86 
III.—CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES. 
Societies which, in these years shared profits with their em 
ployees, the number of the employees of these Societies, and the 
ratio which the bonus received by them bore to their wages, are 
shown in the Table which follows : — 
Profit-sharing by Agricultural Productive Societies, 
1899-1910! 
[ Compiled from Returns made to the Labour Department, to the Chief Registrar of 
Friendly Societies, and to the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society.'] 
Societies which shared Profits with their 
Employees. 
Year. 
No. of all 
Societies 
at end of 
Year. 
No. of 
Societies 
which paid 
Bonus in 
Year. 
No. of 
Employees 
receiving Bonus 
on Wages 
in Year. 
Ratio of 
Bonus to Wages- 
of Participants 
in Year. 
1899 
137 
i 
3 
Per Cent. 
2-5 
1900 
156 
ii 
48 
5-6 
1901 
161 
12 
78 
4-9 
1902 
193 
14 
77 
2-9 
1903 
225 
19 
133 
4-3 
1904 
256 
24 
126 
4-2 
1905 
260 
27 
177 
3-3 
1906 
272 
30 
186 
3-3 
1907 
287 
38 
222 
5-4 
1908 
302 
31 
174 
5-0 
1909 
317 
48 
318 
5-4 
1910 
335 
45 
321 
6-2 
It will be seen that, taking all the Societies comprised in this 
group together, the element of Profit-sharing with employees has 
not, so far, played an important part in the organisation of the 
Agricultural Productive Societies. Among these Societies the 
principal group is formed by the Irish Dairying Societies, 291 in 
number in 1910, with aggregate sales of £2,059,905, or 93'4 per 
cent, of the total sales of the whole of the Agricultural Productive 
Societies in the United Kingdom. The profits made by these 291 
Irish Societies in 1910 amounted to £23,958, out of which £591 
in all was paid by 38 Societies to their employees as bonus on 
wages, to which it made an average addition of 5’9 per 
cent. With respect to shareholding by employees, the rules of 
the Agricultural Productive Societies provide that the share in 
profits falling to the employees shall be accumulated as shares in 
the Societies; and in those cases in which a share in profits has. 
been paid to the employees, it may be presumed that there are 
in the Societies by which this bonus has been allotted a certain 
number of employee-shareholders; speaking generally, however, 
it does not appear that in any considerable number of cases 
employees are members of the Society by which they are employed, 
nor that the employees are, to any very appreciable extent, repre 
sented on the Committees of Management of these Agricultural 
Productive Societies.