RURAL ECONOMICS. 889 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



Agrarian movements in Italy, Monin (BuL Mens. Off. Renseig. Agr. (Paris), 

 6 (1907), No. 10, pp. 1219, 1220; lUtis. Landic. Ztg., 27 (1907), No. 97, p. 837).— 

 Notes are given on the organizations of farm laborers and share tenants In dif- 

 ferent provinces of Italy during the past few years and their conflicts with 

 landowners. Tlie agitations of the farm laborers were to compel employing 

 farmers to adopt a different system at threshing time so as to give more work 

 to farm hands, while the metayers or share tenants demanded a reduction or 

 abolition of certain obligations assumed under their system of renting farms. 



Agricultural reform in Ireland, D. Volta {Atti R. Accad. Econ. Agr. 

 Georg. Fircnzc, 5. ser., 4 (1907), No. 3, jyp. 20^-227).— This is a review of the 

 efforts made by the British government from the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century to 1!)0T to change the land-tenure system of Ireland for the purpose of 

 improving the economic and social condition of the peasant classes. 



The small-holdings competition in Jamaica, W. Cradwick {West Indian 

 Bui., 8 (1907), No. 3, pp. 267-270; Trop. Agr. Mag. Ceylon Agr. Sac, 30 (1908), 

 No. 2, pp. 158-161). — This is an account of a plan in operation during the past 

 four years of offering prizes to the peasantry for the best tilled and best kept 

 farms of not more than 20 acres. The benefits of the scheme are a stimulus to 

 greater and much-needed exertion among the peasantry, better facilities for 

 practical instruction in agriculture by the government traveling instructors, 

 and the allaying of suspicion existing between the government and the peas- 

 antry. 



The agricultural labor problem (Fiihling's Landw. Ztg., 56 (1907), No. 20, 

 pp. 705-709). — The facts presented in this article are derived from an inaugural 

 dissertation by H. Schrader. 



A description is given of the operation of an estate in the neighborhood of 

 Berlin, The number and classes of farm help, their wages, emoluments, and 

 household accommodations, the amount of laud and fertilizing and cultivating 

 privileges granted to each class of workers, and the methods of conducting sav- 

 ings banks for the parents and the members of their families are described. 

 The results of the experiment are believed to indicate a practical solution of 

 the farm help problem in Germany. 



Concerning the breach of contract by farm help, J. Henningsen (Illiis. 

 Landw. Ztg., 27 (1907), No. 63, pp. 556-558).— As remedies for the violation of 

 contracts on the part of farm laborers, the author suggests a greater use of 

 improved machinery as a means of lightening labor but not to displace the 

 laborer, and better care and treatment of farm hands. The by-laws of a society 

 whose object is the formation of a pension fund are appended. 



Agricultural cooperation in Italy, De Rocquigny (Bui. Soe. Nat. Agr. 

 France, 67 (1907), No. 8, pp. 727-735). — Notes are given on the history, objects, 

 and results of representative agricultural cooperative associations in Italy. 

 These are regarded as exclusively economic and are concerned chiefly with the 

 purchase of farm supplies and the furnishing of credit. The " affittanze 

 collettive," or cooperative fax-ms operated by farm hands who do not have 

 steady employment (E. S. R,, 19, p. 587) now number about 100. Statistics 

 show a total of .3,313 agricultural cooperative societies in 1907, including 790 

 for the purchase of supplies, 1,008 mutual credit associations, 870 societies for 

 agricultui'al production, and 4.5 for the sale of products. 



Agricultural credit and loan banks, W. T. Tuknkr (IPrs^^ Indian Bui., 

 8 (1907), No. 3, pp. 250-253). — An account of cooperative banks in Jamaica, but 

 more particularly of the Christiana People's Cooperative Bank, the only one 



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