PEASANT PROPRIETARY 



Wherever we find peasant proprietors we also find the comfort, security, 

 confidence in the future, and indei^endence which assure at once happiness 

 and virtue. . . . His little patrimony is a true savings bank, always ready 

 to receive all his little savings and utilize all his moments of leisure. . . . 

 The peasant proprietor is of all cultivators tiie one who gets most out of the 

 soil. . . . Let other nations boast of their opulence, Switzerland may always 

 point with pride to her peasants. (M. de Sismondi.) 



I conceive it to be established . . . that no other existing state of agri- 

 cultural economy has so beneficial an eiTect on the industry, the intelligence, 

 the frugality and prudence of the population. (John Stuart Mill, "Political 

 Economy.") 



The peasants are not, as with us, for the most part totally cut off from 

 property in the soil they cultivate, totally dependent on the labour afforded 

 by others — they are themselves the proprietors. , . . They labour busil}', 

 early and late, because they feel they are labouring for themselves. (Howitt, 

 " Rural and Domestic Life of Germany.") 



It is almost a universally acknowledged fact that the gross produce of 

 the land in grain, potatoes, and cattle is increased when the land is culti- 

 vated by those who own small portions of it. (Prussian Minister of 

 Statistics, quoted by Mr. Kay in " Free Trade in Land.") 



The ancients thought it of prime importance to limit the size of estates, 

 as they deemed that it was better to have a small acreage with better culti- 

 vation, an opinion also held I see by Virgil. And if one will confess the 

 truth, the " Latifundia" (huge estates) have been the ruin of Italy, and are 

 now also ruining the provinces. (Pliny, " Natural History," Book XVHL) 



An activity has been here that has swept av^ay all difficulties before it, 

 and has clothed the very rocks with verdure. It would be a disgrace to 

 common sense to ask the cause. The enjoyment of property must have 

 done it. Give a man secure possession of .t, bleak rock and he will turn it 

 into a garden. (Arthur Young, "Travels in France.") 



