FARMERS' CO-OPERATION IN FRANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 6

FARMERS' CO-OPERATION IN FRANCE.

The success of the recent National Agricultural Show at Paris has attracted attention firom far and wide to the enormous ramifications of the Credit Mutuel Agvicole, the French farmers' co-operative society. This gr^at organisation has a membership of 125,270 farmers, large and small. It has 2700 local branches, which f'eal with the Government through 94 district offices, obtaining larat year, for the purpose of loans to members, a total sum of £1.800,000. In the year 1900 the amount advanced was £25,000. The Government advances the money at 3 per cent, interest, and the society charges its borrowers 4 per cent., the difference going to defray practically the whole cost of the working of. the society. It is stated that a bad debt is almost unknown in the society. Besides co-operation in the growing and interchange of seed the society has done great work in the improvement of agrieultureal methods, including the breeding and management of stock, the number of dairy cows in France having in the last 20 years increased by 1.000,000, and the milk production in a greatei ratio, due chiefly to the efforts of the organisation in improving the quality of the products and the system of marketing. The society also tests and guaranteed to its members the quality of

the seeds, manures, and feeding stuffs purchased by them, so ithat those requirements are not only obtained at the most' economical prices, but are also of the best grades. Co-operatdon, by providing scientific instruction, technical education, and cheap money, has revolutionised: •French farming, and the advance movement is stronger than ever.