THE ACTIVITY OF THE BELGIAN " BOERENBOND " 



formulate its desires to the German civil administration. It proposed 

 tariffs in harmony with the general situation, giving prices at which the 

 cultivators should themselves buy the goods they needed ; and it asked 

 that they shovild be allowed to retain such quantities of grain as were rea- 

 sonably necessary for household and farming purposes. In this way 

 it claimed looo kilogrammes (i) of oats for each horse, and in this at 

 least obtained satisfaction since the decree ordered an allowance of two and 

 a half kilogrammes a day or 920 kilogrammes in all. Later this quantity 

 was notably diminished . 



" For the rest, the allowance of rye for every head of horned cattle 

 was, as is known, fixed at seven and a half kilogrammes a month or a to- 

 tal of ninet}^ kilogrammes — an entirety insufficient amount. 



" As regards food for the people the allowance of wheat was 340 gram- 

 mes (2) a day for each person, but producers of rye might retain only a third 

 of this amount of rye, being allowed to buy the other two thirds of their 

 ration in wheat from the committees. 



" The authorization to reserve ninet}^ kilogrammes of rye for a head 

 of cattle was a concession, however slight ; that of utilizing this quantit}^ 

 at pleasure, instead of being obliged to keep one twelfth for every month 

 until the next harvest, was another ; and finally producers of rye were al- 

 lowed to take out two thirds of their ration in rye. In spite of our most 

 persistent efforts it was impossible to obtain more. 



" Although here again residts have not been quite equal to expecta- 

 tion we cannot regret ha\ing done our duty. Our gilds, which have seen 

 their efforts partially fail on some occasions, should also argue thus, and 

 should rejoice with us in the least success. The position of our cultivators 

 would, without our and their intervention, have been far worse in many 

 respects ". 



Thus new difficulties, affecting agriculture and the rural population, 

 arose at ever^- moment. The regulation of the sale of potatoes, the acquisi- 

 tion of seeds and plants, the struggle against the unrestrainedly audacious 

 adulteration of foods for live stock and of manures, the efforts to obtain sub- 

 sidies for the reinsurance of cattle and horses, the intervention of unemploy- 

 ment funds in favour of unemployed workpeople — these and others were 

 so many problems which the Boerenbond attempted to solve, multiplying 

 all the necessar}' procedure in relation to the ci\nl and the militarv' authori- 

 ties. Not the least arduous task was that of helping small cultivators in the 

 districts which have suffered most from the war. To estimate damages, to 

 combat the discouragement of the poor peasants whom the war had ruined, 

 to draw up plans for bringing lands under cultivation and resuming the 

 tilth of abandoned lands, to organize a system of small loans which would 

 particularly favour those most tried, to collaborate in fact in every possible 

 way in the resumption of work and life on this countryside ravaged by the 

 war — this has been the essential aim which the variotis sections and the 



(i) I kilogramme = 2.2 lbs. 

 (2) I gramme = 0.564 drams. 



