The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-16
Revolutionized Irish Farming

II dIuiHR
''The three causes which revolutionized
Irish farming are given us: Land pur-
chase, whereby the farmer became the
owner of the land; technical education
! whereby he was taught to do better farrn-
| ing, and agricultural cu-operatiSyI,, ~ here
| by business methods were applied to the
| industry, and the produce was disposed
| of to the best advantage The Irish Agri-
cultural Organization society has success
fully demonstrated that the cooperative
system is capable of enabling the farmer
to produce and distribute efficiently and
economically, and at the> same time 10
finance both of these operations. Credit
societies have been formed as auxiliary
to the cooperative society.
There are some 200 rural banks in Ire
land. One of the first forms of co-opera-
tion on the continent. and the most useful,
was cooperative credit No loss has come
oany one in their operation in all the
years since Raifeisen started the plan in
1S49.
I'm 1884 the idea took fast hold in
France and the agricultural syndicates
We're established and soon came to be con-
sidered veritable public utilities.
To-day there are 1000 syndicates, hav-
ing 100000 members, representing 100000
Of the rural population of France.
There are 1850 credit societies after the
Raiffeisen principle, having some e0,0o0
members. There are 1900 societies of agrl-
cultural credit under the law of 1894 which
inaugurated a special type of bank COM
posed of members of agricultural syndl-
Gates.
"These societies have resulted in dou-
bling the produce of the land, enabling
farmers to meet the competition of other
countries, attached the people to the soil,
advanced the rural population in prosper-
ty and economic, moral, and social i'm
provement An illustration of the way
cooperation works is this statement The
syndicate chartered steamers to carry
strawberries to London, and Growers
doubled their profits over what they were
when they consigned to Paris and left
Paris to sell to London. Foreign trade
was established the same way in fruits
and early vegetables, to the immense adj
vantage of the growers
I'm Germany there are 1900 credit So
cieties with 100000 members. These aud
the Landschaften and other Institutions
providing for amortization and low rates
of interest on long time loans have re-
deemed agriculture in Germany The Ger
man farmer land the French obtain all
the money they need under the co-opera-
tive credit system at 3 and per cent"
Special Kind of Banking
Senator Fletcher declared that relief
could not come to the farmer in this coun-
try through any system of commercial
banking, but that there was need for
special kind of bank authorized to make
long time loans so as to meet the farmers
capital requirements.
He quoted statistics to show that the
number of farms in this country from
percentage basis operated by owners We're
decreasing, and the percentage operated
by tenants increasing. Also that the per-
centage of farms in this country free from
mortgages in 1890 We're Ills and in 1910, 66.4.
Senator Fletcher is very hopeful that
the visit of the commission to Europe 70
make a study of rural credits and the
vast amount of data they obtained upon
that trip will result in legislation in this
country that will restore agriculture to
the prestige it formerly enjoyed.