59 
article has almost doubled since 1900. During the last few years some 
attempts have been made to export refrigerated mutton. The annual 
wool export amounts fo some 800 000 kg., and constitutes the greater 
part of the annual vield. The principal markets for Icelandic wool are 
the U.S.A. and Denmark. The number of green-salted sheep skins (with 
the wool on) annually exported from the country has now increased to 
some 400 000, that is, it has more than quadrupled since the beginning 
of the present century. 
AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 
AND ENTERPRISES 
Shortly after 1880 cooperative purchase and sale societies began to 
spring up in Iceland. This movement was initiated by the farming popu- 
ation, among whom it has gained its greatest number of adherents: 
The majority of these associations have therefore had their attention 
directed not only towards purchasing in the foreign market such ar- 
ticles as the farmers most require, but also towards the export and 
sale of farming produce. It was not, however, till about the end of the 
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth that cooperative 
societies for sale of produce began to be formed among the farmers. 
In 1900 the first cooperative dairy was established. The dairies in- 
creased in number so rapidly that by 1905 there were no less than 
33 in the country. From 1905 to 1912 there was little change either 
way, and that year the total output of butter reached its maximum, 
184 000 kg. Then a decline set in, especially during and just after the 
Great War, partly owing to the rise in the prices of meat and the 
consequent increase in the production of that commodity, and partly 
because the exportation of butter was forbidden in 1917 for fear of 
scarcity of fat goods, as the importation of these articles was greatly 
restricted. In 1919 and 1920 all but six dairies had to stop working, and 
have not since, except in a few cases, resumed activities. In these years 
(1929 to 1930), however, two large and up-to-date dairies are being 
established in the southern lowlands; and as they will be able to treat 
large quantities of milk, most of the small dairies will probably have 
to be closed. At first (1900—1911) the dairies received a government 
premium on every pound of butter exported. But Icelandic butter soon 
earned a high reputation on the British market and fetched good prices. 
The cooperative slaughter houses are another form of these societies. 
The largest of these associations, the Sliturfélag Sudurlands, was 
established in 1907, and originally comprised all southern and part of