THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 123 



human labour is reduced, but the crops taken from the 

 soil are far too small, and the whole system is robbery- 

 culture taking no heed of the exhaustion of the soil ; 

 while in the petite culture, on isolated small plots, by 

 isolated men or families, too much of human labour is 

 wasted even though the crops are heavy. Real economy, 

 of both space and labour, requires quite different 

 methods, representing a combination of machinery work 

 with hand work. 



In agriculture, as in everything else, associated labour 

 is the only reasonable solution. Two hundred families 

 of five persons each, owning five acres per family, hay- 

 ing no common ties between the families, and compelled 

 to find their living, each family on its five acres, almost 

 certainly would be an economical failure. Even leaving 

 aside all personal difficulties resulting from different 

 education and tastes and from the want of knowledge 

 as to what has to be done with the land, and admitting 

 for the sake of argument that these causes do not inter- 

 fere, the experiment would end in a failure, merely for 

 economical, for agricultural reasons. Whatever im- 

 provement upon the present conditions such an organisa- 

 tion might be, that improvement would not last ; it would 

 have to undergo a further transformation or disappear. 



But the same two hundred families, if they consider 

 themselves, say, as tenants of the nation, and treat the 

 thousand acres as a common tenancy again leaving 

 aside the personal conditions would have, economically 

 speaking, from the point of view of the agriculturist, 

 every chance of succeeding, if they know what is the best 

 use to make of that land. 



In such case they probably would first of all associate 

 for permanently improving the land which required im- 

 mediate improvement, and would consider it necessary 

 to improve more of it every year, until they had brought 

 it all into a perfect condition. On an area of 340 acres 

 they could most easily grow all the cereals wheat, oats 



