SMALL HOLDINGS. 339 



There is much of such combination of calHngs in Germany, 

 and the country benefits by it very visibly — whereas, on 

 the other hand, in spite of strenuous Government efforts 

 to develop them and make them prosperous, so-called 

 " cottage industries " steadily yield ground. There is 

 also some in France, where a society, of which the well- 

 known Abbe Lemire is a prominent member, has effected 

 much relief of poverty by means of Jardins Ouvriers, which 

 indeed begin on the allotment scale, but generating a real 

 interest in and devotion to the work done, lead up auto- 

 matically to the small holding stage. The idea took birth 

 in the brain of a lady, Madame Hervieu of Sedan, who 

 alone has over 40,000 persons to thank her for a welcome 

 rise given them in life. Instead of helping poor people 

 with money, she would rather afford them an opportunity 

 of helping themselves by labour in the garden or on the 

 land. 



This is to some extent on the same lines as the assistance 

 given by means of " Field gardens," by the " Society for 

 the Bettering of the Condition of the Poor," which was 

 formed in this country in 1776. Madame Hervieu hired 

 plots of land for them and assisted them with tools, seed, 

 and the like. The result was most satisfactory. Accord- 

 ingly a society was formed to extend the practice. And 

 other societies in other parts of France have been formed 

 in imitation of hers, doing the same work, philanthropic 

 men and women providing whatever is wanted for the first 

 start. And wherever this system has been put to the test 

 in France it has yielded the same excellent results, turning 

 idlers into good workmen and generating in them a new 

 zeal for industry. We are talking of planting forests out 

 in mountainous districts, with little settlements close by, 

 to provide homes for the people required for the necessary 

 forest work. How well those two occupations may blend 

 may be seen in Major Poore's settlement in Winterslow in 

 Wiltshire, where his " landholder " settlers thrive parti- 

 cularly well, just because they have occupation in the 

 Baring woods to depend upon as a second string to their 

 bow. 



