3o6 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



facilities are provided both for the acquisition of land and 

 for the obtainment of credit, to secure some little cottage 

 with a little field attached to it, that figurative " vine and 

 fig tree " under which there is a brilliant promise for well- 

 conducted people to find a restful occupation. The day 

 labourer has his little holding already. But his steady aim 

 is, either to improve it, so as to make it to yield more, or else, 

 when that has been accomplished, to add to it and in course 

 of time to turn himself into a " peasant." The " ladder " 

 is there. And it does its work. There is a steady rise, 

 while newcomers pour in on the bottom rung. " Even 

 the poorest," so writes Robert von ]\Iohl, an economist of 

 high authority, " can, if he will, lay by in his youth as 

 farm servant, and if he marries an industrious and thrifty 

 girl, begin with the purchase or renting of a plot, and by 

 application, industry and thirft increase his holding, and 

 by degrees work his way up to comparative wealth." 

 " And this," said the late Dr. Buchcnbcrger, when Minister 

 of Agriculture in the Grandduchy of Baden, " has happened 

 in thousands and thousands of cases." Minister Buchen- 

 berger adds : "The advantage afforded by the fact that 

 every day labourer in the country may acquire a small 

 plot of land, may by industry and thrift add to his 

 modest holding, and eventually raise himself to the 

 position of an independent hauer, cannot be rated too 

 high ; for the prospect of making himself economically 

 independent is one of the most potent incentives to the 

 exercise of economic virtues." 



In the words of j\I. Jules (luyot, a noted writer on rural 

 economics, " the plot purchased or rented by the day 

 labourer " offre a la fois la propriete et Ic prix qui doit la 

 payer, V atelier de travail et la caisse d'Spargne immoholiere." 

 That is : it provides at the same time the property and the 

 money which pays for it, the workshop and the landed 

 savings bank. 



In Germany the State has helped. I am not now talking 

 of that odious land settlement with a political object, 

 which is to replace Poles by Germans, and which, while 

 altogether failing to achieve its desired object, has cost 



