LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE 57 



to the labor they consume until there is no 

 more to give away. Canada, Brazil and the 

 Argentine are to-day in the midst of the 

 same process as regards land from which 

 we have only now emerged. The mediaeval 

 way was for the sovereign to take what he de- 

 sired, providing only his spears numbered 

 more than his neighbor's. Then the conqueror 

 would parcel out the land among his nobles, 

 who, in turn, impressed their serfs as labor. 

 The history of England is that of one distri- 

 bution of land following close on the heels of 

 another until the Conqueror set up a per- 

 manent order in the eleventh century. Yet, 

 even with the task of the distribution of land 

 simplified by the system of royal warrants 

 among favorites, agriculture did not become 

 established as an industry in England until 

 three centuries later. In 1350 England saw 

 the last of the crown lands pass into private 

 hands, and at that time she was plowing as 

 great an area as she is to-day. 



This republic found a different task con- 

 fronting it. To establish its agriculture on a 

 permanent basis, it must parcel out a domain 

 aggregating nearly one billion acres to indi- 

 viduals in small holdings, a quarter-section, of 



