AGEICULTUEAL LABOUEERS 227 



begging, wlieu smaller holdings create competition. Thus 

 the demand for land increases in extent as it diminishes in 

 intensity ; and the same fact has been already noted as the 

 characteristic of social progress.^ If agriculture for the 

 time discards steam ploughs, it may find that spades are 

 trumps. Easy-going farmers, bred in the traditions of corn- 

 law prices, are yielding to smaller men who, by sheer hard 

 work, will force the land to pay. 



Small peasant tenancies of 15 acres, in these days of 

 small profits, offer a better chance of success than co-ope- 

 rative farms, where Jack is as good as his master, and one 

 idler drags down the rest. Small tenants, who make no 

 outlay for labour, are indefatigable in their industry. If 

 they soil their cattle, as every peasant does in France, they 

 can keep three cows on land which, if grazed, would 

 barely keep two. Calves, pigs, poultry, are within the 

 reach of the humblest. Bigger men might also find 

 breeding mares a profitable investment, especially if the 

 Government provided good sires at easy rates. In France 

 eggs are collected by cocotiers who travel the districts : a 

 similar plan would enable the English peasant tenant to 

 compete for a share in the 2,884,000L which the country 

 annually pays for foreign eggs. If a butter-making factory 

 or a market for milk were at hand, his success would be 

 as certain as anything can be in farming. 



But the most industrious tenants require money 

 capital with which to start. How is it to be provided ? 

 On the Continent the Prussian land-banks have proved 

 useful agencies for the purpose. But, with the English 

 dislike to State interference, ' caisses de credit Ra^eisen ' 

 may prove more popular. Societies of landlords form syn- 

 dicates, and issue 3 per cent, bonds on the security of their 

 ' See page 160. 



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