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Show -vu - O-OPERATIVE DIARY PLAN Klelnkugel, Germany Aug. 4 Operations Op-erations of a co-operative dairy society so-ciety have been studied here by a I sub-committee of the American commission com-mission on agricultural CO-operatlon Members of the socletj own In all about 2r.O cows Ea h member Is required re-quired lo own at least 2 cows and to take out at least one share of stock costing $3.00 However, many of the members owns more th;m the required 2 cows, and purchase one share of stock for each 2 cows. One of the members who received the commissions owned 30 cows and ?3G worth of stock. The milk of the members Is j brought each day to the dairy b the members themselves. The dairy Is (operated to make a small profit, but ; this margin is simply a guard against losses and not a means to pay dividends divi-dends to the members. At the present pres-ent time the society has not paid off the mortgages on lis buildings and . so the profits, after a portion are I placed in a reserve fund, are paid as interest and principal on these loans. : Members of the dairy receive cash lor their mirk form the dairy It Is bought according to the percentage of butter f al which it contains. The buttermilk rnd skimmed milk Is returned re-turned to the farmers for cheese making and food for hogs In another I village the commissioners saw a co- operative dairy where the hogs were kept by the society, and where cheese was manufactured Because of superior quality of butter but-ter made at the co-operative dairy, as compared to butter made on the I farms, the price obtained for co-operative butter averages about 15 per cent above the market price. Tho cost of making is considerably re- : AttrnA rs (ho, iUa inn- nnA to the members are satisfactory-Dealers satisfactory-Dealers in butter are required to pay a local tax, but because of the cooperative co-operative and non-profit seeking character of this dairy no tax Is required re-quired unless tho dairy wishes to purchase milk from outside farmers. All members of the dairy are required re-quired to supply all of their milk, not repuired for use at home, to the cooperative co-operative dairy. The manager of the dairy who appeared ap-peared before the commissioner eaid that his salary was 4.".n a ear with a free house, free butler and milk allowed. Yet he was a trained duirman and a graduate of one of the German dairy schools. Ho told the commission something of these schools in which the Germans place-great place-great store In every German town there Is one school In which dairying is taught When the children axe fourteen years old. If they have decided de-cided to become dairy farmers they enter this school. The children ;ir set at. their work even at an earlier age for they must receive a preliminary prelim-inary training at a dairy before they enter the school There was one pupil pu-pil at the co-operative dairy preparing prepar-ing himself to enter the dairy school It is not, of course, child labor, but simply vocational education carried on in connection with other school training The efficiency of the German Ger-man agriculturists and artisans Is believed be-lieved to rest largely upon this training, train-ing, though from the American standpoint stand-point objection might he made to It on the ground that to train a child to manual labor from so early an age is apt to create classes within a country The importance of the co-operative credit societies In the development of other co-operative enterprises was made readil apparent to the commissioners com-missioners The co-operative dalr owns Its own land but the building was erected on credit advanced bv the local Raiffeisen socletv. Three and a half per cent interest is paid by the society upon all loans Th principal of the loans Is paid hack by the amortization In small annual Installments. On the dairy house this Installment payment each ear Is two per cent of the amount of the loan On the machinery It is 10 per cent, ,-nd on wagons 20 per cent Higher payments on imons and machinery are require! because of depreciation in their value. |