RESULTS OF THE MOVEMENT 103 



the parish priests have won golden opinions by 

 the conspicuous proofs they have given of both 

 a willingness and a capacity to become leaders 

 of men in material concerns as well as in 

 spiritual. 



The peasantry have gained materially, because 

 they can carry on their operations far more 

 advantageously than before (as shown by a 

 calculation made in a Brussels Liberal journal, 

 La Chrojiiquc, by M. Cauderlier, that since the 

 ingenious network of agricultural associations 

 here described was spread over the country the 

 average return from a farm of 10 hectares — 

 24 1 acres — in Belgium has increased by £100 a 

 year) ; they have gained morally because they 

 have already to a great extent recovered from 

 their agricultural " depression " ; and they have 

 gained socially, because with all the increased 

 power and influence he derives from his mani- 

 fold associations, economic and beneficent, the 

 Belgian agriculturist has become a very different 

 person from what he was in bygone days. 



And, lastly, a further effect of all this foresight 

 and energy, and especially of all this very 

 effective combination, on the part of the Belgian 

 agriculturists, has been to greatly increase, at a 

 proportionately lower cost, the fertility and the 

 total production of their iields and market 



