HOW TO SETTLE 215 



quently rents become cheapened to the societies. According to our 

 ideas only insufficient security would appear to have been taken for 

 the continuance of tenure. The lease, generally speaking, runs for 

 nine years only. That is the accepted term for land belonging to 

 the State, to municipalities or to other public bodies ; and it is a hard 

 lease, even beyond that restriction, because, upon renewal being 

 refused, it becomes " emphyteutic," and all the tenant's improve- 

 ments, unless special provision is taken to make them sure, go ipso 

 facto to the landlord. Private landowners are, of course, free to 

 agree with their tenants on whatever terms they please. However, 

 in practice, the rules laid down for public property — which under 

 the policy adopted in high quarters of favouring the affittanze 

 constitutes the larger part of the land held by those societies — are 

 kept in force. In addition, as a farther onerous condition, security 

 is demanded for a period of six months, and the quarterly rent has 

 to be paid in advance. To pit against this condition, the " prefer- 

 ence " to be, UDder the Government rules, given to such co-operative 

 societies in the event of competing applications for the land, scarcely 

 appears an adequate quid pro quo, especiaUy as affittanze societies are 

 required to enter themselves in a special register for supervision 

 and control of their management of the leased property by special 

 officers appointed by the Government. Harsh and unfair as these 

 terms may present themselves to us, they appear in Italy to have 

 worked smoothly and to have given no rise to dissatisfaction or 

 inconvenience. Reviewing the extension which this movement has 

 obtained, I am unfortunately not in a position to quote exact 

 figures. We have been promised precise figures since 1912, when a 

 special inquiry was instituted. However, the figures have never 

 been published in their completeness. The movement has spread 

 considerably since the time of the facts here referred to — perhaps 

 most in Sicily, where it is very flourishing — but exact figures there 

 are none to the present time. Leaders — more particularly in Sicily 

 and Emilia — are keen upon acceptance of the conduzione unita. 

 However, up to the present, the conduzione divisa, under which the 

 land collectively leased is separately cultivated, still undoubtedly 

 holds the field. 



Here is one way of settling people on the land. All are settled in 

 groups and all begin at the lowest point of agriculture, \\ hkfa would 

 not be practicable in this country, inasmuch as we have long since 

 grown out of the primitive condition which still prevails in a large 

 part of Italy. Also our applicants for holdings are generally speak- 

 ing of a higher grade of culture than the Italian contadini seeking a 



