LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION IO5 



is regularly developing the value of his concession. One tenth of the requir- 

 ed capital will however be retained by the administration if, at the end of the 

 first year, all a concessionary' 's rights in his concession lapse entirely be- 

 cause he has not begun to work it, using appropriate methods. 



The rules as to land also make mention of concessions of another type, 

 namely of land on which wild crops are exploited and harvested and pastur- 

 age used. These are regulated like the other concessions, except that their 

 term is ten years and that the}^ are renewable for the same period ; but on 

 certain fixed conditions land thus conceded by the administration remains 

 at its disposal for eventual concession for agricultural purposes. 



Finally the rules establish (article 37) that the governor may dispose 

 of a lot of 5,000 hectares in the form of experimental concessions of parcels, 

 measuring 25 hectares each but capable of being extended to 100 hectares, to 

 small proprietors having suitable capital individually, and united in a com- 

 pulsory agricultural union for the execution and maintenance of works of 

 h^'draulics, benefaction and roadmaking, useful to all the concessionaries, and 

 for the common purchase of machines, seeds and other like articles, under 

 the superintendence of a central technical management. Although onty 

 general criteria have been laid down for this interesting scheme, we are per- 

 suaded that it would be an enterprise of modern State colonization which 

 would anticipate coming conditions and be very important to the colony's 

 future. We will return to this question when we treat of the experiments in 

 colonization made with Italian families (vide § 5 of this article) . 



The rules which we have reviewed conform to an excellent principle 

 of administrative autonomy. The precautions by which the administra- 

 tion has sought to guarantee the financial fitness of applicants for conces- 

 sions, and the regular development of the value of the land, seem to be much 

 more dependable under these rules than they were in the previous contracts 

 by which concessions have hitherto been conditioned. It will be possible 

 therefore to attract into the sphere of agricultural initiative the most 

 active elements and to exclude from it the least desirable. Certainly these 

 rules cannot be called perfect, but on the whole a far-seeing land policy has 

 inspired them. In an}- case they must be looked upon as the first notable 

 exemplification of the land system of Somaliland. After some ten years 

 of experience it will be possible to make deductions from them and to com- 

 pare them with the enactments of other colonial laws better than today. 

 It will then be possible to judge whether they need modification, whether 

 other principles should be applied to them in order to reach a more complete 

 organization of the land, and what such principles should be. 



§ 4. Experiment and experience in colonization. 



We will now speak of some concessions and the results obtained from 

 them. We will of course only deal with some typical cases, for we lack the 

 space in which to examine all the experiments and attempts made in Soma- 

 liland to provoke and to extend colonization. * 



