21 



has pro tanto diminished the area of the larger farms and 

 thus contributed to the apparent retrogression of the 

 figures in the last two lines of the table. 



To some extent the same may be said of a consider- 

 able number of farms in the next class, since allotments 

 of two hectares are only suitable for keeping a few pigs 

 and growing a quantity of potatoes and other vegetables, 

 and are not infrequently given by the landlord to the 

 labourer as a "retaining fee" or as part of his wages. 

 But with reference to this and the next class we must bear 

 in mind the working of the famous Polish Expropriation 

 Acts since 1886, which have been instrumental, at a great 

 expense to the Prussian State, in breaking up a large 

 number of big estates in the provinces of Posen and West 

 Prussia and in artificially creating in their place a still 

 greater number of small farms.* From that date to the 

 end of 1909 the Prussian Government acquired 475 noble- 

 men's estates and 294 large peasant farms, forming a 

 total of 370,562 hectares, at a price of about .£17.5 millions. 

 The estates formed at least seven-eighths of this total 

 area, and averaged over 500 hectares each. Upon this 

 land more than 17,000 families have been settled, the 

 average size of the holdings, created during the recent 

 years, being about 12 hectares. f This vast number of 

 small farms artificially created will go a long way to 

 account for the increase of farms of the third class. 



Lastly, it is to be observed that the return which we 

 are now discussing refers to the year 1907, when admit- 

 tedly the small farmers were still labouring under the big 

 Protectionist delusion and were acquiring and leasing land 

 in the expectation of still bigger profits in the future. 

 Considering the disappointment which is now spreading 

 in their ranks, one is entitled to assume that much of this 

 speculation has turned out since then a ghastly failure, and 



* Gothein, I.e., pp. 7-8. 



t The Times, April 12, 1910, " Prussia and the Poles." 



