self  interest,  to  make  the  loan  fulfil  the  purposes  for  which  it 
was  made.”  Is  not  this  comprehensive  enough  ? 
Now,  then,  we  turn  to  the  English  apostle,  Robert  Yerburgh, 
M.P.,  and  from  him  we  learn  what  is  being  done  in  England. 
Curiously  enough  he  cites  instances  that  have  come  under  our  own 
notice.  We  have  seen  something  of  the  working  of  one  of  these 
banks,  and  quite  corroborate  all  he  says.  Alas  !  that  we  have  only 
seven  of  these  associations  in  England.  They  are  situated  in  the 
counties  of  Kent,  Lincolnshire,  Norfolk,  Cambridgeshire,  Worcester¬ 
shire,  Hampshire,  and  Suffolk. 
Y  e  were  rather  amused  with  one  case  of  boi rower  and  lender. 
The  borrower  was  the  father;  the  son  was  quite  willing  to  lend  the 
money  through  the  agency  of  the  bank,  but  not  otherwise.  We 
suppose  the  publicity  of  the  loan  insured  its  safety.  Several  cases 
occurred  where  men  were  taking  up  allotments  and  needed  capital. 
A  blacksmith  saw  an  opening  in  the  agricultural  implement  line,  a 
man  emerging  from  carpentry  to  carriage  repairing,  to  these  a  few 
pounds  of  ready  money  were  invaluable. 
Cases  could  be  multiplied,  but  there  is  no  need  to  do  it.  The 
thing  is  working  its  own  way  steadily.  We  only  want  a  few  mere- 
propagandists  scattered  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country, 
and  a  few  clear-headed  business  men  to  give  the  thing  a  fair  start. 
There  is,  after  all,  a  wonderful  amount  rf  enterprise  among  the  rural 
community,  but  the  spirit  needs  a  little  encouragement  and  a  little 
capital. 
Money  makes  the  mare  to  go,  and  it  crosses  many  a  difficult  bridge. 
There  is  not  that  incentive  about  a  2ift,  and  we  are  thankful  to  think 
our  working  men  would  not  care  for  a  gift,  and  it  is  a  right  and 
proper  spirit.  Anything  that  tends  to  independence  should  be 
encouraged. 
Talk  about  state  pensions  and  so  forth,  is  it  not  better  to  put 
within  reach  of  every  man,  and  woman  too,  the  means  by  which  they 
may  attain  decent  comfort  for  the  days  of  old  age  and  the  heavy  time 
of  sickness  ?  This  scheme  permits  of  a  woman  borrower.  Sewing- 
machines,  washing  apparatus,  fowls,  would  all  come  under  the  head  of 
suitable  objects — things  by  which  a  woman  misht  increase  her  capital 
and  provide  for  her  wants,  or  those  of  her  family. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
A  few  thunder  showers  have  not  materially  hindered  the  completion 
of  the  harvest,  whilst  they  have  done  a  little  to  encourage  the  root  crops 
into  renewed  growth.  Unfortunately  the  rains  have  been  somewhat 
partial,  and,  as  so  often  happens,  the  districts  with  the  greatest  need  have 
been  the  least  favoured. 
The  root  crop  is  showing  s'gns  of  improvement,  and  some  fields  may 
make  average  crops  ;  but  under  the  most  favourable  conditions  there 
must  be  a  great  shortage  of  Turnips,  and  a  70  per  cent,  estimate  we  quite 
think  to  be  an  optimistic  one,  and  such  as  will  not  be  realised.  The 
caterpillar  plague  is  over,  but  has  left  a  dreadful  mark  behind  it.  Tne 
Swedes,  wounded  almost  unto  death,  can  never  grow  into  weighty  and 
nutritious  bulbs. 
Farmers  who  have  tried  to  provide  for  the  root  deficiency  by  the 
prompt  sowing  of  catch  crops  are  anxiously  waiting  for  the  germination, 
which  cannot  take  place  until  there  have  been  more  copious  rains. 
Stubble  ploughing  is  impossible,  and  even  the  cultivator  works  with 
difficulty.  Rye  for  spring  feed  might  be  sown  after  the  cultivator  and 
harrowed  in,  but  it  would  do  better  if  the  land  were  ploughed  over  first, 
so  perhaps  we  had  better  w-ait  for  the  rain  to  come,  and  so  enable  us  to 
plough  and  make  a  good  job  of  it. 
Land  intended  for  winter  tares  must  be  cultivated  and  well  manured  ; 
it  can  then  be  ploughed  as  soon  as  moisture  will  allow,  and  drilled  about 
Michaelmas.  We  prefer  drilling,  as  the  seed  gets  better  distribution,  and* 
is  easier  to  cover  thoroughly.  Both  pigeons  and  rooks  are  very  fond  of 
tares,  and  are  troublesome  to  them  it  sown  alter  the  stubbles  have  been 
well  picked  over,  and  before  the  Wh-.at  has  been  put  in. 
Lumbs  keep  dying  by  driblets,  and  no  wonder,  lor  on  many  farms, 
where  no  special  provision  of  tares  or  Cabbage  has  been  provided,  there 
is  hardly  a  particle  of  green  food  for  them  to  eat. 
Hay  is  being  freely  used,  and  water  supplied  with  it  ;  this  latter, 
perhaps,  having  to  be  carted  several  miles.  Pastures  are  now  almost  bare, 
and  cattle  are  doing  little  or  no  good.  The  outlook  for  stockowners  is 
indeed  a  gloomy  one.  Only  a  growing  autumn  followed  by  a  mild 
winter  can  save  the  situation.  Now  is  the  time  to  put  the  ram  to  the 
ewes.  A  Leicester  breeder  told  us  the  other  day  that  he  was  giving  up 
the  pure  breed,  and  should  in  future  use  the  Hampshire  cross — Hamp¬ 
shire  x  Lincoln.  He  hts  been  experimenting,  and  has  found  the  cross¬ 
bred  to  realise  about  5s.  per  head  more  than  the  pure  white  face,  and 
does  it  in  less  time. 
The  Best  Implements. — The  Agricultural  Society  of  Meaux  has- 
for  several  years  organised  contests  of  agricultural  implements,  with  the 
result  that  the  locality  is  the  best  tilled  district  in  France.  On  a  farm  of 
575  acres,  of  which  in  the  rotation  125  are  under  sugar  Beet,  the  cost  of 
implements  and  machinery  of  all  kinds  was,  says  a  contemporary,  at  the 
commencement  72  francs  per  acre,  but  has  now  been  worked  down  to 
52  francs. 
The  American  Wheat  Harvest. — The  Chicago  correspondent  o£ 
the  “Yorkshire  Post”  says  : — The  Wheat  supply  so  far  this  year  is 
more  than  15  per  cent,  lower  than  was  last  year’s  crop.  About  80  million 
bushels  less  than  the  average  number  have  so  far  been  harvested,  and 
Minnesota  is  the  only  State  that  has  more  Wheat  fields  to  be  cut.  The 
effect  of  the  shortage  will  be  felt  in  the  stock  market,  and  the  grain 
merchants  are  preparing  to  raise  prices. 
Thistles  for  Pastures.  —  There  are  now  in  scores  of  pasture 
fields,  in  almost  every  parish  in  England,  such  a  number  of  thistles  as 
to  seriously  damage  grazing  grounds  for  cattle.  Fattening  cattle,  more 
than  others,  are  hindered  from  putting  on  flesh  at  the  rapid  rate  they 
ought  to  do  through  the  prickly  weeds  prevailing  to  such  an  extent. 
These  animals  are  so  highly  ted  that  they  will  not  lick  round  the 
thistles  so  closely  as  more  hungry  beast  might  do  ;  so  it  is  that  rank 
grass  grows  up  year  after  year,  until  the  grazing  ground  gives  for  the 
most  part  coarse,  rank  herbage.  Besides,  the  thistles  at  this  season, 
being  advanced  in  growth,  prick  the  animals’  noses,  and  that  keips  at 
any  rate  pampered  cattle  at  a  distance.  In  fact,  a  thistly  pasture  is  an 
eyesore  and  a  disgrace  to  any  farm,  and  nred  not  be  any  more  than  a 
badly  kept  garden.  Mowing  will  put  the  weeds  out  of  sight  pro  tem ... 
but  only  persistent  spudding  will  exterminate  them. — (“Rural  World.”) 
