EURAL ECONOMICS. 593 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



Land and labour: Lessons from Belgium, H. S. Rowntrek {London: l',)tO, 

 pp. XX+6S3, plx. 25, figs. 5, maps 5; rcr. in Jour. Roy. Statist Soc, 73 {1910), 

 No. 7, pp. 7St-785; Rev. Econ. Internat., 7 {lUlO), III, A'o. /, pp. 195, 196). — 

 This volume contains the results of four years' investigations into the main 

 aspects of the social and economic life of Belgium made with a view of con- 

 tributing to the solution of the problem of poverty in Great Britahi by throwing 

 some light on its relation to the system of land tenure. Information is given 

 on Belgium and her people, the land tenure system, the number of landowners 

 and the size of their holdings, the mortgage debts of peasant iiroprietors. wiiges, 

 hours, and conditions of work in industrial pursuits, agriculture and agricul- 

 tural conditions, transport facilities, system of taxation, education, and the 

 standard of living and housing of the worlving classes. 



Section 3 of the volume is devoted entirely to agriculture in Belgium, in which 

 the relative advantages of large farms and small holdings, and of proprietorship 

 and tenancy, are discussed. A special inquiry was made into the price and rent 

 of land throughout the country, with a view to determining the share of the 

 profits of successful husbandry which falls to the owner of the soil. Besides 

 general farming, market-gardening is dealt with, and the extent to which 

 Belgium provides the food necessary for her own people is shown. The advan- 

 tages derived from technical education, cooperation, and the provision of cheap 

 credit among agriculturists, and those arising from communal ownership of 

 land and afforestation, are considered, together with the bearing of these and 

 other factors upon the rural exodus. 



In conclusion a sunmiary is given of the whole investigation, and the direc- 

 tions in which closer acquaintance with Belgium may serve to guide those in 

 Great Britain who are seeking to improve the lot of the workers are outlined. 



Land and labor in Belgium {Field [London], 115 {Id 10). No. 2995, p. S93).— 

 This is a discussion of agricultural labor conditions in Belgium as compared 

 with trade workers and other laborers. The facts are derived from Rowntree's 

 Land and Labor, noted above, the article serving in a measure as a review 

 of the book. 



Studies and researches by a foreigner concerning the rural economy of 

 certain parts of Italy according to the standards of social science, V. Racah 

 {Atti R. Accdd. Econ. Ayr. (ieorg. Fircnzc, 5. scr.. 7 {1910), No. 1, pft. l'i~J,7).— 

 This is a critical examination of two works by Paul Roux, a French writer, 

 entitled, respectively. The Rural Population of Tuscany, and The Roman Lati- 

 fundium (hirge estate). The latter work is divided into two parts, discussing 

 (1) the agrarian problem in the Roman district, and (2) the solution of the 

 agrarian problem. 



The first work is brietly discussed, the three types of rural economic life in 

 Tuscany being pointed out and measured according to the latest standards of 

 social scieTice. Tlie chief characteristic of this province is the subordination 

 of the rural population to the owners of the land who dwell in the cities, who 

 direct the labor of tenant farmers, and who supply the rural w:ige-earn<'rs with 

 the means of subsistence by giving them temiuirary employment on farms or 

 related industries. 



It is the large estates surrounding Rome, however, which are regarded as 

 the bane of Italian agriculture. These are either uncultivated or only slightly 

 so and fall to give employment to laborers or to produce the wealth the land is 

 capable of producing. The means that have betMi i.ut in operation for changing 

 the economic and social conditions of tliis region by the government are r(>porte<l. 

 and it is believed that with the breaking up of these fertile lands into small 



