OTHER SCHEMES OF LAND REFORM 271 



large proprietors, and becomes, in consequence, spirit- 

 less and purposeless. . . . The German Bauer, on 

 the contrary, looks on the country as made for him 

 and his fellow-men. He feels himself a man ; he has 

 a stake in his country, as good as that of the bulk of 

 his neighbours. ... He knows that when he dies he 

 shall not be buried between the vile boards of a 

 pauper's coffin."^ 



A little book recently published contains valuable 

 information and statistics which show, beyond doubt, 

 that the prosperity of the German cultivators is fully 

 maintained at the present time.'^ Professor Ashley 

 shows that three-quarters of the agricultural surface 

 of Germany is tilled and owned by " peasants " 

 (Bauern), who are men farming from 2 to 100 hectares 

 (5 to 250 acres). It is rightly stated that "such 

 a class practically does not exist at all in England. 

 They can neither be compared to our farmers nor our 

 labourers." 



Besides this class there is the large number of men 

 whom we should call peasants, that is, men owning 

 and cultivating holdings of less than five acres. 



With regard to the agricultural labourers, the highest 

 authorities are quoted to show that during the past 

 twenty or thirty years wages have very largely in- 

 creased, with a corresponding improvement in housing, 

 clothing, food, etc. 



Professor Ashley's figures are based on the last 

 statistics available — to wit, those contained in the 

 volume of the census of 1895, which deals with 

 agriculture. If we analyse these figures and reduce 



' " Rural and Domestic Life in Germany," William Howitt. 

 a " Progress of the German Working Classes in the Last Quarter of 

 a Century." W. J. Ashley. Longmans, 1904. 



