THE QUESTION OF RENT 129 



at Hoorn (North Holland), the centre of the 

 dairying industry, has in addition a bacteriological 

 department and an experimental farm. The 

 directors of all these laboratories form a College 

 which meets twice a year. Distributed through- 

 out the country, also, there are State demon- 

 strators, twelve for agriculture and seven for 

 horticulture, who give such personal instruction 

 to the farmers as may be needed ; and there are 

 district veterinary surgeons whose help is avail- 

 able for breeders of stock. 



So in these and other ways the State gave 

 what aid it could in the relief of depressed agri- 

 culture, and it remains to be seen what the 

 Dutch producers, in their turn, did in order to 

 help themselves by helping one another. 



In the best of circumstances their position 

 was one that must inevitably have had its dis- 

 advantages. Of these one of the most serious 

 was the question of rent. In a country like 

 Holland, so circumscribed in dimensions, and 

 consisting so largely of land kept back only by 

 artificial means from the grasp of the ocean, 

 farms and holdings are certain to command a 

 high rental, and the more they are cultivated the 

 more valuable they become. Then, again, the 

 Dutch farmers mostly have large families, and 

 as the children grow up, and a farm becomes too 



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