A NEW AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMME 253 



of the social scale a few rich landowners, often non- 

 residents and exercising an undue political influence, 

 and ai the other end a large number of poverty- 

 stricken and discontented peasants and farm-labor- 

 ers, there is now a great middle class of society, 

 devoted to the empire for what it has done for its 

 members.'" 



In the last ten years the Russian Government 

 improved and equipped farms for 3,000,000 settlers. 

 It contracted in the United States for millions of 

 dollars' worth of farm machinery to be delivered 

 after the war, so that homes could be provided for 

 the returning soldiers. As long ago as 1893 New 

 Zealand realized the evils of land monopoly and farm 

 tenancy. The first experiment was very successful, 

 in three years' time the number of people on a 

 single estate having been increased from 40 to 1,000. 

 During the twenty years from 1893 to 1913 New 

 Zealand appropriated $65,000,000 for buying, sub- 

 dividing, and settHng large estates. During these 

 years the agricultural population grew more rapidly 

 than that of the cities, and in twenty years' time it 

 doubled. When the present war began New Zea- 

 land led the world in the per-capita value of its 

 agricultural exports. 



The same policy has been followed by other 

 Australian states. Since 1909 over 3,000,000 acres 

 of land have been bought, subdivided, and sold to 

 settlers, and over $40,000,000 has been loaned to 



