THE LAND REFORM AND ITS RESULTS UP TO THE PRESENT 1 29 



this law came into force the rates most usually paid for grazing were, as 

 we have seen, from 10 to 20 lei per head of livestock (in many cases more 

 than 20 lei) : and certainly the peasants had not then the enjoyment of a 

 quarter of a hectare per head of livestock. 



Chapter IV of the law deals with agricultural labour. 



In preceding laws no mention had been made of this, and the 

 omission naturally led to injustice and abuses. In article 35 of the law of 

 1907, however, it is provided first of aU that agricultural labour also must 

 be paid for exclusively in money. And the peasants are further forbidden 

 to obtain clothes, food, implements etc. from the landlords or tenant 

 farmers. The law next attempts to put a limit to the invasion of 

 middlemen, who used really to speculate in the labour of the peasants; so 

 it punishes landlords who employ agents to find agricultural labourers for 

 them, unless these agents have been duly authorized by the Government 

 authorities. In addition, the law fixes the quantity of food the farmer 

 must give his labourer in case he does give him his food. The quantity is 

 fixed by the Superior Board of Health. The law also fixes the amount 

 of money to be paid to the labourers by those landlords or tenant farmers 

 who do not give them their food. 



Finally, there is a special chapter in the law containing general pro- 

 v-isions with regard to the period of duration of agricultural contracts, the 

 general methods to be adopted for the improvement of the cultivation, the 

 distribution of the implements, the systems for fixing the minimum wages 

 and maximum rents, the supervision of the appHcation of the law etc. 



A more detailed account of the law would lead us too far : we shall 



content ourselves, therefore, with having given our readers a general idea 



\ of its principal provisions, and they will be able to see from the above short 



summary that it regulates a large part of the organization and conduct 



of agricultural Hfe in Roumania. 



Proceeding with our study of the Roumanian land reform, we shall 

 now deal briefly v^-ith the Law for the Limitation of the Right of Lease, known 

 also under the name of the law against lease trusts. 



We have already seen in the introduction to this article the importance 

 of agricultural leases in Roumania. The possibiHty that rich tenant farmers 

 had of uniting under their control immense areas of land allowed of the 

 formation of real and true trusts, by which the most burdensome con- 

 ditions were imposed on the peasants. When we think that a single family 

 had leased 150,000 ha. and negotiations were in course for adding to even 

 this immense area, it is easy to understand that the Government had not 

 only a right but a duty to intervene to put a stop to such a state of things. 

 The provisions of the law with regard to maximum rents and minimum 

 wages, might indeed have been a benefit for the peasants, but could not 

 alone radically modify the harmful effects of the lease trusts. The law 

 of April loth., 1908 puts an end to this state of things, prohibiting, 

 first of all, the leasing by a single person or a single group of persons 

 under any form or title, of more than 4,000 ha. The law establishes 

 penalties for contravention ; and makes provision with regard to the valid- 



