467 



mena observable in the case of ancient estates are repeated under medieval 

 conditions. The typical Manor with its elaborate hierarchy and rules, the 

 struggles of the small yeoman, the encroachments of big landlords, the special 

 difficulties of small-scale tillage caused by growth of large-scale pasturage, the 

 increase of wastrels and sturdy beggars, are all notable points, worthy the 

 attention of a student of ancient farm life and labour. 



THE BIG MAN AND THE SMALL FARMER. 



(5) Clifton Johnson, From the St Lawrence to Virginia. New York 1913, 



p 21. Chapter on the Adirondack winter. 

 (Conversation in an up-country store.} 



'I worked for Rockefeller most of that season. You know he has a big es- 

 tate down below here a ways. There used to be farmhouses yes and villages 

 on it, but he bought the owners all out, or froze 'em out. One feller was deter- 

 mined not to sell, and as a sample of how things was made uncomfortable for 

 him I heard tell that two men came to his house once and made him a present 

 of some venison. They had hardly gone when the game warden dropped in 

 and arrested him for bavin' venison in his house. All such tricks was worked 

 on him, and he spent every cent he was worth fighting lawsuits. People wa'n't 

 allowed to fish on the property, and the women wa'n't allowed to pick berries 

 on it. A good deal of hard feeling was stirred up, and Rockefeller would scoot 

 from the train to his house, and pull the curtains down, 'fraid they'd shoot 

 him. Oh! he was awful scairt.' 



EASTERN EUROPE. 



(6) Marion L Newbigin DSc, Geographical aspects of Balkan problems. 



London 1915. 



Turks 'not all their virtues, not all their military strength, have saved them 

 from the slow sapping of vitality due to their divorce alike from the actual 

 tilling of the land and from trade and commerce.... He has been within the 

 (Balkan) peninsula a parasite, chiefly upon the ploughing peasant, and the 

 effect has been to implant in the mind of that peasant a passion for agriculture, 

 for the undisturbed possession of a patch of freehold, which is probably as 

 strong here as it has ever been in the world.' p 137. 



Thessaly 'the landowners are almost always absentees, appearing only at 

 the time of harvest' (originally Turks, now mostly Greeks) 'who have taken 

 little personal interest in the land' (no great improvement in condition of cul- 

 tivator). (So in Bosnia better in Serbia and Bulgaria) 'lands mostly worked 

 by the peasants on the half-shares system.' p 175. 



Albania (poverty extreme temporary emigration of the males, frequent 

 in poor regions) 'young Alb s often leave their country during the winter, going 

 to work in Greece or elsewhere as field labourers, and returning to their 

 mountains in the spring.' pp 183-4. 



Generally small holdings mostly in the Balkan states. 



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