th of the bacon-curing societies has been remarkable. The first
of them was not founded until 1887, but they spread rapidly, and in
seven years there were twenty, killing more than half the country's then
produce of hogs. The movement has greatly increased since then, and
multiplied its output about fourfold. Co-operation in collecting,
grading and exporting eggs only began in 1895, and in eight years 65,000
members had joined the various egg societies, and the value of eggs
exported had reached L436,000. Taken as a whole, the effect of
agricultural co-operation in Denmark has amounted to little less than a
revolution. It has brought the results of science within the peasant's
reach, and he has been quick to avail himself of them: it has
transformed a great part of farm work into a factory industry, increased
the yield of the soil, improved the material position of the peasants,
and drawn rich and poor together. Denmark, once so poor, is now, except
England, probably the richest country in Europe in proportion to its
population. Besides Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland,
Finland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Ireland and
many other countries have important developments of agricultural
co-operation. In Germany, where it is closely connected with credit
co-operation, it seems to date from 1866 only, yet in forty years
agricultural co-operative societies have come to number six thousand,
without counting the agricultural banks, which exceed twice that number.
There are dairies, societies to purchase farm requisites, societies of
grape-growers, hop-growers and beetroot-growers, distilleries, labour
societies, insurance societies, societies to own warehouses and
granaries and to sell produce, to purchase land and resell it in small
holdings, and even several societies which purchase land to cultivate it
in common. The close connexion between credit-societies and other
agricultural co-operation is exemplified in the Central Union of
orthodox Raiffeisen credit societies at Neuwied. Through a central bank
and a trading department allied to it, it has negotiated the joint
purchase of coal, feeding-stuffs, manures, machinery and so forth to
large amounts, as well as the difficult business of the combined sale of
agricultural produce. Moreover, several local centres connected with
this union have granaries and warehouses for the storage of agricultural
produce, and negotiate joint sales, while wi