EURAL ECONOMICS. 



295 



and (4) must personally inspect and select the land he buys. If he can meet 

 these requirements the company will loan him as much as $2,500 at 6 per cent 

 interest for a period of 10 years. 



The condition of the agricultural workmen in Sweden (Internat. I)ist. Agr. 

 [Romel, Bill. Bur. Econ. and Hoc. Intel., 3 (1912), Xo. 2, pp. 207-222).-— This 

 article notes that during the last quarter of the eighteenth centurj', the peasants 

 formed on an average G3.4 per cent of the agricultural population in Sweden; 

 the " base tenants," that is tenant farmers whose rent consists in a fixed number 

 of days' labor for the proprietor, 12.1 per cent; the " backstugiisittare " (occu- 

 piers of the smallest lots of land who are not bound to a fixed number of days' 

 labor for the proprietor), and the '" inhyseshjon " (i)ersons who work without 

 contract), 8.5 per cent; and the servants 16 per cent. A century later the 

 peasants constituted about 55 per cent of the farming population, while the 

 " base tenants " formed 15 per cent, the " backstugusittare " and " inhyseshjon " 

 14.2 per cent, and the servant class, 15.8 per cent. The rural population between 

 1751 and 1840 averaged 80 per cent of the total population, but in 1908 it was 

 only 49.12 per cent. The cause of the variation is attributed to manufactures 

 and emigration. 



With the decrease of farm laborers there has been a noticeable increase in 

 their wasos which is illu.strated in the following table: 



Wages of the varioua classes of agricultural laborers. 



Other notes and tables are given showing phases of the social and economic 

 conditions of the laborers. 



Immigration and employment of Polish farm laborers in France {BtU. 

 Off. Travail [France], 18 (J 911), Nos. It, pp. 1011-1081; 12, pp. 1210-1219).^ 

 The continually increasing scarcity of agricultural laborers in France has given 

 rise to the establishment of a number of agencies whose purpose is to secure 

 such laborers from beyond the frontier and arrange for their employment. The 

 special efforts of these organizations in France, in cooperation with the Polish 

 societies, to attract Polish laborers have met with reasonable success. Most 

 of the agencies arrange contracts which stipulate the wages the laborers are to 

 receive. Men and women field laborers engaged by the year usually receive 

 from .3.24 to 528 francs ($62.5.3 to $101.90). including food and lodging, and if 

 the laborer renews his contract for a second year from 420 to 624 francs. The 

 wages of young men and women range fi'om 240 to 350 francs a year, according 

 to their aptitude and age. 



Beport of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, Limited, for the 

 year ending June 30, 1911 {Rpt. Irish Agr. Organ. Sac, 1911, pp. 122). — In 

 this report it is shown that the growth of the cooperative -movement among 



