XVII LAND NATIONALIZATION— WHY ? AND HOW ? 321 



rule — the case of the Channel Islands. The testimony of 

 all observers is unanimous as to the happy condition of 

 these islands, and to its cause in the almost total absence 

 of landlordism as it exists with us. The Hon. G. C. 

 Brodrick, in his English Land and English Landlords, 

 says: 



"If we judge of success in cultivation by the produce, we find 

 that a much larger quantity of human food is raised in Jersey than is 

 raised on an equal area, by the same number of cultivators, in any 

 part of the United Kingdom. Not only does it supjDort its own 

 crowded population in much greater comfort than that enjoyed by the 

 mass of Englishmen, but it supplies the London market out of its 

 surplus production with shiploads of vegetables, fruit, butter, and 

 cattle for breeding. Even wheat, for the growth of which the climate 

 is not very suitable, is so cultivated that it yields much heavier crops 

 per acre than in England ; and the number of live stock kept on a 

 given area astonishes travellers accustomed only to English farming. 

 Nor are these only the results of spade-husbandry, for machinery is 

 largely employed by the yeomen and peasant proprietors of the 

 Channel Islands, who have no difficulty in arranging among them- 

 selves to hire it by turns. " 



Mr. Brodrick, like every one else, attributes this wonder- 

 ful success to the land system of the country. 



Lest it be now said that there is something in the 

 climate or soil of these various localities, or in the character 

 or habits of the people to which these favourable results 

 are to be imputed, I must refer to a few crucial examples 

 in which every other cause but difference of land tenure is 

 eliminated, and which therefore complete the demonstration 

 to which this whole argument tends. The first of these is 

 afforded by Italy, over large portions of which there are 

 still, as in the time of the Romans, latifundia or large 

 estates farmed by middlemen, and cultivated by labourers 

 or tenants at will. In his volume on Primitive Property 

 the great economist, M. de Laveleye, speaks of the 



"naked and desolate fields, where the cultivator dies of famine 

 in the fairest climate and most fertile soil ; such is the result of the 

 latifundia. Economists, who defend the system of huge properties, 

 visit the interior of the Basilicata and Sicily if you want to see the 

 degree of misery to which your huge properties reduce the earth and 

 its habitants." 



VOL IL Y 



