NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL liCONOMY IN GENERAL 

 IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 



FEIFAJyIK (Dr. F.) [Regieiiingsrath der bosn. herz. I^udersverwaltung] Ein neuer aktueller 

 Weg der I/isung der bosnischen Agrarfrage {A New Way to solve the Agrarian Question in 

 Bosnia) Wiener Staatwiss, Studien II Band; 3 uf. Vienna and I^eipzig, 1916. 



In this book the author has aimed at contributing to the solution of 

 an agrarian and economic problem in Bosnia, the problem namely of the 

 kmeti which is important because it is connected with the development and 

 future of agriculture in this province but which is thorny because multiple 

 difficulties are in the way of its solution. 



The name kmeti is given to the cultivators of the lands possessed by 

 the agas who are the great proprietors of the country. These lands are bur • 

 dened by a right of customary service, recognized by the law, in virtue of 

 which a kmet can never be deprived of the land he renders fruitful bj^ his 

 labour, and is connected by certain obligations with the aga to whom the 

 land belongs. There are thus in Bosnia and Herzegovina special jurisdictory 

 relations between proprietors and cultivators of the land, and they date from 

 a very ancient period. The regulation of these relations is no veiy^ eas}' 

 task and has always preoccupied the Austrian and Hungarian administra- 

 tion. The realization of pertinent reforms which would solve the agrarian 

 problem, with which the problem of the kmeti is intimatel}^ connected, has 

 figured importantly ever since the early period of occupation in the general 

 economic and agrarian programme which Austria and Hungary have 

 proposed to carry out in the new territories. 



Dr. Feifalik has understood the importance of the matter at stake and 

 has wished not only to facilitate its investigation, by the opportune and 

 practical observations which make his book useful and valuable, but also 

 to render a practical service in that he advances a new solution of the agra- 

 rian problem, especially as it concerns Bosnia. In his three first chapters 

 he attempts to show : 



a) That the feudal relations which have long existed in Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina between the agas and the kmeti represent an insurmountable 

 obstacle to all improvement in agriculture, which has for this reason made 

 no progress since the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation until 

 to-day, in spite of all the ameliorative measures evolved and applied by the 

 new government. 



b) That all the essays of Austria and Hungary to improve agricul- 

 ture in the two annexed provinces, including the last law of 1911 on the 

 repurchase of lands, have had no restdts or hardly any, because they did 



