SMALL HOLDINGS. 343 



Apart from the movement for the creation of Dcmani Collct- 

 iivi, which incidentally occupies itself with such work, there 

 are several influential public -spirited societies at work, 

 such as the Istituto di Fondi Rustici of Rome, and the 

 Societa per la Bonifica dei Tcrrciii Fcrrarcsi, of Turin and 

 Ferrara. But there are also other societies moving. And 

 there are wealthy individuals who make the creation of 

 small holdings their pet task. The Ferrareses society has, 

 among other things, reclaimed and successfully "settled" 

 an entire district, in its country, which forty years ago 

 was a hopelessly unprofitable lagoon. In the whilom 

 " Forest " of Montello 4,500 acres of waste have been made 

 to provide settlements for about a thousand families. The 

 small settlement movement is particularly active and suc- 

 cessful in Sicily, where need was greatest and where the 

 Credito Agrario, endowed by the State and by public financial 

 institutions, renders ready and substantial financial aid, 

 practising, however, before parting with its money — and 

 also afterwards — very careful and searching supervision, 

 so as to make sure that the money goes into the right 

 pocket and is employed in the right way. So large have 

 the operations of the Credito in this particular work become 

 that the institution has had to create a special Department 

 {I spettorato) to carry it on. Otherwise, as already stated, 

 co-operative land renting is most largely practised among 

 the socialist peasantry of Emilia. Unfortunately there 

 are no statistics to quote in respect of Italy, the statistical 

 inquiry formally ordered to be carried out by the Lega 

 Nazionale Co-operaiiva as long ago as in 1912 not yet having 

 been completed, by reason of the war. 



Statistics are likewise unobtainable in respect of Serbia, 

 where, under the guidance of the Agricultural Co-operative 

 Union, and its energetic Secretary, M. Michael Avramovitch, 

 the promotion of co-operative settlements was before the 

 war most vigorously prosecuted, with very promising results, 



Roumania in 1909 numbered 275 such societies, occupying 

 276,302 acres of land at a collective rent of £232,980, the 

 movement having begun only in 1903. Italy a year later 

 numbered about 200 societies, occupying a considerable 



