340 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



Encouraged by the success of the Government's operations 

 in this matter in Germany societies and pubhc companies, 

 as well as private individuals, have taken up the same 

 work, generally speaking with marked success. Whenever 

 the task has fallen to the share of private individuals, of 

 course, there was a danger of the professedly good and 

 humanitarian work being exploited for " filthy lucre " 

 or else for political purposes. There is such a wide margin 

 between the cost price of the land in a block and its value 

 for productive purposes in small holdings that a very fair 

 toll may reasonably be taken. Where this is not done, 

 funds accumulate with unexpected rapidity. There is a 

 settlement formed in Prussian Saxony, at Steesow, by the 

 late Herr Sombart. He took no profit whatever for himself, 

 and in consequence the settlers were soon found to be so 

 well off that over- prosperity tempted some of them into 

 improvidence and mischief, and there was trouble. Once 

 more. Major Poore, who likewise of course disdained profit 

 for himself, found that on his small settlement in Wiltshire 

 soon a very respectable surplus was accumulated for the 

 common benefit. It is a long time since he reported it 

 to me as £600. The entire property extends only over 

 112 acres. Germany is the chosen hunting ground for 

 professional estate dissecters. Accordingly not a little 

 settlement work with a money-grabbing object has been 

 undertaken there. But even under such conditions, selfish 

 greed notwithstanding, good may be done. President 

 Metz told me of one estate divider, a Jew too, who in the 

 district of Colberg in Pomerania made a business of cutting 

 up properties at a profit, but at the same time looked after his 

 settlers " like a father," assisting them with advice and 

 with other services, even with loans. His reward was, 

 that he never made a bad debt and never had to proceed 

 to foreclosure. He " colonised " tens of thousands of 

 acres and by his action turned the tide of emigration in 

 his district against itself, the population actually increasing 

 at a time when everywhere else in Pomerania it went down. 

 Nevertheless estate knacking has a bad name. And to 

 meet it, here and there societies — some of them co-operative 



