are on the pauper roll, exempt, that is, from personal taxation"; while of the remainder, at the period of which this authority speaks, 600,000 proprietors paid contributions to the State amounting to only five centimes each. "Getting rid of one order of landlords and their rents," adds M. Lecouteux, "they have subjected themselves to another, tho invisible, order-the mortgagees, and to their heavier and more rigid rents." Nevertheless, there is a brighter side. Agricultural cooperative societies or syndicates have taken a deep hold in France, and are gradually accomplishing many beneficent reforms. France devotes some 5,000,000 acres to the cultivation of the vine, and is in many ways one of the leading agricultural countries of the world. The system of land tenure and the condition of agricultural population is very different in different portions of the German Empire. Generally, small estates and peasant proprietorship prevail in the West-German states, Germany while large estates prevail in the Northeast. In the Prussian provinces of Pomerania, Posen, and East and West Prussia, estates of 250 acres and more are the rule. In Westphalia and Oldenburg the agricultural laborer rents a small plot of ground from his employer on condition of giving him a certain number of days' work in return for a lower rate of wages than would otherwise be paid in the district. The laborer is a small cultivator on his own account, not as a rule rich enough to possess a team of horses, but allowed the use of his employer's team when necessary, and receiving other assistance in kind. The relations between the two parties are reported to be more favorable than in any other part of Germany. In Southern Germany small holdings prevail, but here the laborer is himself a small freeholder, who ekes out the scanty resources of his own property by performing service for the farmers who have more land than they can cultivate themselves. This becomes the more necessary, because on the death of the small freeholder any land which he has accumulated does not pass intact to his appointed heir, as in Westphalia. It is, as a rule, subdivided among his children, who must recommence the laborious process of saving, if they are ever to be in a position of independence. Mid-Germany-i. e., the district between the Weser and Elbe-is the home of the different classes of peasant farmers and of what are known as free laborers. These are drawn from different classes of the village population, possessing larger or smaller plots of land held on different systems of tenure handed down from feudal times, and known as Kötter, Brinksitzer, Häusler, or Anbauer. To the larger farmer (Bauer), or to the large landed proprietor (Gutsbesitzer), they are all merely day-laborers in the strictest sense of the term. In the wide expanse of territory east of the Elbe the contract between the agricultural laborer and his employer takes a great variety of forms; but in what Professor Knapp calls the most typical districts, where great estates (Rittergüter) are numerous and settlements of peasant farmers (Bauerndörfer) few, the most usual form has hitherto been that known as socage tenancy (Instenwesen). Here the landowner enters into a contract for a lengthened period, which assures him of the services not of an individual merely, but of a family. The family is settled in a cottage upon the landlord's estate, and must be prepared to provide a man and an assistant-a so-called socager (Scharwerker)-to perform the agricul tural labor required on the estate. A very small daily wage is paid in return; the socage tenant generally receives a portion of garden-ground for his own use in addition to his house, and a few acres of land are cultivated for him within the estate; whatever these produce, whether corn, other kinds of produce, or potatoes, belongs to the socage tenant (Inste). Finally, the socage tenant has a right to thrash his landlord's corn during the winter in return for a certain proportion of the yield. This remuneration in kind is often more than he can use, but he is at liberty to sell it, and the proceeds, together with a very small daily wage, represent the extent of his pecuniary resources. As a rule he owns a cow or a few sheep, and in all cases he keeps one or two pigs. As far as health and good nourishment are concerned, the condition of such a laborer leaves little to be desired, and lately much has been done to remedy the miserable character of the cottages. Germany now produces one third of the world's output of sugar beets, and is the leading potatoproducing country. Vineyards along the Rhine sometimes give a net return of $100 per acre. Italy In Belgium, Holland, and Denmark peasant proprietorship has gone very far, the individual holdings being very small. This very fact has, perhaps, been one of the main factors in promoting cooperation. For details, see those countries. Agriculture has been called "the backbone of Italy." Very few parts of the civilized world, indeed, have a more distinctly agricultural character than this country, where "the rural laborers may be counted by millions, while the industrial operatives are only numbered by thousands." Great as is the importance of the agricultural question, however, it is extremely difficult to grasp, owing to the extraordinary complexity and variety of the conditions of Italian land tenure. It includes the medieval manor (latifondo), cultivated on the most primitive extensive system, the most perfect system of intensive cultivation on a large scale; "petite culture" pushed to the extreme of specialization, and the same methods applied to the most heterogeneous mixture of products; rents varying from 5 lire to 2,000 lire per hectare; peasant proprietorship, "metayer" farming, feudal tenancies, and hired labor. In every separate district the phenomena of rural economy have special, exclusive, characteristic features, arising from an infinite diversity of local circumstances. There are three typical forms of agrarian contract in Italy-the "metayer" system (mezzadria, mezzeria, colonia), in which the principle of profit-sharing finds its simplest expression; the leasehold system (affitto), and the system of home cultivation by means of hired laborers (salario). Each of these systems has given rise to innumerable deviations in practise, and each passes by insensible gradations into the other. Many agriculturists cultivate part of their land as metayers, part. as leaseholders, and part as the farm servants of a landlord. Agriculture, however, generally is in a very primitive condition. Lombardy is the garden of Italy, with 1,600,000 acres of irrigated land, and its intensive culture. Italy has over half a million people engaged in raising silkworms. In Switzerland industry and agriculture are very closely connected. "The peasant when unoccupied by his land easily finds some useful employment in a multiplicity of other labors, Switzerland varying from tree-felling and wood-carving to the manufacture of watch-springs. The artizan or factory hand is, on the other hand, generally half a peasant, possessing some few square yards of land, with a cow or a few goats." The Swiss system of land tenure, which is favorable to the formation of small freeholds, also contributes to the prosperity of the agricultural population. By far the greater part of the land is held in farms varying in size from two to five hectares, and in many industrial districts an innumerable quantity of minute holdings are to be found cultivated by members of the working class. The question of rent is an unimportant one in Switzerland, as it is rare to find a farm which is not worked by the owners; but owing to the continual subdivision of property the land is in many cases heavily mortgaged. The existence of large areas of common land (Allmend) in Switzerland is of great benefit to the agricultural classes. These lands are said to be a survival from the times when the whole soil of the country was held by the nation in common. The first departure from this custom was made by the Romans, who granted lands to veteran soÏdiers; gifts of land to religious foundations-to the Abbey of St. Gall, for example, in the eighth century-did still more to establish the principle of private property; but even as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by far the greater part of the soil of Switzerland was held in common. In 1803, under the influence of ideas which found expression in the French Revolution, the common lands were to a great extent sold by the communes to private persons. It was believed that private ownership would lead to better cultivation and to the eventual decrease of poverty, but the results showed that in most cantons the step had led to the increase of pauperism. The common lands now existing include (1) gardens, orchards, and vineyards, situated for the most part in valleys or on hillsides; (2) pasture lands both in the lowlands and on mountains; (3) forests, where the inhabitants of the commune have the right of gathering firewood; (4) marshes, ponds, peat bogs, and the shores of lakes. Where farms are large enough to absorb more labor than the family of the owner can supply, they are cultivated by permanent laborers, who live with their employer and practically form part of his family. These laborers are engaged for long periods, and the best relations exist between them and their employers. Day-laborers, on the other hand, find themselves in a very unstable position, as the demand for extra labor is not continuous, but confined to certain seasons of the year, such as the hay harvest. Other Countries Of the remaining countries of Europe, Austria and Russia, which are the most important agriculturally, present sharp contrasts with modern methods on some farms, and most primitive methods generally. For the division of the land, see the article on the respective countries, and for statistics as to crops, see the last division of this article. Spain has few advanced methods, in spite of her extensive cultivation of vines, oranges, and olives. In South America the Argentine Republic is taking a large place in the world's agricultural market with wheat, wool, cattle, and wine. Brazil holds a leading place with coffee. In Mexico the raising of cattle and sheep is the main agricultural interest. For Canadian conditions, see CANADA. In Africa, Egypt under English administration and Fellah labor produces large amounts of sugar and high-grade cotton. China and India, in spite of ancient methods and rude implements, produce important crops by irrigation and garden-like culture. For Australia, see Australia. REFERENCES: Primitive Property, by Émile de Laveleye, Eng, transl., 1878; History of Agriculture and Prices in England (1882), and Work and Wages (1885), by Rogers; The English Village Communities, by F. Seebohm, 1889: Travels in France, by Arthur Young; One Hundred Years Progress, in the Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1872; American Farms, by J. R. Elliot; Land and Labor in the U. S., by W. G. Moody; The Transition in Agriculture, by E. A. Pratt, 1906. Consult also various government reports. *From Twelfth Census, vol. v., pp. xlv, and 690. Including all farms of less than three acres that, continuously, require the labor of one individual. 1895 (hectares). Per cent.. 1882 (hectares) Per cent... LAND UNDER CULTIVATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO SIZES OF FARMS 85 1,905,000 87.417,000 6,000,000 812,001,000 24 There were The hay harvest in 1905 was 26,265,411 tons. also produced 487,068 tons of spelt and 2,921,953 tons of barley. The following figures show the proportions between the areas of cultivated land under the different crops in 1905: Rye, 15.6; wheat, 19.2; spelt, 14.6; barley, 17.9; potatoes, 145.7: oats, 15.7; hay, 44.1. "In the entire German Empire there were, in 1900, 52.332,000 apple-trees; 25,116,000 pear-trees; 69,436,000 plum-trees, and 21,548,000 cherry-trees. Total fruit-trees, 168,432,000. In 1905 there were 39.511 hectares of land under hops, the total harvest being 58,513,800 pounds. The wine production in 1905 amounted to 3.855.978 hectoliters (about 102,000,000 gallons), to a total value of 109,000,000 marks. The total area of land under tobacco was, in 1904, 15,883 hectares, yielding 68,761,800 pounds of tobacco. The World PERSONS ENGAGED IN AGRICULTURE AND FISHERries * COUNTRY 136,905,000 83,605,000 Austria-Hungary. Rumania. 164,587,000 4,400,000 91,817.000 135.947,000 Bulgaria Servia. Montenegro. Turkey in Europe.. Greece.. Russia in Europe. Total Europe. 50,672,000 Australia 49,877,000 New Zealand.. 1890 5.425.205 69.9 6.733.000 9,4 11,000 2,955,975,000 3.337.400,000 |